Your tax dollars at work! From an amazing array of Yellowstone maps from which to choose, the simplest and most practical information is provided by the National Park’s own Yellowstone Interactive Map, though a more detailed Main Map is found at a separate location.
Prior to leaving home we purchased two guide books titled Scenic Driving Wyoming and The Ultimate Wyoming Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia. The first has a publication date of 1997, and is no longer listed at the publishers website, although it can still be purchased at Amazon (as of 9/8/15).
As noted on the Travel Plan page, the age of Scenic Driving Wyoming wasn’t apparent in the areas where we traveled, and I didn’t actually notice how old it is until sitting down to write about our experiences using it. Suffice it to say, although roads may change, they tend not to disappear entirely, and natural features of the geography of a place change even more slowly. (This observation is applicable to the information on The Travel Chronicle (TTC) websites as well, in that the oldest of our travelogues – the Galapagos Islands Cruise from 2001 – is primarily composed of information with a very long shelf life.) The structure of Scenic Driving, in which information is provided in the order you encounter the locations on your route, was especially useful while touring the Yellowstone geysers, none of which have moved since the publication date of the guide.
The Ultimate Wyoming Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia from Ultimate Press is a very ambitious publication, with 500+ pages of info on the entire state, including somewhat time sensitive information on a variety of businesses. They offer a second edition on their website, which is apparently not what we received from Amazon – a travel tip we’ll take from ourselves in the future. Too heavy to carry along on a walk, it worked well as an in-vehicle resource which we reviewed prior to reaching an upcoming point of interest. We consulted the 20 percent of the book devoted to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks, although they offer a volume committed entirely to Yellowstone.
Our drive north from Jackson into the parks took us on an inner loop highway starting at Moose Junction which runs along two of the Grand Teton lakes. On this route, a recommended stop at the very new Grand Teton National Park “Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center” led to the acquisition of two additional maps, though more for their visual beauty than any real necessity. National Geographic and Earthwalk Press offer waterproof trail maps of the Tetons and Yellowstone which would be essential equipment to the serious hiker.
A more general discussion of my love affair with maps can be found at the The Travel Chronicle Travel Map page.
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