Tours of two days or more allow some spare time to see Yellowstone National Park, compared to trying to do it all in one day. However, the driving time almost inevitably increases, as typically it's necessary to drive to and from wherever you spend the night. Yellowstone's a big park, so even these drives can take an hour or more. Longer tours are also more open to variation; if you ask any ten Yellowstone veterans for the best itinerary for two (or three) days, you will probably get eleven or twelve answers. Our suggestions try hard not to be arbitrary, this two day itinerary more or less splits the park thematically: First day concentrates on the famous geysers and geyser basins, the second day visits Yellowstone River, Canyon, and Lake -- a water day. Both days involve at least six hours of sightseeing (not counting starting/ending drive time), but there's some flexibility to make unscheduled stops.

This suggested itinerary assumes that this is either a first visit to Yellowstone, or it's been a long time since the last visit.

Day One

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The day starts with Old Faithful Geyser and checking the nearby Visitor Center to get predicted eruption times for other geysers. This information can be used to plan when to hike the Firehole River Walk and visit the Lower Geyser Basin. The day ends at Norris Geyser Basin, where again it pays to check with the ranger at the Norris Museum to see if an eruption of Echinus Geyser is imminent. With some luck, you may be able to see three or four major geysers erupt in this one day.

Day Two

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The day begins with a driving tour at Mammoth Hot Springs (very different than most of Yellowstone's geyser basins) and then proceeds to the Yellowstone River and over Mount Washburn to Canyon Village. After seeing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the two great falls, you travel through tranquil Hayden Valley and finish the day at West Thumb Geyser Basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake.