We have just spent three days visiting Yellowstone National Park. I was going to post our visit day by day, but issues with the internet have changed my plans. I took a number of short videos of the thermal features but none of them will upload here. So I am going to tell you about other things first, and post about the geysers and pools once we leave.
We were surprised as we approached our campground just west of Cody, Wyoming on the east side of Yellowstone. I had expected the broad valleys and rolling mountains like on the west side. But our approach was along the Shoshone River and the valley narrowed to a canyon as we left Cody. Here it was so narrow that we went through three tunnels. There was a reservoir and a State Park after the tunnels.
I didn’t think there would even be room for an RV park, but the valley did get wider, and that’s where the park is.
The mountains on either side are quite rugged and the whole area is beautiful.
This post is just about going into and out of Yellowstone. Yellowstone is huge, the distances are great. We were in one of the closest RV parks to the East Entrance of Yellowstone and it was still 30 miles. Then it was another 27 miles from the East Entrance to the junction of the loop roads. The main roads in Yellowstone form two loops with the entrance roads running out from them. The northern loop is 70 miles around and the southern loop is 96 miles around, so there is a lot of driving involved in visiting Yellowstone.
Fortunately it is beautiful driving. Here we are on our way in the early morning traveling west along the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway, which is the North Fork Highway and was the road from our campground to the East Gate of Yellowstone.
The morning sun makes the astonishing rock formations stand out in sharp relief.
The mountains are beautiful and so is the Shoshone River, which you follow well past the entrance.
Going in or out the views are always beautiful.
An advantage of being on the east side is that there is less traffic here. This is the East Entrance gate seen as we were leaving. Even with the North and Northeast Entrances closed because of the flooding in June we saw only one or two lanes of the East Entrance open and no waiting lines.
As you go into the park you come closer to the snow capped mountains.
You travel up and over the Sylvan Pass, going by several beautiful springs along the way.
It is a long trip, but never monotonous.
On the Roam Again 
It really is beautiful! I like your title “The Ins and Outs of Yellowstone”!
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