Adventures by Disney – Wyoming, Quest for the West: Day 4 Trip Report

This is Day 4 of my Adventures by Disney – Wyoming, Quest for the West trip report for the adventure we took July 19-25, 2023. Our traveling family was Doobie, 52, Rebekah, 50 and Gideon, 14. If you missed prior installments, click here for the list.

Saturday, Day 4, began with us packing up and putting our bags outside our room then heading off to breakfast. Like dinner, breakfast consisted of a voucher for the restaurant, so we got a table for three (our last non-group meal it turns out) and enjoyed the “just ok” breakfast buffet of the Old Faithful Inn.

Exploring Yellowstone

After breakfast we explored the hotel a little more and saw more views that prove the Earth is alive! Then it was time to board the bus again and get to meet one of my new favorite people, Yellowstone guide Rich. Rich would stay with us for the next few hours as we toured Yellowstone, telling us facts and history and getting off with us when it was time to explore. Rich was fantastic – interesting, entertaining, nerdy and real. I learned that the company Disney uses for this tour has several guides and while they don’t get their choice for each tour, they do have their list of approved guides the company pulls from.

Our first stop took about 15 minutes to get to. It’s called Midway Geyser Basin. It consisted of a boardwalk that took us all around several different types of thermal features, all of which Rich was passionate about. It was so beautiful and so interesting learning about various types of geysers and about completely different thermal features. We explored there for about 45 minutes.

Our next stop was only about 10 minutes away. There we got to see the “bobby socks” trees, the Leather Pool, Red Spouter and much more. One thing that sticks out is Rich telling us how Red Spouter wasn’t even a thing until a 1959 earthquake created it. This stop also lasted about 45 minutes.

Lunch at Canyon Lodge

Next we drove around Yellowstone taking in more sights and stories before stopping at Canyon Lodge for lunch and potty breaks. Canyon Lodge is an area with a visitor center, lots of little shops and lots of places to eat. Lunch was still a half hour away so it was a good opportunity to relax and meander and do a little shopping. 11:30 a.m. was lunch time which consisted of fried chicken, wraps and sides with cookies for dessert. Quick, easy and good enough. In fact, the hummus wraps they had for us vegetarians were excellent!

Artist Point

Our next stop was one of the highlights of the trip: a hike to famed Artist Point and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. At least that’s what it was for most people. For my family and a couple of others, it was a bus ride to Artist Point while everyone else took the hike. Like all strenuous activities, there are always alternatives and this time we decided to use the alternative, and what a great decision it was. While one of the Adventure guides took the group, the other guide, along with Rich, took us straight to Artist Point on the bus.

This was a great opportunity to ask Rich questions and I took full advantage of that, learning a lot more about his background, how he came to love Yellowstone (he lives here year-round) and so much more. It was so interesting – my favorite part of the day. Once we arrived at Artist Point, Rich had us do something – he said as we approached, don’t look at it. Instead, walk past it, then come back and approach it the same way the original discoverers would have seen it. What an interesting tip.

The views here were stunning. Spectacular. Indescribable. I love water and could have stared at the waterfalls all day. The canyon itself was huge and it was scary to be standing so close to it. Watching birds soaring high above the canyon floor yet still below our eyeline really gave it perspective. I’m not a huge fan of heights, but I forced myself to get a long, close look. It was incredible.

Of course we took tons of pictures, and once the rest of the group arrived from their hike, the guides took a ton more making sure each family got shots. What an experience!

We Finally Saw Bison

We departed Artist Point around 2 p.m. and started the fairly long trek to Yellowstone Lake Hotel. Throughout our wonderful time in Yellowstone, the one thing I was sad about was we hadn’t seen a single Bison. Rich told us there was an excellent chance we would see at least one on our way to the hotel so we all kept our eyes peeled.

Rich was right – on our way, we did see a bison. I was so excited! Then we came to an area that had about 15 of them. Click. Click. Click. My time in Yellowstone was now complete!

But wait … a few minutes later we came upon an area that must’ve had a hundred or more bison of all ages and sizes. It was spectacular! Some of them were pretty close to the road as well. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ll remember it forever.

Lake Yellowstone Hotel

10 minutes after we said goodbye to Bisonmania, we said hello to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. The bright yellow building looked a little out of place after everything else we’d seen. But the hotel was really nice inside, actually reminding me of the Grand Floridian including a piano player.

We stayed there long enough for potty breaks, coffee, a little shopping and pictures with my new pal, Rich. I also made sure to get some pictures of beautiful, gigantic Yellowstone Lake.

The next leg of our trip would be the longest uninterrupted bus ride yet, a two and a half hour trip to Brooks Lake Lodge. Good thing we had snacks! We also had our Adventure Guides to entertain us which they did with two different games. The first was a fun game where we each got a note card, put our name on the back and pencil and drew the leg of a moose. Then we passed our card to someone else and drew another leg. That continued until the moose was complete – each body part drawn by a different person. The results were hilarious – and sometimes good. Later, at the Lodge, the cards were placed on display around a room like a museum (Mooseum)

The other game was Jeopardy – categories including Jackson, Yellowstone, Disney, Guides/Bus Driver, etc. We were divided into two teams, each team with a captain (I was one) and we chose categories and point values and took turns answering questions and stealing if our opponent got it wrong. We had so many laughs doing this and the moose drawings that the time to the lodge flew by.

Brooks Lake Lodge

The Lodge is located in the mountains about five miles off a main road. Dusty pointed out where the mailbox for the lodge was and told us we had five miles to go. Those last five miles are a doozy, going up some windy, dirt roads with occasional cliffs off the road. And we’re doing this in a big tour bus. Thankfully, we had Wade as our bus driver (who we learned during Jeopardy had won an award for his driving skills), so I felt safe the whole time.

We parked the bus at 6:03 p.m. and headed inside for a quick orientation. We got a brief tour of the common area and outside and were told times for meals and how signups for activities would work. Nothing complicated at all, but stuff you need to know. We then received room assignments and headed off to get settled before dinner time.

For future Lodge visitors, here’s your daily schedule:

We were assigned a beautiful two bedroom cabin a few minutes away from the main lodge. Our luggage was already waiting inside and I took a few pictures and we rested for a bit. Dinner was at 7 p.m., so we didn’t have too much time.

We headed back to the main lodge to wait for dinner and, while there, they could tell something was not quite right. They asked about it and we told them that the uphill, dirt walk to our cabin was a little more than we wanted to handle multiple times a day and asked if there was perhaps a room in the main lodge available. They did a quick check and there was and with no hassle at all, they switched us and took care of moving our bags for us. The main lodge room was about the size of a typical hotel room, not the two bedroom cabin we originally had, but for our situation, it was much preferred. We were very, very happy with the accommodation. We spent much more time in the common areas than we otherwise would have and as you’ll find out, that was for the best.

Dinner at Brooks Lake Lodge

Dinner, like all meals at the Lodge, was held in the dining room with three large tables. One of the coolest things that naturally happened – every meal had different groups sitting together. We ended up sitting at every table and sharing a table with every other person in the group at some point during our stay. It was just that kind of gathering where everyone wanted to be friends with everyone, not just stick to the same subgroup.

The food at Brooks Lake Lodge was so, so, so good! My vegetarian dish on opening night was summer squash tortelloni and it seriously may have been the best pasta dish I’ve ever had. My wife and son had grilled bison which also got rave reviews from them and others. The only food disappointments at the Lodge were desserts, they were generally good but not great. But everything else, at all the meals, not just dinner, more than made up for it.

Brooks Lake Lodge is “all-inclusive”. That means all food, non-alcoholic beverages (including mocktails!) and activities are already included. The only things to pay for are alcohol, merchandise and spa treatments. To “pay”, you just tell them your last name, they keep track and you pay the bill before leaving on the final day. During Adventures by Disney stays at the Lodge, the Disney group are the only residents. So it was just the 25 of us and the guides and the numerous staff.

Rooms in the main lodge have animals associated with them instead of room numbers, and while apparently there are locks and keys, no one seems to use them. We always left our door unlocked and I have no idea where the key was. It was such a different, peaceful environment.

The common areas of the Lodge consisted of a sitting room (with a constantly crackling fireplace), a bar with darts and tabletop shuffleboard and a game room with Jenga, giant Connect Four, darts, jigsaw puzzles, foosball and a cabinet full of board games. But someone in the Mongello family spotted a poker table and thought a big poker game would be a great idea.

That first night, eight of us spent about an hour playing Texas Hold ‘Em for chips and bragging rights. It was so much fun playing and laughing with my new group of friends.

Around 10 p.m., it was time to head off to bed. Tomorrow would be time to start activities.