We took our first trip to Yellowstone this past week! Our itinerary worked out pretty well, and since I relied on a lot of other people’s blog posts to plan what we would want to do, I wanted to write about what we did there. It’s the inaugural post in what I hope will be a blog series on both the tech and nature that I am exploring.

We arrived in West Yellowstone, MT just as Memorial Day weekend was kicking off. It’s about as early in the summer season as you can go to Yellowstone and avoid encountering any closed roads. Overall on the trip, the weather in the park was on the cold side for spring (40-60 degrees), and many things were just opening for the season. It was early enough that there weren’t many ranger stations open, but the crowds were light and if you entered the park by around 7 AM you could even avoid most bison jams (a traffic jam caused by bison in the roadway).

Day 1 - Upper Loop, and Lamar Valley

Highlights:

• Lamar Valley
• Tower Falls
• Upper Loop

Since we were traveling from the east coast, we wanted to use the time difference to our advantage and make the long trip to Lamar Valley on the first day in the hopes of arriving early and catching lots of animals. We ended up getting super distracted by the bison as we made our way into the park, not realizing that there would be bison everywhere. Starting out this way, we got to see a lot of the park the first day, and we saw A LOT of animals, including bison, elk, coyote, and sandhill cranes. We also took the opportunity to stretch our legs at Tower Falls, which we passed on the way to the Lamar Valley.

For dinner, we ate at the Slippery Otter Pub, where we enjoyed elk and bison burgers.

Day 1 Route

Enter the park via the West Yellowstone entrance, and turn left at the Madison Junction to traverse the northern loop in the counterclockwise direction. Detour from the loop at Tower-Roosevelt, turning right to head toward Lamar Valley and turning back once you’ve seen enough. Bring your spotting scope!

Loop driving time without stopping: ~4.5 hours

Day 2 - Old Faithful

Highlights:

• Old Faithful
• Sapphire Pool
• Grand Prismatic

We got lucky and arrived at Old Faithful just before the geyser erupted, at around 8 AM. We hung around until the Geyser Hill Walk walking tour (led by a park ranger) started at 8:30, which took us on a guided walk through the boardwalks around Old Faithful. The kids (4 and 8) got restless about halfway through the 1.5 hour tour, so we left the group and explored on our own with a map we got from the desk of the Old Faithful Hotel.

While we were wandering, a ranger came by and pointed out a yellow-bellied marmot lounging on the rocks by the Grand Geyser. He said the marmots like to hang out there in the warm steam.

We ate lunch at the picnic tables at Old Faithful and then continued on to Biscuit Basin to see the Sapphire Pool (so pretty!) and then on to the Grand Prismatic. We noted the Fairy Falls Trail that runs behind the colorful Grand Prismatic, and planned to check it out another day.

For dinner, we ordered out from Park One.

Day 2 Route

Enter the park via the West Yellowstone entrance and turn right at the Madison Junction toward Old Faithful. The drive to Old Faithful will take you right past the Grand Prismatic and Biscuit Basin.

Driving time without stopping: ~2 hours

Day 3 - Grant Village

Highlights:

• Grant Village
• Lake Yellowstone
• Lower Loop
• Firehole Canyon Drive

The Grant (8 yo) in our group wanted to see Grant Village, so we took it as a chance to do the lower loop. The stretch from the Canyon Junction to Lake Village is Hayden Valley, and we were still hoping to see wolf or grizzly bear; unfortunately, we didn’t have any luck on this day. On our way, we pulled into Fishing Bridge (which oddly had a “No Fishing” sign posted), stopped at the Lake Village General Store (which had a beautiful view of Lake Yellowstone, and was a great photo op), and headed to Grant Village for the Experiencing Wildlife at Yellowstone ranger talk. I wish we had attended this talk on the first day! It was very informative, and the most important things that we learned were how to use bear spray and that elk hide their babies in strange places (like under cars!).

We had lunch at the West Thumb picnic area, which also has an easy boardwalk that takes you through some hot springs and mud pots along the shore of Lake Yellowstone. As we neared Madison Junction on the way back we took Firehole Canyon Drive, which was a peaceful drive along the Firehole River on a one-way road with a pull off to view Firehole Falls.

For dinner, we had takeout from a bunch of places - Pete’s Pizza + Pasta, the Slippery Otter, and the Taco Bus.

Day 3 Route

Enter the park via the West Yellowstone entrance and turn left at Madison Junction and travel the lower loop in the clockwise direction. The benefit of traveling this way is that you hit Hayden Valley earlier in the morning (ie when there may be more animals), and in the afternoon you’re traveling north when everyone else is traveling south to Old Faithful.

Driving time without stopping: ~3.75 hours

Day 4 - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Highlights:

• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
• Gibbon Falls
• Mud Volcano

On the way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we stopped at Gibbon Falls, which we had driven past multiple times already. It had great early morning light shining through the mist. Then we headed straight for South Rim Drive to Artist Point to see a view of the Grand Canyon and Lower Falls in the distance.

Our next stop was the brink of Upper Falls, which everyone was able to do, and then we headed down North Rim Drive to the brink of Lower Falls which only the more spry members of our group attempted (it was a steep trail with a lot of switchbacks). The Lower Falls was literally at the brink of a giant waterfall - and it was incredible! We also saw an osprey nest with a baby osprey in the canyon at Lookout Point.

Some in our group were tired at this point, so we skipped Red Rock Point (which had more switchbacks and stairs) and Grand View (very similar to Lookout). Many of the trails around the falls were closed during our trip, including Uncle Tom’s Trail, which we had been hoping to check out.

On our drive south to Mud Volcano, near the entrance to North Rim Drive there was a black bear sleeping in the woods at the side of the road with a large crowd (and a ranger) checking it out. We stopped to watch for a short while.

At Mud Volcano, it was more thermal features so we hustled around the boardwalk until we got to the Dragon’s Mouth Spring, which was really cool and had the 8 yo thinking there might just be a real dragon inside. On the way back to West Yellowstone, we spotted a grizzly bear on a hill in the distance as we drove through Hayden Valley - and stopped with our spotting scope for as long as we could see it.

For dinner, we did the same thing as the previous night, with everyone sort of on their own.

Day 4 Route

Enter the park via the West Yellowstone entrance and turn left at Madison Junction and right at Norris.

Driving time without stopping: ~2.75 hours

Day 5 - Old Faithful (again)

Highlights:

• Old Faithful
• Fairy Falls Trail
• Firehole Lake Drive

We decided to head back to Old Faithful in the hopes of getting some better pictures of the geyser eruption on a clearer day. We got off to a late start and hit a bison traffic jam on the way in, and spent a while sitting in traffic. We tried to stop at the Fairy Falls Trail first thing, but some bison were on the footbridge at the start of the trail so we headed to Old Faithful instead.

We saw Old Faithful erupt again (luckily, also shortly after we arrived) and stopped at the Visitor Center so the kids could get their Junior Ranger badges. The swearing in ceremony was so cute!

For lunch, we ate at the Whiskey Flat picnic area and circled back to the Fairy Falls Trail to see the Grand Prismatic from above. Seeing Grand Prismatic from a higher vantage point was totally worth it, even if it made the kids a little nervous to have to walk past the bison (who were at least 25 yards away, but still quite close to the trail). You just can’t see all of the colors the same from the boardwalk view!

On the way back to West Yellowstone we took Firehole Lake Drive and happened to catch the Great Fountain Geyser just as it was starting to erupt! It only erupts every 10-14 hours, and is pretty unpredictable, so this was quite a treat. We watched it erupt for around 50 minutes, shooting up around 40 feet - and as we watched it we also saw the White Dome Geyser going off in the distance.

For dinner, we had takeout from the Output Restaurant, whose Son of a Gun Stew was a big hit.

Day 5 Route

The route for today was pretty much the same as the route for day two: enter the park via the West Yellowstone entrance and turn right at the Madison Junction toward Old Faithful. Just make sure on the way back from Old Faithful that you catch the right turn onto Firehole Lake Drive - that Great Fountain Geyser is worth catching if you’re able.

Driving time without stopping: ~2 hours

Day 6 - Mammoth Hot Springs

Highlights:

• Mammoth Hot Springs

This was our last day, so we decided to keep it somewhat light. Our goal was just to visit Mammoth Hot Springs and have lunch at the restaurant there, instead of packing our lunch.

We came up through Tower on our way to Mammoth Falls, and just past Tower Falls we came upon some rangers in the road where a black bear with cubs were right at the roadside! We didn’t manage to catch any pictures of the cubs, but seeing them was incredible.

Once at Mammoth Hot Springs, we explored the terraces and had lunch at the hotel restaurant. The visitor center had some exhibits on park history and many stuffed animals, horns, and antlers on display, and we enjoyed stopping there. Once we were done exploring the visitor center, we headed back to West Yellowstone, making sure to take Riverside Drive one last time.

For dinner, we ate at Bullwinkle’s Saloon and Eatery.

Day 6 Route

Enter the park via the West Yellowstone entrance and turn left at the Madison Junction and right at Norris to follow the upper loop in the counterclockwise direction.

Driving time without stopping: ~3.75 hours

Conclusion

Going to Yellowstone was an amazing family vacation! There was a lot of time in the car, which was challenging at times. The kids had coloring books and were working on making bracelets, and had tablets for portions of the longest drives. We kept a lot of binoculars in the car, and the kids really enjoyed being “spotters” on the lookout for animals to watch.

On a future trip (once the kids are older), it would be amazing to stay inside the park at a few of the different campgrounds. The park is so big that you can stay in a forest, at a river or lakeside, or in the mountains and still be in the same park. It would be fun to move from campground to campground.

We also didn’t attempt to travel to the Grand Tetons on this trip, but it’s not far and also has some amazing views. I expect we’ll be sure to head there on our next trip.

Notes

• Driving routes in this document were created from the park map provided by the National Park Service
• Make sure to stop by the West Yellowstone Visitor Information Center! There are some rangers stationed there, and you can pick up free trail maps for a lot of the highlighted regions in the park. You can also buy Junior Ranger workbooks there.
• Take Riverside Drive on your way back to West Yellowstone (after the Madison Junction on the right)! We rarely saw any animals here (just one bison once), but it is such a beautiful and peaceful one-way drive along the river, it’s worth taking every day.