Go Adventure With Them

I’m kicking it off with one of our favorites that we have visited several times – Yellowstone National Park! We were actually able to make it there three times just this year.

One of my big things I want to stress to everyone about any National Park – or any location really – is that if you don’t have a lot of time to spend there DON’T let that stop you!! I have seen so many times on travel blogs or chats people say something to the effect of -“If you don’t have X days to spend here then don’t bother going.” I think that is baloney because why not at least get to experience whatever bit of these beautiful places that you can while you are there?! Then that may also help you better decide what you’d like to return to on future trips.

As an example I have now been to Yellowstone six times and most of those times have just been one big long day there. Each single day we spent there was AMAZING and I’d do it again! We’ve only ever been there for a total of two days max. I would really love to someday spend multiple days and soak it in more and would highly recommend that you do so if you have the time BUT you can still enjoy a lot even if you only have one day! When we have visited Yellowstone it has always been a part of a larger road trip rather than our only destination so that is why we haven’t had as much time to spend there. Since we had a limited amount of time we chose to spend it seeing more of the park rather than just tiny sections. It is tiring to pack as much as you can into one day – but totally worth it!!

Another thing is that yes, you will get to soak in the amazing atmosphere of this place much better if you take your time to do hikes and really explore the park but you can also really enjoy this park even if you spend most of your time in the car. My kids have a love/hate relationship with Yellowstone because they love to see the animals and explore around but since we have mostly packed it in we have generally spent most of our time in the car which is hard for them – but they do still love it. Again, we did our best and enjoyed the time that we had to work with. As I mentioned we went there three times this last year so on our final trip there (which was actually a solo trip with me and the kids) I stopped more often for us to explore around and sit and observe certain areas which was really nice. We spent a bit less time driving around but that is also because we had already spent other days throughout the year seeing the rest of the park.

Since we have spent so much time in the car there we have driven pretty much every single section of road in the park and traveled in and out of all of the entrances. Note that there are five entrances to Yellowstone. West, North, Northeast, East, and South. We’ve entered via the West the most often and from our experience this has been the busiest entrance. We have seen the most wildlife in the area around the West and the Northeast entrances. The NE entrance takes you to Beartooth Pass. That road is SO fun to drive through right after they have opened it (usually around Memorial Day weekend) because there are walls of snow on each side of the road. I will be doing a separate post on things to do just outside of Yellowstone but there is a neat little Yellowstone animal nature center in Red Lodge – which is the town that you get to right after going through Beartooth. When we went through the East entrance we saw a bunch of bighorn sheep (the only ones we have ever seen in this park) as well as a couple of marmots. You also pass by a neat close up spot of the lake. Just outside of the East entrance is Cody, WY. Like I said, I’ll do a more in depth post later on about the activities to do just outside of Yellowstone but there is a really neat spot – The Buffalo Bill Center of the West – there is a natural history museum that focuses on the different ecosystems in Yellowstone. It was fun to go there when we were seeing those ecosystems in real life in the park. The West entrance has the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. Great to see especially the wolves up close since they are hard to spot in the park. These are all great spots especially for kids but adults would enjoy them as well.

A big tip I have is to be flexible with your timing and account for long stops for wildlife. We have gotten stuck in a few “Bison Parades” as our family calls them. The first time, and longest one we were in, we were headed to stay inside the park (the only time we have done that) and what would have taken us about 30 – 40 mins took us 2 HOURS. But it was pretty amazing having a huge herd of bison including babies walking along side our car for such a time while we could hear the river on the other side of us. It was just hard with two kiddos 4 and under who were then way past their bedtime. You also may happen to spot something and want to take your time to watch it. Our “schedule” got put over an hour behind once because we spotted a mama coyote and her pups and spent a long time watching them. But these are the experiences that end up being the most memorable.

I personally would highly recommend bringing in your own food to the park or at least being prepared with lots of snacks because the food options in the park are very spread out, tend to be busy, and close earlier than you would think if you are spending a long day there. Also, if you only have a short amount of time you don’t want to spend it shopping or waiting in line. Check before going which areas are actually open at the time of your trip because they are seasonal. If you do want to get food there – from our limited experience with the food (we usually pack it in) – they had a general store in the Old Faithful area where we got sandwiches and such that lasted us through the day. On our most recent trip we got ice cream in Canyon Village where they had a fun flavor called “Moose Moss” which was similar to Mint Chip. We also got food at the restaurant near Mammoth Springs and the kids meals came in cute yellow bus boxes like the historic ones that tour the park. Also, the sparse food options outside of the entrances are not always open late, as we have found since we tend to exit late after a long day in the park. I would advise scoping out some options ahead of time if you are planning for that because cell phone service is very sparse so you will not be able to look up that information easily while in the park.

As with any National Park the kids can complete Junior Ranger packets and get badges at the end. Honestly, our kids are too shy to do the part with the rangers, and since we are usually too short on time, we still get the booklets to work on in our own time. An added bonus is that when you are entering the park ask them for a wildlife checklist and if they have the one that lists all the animals. If it’s a really busy time then they may not have any left and once we only got a condensed version that just listed the main animals with some pictures. But one time we were given a list of pretty much every possible animal divided by mammal, reptile, etc. and it listed the estimated population of each animal and that page kept my oldest entertained for about an hour reading off all the facts to us. It was really neat! We also enjoyed reading books about Yellowstone especially ones about the wildlife to be found there. I’ll try to list those in my future Yellowstone post about other things to do in the area. We love those pocket naturalist guides that fold out with photos and got a Falcon Pocket Guide speficic to Yellowstone National Park.

We visited the thermal pool areas when our kids were younger and could be worn or strapped to a stroller but have personally decided to skip them now until my younger ones are a bit older. With my oldest I could count on him to walk calmly and stick by us when he was younger but my other two are just too unpredictable and love to run ahead. That doesn’t feel safe and would cause me a lot of anxiety. One of the most famous thermal pools, and my favorite, the Grand Prismatic doesn’t have any railings on their boardwalks and the hot thermal pools are immediately right next to the boardwalk. One bonus with skipping these or just visiting the few that have railings is that you will save time to search for wildlife. One of our visits was in the middle of summer, when it is the busiest, and we could see long lines of cars waiting to get spots at the geyser basins and thermal areas. We weren’t affected by the crowds at all since we stuck to areas that were less busy. Less busy with people but populated with more wildlife! 🙂 They are a really neat element of the park and you should definitely find a way to check them out at some point!

Regarding wildlife – first of all, be smart and do not ever approach the animals or exit your car to take photos when they are nearby. Besides the fact that the animals deserve respect it’s also extremely dangerous. Bison especially move much faster than you would expect! Several times we have been (inside the car) right next to bison that all of a sudden decided to start charging at each other or start to run.

My main tip for seeing wildlife is to make sure you go to Lamar Valley!! Especially if you want to see large herds of bison. Although wherever there are bison be prepared to have to potentially stop and wait for a while. The road to Lamar Valley and past it to the NE entrance is where we have spotted the most variety of wildlife! On the road toward the valley up on a large rocky hill we got to see a mama coyote and her pups. We’ve seen lots of elk, pronghorn, bison (especially in the valley – there are seriously hundreds of them!), as well as moose, bears, wolves, and a fox!

You have to be patient when trying to post wildlife. Once we saw wolves at a far distance up on a hill. A huge crowd had formed and we managed to snag a parking spot and joined in but just could not spot anything – someone said see that spot that looks like a rock, that’s one. So I thought I had it and got a photo, zoomed in and…the spot I found was an actual rock! So we left and went further into the valley to see what else we could find before it got dark. On our way back through we saw there were still people up there so we tried again. This time when almost everyone had left we got to see them stand up and move! Even though they were tiny it was still neat to see! Earlier when we couldn’t spot them I caught the tail end of a coyote being chased by a small herd of pronghorn!! I wouldn’t have believed it if someone else next to me hadn’t confirmed that they saw the same thing. No one else seemed to catch it because they were all try to spot the wolves. My husband has always joked that we probably miss amazing things when we are so focused on watching something else. There is seriously so much wildlife to see in this park!! We also saw the female moose, a grizzly, and a red fox on the road up to the NE entrance. There was another time when way way off in the distance and with the help of someone else’s scope we saw a grizzly munching on a bison carcass. There were lots of people excitedly waiting around because that is usually when the wolves come in but because it was so far away my kids couldn’t really see, and getting dark, we left to go spot other things. But if you ever see or hear of a carcass that is an area where you are more likely to see the predator animals.

There are definitely areas where it is more likely to see certain animals but there are obviously no guarantees. You can google best spots and even that park service wildlife checklist I mentioned earlier for the kids showed where different types of animals were most likely to be but we have also seen certain animals in areas that were not predicted. We saw three young bears tromping along in the field area just inside the West Entrance. It was so neat because no one else was around – whenever we have seen bears before there is always a large crowd of onlookers – and it was our own little family moment to enjoy. My middle one pointed out the moving spots – what’s that? I honestly figured it was just bison and almost didn’t even look but then through the binoculars saw them very clearly! I excitedly went to grab my camera while the other kids got to see them through the binoculars at least but they were out of sight before I could snag a photo. That is to say, always be on the lookout. Even though the amount of car time is hard for the kids when we max it out it is also really fun that it’s a big giant scavenger hunt all day long.

You can definitely camp in Yellowstone, and many friends have had wonderful experiences doing that but we have not tried that before. Staying in the park, either camping or one of their few hotels, helps you get a head start on trying to spot wildlife early in the morning and then you don’t have as far to drive in the dark if you spend a long day in the park. But plan ahead and book early because it fills up fast.

Especially this last year, when there has been a huge uptick in travel with everyone getting back out there and hotels trying to make up for lost time, lodging just outside of the parks was extremely expensive and also harder to find. Two of our trips this year we stayed an hour outside of the park in Idaho. It did obviously add to our driving time but the roads are scenic, there is wildlife to be spotted even outside of the park, and it saved a BUNCH on cost. You just have to be very aware driving in that area after dark because of wildlife. This option isn’t for everyone but it is a way to still make it do-able if you can’t afford the hotels right outside the park.

Last tip I would say to make sure that you check road status ahead of your trip – there can be closures due to weather or construction on sections of the park. The main part of the park road is a figure eight. I would say make sure you also explore just outside of that figure eight – Lamar Valley is off of the main figure eight!

Yellowstone holds so much to explore – it encompasses 2,221,766 acres – so it is hard to cover it all in one post. Even though we don’t have much experience in the off road adventures Yellowstone offers, I hope that you found this helpful especially to encourage you to pop in and experience the amazingness of Yellowstone if you are passing by! As you can see we have seen some amazing sights and wildlife despite our short stints there. Again, check out my IG page because I will be sharing suggestions from others who have done more exploring on hikes within the park.