Out West: Yellowstone

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Our 5 top recommendations of things to do in Yellowstone, click here

Our trip

(This is a continuation of our Out West: Grand Teton post)

Our first stop in Yellowstone was none other than Old Faithful! Unfortunately, we got there right after an eruption so we had to wait another 1.5 hours for the next one. We found ways to pass the time of course! The visitor center is filled with great information and interactive learning displays. There are also demonstrations and Q&A sessions throughout the day put on by park rangers.

Another fun way to pass the time while you wait- enjoy a big ole ice cream cone at the Old Faithful Lodge!

When the geyser actually does go off- be ready for pictures! We set our selfie stick/tripod up in advance so that it was in the right position and we knew where to stand! How did we take all of our family pictures without the need to ask people every time to take our picture??

Read more about our simple, compact, and easily portable photography equipment that we brought for this trip here. (coming soon) You can find the Fugetek selfie stick  and Vorida lens on Amazon Fugetek here and Vorida here.

There are MANY other geysers to see by Old Faithful: Castle, Grand, Daisy, Riverside, and Beehive to name a few! The visitor center shows all of the predicted eruption times of these so you can plan if you want to walk around to see them. We could’ve walked along the boardwalk to see some more geysers erupt. But to be honest, it was just really hot out and we were ready to get back in the air conditioned car! If you go, and if you’re lucky, you may witness some geyser eruptions that only happen once or twice a day!

Our next stop along the way was to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. We had read in advance to skip the boardwalk area that brings you up close and personal to the spring and it’s array of beautiful colors. Apparently it’s TOO close to get a good picture. We opted for the 1 mile gravel trail at Fairy Falls Trailhead that led us uphill to a clearing where we were able to get a fantastic view of the entire spring! It was so beautiful and worth the hike in the heat!

Keeping on our drive north, we passed through Mammoth Hot Springs District right after sunset. Mammoth is a very, very small town, but we arrived with just enough time to grab dinner at the Terrace Grill, 5 minutes before they closed. We were also in awe over all of the female ELK we observed throughout the grassy areas of the town.

If you’re keeping track… now we’ve seen bison, moose and elk on our trip so far!

Our AirBnB in Montana

The AirBnB we chose in Montana was just outside of Gardiner, however, it required a 30 minute drive UP a mountain. And, we arrived at night, which made the unfamiliar mountain road a bit scary! This cabin was a little more rustic than the last one. But it had everything we needed! This cabin had a queen bed, 2 sets of bunk beds, and a pack and play set up for our Lily, as well as a private bathroom. It also had a wood burning stove for heating the cabin, but we didn’t need to use it.

In the morning, our eyes were greeted by the beautiful scenery of the mountain top landscape. Our host made us a delicious breakfast- all cooked from scratch and served community style in her kitchen with other guests staying there. The property also had a firepit, hammock, volleyball net, tee-pee, chickens, dogs, and baby kittens!! Our kids LOVED holding them and playing with them.

Another important thing we brought with us, because we are becoming a bit like coffee snobs, are these Brew Buddy’s for making our own pour over coffee in the mornings! When you travel with young kids, you know coffee is important!! You can read about these easy-to-use, perfectly compact gadgets here. (coming soon)

Our first full day in Yellowstone…

For our first stop: the famous Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance of Yellowstone. 

Fun facts:

-Yellowstone was the first U.S. National Park.

-The Roosevelt Arch was constructed in 1903 and was the main entrance of Yellowstone at the time.

-The cornerstone of the arch contains a time capsule!

Next, we visited Mammoth Springs! As mentioned before, the boardwalk paths around many of these sites are easy to walk, and also perfect for strollers! Our kids did not appreciate the sulfur smell present amongst the springs.

Next up on our travels, we found a picnic area along shade trees by a river. While we were eating, Mr. Hen was certain he found a marmot and attempted to lure it closer to us to get a picture. The varmint got our discarded Cheetos and we discovered that it was actually… a squirrel.

After our lunch, we decided to keep driving east towards the Lamar Valley where we could be sure to find more bison. Lamar Valley did not disappoint! We had so much fun watching the herds of bison- rolling in dirt, running around, and causing a “bison jam” by stopping in the middle of the road. The little black dots in the center of the photo are all bison! 

Our Airbnb host offered to make us dinner so long as we were back by 6:30pm, and since we were on a tight budget for the trip- we happily planned our day around that! We came back to our mountain top cabin and we were welcomed by a delicious spaghetti dinner with a side of pork chops. (??!) Our kids love spaghetti so we were happy it was a kid-friendly meal. After dinner we had fun playing volleyball, horseshoes, and chasing kittens.

The next day we woke up to a homemade breakfast, and then set off for another day in Yellowstone. We read that taking a dip in the Boiling River was a must do activity!

Tip: Plan to go either early in the day or later in the afternoon to get a parking spot! The walk from the parking lot to the entrance of the Boiling River is about 15 minutes. Make sure to wear water shoes, as it’s a bit tricky to walk in the river!

Why on earth would we choose to swim in the BOILING River? Doesn’t that sound a bit dangerous?!

Well, this particular swimming area is ideal- the cold mountain water (about 45-50 degrees) mixes with the not boiling, but scalding water (near 140 degrees) from the hot springs and creates a very enjoyable bathing temperature. The river current is a bit strong, so hold on to your kiddos! We found it a little challenging to get ourselves, 2 kids, and a baby to a perfect spot in a side pool- as walking on the river rocks is not an easy task! Once we found a good spot to plop our bodies in the water, we were set! It was VERY relaxing, honestly we would’ve loved to stay there all day! We put Lily in her baby float and just held on to her. The current in the side pools is pretty calm so we didn’t worry about the older kids floating away.

You may have the occasional flip flop or shoe floating by with several people yelling for you to retrieve it, and if you are successful, you’ll receive cheers!

One particular sandal went floating by pretty fast, and I wasn’t able to catch it. It was moving right towards Eli so I called for him to catch it. Eli, noticing he had an audience of people pointing to it and yelling “get the shoe!” decided he’d swim out of the safe side pool and go after it…

…in the rushing river current.

The current was too strong for him and then we had our son AND a rogue flip flop being swept away. Luckily, he didn’t get far before some superhero man downstream caught Eli and the flip flop, and returned both. There were cheers and laughter.

(*no children or flip flops were harmed or in immediate danger in the scene I just described).

Side note…how is it that Chris ALWAYS finds another pilot to start up a chat with? We happened to be lounging in the same side pool as another family, and started talking together about our vacations. Wouldn’t ya know? The guy was a UPS pilot. Pilots are like magnets, they just find each other!

We reluctantly left the river to our next destination. There’s really no need to bring a towel as you will dry off on the 15 minute walk in the heat back to the parking lot! We made sure to pack a change of clothes so we wouldn’t be wearing our bathing suits the rest of the day.

On the road again, we set off eastbound in Yellowstone. Along the way, we were told to check out Blacktail Drive – a one way road that was sure to offer a bear sighting. It was a beautiful drive for sure, but no bears were sighted!

Our next visit would be to Canyon Village. The viewing area at Artist’s Point is right next to the parking lot and very convenient if your kids have “had it” with long hikes. The views were breathtaking! It’s no wonder people call this the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone!

From Canyon Village, we kept driving south to visit Hayden Valley. What can we say, we just really love watching bison! We got to witness a really good “bison jam” too, that guy was just standing in the middle of the road. Look at the line of cars from the other direction!

Next up, we continued south towards the Mud Volcano. The name was intriguing enough to lure us in! This was a stop well worth our time! Although it was really hot out, we walked the boardwalk all the way around the full loop. Here, we found the Dragon’s Mouth Spring- which really did look like there was a fire breathing dragon lurking in the cave! Water and steam spurt out of the cave, sending small waves crashing around and you can hear a roaring sound!

We walked further around the boardwalk loop and found the Mud Volcano- which is really just a big pool of mud that bubbles now. In 1872, the Mud Volcano ruptured and blew itself apart, spewing mud hundreds of feet into the air. What a sight that would have been!

By this point our kids were OVER the sulfur smell. They kept plugging their noses and yelling, “WHO TOOTED?!” every few minutes and giggled. However, near the end of our walk around the loop, we were distracted and entertained by the many bison. One was rolling in the dirt, another was walking towards the another bison and we could hear them snorting and grunting. Even Lily was laughing and clapping!

In the parking lot, there were more bison! We knew to keep our distance but they were everywhere! We quickly got in our car to observe safely. We saw a bison family running across the lot, grunting at other bison as they passed. Seriously we could spend an entire day just watching them!

The day was fading so we headed on our way back, passing by Tower Fall and Devils Den. We hopped out of the car a few times to capture some more pictures along the route, which were especially beautiful driving at sunset!

And lastly, as we were driving, we saw a few cars stopped at the side of the road (which is an indicator that they SAW something cool)! We pulled over and asked what they were looking at with their binoculars.

BEARS!

They were really far away, but there they were, the tiniest little black specks! A momma bear and her cubs walking up a hill in the distance. And, OF COURSE, 2 of the 3 kids were asleep in the back, but they wouldn’t have been able to see them anyways. However, on the last day of our trip, we finally got to see bears!

We arrived back in the town of Gardiner, Montana around 9pm…

…with 3 sleeping/tired kids in tow.

…and we still needed to eat dinner because we hadn’t eaten anything since noon.

So, we found a pizza place and had a sit down meal. Who are we?! It’s funny the change of pace when on vacation. Like we’d ever go out to eat at 9 o’clock at night at home… with kids!

After dinner we still had a 30 minute drive up the mountain to reach our cabin at the top. This last day was a FULL day, but it was so good!

Our last day, road trip!

The last day of our trip was a travel day. We would have a 6+ hour drive from southern Montana all the way to Salt Lake City! We decided to make ONE last stop just outside of the West Entrance of Yellowstone. I thought I would write about it to warn you not to waste your time! We had heard wonderful things about Yellowstone Bear World. Seriously, everyone we talked to said it was a must see! But, because we were short on time and didn’t want the extra driving, we opted to go to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center just outside the west entrance of Yellowstone.

I won’t even go in to details, it was just a waste of money for what it was. But hey, our kids got to see some more bears and a wolf. That’s okay, we’ll be sure to follow recommendations next time!

And that’s a wrap of our 2018 family trip to The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. It was a week filled with quality time, mostly unplugged (because there isn’t cell service in the parks anyways!), enjoying nature and the beautiful creation.

Our hearts are full of wonderful memories and now that we have a taste of the beauty of the national parks, we want to see more!