Highlight:
Roaring Mountain
Mammoth Hot Springs Trail
Fort Yellowstone/Albright Visitors Center
Gibbon Falls
Grizzly and Wolf Discover Center
What to bring?
Stroller?
Very limited, recommend carrier
Restrooms
Located at every parking lot & lodge
We learned our lesson this morning about sleeping in! On day 1, we reached the park gates at 7:00 am and only waited in line about 5 minutes. On day 2, we reached the gates at 7:30 am and only waited about 15 minutes. Today on day 3, we arrived at 8:00 am and waited almost an hour. So if you are staying outside the park, just trust me and get up a little earlier! Adding more time in the car for the littles didn’t help the day start as smoothly.
When we finally made it through, we drove towards the upper loop to Mammoth. We had to take an emergency potty break for the 3 year old so we pulled in the closet pullout. (Mom back: keep a toddler potty with puppy poop bags in the back of your car for moments like these, traveling or not). We were grateful for the pull off though because it was a beautiful view of the Roaring Mountain, a mountainside with steak seeping from holes throughout. This wasn’t a site we originally had planned but I’d definitely recommend a quick stop to break up your long drive.
Once we got to Mammoth Springs, we parked at the first of the three parking lots. I’d recommend to keep going down to the third for a bigger lot and restrooms. Get ready to strap on the kids and your hiking shoes for this one! According to my Apple watch, we walked 1.8 miles of constant up and downs. Here are the highlights you will see on this trail:
Manerva Terrace
Palette Spring
Liberty Cap
Canary Spring
If you aren’t up for such a hike, I’d recommend going to the Upper Terrace Lookout parking lot and just walking the boardwalk over Canary Springs. The others are neat to see, but in comparison to the geysers from day 1 & 2, they may not be worth it to you.
From Mammoth Springs, you can see Fort Yellowstone. We ate a picnic lunch under the shade trees, where the kids could run/crawl & play. There were even a few female elk that walked up to join us. We strolled through the Albright Visitors Center to check out the cool animal exhibits, which our three year old really enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the other half of the Upper Loop is closed for the season, so at this point, we turned around to retrace our drive back to West Yellowstone.
The options for the rest of the afternoon were
Although the parking was packed at Norris and seemed like would be a great area to explore more geysers, we were geysered out and ready to see some wildlife! I’d been anxiously awaiting to spot a bear with no luck so far!
We stopped at one last overlook, Gibbon Falls on the way out! It was a pretty view and a nice break in the long drive.
As we exited the park at West Yellowstone, we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. It was a really cool experience and a nice change of pace from our busy, crowded park days. The admission was $10 per adult and children 4 & under were free. The biggest attraction was that children 5-12 could pay an additional $5 to “feed the grizzlies.” Even though our littles weren’t old enough, we got there at the perfect time to watch this take place. Everu few hours they rotate the grizzlies into the exhibit. During the transition, they take the kids out into the exhibit with a bucket of bear food. They are instructed on what to do and all scramble to hide their food in the perfect spot. Once the kids join their parents outside the exhibit, they release the new set of grizzlies. They know exactly what is coming and run out, searching for their food. This makes for such a fun and exciting performance from the bears!
While we were there, we also enjoyed watching the wolves as they napped (kinda boring), birds such as bald eagles, and our three year old‘s favorite, the otters. The otters were also super active, playing and searching for food for n their exhibit. There was also an area where the kids could touch the water and explore what an otter’s environment was like.
After about 1.5 hours, we headed back to our cabin and ate leftover pizza from the night before as we prepared for the following day’s adventures
Some lasting thoughts on Yellowstone:
We chose to stay outside of the park to save money. However, if we had to do it all over again, I’d splurge to stay somewhere inside to minimize the amount of drive time with small children.
If you only have two days for Yellowstone, I’d definitely just stick with day 1 &2.
If you ever feel overwhelmed tackling Yellowstone with two little ones (there were many of those moments), don’t lose hope in humanity! I’ve never been told so many times…”Good job Momma!” by fellow moms of older kids who have been there, “You get this fitness award today!” by muscled CrossFit men, and “Ahh! I remember those days!” by smiling retired women.
What carrier are you using? We carry Hallie in a tula- which is fine except when we are in hot places. (Hello Arizona/New Mexico/Southern California!) Thinking she'll need a carrier through the next year still and we will probably need something different. Love the tips!