Yellowstone National Park: How We Spent Our Time
The first thing I have to say is that our trip to Montana absolutely enchanted me. I don't know when or if we will be back, but this trip will stick with me... huge.
As we continued to explore, I would make Josh pull off the road (a lot) so I could try to photograph the scenery. It was just never good enough. I kept trying to preserve it, bottle it up, have something so I didn't forget. I'd look into the lens of my camera or the screen on my phone after taking a picture and I kept getting frustrated! What my eyes were seeing was too magical, too big, too vast to ever be conveyed appropriately in the confines of a photograph.
We are all SO grateful that we were able to have a full week there to experience and soak in all the beauty that we could.
During our trip to Montana, we visited Yellowstone National Park for three days. This was our first national park as a family! The north entrance to the park was only 30 minutes from where we were staying in Emigrant so it was fairly easy for us to get to.
WHAT WE SAW
Our first day, we stayed closer to the north entrance and explored near the Mammoth Hot Springs. The hot springs and geysers at Yellowstone are truly a five senses experience. You could see the bubbling water, the steam, the surprising colors, hear the water running underground, feel the mist as the wind blew. Although we didn't taste anything, based on the smell, I think we could all imagine how the water might taste. Although we could touch anything, for fear of getting scalded, I think the temptation to touch counts. There was a LOT of that, even from me ;)
We got fantastic 360 views and finally saw our first buffalo!
Our second day, we drove farther into the park to do Old Faithful, which was almost a two hour drive.
On the way, we stopped to do what we thought was going to be a nice little hike for our family with tiny humans. It was only a mile- totally doable. However, we realized it was mostly straight up to a peak! We did do some of it and once it got dicey and it felt like people could slip and fall easily, we went back down.
We also stopped at several others geysers along the way. Our favorite was called the sulfur geyser. It was BY FAR the smelliest- so much so that the smell seeped in our car as we drove by before even opening one door. It was disgusting and we loved it!
Josh has always wanted to see Old Faithful since he was a little boy! It is amazing how there is technology available to be able to track exactly when it may erupt and we were lucky to plan it just right so that we parked and rushed to see it with only a few minutes to spare. We FINALLY got some ice cream and had a wonderful secluded picnic lunch.
Our third day there was my favorite. We went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which was truly breathtaking. It was amazing to see a waterfall of that magnitude and canyons that deep. Unfortunately the trail to get closer was closed, but we did what we could, walked where we could, and enjoyed the view as much as we could.
We also drove to Yellowstone Lake and walked around there as well. It was so much bigger than we anticipated and gorgeous. Did you know Yellowstone Lake is the highest elevation lake in North America? Even there, we were still over 7,700 feet above sea level!
Finally, we drove through Hayden Valley. It was this expansive prairie with so many buffalo. It too was as stunningly beautiful as the canyon and Yellowstone Lake, but so very different. We got out there and walked around a bit and climbed a big hill and played tag up there. That was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip: just us, somewhere beautiful, having fun together.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Yellowstone is massive. You might read that and be like, ummm, didn't you know?! Yes, I know it was large, but it was SO much bigger than I thought. Because of that, we were in the car much more than anticipated. That third day, my favorite day at Yellowstone, we were in the car for hours! There was so much to see and things were very spread out. We still maybe saw half the park during our time there. Thank goodness we were only staying 30 minutes away since once we got into the park, we sometimes had to drive 90 minutes or 2 hours to get to what we wanted to see.
3 of our travelers are prone to car sickness (Carter, Preston, and me) so that added a worry each day we went into the park. Thankfully, Dramamine and all the stops we did to see things and the occasional naps were our best friends. I am happy to report that none of the tree of us puked (although it got quite dicey for Carter and Preston a couple of times).
I'm feeling grateful, a tiny bit, that we were visiting such a popular place at a very UNpopular time to travel. I could see, in a more normal summer, that it would get frustrating dealing with crowds of people in such a natural place. We were lucky because of the circumstances and because our kids didn't really adjust to the time zone so we were up early and at the park VERY early. It really felt like we were in nature mostly by ourselves. That kept us safe, number one, but also allowed us to enjoy the park and take it all in.
Upon actually experiencing many parts of Yellowstone National Park, the things most people want to see weren't our favorite things necessarily. We were told that might be the case and it proved to be correct. Listen, Old Faithful is awesome! But there is so much else just as awesome or awesomer! I think one of the best things about being in a national park is the beauty that just comes, unexpectedly, while you're there. No one would've told me to make sure to play tag in Hayden Valley and it was my favorite sight and moment far and away. Josh and I often lean towards being all planned for what we will see and do while on adventures. Not knowing very much about Yellowstone was SO helpful for us. We could be flexible, make unplanned stops or detours, be present and that brought so much learning and special experiences into our time at Yellowstone National Park. With so much left to see and do I think we'll have to go back there someday ;) Can't wait!
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| Sigh, the beauty NEVER got old. |
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| Emigrant Peak |
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| Gibbon Falls |
During our trip to Montana, we visited Yellowstone National Park for three days. This was our first national park as a family! The north entrance to the park was only 30 minutes from where we were staying in Emigrant so it was fairly easy for us to get to.
WHAT WE SAW
Our first day, we stayed closer to the north entrance and explored near the Mammoth Hot Springs. The hot springs and geysers at Yellowstone are truly a five senses experience. You could see the bubbling water, the steam, the surprising colors, hear the water running underground, feel the mist as the wind blew. Although we didn't taste anything, based on the smell, I think we could all imagine how the water might taste. Although we could touch anything, for fear of getting scalded, I think the temptation to touch counts. There was a LOT of that, even from me ;)
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| Mammoth Hot Springs |
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| J, C, and N feeling on top of the world! |
We got fantastic 360 views and finally saw our first buffalo!
Our second day, we drove farther into the park to do Old Faithful, which was almost a two hour drive.
On the way, we stopped to do what we thought was going to be a nice little hike for our family with tiny humans. It was only a mile- totally doable. However, we realized it was mostly straight up to a peak! We did do some of it and once it got dicey and it felt like people could slip and fall easily, we went back down.
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| A little smooch from baby P after making it from our climb safely! |
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| J, N, and C taking pictures |
Josh has always wanted to see Old Faithful since he was a little boy! It is amazing how there is technology available to be able to track exactly when it may erupt and we were lucky to plan it just right so that we parked and rushed to see it with only a few minutes to spare. We FINALLY got some ice cream and had a wonderful secluded picnic lunch.
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| Old Faithful |
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| Some other geyser- I should've paid better attention to names! |
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| All my boys <3 |
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| Grand Canyon at Yellowstone |
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| P is always thrown high in the air wherever we go |
We also drove to Yellowstone Lake and walked around there as well. It was so much bigger than we anticipated and gorgeous. Did you know Yellowstone Lake is the highest elevation lake in North America? Even there, we were still over 7,700 feet above sea level!
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| Yellowstone Lake |
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| N, doing what all our boys did, using the tree limbs around the lake as balance beams |
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| Hayden Valley |
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| BUFFALO! |
WHAT WE LEARNED
Yellowstone is massive. You might read that and be like, ummm, didn't you know?! Yes, I know it was large, but it was SO much bigger than I thought. Because of that, we were in the car much more than anticipated. That third day, my favorite day at Yellowstone, we were in the car for hours! There was so much to see and things were very spread out. We still maybe saw half the park during our time there. Thank goodness we were only staying 30 minutes away since once we got into the park, we sometimes had to drive 90 minutes or 2 hours to get to what we wanted to see.
3 of our travelers are prone to car sickness (Carter, Preston, and me) so that added a worry each day we went into the park. Thankfully, Dramamine and all the stops we did to see things and the occasional naps were our best friends. I am happy to report that none of the tree of us puked (although it got quite dicey for Carter and Preston a couple of times).
I'm feeling grateful, a tiny bit, that we were visiting such a popular place at a very UNpopular time to travel. I could see, in a more normal summer, that it would get frustrating dealing with crowds of people in such a natural place. We were lucky because of the circumstances and because our kids didn't really adjust to the time zone so we were up early and at the park VERY early. It really felt like we were in nature mostly by ourselves. That kept us safe, number one, but also allowed us to enjoy the park and take it all in.
Upon actually experiencing many parts of Yellowstone National Park, the things most people want to see weren't our favorite things necessarily. We were told that might be the case and it proved to be correct. Listen, Old Faithful is awesome! But there is so much else just as awesome or awesomer! I think one of the best things about being in a national park is the beauty that just comes, unexpectedly, while you're there. No one would've told me to make sure to play tag in Hayden Valley and it was my favorite sight and moment far and away. Josh and I often lean towards being all planned for what we will see and do while on adventures. Not knowing very much about Yellowstone was SO helpful for us. We could be flexible, make unplanned stops or detours, be present and that brought so much learning and special experiences into our time at Yellowstone National Park. With so much left to see and do I think we'll have to go back there someday ;) Can't wait!
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| Playing tag in Hayden Valley |
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