Looking for a family trip that’s filled with adventure and education? Explore Yellowstone National Park together. You’ll love watching your kids’ faces light up when they watch geysers burst or spot bison in a meadow. With endless possibilities for hiking, wildlife watching, picnicking, and relaxing, a Yellowstone road trip is the perfect opportunity to create lasting memories with your family while unplugging from the real world.

The Best Time of Year for a Yellowstone Family Vacation

Yellowstone National Park offers a variety of beauty year-round. However, as stunning as it is covered in snow, Yellowstone is not an ideal winter destination because the park sees a lot of closures that time of year. If you happen to be one of the lucky families whose kids don’t go back to school until early September, try to sneak a trip in late August. Most schools are back in session, so you and your family can skip the crowds and still enjoy the warm, bright summer weather.

If you can’t make it in late summer, consider going in early spring — April or May. It’s still pretty quiet since the big rush happens in June and July. Plus, spring is when you might just spot adorable baby animals, like bison, elk, and even bears. If you’re intent on using some of those winter break days for your Yellowstone road trip, you might get away with going in early winter before the heavy snow arrives. Just make sure to check for closures before you visit.

How Many Days Do You Recommend for Visiting Yellowstone National Park with Kids?

So, how long does it take to drive through Yellowstone? Given that it contains more than 2 million acres of land and is bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island, Yellowstone is a place you could easily spend a full week exploring. However, little ones usually won’t tolerate that much time in the car, so we recommend condensing your trip into two or three days, which will give you plenty of time to see the major attractions.

Yellowstone consists of two main parts, known as the Upper Loop and the Lower Loop. The sections earned their names because their roads have been cleverly designed to be circular, meeting in the center of the park to create a figure 8. Each loop links up to the Grand Loop road, Yellowstone’s main road system connecting the park’s major attractions. That makes it easy to explore one full loop before moving on to the other.

Both loops offer their own charm and spectacular sites. The Upper Loop, 142 miles long, is known for its abundance of waterfalls, hot springs, and excellent lookout points for these water formations. The Lower Loop is just 96 miles long, but what it lacks in length, it makes up for in attractions. In fact, it’s where you’ll find Old Faithful, the park’s (and the world’s) most famous geyser. Yellowstone Lake also sits in the lower loop, which makes it popular for those looking for water-based activities. Consider spending two days in the loop that appeals the most to your family and the third day exploring parts of the other loop.

Pro tip: The lower loop requires lots of driving between attractions. So ask yourself if your kids enjoy plenty of car time or would prefer the upper loop, where there are more chances to hop out and stretch their legs.

Lodging Options in Yellowstone

Whether your family likes to rough it in a tent or luxuriate in modern amenities, you’ll find plenty of lodging options in Yellowstone. Your options include:

• Camping: The park has over 2,000 campsites split between 12 campgrounds for families who want a more intimate connection with nature.
• Lodges: You can book one of the over 2,000 rooms split among the nine lodges in the park.
• RV sites: Many of the campgrounds also have space for RVs. However, only Fishing Bridge RV park has hookups for water, sewer, and electricity.

Most accommodations — including campsites — book up well in advance, so reserve yours early. If you plan on visiting in the summer, some accommodations are booked as early as 13 months in advance.

So what about staying outside the park? While you can save a few bucks, you’ll likely find yourself wishing you’d paid the extra funds to stay inside the park. You might have known that getting from the nearby towns to a park entrance takes a while, but you might not know exactly how long. To drive through Yellowstone from a starting point outside the park, you’ll want to add roughly 45 minutes to an hour to your total drive time. That’s just to get you to a park entrance and into the line to get into the park. You’ll already spend a lot of time driving through Yellowstone, so you may not want to test your kids’ patience by adding more car time on the front end, but that’s just our two cents!

Crowds, Safety and Packing Tips for a Trip to Yellowstone with Kids

The sheer size of Yellowstone might make you feel overwhelmed at first. But, with the following pro tips up your sleeve, you can have a smooth, enjoyable experience (mostly) free of mishaps or frustrations.

Getting Around

• Download the NPS app: This is the National Park Service app and it will be your trusted companion during your trip. It includes fun information like geyser eruption predictions, as well as important information about road closures, and locations for amenities like bathrooms and food.
• Get gas in advance: You’re about to do a lot of driving. Yellowstone does have gas stations, but they are very expensive. So it’s a good idea to fuel up before entering the park and even bring an extra jug or two of fuel to avoid buying gas inside the park.
• Avoid peak hours: The major attractions tend to be crowded between 10 am and 4 pm. So if you can get the crew up and ready in time, visit the hotspots by 9 am or wait until the early evening.

Safety

• Bring bear spray: There are bears in Yellowstone Park. So, bring bear spray (and hope you never have to use it).
• Stay on the paths: The best way to avoid accidentally wandering into a bear’s territory is to stay on the paved trails.
• Make plenty of noise: If your group is noisy (as is known to be the case for families with little kids), it helps alert bears to your presence. Bears don’t like being surprised.
• Bring a first aid kit: Falls, scrapes, and scratches can happen when you’re climbing boulders and exploring trails.
• Pack paper maps: Cell service can be spotty and, in some places in the park, non-existent, so bring paper maps. Check out our Rand McNally Road Atlas and National Park Guide which includes detailed information and tips for navigating Yellowstone National Park.

Happy Kids

• Bring car games: You will be spending a lot of time in the car, so bring kids activity books and games to keep everyone entertained.
• Pack strollers for boardwalks: One of the nice things about Yellowstone is that most of the major attractions have boardwalks that run alongside them. So you can (and should) bring a stroller if you plan on taking long walks with little ones.
• Pack kids’ backpacks for hiking: Plan on hiking? Pack backpacks for your kids so you don’t have to carry all of their stuff and they can feel independent.
• Bring snacks: There are places to buy food in the park but, like the gas, the snacks can be overpriced. So pack lots of nutritious treats for the car to prevent those hunger tantrums.

With a little planning and a sense of adventure, you’ll navigate Yellowstone like a pro and provide your family with unforgettable experiences.

The 13 Best Things to Do in Yellowstone with Kids

Ready to begin your Yellowstone drive? We’ve rounded up 13 must-see attractions that should appeal to everyone in your group, from the explorers to the nature lovers. Yellowstone will provide precious photo opportunities and cherished moments of stillness as its natural wonders take everyone’s breath away. Pack your map and begin your kid-friendly adventures on your Yellowstone National Park drive!

1. Turn Your Kid Into a (Junior) Park Ranger

Give your kids a sense of park ownership and pride by involving them in the Junior Ranger Program. Stop by any visitor’s center and pick up this self-guided program. The program consists of booklets with assignments for children ages four and up, like quizzes, coloring pages, and scavenger hunt-type activities, all designed to help kids form a deeper connection with the park. At the end of their visit, your kids can turn in their booklets to a real park ranger who will review their work and give them a Yellowstone Junior Ranger badge.

2. Have Your Epic Photo Op at the Grand Prismatic Spring Boardwalk + Overlook

If you only have time to visit a handful of sites in the park, make sure to visit The Grand Prismatic Spring. It is the biggest hot spring in the US, the third biggest in the world, and one of the most photographed attractions in the park. The best way to get a good view of the spring is from the Grand Prismatic Overlook. You can get there via a 0.7-mile hike that you’ll pick up in the Fairy Falls Parking Lot (there is a steep incline towards the end, so make sure everyone has shoes with good traction). Alternatively, you can enjoy a leisurely stroll on the 0.8-mile boardwalk that weaves around the spring for a close-up look.

3. Dine in the Wild with Picnics at Whiskey Flat Picnic Area + Hard Road to Travel Picnic Area

When your group has worked up an appetite, there are several stunning places to take a sustenance break. Whiskey Flat is located in the Midway Geyser Basin area and offers beautiful views of the neighboring meadow. With 17 tables and a couple of fire circles with grates, there’s plenty of space to enjoy a meal while watching for wildlife.

Want to eat shoreside? The Hard Road to Travel bumps right up against Lake Yellowstone. Very nearby is a sand bar extending hundreds of yards along the shoreline that’s perfect for a post-meal stroll and a toe-dip in the water — but just the toes, as Yellowstone Lake is famously freezing cold!

4. Take In the Park’s Natural Works of Art at Fountain Paint Pots Boardwalk

Named for its vibrant red, yellow, and brown mud, Fountain Paint Pots is a collection of hydrothermal features — signs of the park’s active volcano. From the neighboring boardwalk, you can view hot springs, geysers, mud pots, and fumaroles (steam-emitting openings on the earth’s surface). It looks like a scene straight out of “The Goonies” or the show “Dinosaurs.”

5. Have a Rain Day at the Yellowstone Giant Screen Theater

If bad weather puts a damper on your hiking plans, you can spend your rainy day at the park’s IMAX Theater. Located at the West Entrance of the park, the theater screens an immersive documentary about the history of the park nearly every hour between 10 am and 6 pm on the IMAX screen. If your kids aren’t quite at the age where they appreciate a documentary, the theater also shows other movies.

6. Watch a Water Show at Old Faithful

Old Faithful is the most famous geyser at the park and if you’re hoping to catch an eruption, it’s the most reliable one for a show. Old Faithful erupts roughly 20 times a day, usually every 45 minutes to two hours. Forget the fountains at the Bellagio — Old Faithful’s water can shoot up to 185 feet in the air, so get your camera rolling to document this natural spectacle.

7. Visit the Other Grand Canyon

Did you know that Yellowstone has its own Grand Canyon? Part of Yellowstone River, the canyon has two waterfalls and creates a 20-mile long cut through the park. Get an up-close look of the upper part of the falls by parking at the Brink of the Upper Falls lot and taking a short 0.25-mile round trip hike to the upper falls. Naturally, you’ll want to keep kids close by your side and view the water from a safe distance.

8. Marvel at Color-Changing Terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs

The Mammoth Hot Springs are a set of color-changing terraces that formed over thousands of years. When hot water seeps up through limestone, it brings with it calcium carbonate, which results in the chalky white rock you see on the terraces. The perpetually changing thermal activity here causes the terraces to regularly transform both in shape and color — sometimes they’re bright white and at other times they’re vibrant hues. You can take it all in from either an upper or lower boardwalk, or stay in the car for a 30-minute one-way drive around the Upper Terraces, complete with plenty of lookout points.

9. Discover a Hidden Gem at West Thumb Geyser Basin

If you’re pressed for time, you can enjoy several natural wonders at one stop at the West Thumb Geyser. Something of a hidden gem, this is one of the smaller basins in the park, so it’s rarely crowded. But the crowds are missing out because it contains numerous beautiful hot springs and enchanting burbling pools. There’s even a Yellowstone Association Bookstore here where you can pick up some literature on the park, stuffed animals for the kids and wine for the adults.

10. Enjoy a Mini Safari at Lamar Valley

Yellowstone is a terrific place to visit with kids hoping to see some wildlife, and there’s no better location to do it than Lamar Valley. Often referred to as “America’s Serengeti,” Lamar Valley contains Lamar River, a stream that flows into Yellowstone River. It attracts packs of bison, wolves, bears and many other species seeking hydration. As always, make sure to maintain plenty of distance from the animals. This is a terrific opportunity to use those binoculars and the zoom feature on your camera.

11. Plug Your Nose and Open Your Camera App at the Mud Pots

You’ll smell mud pots before you arrive because the hydrogen sulfide gas in the area creates Yellowstone’s famous “rotten egg” odor (don’t worry — it’s only in select areas of the park). Mud pots are one of the striking geothermal features you need to check out at Yellowstone. They’re formed when surface water collects over clay-laden ground and is heated by thermal water, resulting in a dramatic bubbling action that resembles active lava. There are plenty of places to see these, but Mud Volcano boasts the largest collection of them.

12. Embrace Your Inner Cowboys and Cowgirls with some Horseback Ridingand an Old West Dinner Cookout

Pause the hiking for a Western adventure and book an excursion with Xanterra, the official purveyor of unique experiences in Yellowstone National Park. Xanterra can host your group on a horseback riding trip (choose between 1- and 2-hour options). Then you can end your evening at their popular Old West Dinner Cookout, complete with a steak dinner and cowboys serenading you against a sunset. If some members of your group are too young to ride horseback, you can also book a stagecoach ride to the dinner.

13. Get Active — or Kick Back — on the Water

Yellowstone Lake contains dozens of water activities for families looking for something thrilling or relaxing. White water rafting, kayaking and inner tubing are all available on the lake. If you’re looking to just float and soak, try lazy inner tubing on Madison River, which travels 19 miles through Yellowstone and is known for its calm waters. If you want to combine education with water fun, you can book a guided charter boat trip through Xanterra.

Let Rand McNally Publishing Guide the Way On Your Next Road Trip

Hopefully, we’ve inspired you to begin planning your Yellowstone road trip adventure! If you want to change or expand on our itinerary, taking a look at a map is a great way to get an overall sense of the scope of the park and the exact locations of other must-see spots. You can even give your kids their own age-appropriate maps and atlases and involve them in the planning. Whether it’s rushing waterfalls, oozing mud pots, majestic creatures, or relaxing nature walks you’re after, Yellowstone National Park has the right adventure for every family.