r/yellowstone

Mollie’s Pack is Yellowstone National Park's oldest surviving wolf family, tracing its direct lineage back to the park's historic 1995 wolf reintroduction. Originally called the Crystal Creek Pack.

Very easily accessible Gibbon Falls in Yellowstone National Park. I shot this from one of the lookouts along the paved walkway just past the parking lot. There are numerous viewing points along the paved path that is wheel chair accessible.

Initially only a few of them were chilling near a bison but within minutes the entire pack showed up!!

2026

So what if there's steam, gotta stick your hand in to check.

Screen shot a few minutes ago.

I had never heard of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone before our visit there. No matter because there are no words to adequately describe its beauty.

Made the hike down to the lower viewing platform at Lookout Point just as the morning light began reaching into the canyon. From that close, Lower Falls is something else entirely—the thunderous roar of more than 300 feet of water dropping into the Yellowstone River echoes through the canyon around you.

The climb back up definitely wakes you up, but standing there in the cool morning air with the falls roaring below was worth every step. One of those Yellowstone mornings that stays with you.

Walking this morning through pelican creek nature trail. Near the trail just to the left facing towards the trail we saw what seemed to be a giant brown fur mass through the trees. We weren't certain and (dumbly) got slightly closer before taking the poor zoomed cell phone pic in the first photo and leaving the train. We're now arguing whether or not this was actually a bear, another creature, or Paredolia. Thoughts?

6 panel bracketed HDR panorama with a Canon 5D Mk III & Canon EF70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM lens from the overlook

I learned so much from this sub (and lots and lots of Googling and talking to others) so I wanted to make sure to give back.

My family of 3 adults, 1 teen, 2 kids, and 1 toddler went to Yellowstone the first week of August. It's the first time we did a rugged trip like this specific group.

Flew Southwest, which was terrible with kids (everyone on the plane was aggravated being split up from their families). Flew into BZN in the evening. We drove out in daylight, but the sun fell fast and we were driving on single lane two-way roads for a solid 1.5 hours to get to our VRBO in Island Park, ID

Tip: try not to fly into an airport that's freaking two hours away :)

Note: we did VRBO because all the in-park cabin/hotels were booked (need to book things way in advance y'all!) and we aren't the camping or RV type. (Booking 2 rooms vs. The two story VRBO = basically same price)

We made sure to buy food to cook breakfast, sandwiches, and some snacks from the VRBO rather than straight up buying meals out and about. Ice cooler is important to keep in the back of your car along with a case of water bottles. U don't want to get stuck looking for water refill stations... I mean toilets barely exist out there.

Trying to eat food within the park is just a bad idea. You're going to feel like crap for eating crap.

We ate out twice in West Yellowstone and had trout in both places - freaking DELICIOUS

The drive from VRBO to West entrance was about 30-40 mins. People here said to get there early or else you sit in line forever. We got there at 10am the first day, line was maybe like 20 mins long. The other days we rolled in around 12 and there was barely a line, if at all. Idk if this is because they're weekdays or if it's actually earlier in the day that there are so many cars?

Regarding the times....

First regret is that we got in to our VRBO so late, that we weren't rested well and it was hard to get out the next morning. After that, it was hard to get out early every morning. We were glad that he line situation didn't hit us in the face tho....

Second thing is to make sure you get out of Yellowstone before sunset. Them roads are not meant to be driven in darkness - not good for you or the wildlife. Also we lived out west so if the sun is coming down, it's in your face. Watch out

Regarding the itinerary....

Above I've attached screenshots of the itinerary I had created after tons of research. If I had gone by myself, that itinerary could've totally happened. But in dealing with the issues of 6 other beings (who I love dearly ha) this itinerary was a dream.

Two of the things I REALLY wanted to do was Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic. The latter was great along with its surrounding stuff. We parked and had to walk a while but it's worth it.

But Old Faithful? After all the anticipation it was like "oh that's it?" Wasn't worth the hot and sticky crowd we were stuck in. (Parking was right in front, not much of a walk!)

Regarding the heat btw...

The temps were highs of 75 and lows of 45 every time we checked before leaving. While we were there? Easily 85, we were lucky when it would get to 70-75. (I'm sure at night it was super cold, we'd be back home by then)...... (And I don't mean 85 at 12pm, I mean it like even as the sun is starting to go down) But yeah we were unprepared for just how hot it was gonna get. Thank God for washing machine in VRBO we just kept washing and re-wearing our thinnest things.

Oh and altitude sickness is real. One family member had it so they used kind of like those portable oxygen things (but it wasn't O2) and would sit for a while and get better. They don't have a history of other breathing issues.

So on Day 1, all we did was Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic and we were pooped (didn't do anything else in my itinerary). There were a lot of road closure things on that path so the drive took longer than it looks.

Day 2 - we went to the Grizzly/Wolf Discovery Center and it was nice to learn about them and see them but it was hot out and wasn't intriguing enough to keep the kids entertained too long (I mean we're not taking them to Disney so they're fine ha) then we went to **Hayden Valley and the Brinks of Falls and Artist Point (**breathtaking) etc. Didn't see much in terms of animals. Never ended up doing the southeast area of the park. It's the area people say if you miss it it isn't a big deal.

Day 3 - we made the long trek out to Lamar Valley cuz someone in our group was desperate for animals ha and you really want to see them after the Discovery Center. Another thing about timing: the best time to see wildlife is between 6-9am and 6-9pm (per awesome ranger we spoke to). Well we barely got in the valley and were greeted with a WHOLE BUNCH of bison grazing not far from the road... Literally like 200 (one of us counted ha). Then we got in the car and drove more and again there were a bunch of bison grazing very close to the edge of the road so a whole bunch of cars had pulled up and were safely away standing behind cars or staying seated inside.

These animals are so beautiful. Everyone was like pindrop silent. I took a look around at how diverse everyone looked from each other and here we all are, completely in awe of something so powerful, in this phenomenal national park - more like national treasure.

On our way back from Lamar, a bunch of cars were pulled up again and we saw a Grizzly cub in the distance and that WAS AMAZING.

Regrets: should've invested in binoculars and bought the teenager a DLSR because it turns out she's wicked good when not sending us weird selfies.... Really missed out on some memories there

We got a close-up to a male elk right by our car at one point (pic above). And usually when we'd be driving in/out of West entrance, there would be a field of female elk just chilling. Some humans are super weird (or dumb) and try to get up all close to take pics.

Day 4 - turns out one of the adults really wanted to do hikes so we went to different scenic spots around Hayden and the Canyon Village area. It was all random stuff but very nice.

Why didn't we see more Geysers?

After Old Faithful my family wasn't keen on it but I know there are so many beautiful ones around

Why didn't you do any of the activities you'd listed in the itinerary?

My family didn't want to be held down by time commitments if we booked stuff so instead we tried to let the activities happen where they may. I personally wish we had made it a point to do the scenic float down the river (the whole thing is 2 hours, not including the drive there and back - so the toddler wasn't going to hang on that long)

Sure my family held me back a lot in terms of what I wanted to do but one of my priorities was to build some memories with these kids who are growing up way too fast. I wanted them to remember seeing beautiful things and that we did it together. We took so many fun pics.

And the thing about nature is that you're never just done seeing it - every time you go you'll see more. I look forward to going to Yellowstone again in the future but if I never get to go, I feel happy that I saw what I saw and was properly in awe of it. I recommend everyone to go. I would put it over the Grand Canyon even.

Happy travels to everyone!