Family Vacation in Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole
Don’t worry, I’m going to tell you where/when to find that herd of Bison somewhere in this blog post. It’s kind of unreal.
Here’s a super quick run down of our trip itinerary
Monday: Fly out of Austin to Bozeman, rent a car, hit up Walmart, drive to Canyon Village in Yellowstone via the West Yellowstone Entrance because flooded took out the North Entrance, check in and eat dinner with the extended fam.
Tuesday: Back toward the west side of the park to see Old Faithful and and everything in between Old Faithful and Canyon Village that caught our attention, ate dinner as an extended family again.
Wednesday: North from Canyon Village around the Grand Loop to Mammoth Hot Springs and everywhere in between, out to West Yellowstone for decent food and ice cream, and back to Canyon Village and a little beyond where we finally found those Bison.
Thursday: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone South Rim, Drive to the Lake, Wildlife, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone North Rim, and our last dinner in the park and the first somewhat decent food in the park.
Friday: Drive to Jackson Hole from Yellowstone, go whitewater rafting, eat at two Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives restaurants, explore the square.
Saturday: Jackson Hole back to Bozeman via Idaho, fly back to Austin, but not without plane issues.
Sunday: Drive home from Austin airport. There wasn’t supposed to be a Sunday.
Austin > Denver > Bozeman
Our flights are always way too early. I actually booked a decent flight, but it got cancelled and we got moved to an earlier one so we had the kids up and ready to leave the house at 4AM. Sorry kids, it’s worth it, I promise.
Austin Airport
The Austin Airport is decent by comparison from what I can tell. I love how our eateries are set up. It’s so Austin (in a good way) and it just seems like more of an experience than other airports. The downside is when you leave that early, not a lot of things are open. You can always count on Salt Lick at that time for breakfast tacos though.
TSA has a bad reputation in Austin for taking way too much time, but we got through security pretty quick so I personally can’t complain about that.
Denver Airport
Only one of my children has ever done a layover and she wasn’t even 1 year old yet so she doesn’t remember. This was kind of their first. Luckily it was just enough time to do lunch, play a few games on Kindles and then we were on our way again. The sucky thing is we had a view of flat land from our gate. I was hoping for something a little more Colorado-ish. We could have been anywhere based on the view. We stayed in the same terminal, but I hear it’s kind of a pain to get around if you have to switch. Our terminal seemed nice other than the view.
The Flight from Denver to Bozeman
I prefer the window seat for trips like this, but for the sake of happy children (which is priority number 1 when flying) I didn’t have it. Saida did and once we started seeing some things, she was impressed. We flew over Yellowstone at one point. I pointed out the lake and the Grand Tetons off in the distance. I had no idea we’d see this so well from the plane. She hugged me and thanked me for bringing here there before we could even get back on land. This was the perfect hype flight. I may or may not have been holding back big emotions.
The Bozeman airport is small, but beautiful. It’s got a lodge feel complete with a beautiful gas fire pit. The view didn’t suck either. It’s so small that there are only about 3 options for food. I want to say it’s 14 gates and Southwest only has 2 of them. Things seem to run a little behind here in general, but our baggage claim experience and rental car experience were some of the smoothest we’ve ever had.
Rental Car Tip
Costco. I love Costco for all of the things, but 9 times out of 10 they are my best deal on a rental car. Also be super kind to the counter person so you can casually ask what your options are on cars. They had 3 in our category and we got to choose which one we wanted.
Here’s our rental car at the top of Mount Washburn
How we did Food and Groceries
So the thing about staying at a hotel in Yellowstone National Park is the refrigerator fits almost nothing and there is no microwave. You’re prohibited from cooking anything so as you might imagine, things can get pretty expensive in terms of food, if you let it.
Tips
Check a cooler (or rent one when you get there, but that’s expensive and checking my RTIC soft side {affiliate link} was free on Southwest)
Hit up Walmart or another grocery store before getting to Yellowstone
Buy mostly things that don’t require refrigeration
We weren’t the healthiest on this trip. I’m sure we could have done better, but it’s vacation and we embraced it. I intermittent fast so my lack of breakfast and lunch wasn’t effected.
Also, is that not the nicest looking Walmart you’ve ever seen? It just blends right in with the mountains.
Breakfast: Premade muffins and donut holes from the Walmart Bakery
Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and room temp spaghettios out of the can
Snacks: Chips, beef jerky, squeeze apple sauce and yogurts, mandarin oranges, granola bars, nuts
Other things: Water, wine, wine opener because the screw top red wines were a higher price point and the opener was less than dollar, Gatorade packets, plastic cups, plastic cutlery, ziplock bags, paper towels, trash bags, and other things of that nature.
Dinner: We ate all dinners out.
Bozeman > Yellowstone
Ok, so that once in 500 year flood happened less than 2 months before our trip. Typically when you fly into Bozeman and you’re staying in Canyon Village, you would enter the park via the North Entrance. It was a no go. The road along the Yellowstone River at the North Entrance was destroyed and likely can’t be rebuilt in the same place due to the river now having moved as part of this whole flood process. I have a feeling it’ll be years before that entrance is right.
This meant we would enter though the West Entrance in West Yellowstone and honestly I was excited for the drive. A little research told me we’d be taking Hwy 191 along the Gallatin River through a canyon where the movie A River Runs Through It was filmed. It’s considered a scenic highway and I’m always down for a canyon drive along a beautiful river dotted with fly fisherman and whitewater rafts. It didn’t disappoint. The kids however were exhausted and missed all my favorite parts along the way. I don’t remember exactly how long it took us to get to Canyon Village from Bozeman, but I would say somewhere between 2 and 2 and a half hours. Not bad.
Basically your route is Bozeman to Big Sky to West Yellowstone and then on in to the National Park. I bought our entrance pass for Yellowstone online before we entered the canyon because cell/internet service is pretty spotty once you leave Bozeman. I also saved the pass to my photos because it’s not a whole lot better at the entrance to Yellowstone.
Yellowstone National Park
I’m not sure how to break this down in a way that makes the most sense. I think I’ll go day by day and tell you which direction we went from Canyon Village and what we saw. Keep in mind we only had 3 full days so we hit some highlights and felt like we saw what we needed to see, but we could have spent way more time. Let’s start with Canyon Village info first though.
Canyon Village
We stayed in Canyon Village. It’s the largest of all the lodging areas in all of Yellowstone. The lodges we stayed in were built in 2016 so semi new. There is also a campground across the street from where we stayed, a gas station at the corner, and a dining/shopping area adjacent.
We booked a Deluxe Porch New Lodge Room. It’s not as fancy as it sounds, trust me, but it did come with a price tag to match the title. It’s not cheap to stay here, but you are in the park. Everything seemed clean, but we slept terrible because there is no A/C. Also as previously mentioned there is no microwave and the mini fridge really is the tiniest kind of mini fridge. There is also no TV, if that’s your thing, but I didn’t miss it. As long as you’re prepared, the only thing that is really an issue is that lack of A/C at night.
Watch out for Canyon Carl. He’s a bison that likes to hang out along the path over to the shopping/dining area and also seems to prefer chilling in the shade of Hayden Lodge in the afternoons.
Let’s talk about the Shopping/Dining situation at Canyon Village. There are a few gift shops, a couple restaurants, a general store, and outdoor store, a visitor center, and a hut for renting bear spray. It’s a great little area. The problem is the food isn’t great.
Canyon Eatery
Let me preface this by saying we were in the park shortly after the flood and they did have supply issues. Canyon Eatery sucks. They have some grab and go options that are just okay and then two different lines you can stand in for food. The first night I had a chili dog which I’m convinced is the best thing on their menu. It’s just hard to mess up a chili dog. Everyone else was super put off by their meal. They next day we tried the other line which leans more Asian in flavors and it was just lacking in flavor and most had beef that was tough and hard to chew. We weren’t expected amazing food in the park, but this one was just not good at all. If you don’t have to eat here, I wouldn’t.
Canyon Fountain and Grill
We would have eaten here every night, but they close at 5pm and we only made it back to Canyon Village on time one night. They have burgers and typical American food including a bison burger. It was actually decent. Turns out it’s ran by a different company than the other and it’s obvious. You won’t be blown away, but you won’t feel like you totally wasted your money and your calories either.
Shops
Each area has it’s own General Store and gift shops. Most of the stuff is the same, but there is a slight variation at each one. I think we went to most of them while we were there.
Day 1 Things including old faithful and grand prismatic spring
Full day number 1 felt like a good day to get in the things we most wanted/felt like we needed to see when in Yellowstone. Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Spring are pretty close to each other on the west side of the park so we woke up and headed back west for the day.
We felt so lucky to see our first bison of the trip as we got closer to Old Faithful. He was just chilling on the side of the road and little did I know this would not be the highlight of my bison seeing. Not even close. More on where to find the herds later.
Old Faithful
We learned that Yellowstone has over 500 geysers in the park (that’s more than half of the geysers in the entire world), however only 6 of them are predictable. Old Faithful got it’s name because they can predict this one down to about 10 minutes based on stats from the previous eruption. Who knew? There’s a visitor’s center / museum at Old Faithful that gives some interactive information and lets you know when to expect the next eruption. You just walk out the back door of the visitor’s center and there she is. People line the boardwalk surrounding the geyser as the predicted time get closer and then they all ooh and awe as it starts to do it’s thing. It’s weird. I find the entire thermal feature aspect of Yellowstone to just be very weird. I guess that’s what happens when you’re standing on a super volcano.
Midway Geyser Basin and Grand Prismatic Spring
How is this place even real? Grand Prismatic Spring just doesn’t seem natural at all. In that first picture you can even see the aqua colored steam rising up. It’s nuts. The best part is watching the light change. As the sun gets brighter, the colors get more vibrant and saturated. Grand Prismatic Spring is a bit mind blowing.
There’s a parking lot on the Old Faithful side of Grand Prismatic Spring. That’s is where you take the trail for the overlook, if you’re wanting to do the overlook. We just did the boardwalk along Grand Prismatic Spring.
Fountain Paint Pots and Norris Geyser Basin
If we were to start a list of things I never need to see again in Yellowstone, put both Norris Geyser Basin and the Fountain Paint Pots on it. For real. You got this place that’s amazingly beautiful and then there’s this spot (or couple of spots) that just kind of looks like the end of the world. I tried to take some cool pictures of the things that did catch my eye, but basically unless you’re into bubbling pits of mud, it’s just a no. I’m not upset I saw it, I just didn’t need to hang out for more than a quick look.
Day 2 Things including Mount Washburn, Tower Fall, Mammoth Hot Spring. and West Yellowstone
Canyon Village to Mount Washburn
From Canyon Village we headed north on day two. We reached the highest drivable elevation in all of Yellowstone and saw a totally different side of the park (literally and figuratively). The drive north in the early morning light was quite breathtaking. You don’t make it real far before you find awe inspiring overlooks and you kind of want to stop for every single one between Canyon Village and Mount Washburn. I think we stopped at most.
Tower Fall
Tower Fall flows into the Yellowstone River. The trail from the fall says there is no river access, but what they really mean is the trail is not maintained all the way to the river. You can absolutely get down there and we did. The walk to the Tower Fall overlook is very accessible. The walk down to the river is steep and a bit more challenging.
The Petrified Tree
I did not photograph this. In fact I was pretty unimpressed with this stop and it was quick because nobody in our group was that interested. We didn’t even get out of the car. After this though, Saida asked me what petrified means. I gave her a quick explanation that was probably terrible and we agreed to look up more information about this tree when we had internet access again. We had lots of time in Las Vegas on the way home due to one of our planes engines experiencing some issues so we looked it up. I learned that this tree was entombed over 50 million years ago. 50 MILLION YEARS! I had a little more respect for that damn tree after reading that. Makes 37 years seem quite small.
Mammoth Hot Springs
The town of Mammoth Hot Springs is interesting. Next to it is an old Army fort which now is used as staff housing and then there are more private residences mixed in with the Mammoth Hot Springs parking areas. I’m pretty sure I’d be pissed if I ended up with the house next to the bathroom parking lot, but that’s just me.
The hot springs themselves have different terraces and we kind of wished we started walking from the upper terrace parking area instead of from down below. We were more interested in the areas where water currently flows and we less impressed with the cooled areas where water flowed in the past.
The kids hit up the General store and gift shop when we were done for some ice cream and on our way we went.
West Yellowstone
THE FOOD IN THE PARK IS TERRIBLE! At this point we felt we were far enough away from Canyon Village and close enough to West Yellowstone (just outside the park) that maybe we could get a decent dinner. West Yellowstone has it’s own section after day 3 things so skip ahead if you want that now or just wait.
Back to Canyon Village and Where we Found That Bison Herd
Our hope on the way back from West Yellowstone was that it would be late enough in the day for wildlife to be moving around a bit more. We stopped for a couple wildlife sightings between West Yellowstone and Canyon Village including this (now unimpressive) Elk sighting turned adorable duck family sighting.
Hayden Valley
From there we made it all the way back to Canyon Village with no wildlife sightings. How disappointing. It was starting to get dark, but we got a tip that if we head south towards the lake a little bit, people often see elk and bison in Hayden Valley. This tip did not disappoint. Actually Hayden Valley needs it’s own section of blog post for all the bison pictures I ended up getting there over the remainder of the trip. But here are a couple from that night until you get there.
Day 3 Things including Yellowstone Lake, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and the Upper and Lower Falls
If you skipped ahead to West Yellowstone then you know we paid to see bears in captivity on day 2. Turns out you just have to pay to see bears in order to actually see one in the wild. Almost as soon as we left our hotel on day three we spotted this little bear on the side of the road. It’s actually a black bear even though it’s not black. They refer to them as cinnamon bears and I think that’s adorable.
I actually had a better angle set up for this shot, but some really horrible man stepped in front of me nearly knocking my camera out of my hands to steal my shot. He was a real gem of a guy. Probably the same kind of dude you’d see blocking himself from danger using a child.
South Rim Upper Falls View
South Rim Artist Point
It’s hard to believe these next two pictures are at the same location at the same time of day, but they are. Look one way and you get the first photo. Look the other way and you get the second. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is gorgeous.
There’s also a trail at Artist Point that goes to Ribbon Lake, but we only walked it for a few minutes. Our agenda for the day felt big and it was time to move on.
Mud Volcano
Add Mud Volcano to the list of places I also never need to see or smell again. The one good thing that came from there was this interesting picture of something beautiful just beyond the awfulness that is Mud Volcano.
Elk Sighting at Bridge Bay Marina
We found two bull elks at a Marina off of Bridge Bay. I got a little adventurous for this shot meaning I got closer than I probably should have, but he’s a beauty.
Lunch at Steamboat Point Picnic Area on Yellowstone Lake
Hell of a picnic spot, don’t you think? This is off of East Entrance Road and it was beautiful. We stopped here for lunch and then headed back to explore the North Rim .
North Rim Brink of Upper Falls
North Rim Lookout Point to Inspiration Point
Wildlife Drive
We did a little more driving around to try to find wildlife after dinner on day three and it was mostly disappointing. Just before we got back to Canyon Village though I got what is probably a once in a lifetime shot of not only one, but two bull elk on top of a hill. We held up traffic and I shot these from the car. At first I only saw the one and the moment Tyler told me there were two and I got them in my frame, I nearly died. I won’t ever forget that moment.
West Yellowstone
I’m really not kidding when I say the food really is terrible in the park. We kind of wanted to do West Yellowstone during the planning phase, but it wasn’t an absolute must. At this point we were like let’s go see if we can find some decent food and maybe guarantee a bear sighting by seeing them in captivity. Also we had a birthday just before vacation and one just after so West Yellowstone was kind of our celebration moment.
Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center
My mother in law really wanted to take the kids to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. It’s pretty small, but nice and they’re currently working on a new bear enclosure. I’m hoping this means future guests will get to see more bears. Currently their bears take turns in the bear enclosure. We had a ton of fun watching them play and maybe one of my favorite things was the ground squirrels. They’re so full of energy and personality and they’re super cute.
The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is pretty much at the park entrance. Once you hit the light heading out of the park, it’s just to your left. I would definitely recommend it for young kids.
Three Bear Restaurant
Honestly I think I probably ordered the wrong thing, but it wasn’t bad. Everyone seemed to like their meal, but at this point it didn’t take much to improve upon what we’d had for the two nights prior.
My favorite thing is when there is a decent kids menu because I can enjoy almost anything as long as those kids are happy. They were happy. One had the Bison Burger and the other had been dying for pasta that didn’t come out of a can.
Espresso West (Coffee and Ice Cream)
Espresso West is a little coffee and ice cream trailer we found walking around West Yellowstone. The ice cream looked legit and the prices were more than reasonable (probably nearly half the price compared to what they sell if for in the park and it’s the same ice cream). They serve Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream and as someone who is partial to Bluebell, I really really liked it. I’d buy it, if they sold it in Texas next to Bluebell. My Texan card might get suspended for this review actually.
Hayden Valley
The not so secret secret spot we found the bison herd. Turns out the bison come to Hayden Valley for mating season so I think I read that’s July through September maybe. That one bison is definitely putting out the vibe in the first picture. Hayden Valley used to actually be part of the Yellowstone Lake forever ago, but now it’s just prime wildlife viewing ground and I think we were the only ones who didn’t know. Photographers and tourists are lined up at each pull out taking photos and getting entirely too close to the largest native mammal in all of North America. I now understand how all of the bison attacks happen every year. This place is wild.
Jackson Hole
This was not part of our original plan. When Yellowstone flooded we started to get a little more creative with how we wanted to do things. My brother in law and sister in law really wanted to go white water rafting and we kinda did too. We decided to nix our last night in Yellowstone in exchange for a night in Jackson Hole with a little white water rafting and a couple of Diners, Drive-in’s, and Dives restaurants because, let’s face it, we needed some good food.
Where we stayed
The Parkway Inn is just a few blocks from the square in Jackson Hole. It’s was quaint and adorable and I’d definitely stay there again. It’s not cheap, but nothing is in Jackson Hole and it was only a few more dollars than what we were paying in the park. We just had a standard room and my only complaint was the bathroom is a bit small and awkward.
Jackson Hole White Water
Honestly we chose Jackson Hole White Water because we didn’t have to pay adult price for the kids and the rafts were big enough that they wouldn’t have to row. We had a great experience. Our Guide was Eric and he was entertaining and, more importantly, knowledgeable about rafting.
We did the 8 Mile Whitewater trip on the Snake River and we’d definitely do it again. The kids LOVED it.
And let’s take a moment to appreciate the moment we’ll NEVER stop talking about. I don’t know those people, but man I’m so glad there were photographers on the side of the river to capture that one rapid. Thank you Snake River Photo.
Where we ate
From what I can tell Guy Fieri is a big fan of Jackson Hole and we’re kind of fans of Guy Fieri and the Food Network in general. The kids think it’s cool to eat at some of the places they’ve seen on TV and so do I. We did two different Diners, Drive-in’s, and Dives Restaurants while in Jackson Hole.
Pinky G’s is near the square so it was a super quick walk from our hotel. It has a super cool garage vibe going on and you just kind of feel cool while you’re there. Guy had The Funky Chicken and even created his own pie during the recording of the show. We stuck with The Funky Chicken since we’re not blue cheese fans though. It was a solid pizza. I can’t complain, but I will say it’s not the best pizza I’ve ever had.
Sidewinders was super convenient because it was directly across the street from my in-law’s hotel and next-door to where we got on the bus for white water rafting. Guy ate the French onion soup, chicken pot pie, and a pretzel. I ate the chicken pot pie. It was good. Again, maybe not the best pot pie I’ve ever had, but solid.
My Brother-in-law had the pizza at Sidewinders. He’s a pizza guy. He preferred the pizza at Sidewinders to the pizza he had at Pinky G’s.
On the square
I’m guessing no trip to Jackson Hole is complete without a little stroll around the square. We ate, we shopped, and then we stopped for ice cream. We wanted to get ice cream at Moo’s Gourmet Ice Cream, but the line was out the door and we were pushing it on getting the kids to bed. We just did the Haagen Dazs instead. Corbin found a bison he could actually touch and hug (because we kept thinking those poor misunderstood bison could probably use a hug). It was a great evening and the perfect way to end out trip.
Jackson Hole > Bozeman
I’m not real sure actually, but I think that’s Jackson Hole down there in this first picture. Driving back to Bozeman from Jackson Hole to catch a plane isn’t ideal (I mean it’s 4 hours in addition to your airport/plane time), but I don’t regret this decision. We didn’t drive back through the park. We opted to go the Idaho route instead. It’s faster and we were curious.
Idaho is a mixed bag though. It’s like one minute it just looks like Wyoming or Montana and the next minute you are fairly certain the Teletubbies are popping out around the next bend.
We never saw any Teletubbies, but I’m pretty sure that show was based on Idaho.
We also drove through a town called Driggs and it really got us thinking about what people do for a living there. I still don’t know the answer to that question, but we looked at the MLS and I was ready to move (but I don’t have enough money). Anyway, if you’re bored and want to go down a rabbit hole of looking at random properties for sale in a place you are never buying a house, look at Driggs, Idaho. It’s impressive.
Rehashing the rest of the trip probably isn’t helpful to anyone really so I’ll gloss over it.
Bozeman > Vegas > Austin
Bozeman to Vegas was fine. Got to see Salt Lake and The Strip. I’ve never been to Las Vegas so I didn’t know The Strip and the Airport are basically on top of each other. Unfortunately our next plane had engine issues that we found out about before we took off so we were de-boarded… eventually… and then caught a different plane back home. That part was a bit stressful, but the kids handled it well.
Takeaways from this trip
It’s worth taking
My kids’ ages are good ages for Yellowstone and Jackson Hole (Ages 6 and nearly 9)
Rent/Bring a cooler
Rent a big enough car to carry that cooler, luggage, and groceries
Don’t forget a wine opener
Definitely do Hayden Valley
July is a good time to go whitewater rafting
Buy the whitewater rafting photo because it’s hilarious
The restaurants Guy goes to on Diner Drive-ins, and Dives are good, but maybe not as good as you think
Definitely borrow your friend’s long lens if you don’t have one
Eat ice cream every chance you get
Try not to eat at Canyon Eatery if you don’t have to
Always try local beer
Don’t pet (or hug) the fluffy cows
Let you kid have the window seat