Exploring Yellowstone National Park with Kids

After an unexpected long drive, we reached Yellowstone National Park yesterday. I believe this is going to be the highlight of our USA trip: Yellowstone with kids! The night is cold, really cold!!! I even see little “clouds” coming from my mouth when breathing. In the morning its all sunny and warm again, perfect for a day of bear “hunting”.

Wildlife Tours in Yellowstone

To me the best way of spotting some bears, is booking a wildlife tour. My experiences in Africa are, they know really good where to find them. Unfortunately the really friendly guy at the tour office tells us all tours are full for the coming days, that’s a bummer!! However he has an excellent solution. He writes down the route for us, so we can drive it ourselves in the RV. Tonight will be bear hunting time!!

Exploring Mammoth Springs

In the afternoon we drive slowly towards Mammoth Springs, as that’s the starting point of our self drive wildlife tour. We stop at all the highlight on the way, all stunning! Floris is especially interested in the volcanic pools and geysers. We visit a geyser in a mountain, there is smoke coming from a hole and we hear some kind of wroarrrrr. Floris his eyes get big: “Mum is there a real dragon in there?”. As I don’t want so see “No!”, I ask him what he thinks, he is totally sure about the dragon, runs off to his baby sister and tells her he has found a real life dragon! The rest of the day he wonders if there will be more dragons in Yellowstone and where there are hiding.

Wildlife Spotting in Yellowstone

While we drive, the kids watch series on their Ipads and we enjoy the magnificent view. After a couple of days driving it’s quite clear the kids love wild animals and don’t care about beautiful landscapes. When we reach Mammoth Springs, Floris moves to the Deuter kids carrier and Lotte will sit in the Ergo Baby carrier again. At Mammoth Springs you can explore the limestone terraces, the colours are amazing from fresh white to deep orange. We park the RV at the parking, put the kids in the carriers and start walking uphill, in 30 degrees celsius with the kids on our backs, respect!! A little sacrifice if you want to explore Yellowstone with kids. The view, when we reach the top, is amazing!

Evening Wildlife Tour

A ranger gave us the tip to start our “wildlife” self drive tour at the beginning of the evening, as the bears get more active when the temperature drops. We arrive early at our starting point, giving us the time to have dinner first. The total tour is app 3.5 hours, after that we need to drive back to the campground, another 1.5 hour. So, we prepare for a long exciting drive.

Encountering Bears in Yellowstone

After taking off we have to hit the brakes hard after 20km’s, 5 buffalo on the road! They walk towards us, creating a big traffic jam. When we drive further we run into a traffic jam as well, people on the road, a ranger running around…. Yes! Our first bear. I get out of the car, only 10 meters away is a bear with a cub. The ranger is blocking the way and telling us what to and not to do. Kevin has to keep on driving as there is no parking space for the RV. I take a couple of pictures and run back to the RV, giving Kev and Floris time as well to have a look. When they come back Floris his eyes are huge. He has seen a REAL BEAR!!! When we start driving again we run into a road with one lane blocked, we need to wait a little before we can pass. When we pass we see there is a ranger taking care of the traffic as there is a HUGE bear, sitting and eating on the road, insane! We drive passed it, there is only 1 meter between him and us, wow these creatures are amazing!!!!! We have been driving 30 minutes and have seen 3 bears. No way we are going to drive for another couple of hours. We drive back to our campground. The kids use “bear” in every sentence, Lotte even switches from Fireman Sam to Junglebook, screaming “bear” when Balou the Bear is on. Back at the campground we light up the bbq and watch our photos for the third time. This was really amazing, seeing bears in the wild is so, so impressive! We love our holiday in the USA and we love our holiday in Yellowstone with kids even more!

Tips & Tricks for Yellowstone with Kids

• If you are travelling with really young kids, make sure you take kids/ baby carriers with you. So much fun if you can hike Yellowstone with kids. We took the Deuter for Floris (3) and the Ergo Baby for Lotte (2)
• Don’t you want to book a wildlife tour or are they all full? Drive yourself! We started in Mammoth Springs around 04:30PM and drove to Lammar Valley via Roosevelt. Best place to spot bears and even wolves is Lammar Valley
• The nights are cold!! Make sure you have an extra blanket or big towel for the kids

Exploring Yellowstone’s Natural Wonders

“The Dragon” Volcanic pools Yellowstone

Yellowstone Mammoth Springs

Yellowstone Mammoth Springs

Kevin with Floris in his Deuter on their way at Mammoth Springs

Hiking at the volcanic pools with Lotte

Family picture at the volcanic pools

Happy campers 😉

The inside of our earth

Mammoth Springs inhabitants

Breaks!! Buffalo on the road

Black bear with her cub

Huge bear on the road