Yellowstone National Park with Kids

"The best thing about exploring cauldrons and geyser basins is that there is no reason to worry about passing gas."

By day two my firstborn son was done smelling sulfur.
"Run fast past the steam, mommy!" "How much further to the end of the trail?" "Aaaaah, fresh air" "Let's go to the museum."

Even driving twenty miles outside the park to our campsite couldn't erase the smell. It lingered, maybe not on my clothes or adhered to my skin follicles or nose hairs, but psychologically. I couldn't shake it.

We probably visited more than twenty-five hot pools of boiling, spurting, plupping, blubbering sulfur-infested water/mud over the two days of YNP exploration. It was entertaining to listen to other people's comments -- at Grizzly Fumerole, 11-year-old son asking mom, "Do Grizzly bears come shooting out of that one?"; along a particularly stinky section of boardwalk, 20-something male, "Excuse me!" {lol}; at Upper Falls, mom telling teenage daughter worried about hair, "You're not supposed to look good after chasing your brother all day"; father to tired, unimpressed family, "Come on -- I bet there's lots of great things to see on this loop".




The geysers mostly alluded us. We started with Old Faithful {which was good, but not GREAT}, moved north to the Great Fountain Geyser {which would have been amazing had we waited two hours for the 200 ft display} and ended the next day with the Steamboat Geyser {which teased us unmercifully, splashing impressive indicators every two to three minutes -- making us wonder if we would be the lucky people to experience the unpredictable "every 4 days to 50 years" 150 ft spray}.


Gotta love it when people create their own fun -- check out this family spelling the name of their state in the pool waters.
Our state has too many letters...




We definitely would have liked to sleep more. But we obviously weren't adventuring close enough to the equator for that.

So we will return home to smell the much-taller tomato vines {oh heaven}, clean and rest our tired feet, sort through pictures of bison, and lay for delicious night-time and maybe even early afternoon hours of sheet-sleeping. Show me my Beautyrest.

And in a few days, I'm sure I'll be looking for a new bumper-sticker that reads "I feel a hike coming on".

Trip Details: 
Madison Arm Resort -- we spent a couple nights here, tenting close to the restrooms {with showers}. Campsites are close together, without much privacy. It's a bit of a drive from West Yellowstone, with a bit of dirt road. If you want to camp outside the park, it's a decent option.