Our 10th National Park this summer! We didn’t have Yellowstone on the itinerary because we’ve have done the nation’s 1st National Park many times over the years since it’s only 40 minutes from the ranch. But what we haven’t done there is the Jr. Ranger program to earn a badge. We’ve been having such a great time earning them the kids wanted to visit the park, see a couple sites, and do the ranger program. So off to Gardiner we went. Well guess what we learned? Yellowstone is one of the very few national parks that still gives patches for the Jr. Ranger program (which you have to purchase) and will be transitioning to the badges in the next year. So we got our patches, “not the same” the kids agree, and we will be back to Yellowstone again in the future.

We did pick a couple stops to explore but quickly ran into the crowds that make this park less enjoyable than the others. The park itself is exceptional and there is truly nothing like it on earth! The crowds, the traffic congestion, the trouble parking, the lines to get into places make the experience less cool. The park is still super cool. So we drove easily from the North Entrance to Norris Geyser Basin and then hit traffic, patiently waited 20 minutes to get into the parking lot, another 10 min to get a spot. Annoying but worth it. The boardwalks through the “hottest, oldest and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas” was very neat to see and hear (the Crackling Lake) and gross to smell. We learned the Steamboat Geyser there is the tallest geyser in the world but not predictable – it used to go off weekly and now it’s more like monthly.

We also enjoyed Mammoth Hot Springs, which is closest to the North Entrance of the park. We loved all the exhibits and history in the visitor center. We got ice cream and Swedish Fish for lunch! After a few hours of driving and exploring we were satisfied and headed home. So while I say it’s worth it to deal with the crowds to see this incredible park, we are also in a spoiled position to see it in small doses and leave before we are too annoyed. If I had to wait 30 minutes at every spot worth seeing because I only had a day to see the whole park, I’d go bananas. We had fun talking about the animals we’ve seen on previous trips to the park, what the kids do remember from years past. We realized only Maddy has seen Old Faithful, and that was when she was a baby so that is something we can do again on a future trip.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021