Yellowstone - June 23-27, 2025
Our youngest daughter just finished 4th grade. And as a 4th grader, she is eligible for a free National Park pass through https://everykidoutdoors.gov/index.htm. We did this with all our other kids and it was a great experience. For our son’s 4th grade trip we drove to Yosemite National Park stopping at Joshua Tree National Park, and Sequoia National Park. For our eldest daughter’s 4th grade trip we drove to Michigan stopping at Mesa Verde National Park, Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, and Painted Rocks National Lake shore.
Based on our all previous national park trips, we decided to visit Yellowstone National Park. Driving 1,000+ miles would take a bit too much time, so we decided to fly. We wanted to include another National Park on our way, so we decided to fly into Jackson Hole, Wyoming and visit Grand Teton National Park before heading to Yellowstone National Park.
Planning
I started a spreadsheet and a shared map that would to track our trip details. We started to collect everyone’s activity ideas. My son is an avid benchmark hunter, so he naturally included a few benchmarks gathering missions. This is actually a fun idea as it takes us to random places that we may not otherwise visit. This often includes stopping off the side of the road and traipsing through fields or planning hikes to find benchmarks. Our activities were split into two areas: Canyon Village and Old Faithful. We booked our travel to Jackson Hole Airport (JAC), car rental, and lodging at Canyon Lodge and Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
Day 1 - June 23, 2025: Tucson to Jackson Hole
We planned a very early flight to maximize our time in the park and work in some activities on our first day. We had a short layover in Salt Lake City, Utah before flying to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I slept most of the flight from SLC to Jackson Hole, but woke up as we descended into Jackson Hole. The view of the Teton Range was surprisingly awesome. It was a clear day with just some cloud cover over the snow capped mountains. I had no idea that we’d be so close to the range, or that we’d have such a magical view during our descent.
Jackson Hole doesn’t have any jet bridges. You walk down the ramp to the tarmac and get to experience the 50°F, cool, fresh mountain air and the awesome view of the Tetons. Quite the change from our hometown of Tucson, AZ where the low temperature was 20°F hotter.
We made our way through the small airport. We picked up some expensive sandwiches from a grab and go deli, and rented bear spray from the kiosk in the airport.
We picked up our rental SUV (Dodge Durango) and headed out of the airport. We drove north towards Yellowstone National Park. We saw some bison right off the main road in the first 10 minutes of our drive! We stopped at Cunningham Cabin to find a potential benchmark, have a picnic lunch, and take in another view of the Tetons.
We continued our drive north and entered Grand Teton National Park, where my youngest filled out her National Parks Pass. We drove through the park, stopping at a Jackson Lake Overlook, and then continued north to the South Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
We made one stop at Moose Falls, which is just inside the South Entrance of Yellowstone. We took a short hike down the hill to the falls and took some pictures. The falls were beautiful, and it was a great way to start our Yellowstone adventure. My son was able to also bag his first benchmark of the trip, which was a benchmark disk on a rock wall near the falls.
We arrived at Canyon Village in the early afternoon. We checked into Canyon Lodge where the girls got a deluxe room and my son and I shared a standard room. The rooms were pretty bare bones, no TV, microwave, or fridge, but luckily there was a coffee maker. I made a quick coffee and we headed out. My son and I headed out to hike up Mount Washburn and the girls were going to explore Tower Falls and the surrounding area.
The hike was a continuous uphill trek that wasn’t too strenuous. There was still some snow in some sections, but easily traversed. We made our way to the top of Mount Washburn, which is 10,219 feet (3115 m) above sea level. My son found a couple of benchmarks at the top including one on the neighboring hill near the summit. We took in the breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The weather cool but quite windy with some fluffy clouds making the views that much more spectacular. Knowing that cell phone reception was going to be suspect in the park, I purchased some two-way radios. We used them to communicate with the girls while we were on the summit.
After we got back down the mountain, we headed back to the lodge and went to the dining room for dinner. The food wasn’t the best, and quite expensive for what it was, but we were hungry and tired. We headed back to our rooms and got ready for bed. We were all exhausted from the long day of travel and hiking, but excited for the adventures that lay ahead in Yellowstone National Park.
Day 2 - June 24, 2025: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Mud Volcanoes
We woke and headed for a quick breakfast at the Canyon Lodge Dining Room. Visited the Visitor’s Center where we learned more about Yellowstone, and the kids collected their Junior Ranger booklets. We bought some sandwiches and snacks at the Canyon Village General Store for lunch for later. Our plan for the day was to explore the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on both rims. We were going to drive the North Rim, have a picnic lunch at the Wapiti Lake Picnic Area, then walk/hike South Rim trail.
We first made our way to the North Rim Drive, which is a scenic drive that offers stunning views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We stopped at all the lookout points, starting with the Brink of Lower Falls. We walked the steep switch backed trail and was able to get up close to the river and the brink of the Lower Falls. Both Lookout Point, and Grand View provided breathtaking views of the canyon and the Lower Falls. I think the Grand View was my favorite, as the sun came out and really brought out the colors in the canyon walls.
We had a picnic lunch and my son and I walked the South Rim trail and met the girls at Artist Point. The South Rim trail is a relatively easy walk and mostly paved. Artist Point was quite crowded but still provided a spectacular view of the Lower Falls and the length of the canyon. The sun was behind some clouds dulling the colors. It started to rain a bit as we headed back to the lodge.
After a nap, we headed back out and drove to the Mud Volcano area where we had our first real experience of the geothermal features of Yellowstone. On our way we saw some awesome views of bison along the side of the road, and in the valley along the Yellowstone River. We walked the short loop trail at the Mud Volcano area, that took us past the Mud Volcano, Dragon’s Mouth Spring and the Sulphur Cauldron on the other side of the road. The Dragon’s Mouth Spring was quite impressive as it steamed away and produced waves in the pool outside the cave. My wife remarked that she expected to see the Rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Python and the Holy Grail come out of the cave.
At Sulphur Cauldron we were able to see a grizzly bear and two cubs on the hill across the Yellowstone river. We used my daughter’s binoculars to get a closer look at the bears and try to get some pictures.
We finished the day with dinner at the Canyon Lodge Dining Room. The food was better than the previous night. We made a final stop at the Canyon Village General Store to pick up ice cream and breakfast for the next day.
Later that night we went to a ranger lead program to learn about the night sky and do some star gazing. It didn’t get dark until well after 10:30 PM. The ranger told us some stories about the different constellations and pointed to ones that were visible in the night sky. I wished it got darker sooner, but it is what it is.
Day 3 - June 25, 2025: Avalanche Peak and Old Faithful
We had a leisurely breakfast in our room and packed up our things. We checked out of the lodge and headed out of the Canyon Village. The plan was for my son and I to to hike Avalanche Peak while the girls explore the surrounding lakes, then drive to Old Faithful.
Avalanche Peak was a great hike. Both my son and I were used to the vertical gain as all the hikes in our hometown of Tucson are up mountains. The trail was in great shape below the tree line, but above the tree line, it was talus and snow. We essentially bushwhacked our way up the mountain, following the trail as best we could. My favorite part was hiking the ridge line to the summit where we had a 360° view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The summit was covered in snow and made it impossible for my son to find any benchmarks (if there were any). We again were able to contact my wife over the radio letting her know our progress and expected arrival time back at the trail head. The way back down was uneventful, but we did see a beaver which I thought was a large squirrel at first.
We drove back toward the Grand Loop Rd and made a stop at the Fishing Bridge to observe the USGS Stream Gauging station. We finally made it over to the Lake General Store to pick up some lunch items and snacks for the drive to Old Faithful. I walked with my son to find a benchmark off a trail up the road and one near the Lake Lodge Cabins. We saw a lone Bison near the Lake General Store just off the road snacking on the grass.
We made our way to Old Faithful and checked into the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. We were still split up into a girls room and a boys room, but this time our room had two beds and a fridge. We dropped off our things and headed out to see Old Faithful erupt. We had dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge Cafeteria, which about as good as Canyon Lodge Dining Room.
Day 4 - June 26, 2025: Upper Geyser Basin, Black Sand Basin, Grand Prismatic Spring
Geyser touring was the name of the game for the day. Part of the board walk from Grand Geyser to Grotto Geyser was closed so we stuck to the paved path. We visited most of the geysers but didn’t really see any erupt. We made it to the end of the trail at Morning Glory Pool which was super colorful and beautiful. We went on a couple of side quests off the main route there and watched Grand Geyser erupt from a distance on our way to Daisy Geyser. We sat and waited for Daisy Geyser to erupt. We made our way down the trail and saw Punch Bowl Spring, which was one of my favorites, and Black Sand Pool. We walked back toward civilization and stopped at the Old Faithful Basin Store to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. On our way out we saw a lone bison who understood the assignment and was in the exact position as the warning sign. We drove to the Grand Prismatic Spring area but it was too crowded so we turned around and went to the Black Sand Basin instead. This was a neat area with some beautiful hot springs and geysers. My favorite being the Rainbow Pool.
We drove back to the Old Faithful area and split up so the girls can rest and my son and I could go back to the Upper Geyser Basin to see if we could catch any geysers erupting. We walked the boardwalk behind Old Faithful and got super lucky as we were able to see Beehive and then had a wait for Grand erupt. Grand Geyser was by far my favorite as it had vents and pools that erupted along with the main eruption. We met back up with the girls and drove out to Fairy Falls to see the Grand Prismatic Spring from above. The hike over wasn’t terrible, a little elevation gain but the mosquitoes were getting to me. We made it to the overlook but we weren’t able to stay long as the mosquitoes were relentless. You could barley make out the bison that ran into the spring earlier in the year.
We made it back to the Old Faithful area and had dinner at the Geyser Grill. We got there just in time before the end of the end of the dinner service. The food was pretty good, and we were all pretty tired from the long day of walking and geyser watching.
Day 5 - June 27, 2025: Old Faithful to Jackson Hole
We had a leisurely breakfast at the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room. The service wasn’t the best. Long wait times to get seated and to get our food. We headed back to our rooms and packed up our things and checked out of the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. We stopped by the visitor center so the kids could turn in their Junior Ranger booklets and take the Junior Ranger oath. We were able to see Old Faithful erupt one last time from inside the visitors center. It was almost 2 hours between eruptions and out of the predicted window. We concluded our visit by visiting the General Store and buying some souvenirs. I got a bison hat and earlier picked up a shirt from the Visitor’s Center gift shop. We drove to West Thumb Geyser Basin and walked the boardwalk there. The West Thumb Geyser Basin was a short walk a great way to end our geyser watching.
We drove back down toward the South Entrance. We got out of Yellowstone and made our way to our planned stop at Jenny Lake Overlook in the Grand Teton National Park for lunch. My son and wife headed into a scrub field to find a final set of benchmark. We stopped at the Grand Teton Visitors Center to use the restrooms and to get up and stretch.
We filled up the rental with gas and made our way back to Jackson Hole Airport. We returned the rental, made our way through security, returned our bear spray, and all we had left was to wait for our flight. We had a short layover in Salt Lake City but that was extended when our connection was delayed. We got back about an hour later than expected.
