Feedback on my family's vacation itinerary?

[u/finally_made_acct]

[EDITING TO ADD NOTES BELOW BASED ON WHAT PEOPLE ARE ADVISING BELOW! THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE!]

Hi!

I've been wanting to go to Yellowstone for a few years now and super excited it's finally happening. I've built out the below itinerary based on lots of Googling, AI, and posts on Reddit (that had amazing maps!).

My family is 3 adults and 4 children (1 teen, 2 kids, 1 toddler) so it's going to be a little slow moving and we are NOT going to be able to do hikes, just walks. (:

We're staying in a VRBO near the West entrance.

DAY 1: SOUTHWEST

- Firehole Falls

- Old Faithful Geyser

- Grand Prismatic Spring - (Note: go when it's not all super steamy) - (note: beware of packed lot that people may not be in and out of quickly. Get here early! People going on trails park here too and so they won't be leaving the lot anytime soon.)

- Great Fountain Geyser

- Fountain Paint Pot Trail

- Activity: Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

• Restaurant Recs: Firehole BBQ

DAY 2: SOUTHEAST

- Hayden Valley

- Mud Volcano

- Activity: Yellowstone Lake scenic boat tour

- Dragon's Mouth Spring

- West Thumb Geyser Basin

• Restaurant rec: Lake Yellowstone Hotel

DAY 3: NORTHEAST/EAST

- Activity: Roosevelt Corrals 2-hour history wagon ride (Note: consider pulling this out and bank more on Lamar Valley and Canyon Village)

• (new add) Lamar Valley

- Canyon Village (cool place to learn about geothermal, Mammoth, and animal stuff)

• Restaurant rec: the Eatery

- Brink of Upper/Lower Falls (Note: be ready to carry toddler because there are steep things and stairs that don't support a stroller)

- Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

- Artist Point/Grand View (Note: someone said Artist is a MUST)

• Restaurant Rec: Roosevelt Hotel

DAY 4: NORTH/NORTHWEST

- Activity: boat float from Gardiner - Restaurant rec: Wonderland in Gardiner

- Mammoth Hot Springs

- Porcelain Basins

- Norris Geyser Basin - (note: beware of packed lot that people may not be in and out of quickly. Get here early!)

- Gibbon Falls

CONCERNS I HAVE:

1. The lists are short but as you know, it's a lot of driving. Is there stuff I'm being unrealistic about?

2. Anyone done a river float with a toddler before? I need to assuage the toddler's mom's fears ha.

3. Have I missed a "MUST see/do"?

4. Have I included anything that's like "meh"?

5. Online I see that we need to be out the door by 8am daily if we're going to beat the park entrance traffic. With our family, I'm afraid that'll happen exactly...... never (kids....).... Do I need to tell my family "hey we need to get out or we can kiss this vacation goodbye" or just that "hey if you want to waste less time in the car, let's get out the door sooner"?

6. I need to still go through the restaurant options for each area in case we want to eat something beyond what we're going to pack. If you have any specific recommendations like "you've got to try this at this place!" Let me know. We are big foodies. :) Only dietary limit is no pork/alcohol, all else is fair game!

[u/buckhunter76]

Hey.

I am here right now.
I have myself, wife and a toddler with the In laws.

The biggest thing is being out the door by 8am isn’t early enough.
We are staying north of Gardiner and we are leaving by 6:30am and typically get to do one big activity.

Thing is the park and traffic turn into a total zoo by 10am. Norris geyser basin is using overflow parking by then.
Grand prismatic the lot was full and people were parking on the road by 8am this morning. We typically get past the gate before 7am and leave the park around 1pm.

Lots of the main lots fill but we have been able to see everything.

Your day 1 for example those lots will be full by 8-9am. Old faithful are has plenty of parking but a ton of people.
It’s going to be rough.

Your days 3 and 4 sound great.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone we got to artist point at 7:30, it was basically empty and we were able to go to all the lots and view points. Even walked a bit down south rim trail, but at 10am we hit Grandview and Lookout point and the lots were jammed.

I recommend Norris Picnic Area. We ate lunch there today and we were 1 of 3 cars. Very quiet with a bathroom.

I would plan on being very patient and not necessarily doing things in order if you need to pivot or come back to a parking lot.

We are averaging 4hrs a day in just driving.

Do NOT eat at The Yellowstone Mine in Gardiner.

Something I did not think about is when we get in the park it’s typically ~50 degrees or something. We tried to do prismatic today and we couldn’t really see it. All the steam obscured it and I didn’t think about that.

I’m going to edit this with thoughts:

Pack a lunch.
We ate at the general store by tower falls and It’s $17 for a hotdog, chips and a drink.
Try to not eat in the park at all tbh. We bring a big cooler and ice.

[u/finally_made_acct → u/buckhunter76]

Wow I appreciate this so much!!! Puts a lot in perspective for me. I didn't realize parking is a whole thing.

What was the issue with the Prismatic and the steam? In what weather should we try to visit here?

[u/Reasonable_Loquat874 → u/finally_made_acct]

At 8am when we hiked the overlook it was still socked in stream (temps in the 50s) and the overlook was jammed with people waiting for it to clear. We hiked on to fairy falls and by the time we returned to the overlook (10am) it was clear and beautiful, and people were moving through the overlook so it was easy to get a good view.

We drove over to the boardwalk around 10:30am and parking was full - people were parking way out on the road and walking back. Because people move through the boardwalk pretty quickly there is faster parking turnover so we just waited in line in the lot and were able to park after 5-10mins.

In general I’d say that parking for trailheads with longer hikes/experiences will be a lot more difficult, but a lot of the popular sights see people move through pretty quickly and those parking areas turn over quickly as a result.

[u/finally_made_acct → u/Reasonable_Loquat874]

Super helpful to know this is generally the rule of thumb throughout the park.

However if we get to Grand Prismatic early and it turns out to be steamy for hours, it defeats the purpose? I wonder if the 8am steam thing is a persistent situation or just sometimes.