Perfect Yellowstone National Park Itinerary with Young Kids
Yellowstone National Park is a beautiful and unique park to explore with your family. This large park, over 3,400 square miles within 3 states (Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana), spans 2.2 million acres. It’s an active super volcano (cool, right?) and has more than 10,000 hydrothermal features (geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles).
We stayed IN Yellowstone National Park, which we highly suggest doing if you’r able to. Because the park is so large, staying outside of the park adds to the drive time. Thankfully given our RV lifestyle, finding a (more) affordable place to stay in the park was doable!
If you need to stay outside of the park, stay near the west entrance for fastest access to the larger and more popular park sites.
Before You Go
When we were planning our big Yellowstone National Park trip (booked one year in advance, and BEFORE we had sold our home and bought our RV), we had no idea what Yellowstone looked like or how to plan our excursion.
The best thing we can tell you as you’re thinking about what to do and how to plan it:
The main park road is a big figure 8 with an upper loop and a lower loop.
The lower loop has more of the famous sites, and the upper loop has more scenic hiking trails in the trees with waterfalls.
Generally, that’s how we’d describe it though there’s a variety of things to see EVERYWHERE.
How to break up your sites into days
Two things to consider when exploring a national park with toddlers:
How do we get to where we’re going quickly?
How do we do it while not sacrificing nap time?
Given the nature of this park, the longer you have to explore the better.
It takes a long time to drive from an entrance to a site.
For us, coming from the east entrance RV park, to get to Old Faithful it was nearly 45 minutes. (We found this heavily depended on how fast people were driving… not many went the speed limit, and with winding roads, there was next to no opportunity to pass).
So saying you can tackle the lower loop in a single day is unrealistic, especially if you factor in drive time, time to hike the trails, time for lunch, and driving back.
The following itinerary is how we suggest you tackle Yellowstone with young children over the course of three full days.
Pro tip: utilize one of the MANY picnic area pull-offs as a car break for the kiddos and a chance for a snack. The driving, sitting, and waiting can be a lot. Stop, take in the beautiful scenery, and refuel! And don’t forget the restrooms.
Fishing Bridge RV Park
Newly renovated, this RV park has large sites for big rigs in their upper loop. The campground is nicely paved, making family bike rides an enjoyable activity for us in the evenings.
While expensive, staying at this park made it convenient for daily excursions, eliminating longer drive times from the entrances. There are quite a few other campgrounds in the park available, especially if your rig is smaller, or you don’t mind not having full hookups in some cases.
Recommended 3 Day Yellowstone National Park Itinerary:
Day 1: West side
(Old Faithful, Upper Geyser Basin, Grand Prismatic Spring, and Lower Geyser Basin)
Day 2: East side
(Yellowstone Lake, Mud Volcano, Dragon’s Breath Spring, and Yellowstone River)
Day 3: North loop
(Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Upper and Lower Falls)
Day 4 BONUS: Grand Tetons National Park (just south of Yellowstone)
Day 1: West side (southwest)
No matter where you end up staying, getting to the west side of the park for the big name locations has to be our day 1 recommendation. Or prioritize it for the day with the best weather (and prepare to muscle through the crowds).
Old Faithful and surrounding geysers (Upper Geyser Basin)
Old Faithful is obviously the most famous attraction of Yellowstone, but we were pleasantly surprised by the network of geysers and hot springs in the Upper Geyser Basin - make time to explore them all by taking a walk on the designated boardwalks!
Besides Old Faithful, there are 5 other predictable geysers that erupt. We caught only one other one since we didn’t plan ahead of time, but if you’re a science enthusiast, it’ll be worth it to chase the geysers.
Find more info and their eruption times here.
Pro tip: there’s a popular spot to view the eruption of Old Faithful that has seats available (you’ll see it right upon entering). But our favorite view of this geyser was from the other side of it. If you can time it just right, you can watch Old Faithful erupt from the observation deck, then hit the trail and visit the other geysers and hot springs, and at the end of your walk, catch Old Faithful erupting AGAIN! We loved it.
Grand Prismatic Spring (Midway Geyser Basin)
Free stock photo by Pixabay.com
Truthfully, we didn’t make it to this one. And ONLY because the kids had a meltdown, and we knew we had to head back to home base. But we regret not getting to see this incredible spring!
This spring, like the others, has a safe walkway right up to it. But hike Fairy Falls Trail to get this iconic view of the spring!
If you have the time: Mammoth Hot Springs and Lower Geyser Basin
We actually purposefully skipped this part because we heard it wasn’t as spectacular. But Mammoth Springs has been said to be a very unique spring compared to the others, and from the looks of it, seems worth a quick visit if you have the time.
Day 2: East side (southeast)
We suggest this as your relaxing recovery day on the water. Don’t get a boat, just fish from the shore, let the kids play in the shallow river, and find a few peaceful moments in one of the pretty picnic areas.
Yellowstone Lake
Yellowstone Lake is massive, and there’s so much to do! For us, fishing was a MUST. So we snagged a one day license, and believe it or not, John pulled out a Cutthroat!
View all of the rules, regulations, and license options here.
Gull Point Drive is a great little picnic area with beautiful views of the lake (link on map below).
Yellowstone River
Prepare to see plenty of buffalo along your drive to find the perfect relaxing spot along the Yellowstone River!
There is a BEAUTIFUL pass here with amazing views. You’ll see lots of cars on the side of the road, and probably lots of buffalo that people are posing with.
Remember, buffalo/bison are DANGEROUS! Just YouTube it ahead of time. They look peaceful, and slow, and cuddly… but boy they can turn at any second. Stay far away, stay in your car, and take some really neat photos!
Our afternoon on the river was perfection. At first, we turned into a designated picnic area, but kept driving until we reached a parking area by the river. The river was shallow, and there were buffalo wandering in the distance.
To find our same spot, look up Nez Perce Ford (or check out the map below!).
Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron
This is a great short stop with brief boardwalk in a loop to see some really neat things, just past your lazy afternoon on Yellowstone River.
The main features here: mud pots and fumaroles.
We loved Dragon’s Mouth Spring (was there really a dragon in there? Maybe!) and the bubbling Mud Volcano. The trail closed just after we passed because of a nearby buffalo, which was pretty exciting (and unintentional)!
Day 3: North loop
The north loop of Yellowstone is a lot more mountainous and treed. There’s also less volcanic activity, and the main focus is more on the breathtaking waterfalls, trails, and epic hikes.
Upper Falls
Two must-stops: Brink of the Upper Falls and Upper Falls View
Note: at the Brink of the Upper Falls, there are stairs down that lead you to the river for a view from the top of the waterfall. This is not stroller accessible, but we parked it, and held our daughter down the small flight of stairs. It was safe enough at the lookout point for us not to worry about the kids toddling around.
Lower Falls
Another beautiful waterfall to behold in the canyon, as well as the tallest waterfall at 308 feet.
This one is a little harder to access (it also has a “brink of the falls trail” but wouldn’t recommend it for young children), but you can see the waterfall from Lookout Point (linked below in the map).
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone features 3 amazing waterfalls with different vantage points for viewing. There are also several mountaintops and peaks you can hike to, and feels very “Montana” the further north you travel.
The drive is beautiful, and you’ll want to stop at various points, trails, and picnic areas to see it all.
Grand View, Lookout Point, Artist Point, and Inspiration Point are all trails with amazing views you’ll need to explore. Most are paved and stroller accessible. Make sure to find a good picnic spot nearby for snacks!
Canyon Village
There are MANY visitor centers and villages throughout this park. But we stopped at this one for food, souvenirs, and to mail postcards. It also had a great educational center, and the kids (and us!) enjoyed exploring the shops.
Surprisingly, a large amount of sites are all stroller accessible! Since we’re dealing with hot springs, these boardwalks have been constructed for everyone’s safety, and resulting in handicap and stroller accessibility for nearly every popular stop.
This was GREAT for us with our 1 year old daughter. It’s definitely family friendly.
We can’t speak too much to the crowds, because (oddly enough) we went to the park the week after all of the flooding that happened in 2022. It was literally all closed the day before we arrived (we traveled there on a hope and a prayer!) and they had a license plate system to reduce the crowds.
The very top of the park loop (Bear Tooth Highway and Mt. Washburn) was actually closed while we were there due to the washed out roads. It was CRAZY timing! But resulted in a quieter, less crowded trip for us.
As with any national park in the summer, plan for the crowds and the delays. Be patient and gracious!
Day 4 (Bonus): Grand Teton National Park
I’m sure you’ve heard: if you’re going to be at Yellowstone National Park, visit the Grand Tetons which is just an hour and a half south of Yellowstone National Park. It’s a beautiful drive, and has it’s own campgrounds. So if the drive is a deal breaker, reserve a stay in the park itself and spend a few days here.
There are some toddler-friendly areas and trails throughout the park that we found with really beautiful views.
Jackson Lake Overlook (visitor center area)
Cathedral Group Turnout (just a parking spot)
Jenny Lake Overlook
Spring Lake Trailhead
This park was definitely for the expert hikers, experienced mountaineers, and anyone who wanted to explore the beautiful lakes via kayak or boat. We kept it simple, geared for our young family, but enjoyed the views and simple trails!
Google Map of Yellowstone National Park 3-Day Itinerary with Young Kids
Day 1: Yellow
Day 2: Green
Day 3: Purple
Bonus Day 4 (Grand Teton NP): Pink
Visiting Yellowstone National Park with young children is not only doable, it’s fun! The kids LOVE talking all about volcanos and watching the active geysers right in front of them. Even our one-year-old had wide eyes, looking at all of the captivating sites. Plan out your potty trips well, stop and enjoy the views with snacks and drinks, and don’t feel obligated to do it all. You can see the top sites of Yellowstone in 3 days, and leave with everyone feeling good!
Enjoy your trip!
With Yellowstone National Park being an active super volcano, there are lots of exciting things to do with kids in this fast-paced 3-day itinerary for exploring the park!