Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Yellowstone with teens and tweens

We spent a week at Yellowstone, staying in both the Old Faithful Inn and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and had a great time. We packed in a lot of different outdoor activities that kept the teen and tween from getting on one another's nerves and felt it was one of our best vacations ever. We really recommend taking the time to enjoy all the park has to offer.

Our first three days centered around the Old Faithful Inn. We loved sitting on the deck in the evening watching the geyser. The historic and beautiful surroundings more than offset the less than 4 star accomodations. The kids loved all the original woodwork and nooks and crannies. We spent a full half day exploring the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins using the trail system that leaves from the Inn. We also visited Giant Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin and really enjoyed swimming at the Fire Hole Falls swimming hole.

One of the highlights was catching trout on Lake Yellowstone. This was another half day activity that we couldn't have accomplished if we had cut short the time. We saw buffalo in many places and lots of Elk in the Northern Park of the Park.

In the Middle of the trip we moved to the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. Again, we walked the boardwalk system trail through the near by Terraces and accessed hiking trails near the hotel. Being able to do things close to where we were staying allowed us to avoid crowds by seeing the most popular attractions either early or late in the day. We were mostly able to avoid the crowds except for day we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is a beautiful view but it was busy.

All and all we think everyone should go to Yellowstone at least once and it is really great if you are trying to figure out how to keep teens and tweens busy and active. There are a lot more details, links and pictures on our blog site if you want more specifics. I can't retype it all here but you can check out this link http://bit.ly/8R132h