fowlandfishmommy

We are headed home and had a wonderful time. We went to the Fort for the first time. It is so beautiful and we very much enjoyed chip and dales sing along, roasting marshmallows, and heading out with fireworks going off. But it was extremely crowded. And when we were leaving at about 9:30 there were teenagers driving crazy on golf carts with loud music honking horns and screaming. It felt more like Panama City Spring Break. We love camping because of the quiet and layed back pace. That was a bit much. But we will hopefully go back one day to camp but NOT on a summer holiday!!

Hi everyone. I really hope to do a trip report. We are heading to the World Saturday for our youngest first trip and last big hurrah before a bunch of surgeries for him begin. We can only afford two days at the parks — FYI family of five base ticket for two days is $1300. And staying at a cheap off site hotel. But I have tons of stuff planned to get all the magic possible crammed in for free. Including our first fort visit! 

 

 

Hi all I thought I’d jump in and comment since we are talking about the fort prices.  It’s been a while! I think our fam is about to bite the bullet and do another trip. We haven’t been since 2013!!! I hate to say it but I think we have been out priced. We have never stayed at the fort but we are big campers and have pulled our rig all over. We thought when we got to the all three kids over 3 mark (can’t say in a value regular room) we’d be at the fort. But we just can’t afford it and gas too. Doesn’t make since. We are going to stay off site (such a bummer) for 4 nights and can only afford 2 days at the parks and in case you were wondering, that’s still $1400. 

On our last trip we went during free dining. Only had 2 kids and one was under 3. We stayed 7 nights. Parks for 5 days. And our whole trip was $1800. Never did I dream that same trip with my crew of 3 kids (ages 5, 7, 11) would cost over $3500. 

I hate to complain because it’s not like it’s a must have. It’s a blessing to be able to go on even a small trip. But it seems kinda sad that they are pricing out regular folks. I mean even though the paying for parking thing for resort guest didn’t that big of a cost it still made me so aggravated when they announced it. 

Hope we can make it work! We want our little guy to get to go before we embark on his big surgery year next year. (He has 4 surgeries planned many states away for 2020). He is all about characters so we know he’ll love it. 

Thank you all. We are now toying with The idea of my sister, her husband, and son camping with us in our camper at the Fort. We'll see what we decide. They aren't much of campers but we have a great pull out couch in ours. I'll keep you updated.

Hi everyone. My family and extended family would like come down for a week sometime in the fall. My family has been priced out of staying on site because we now have three kids. And we can't camp with my extended family because they don't have a camper.  

My family goes on a trip all together every year because we live far apart and it's a good way for us to be together without distractions. 

We do not have a lot of money to spend but the two youngest have never been to DW and we really want to take them. They both joined our family through adoption and are absolute joys. 

We would love somewhere with a resort set up and a kitchen of some sort. We can all be in separate rooms or all in one condo. Whatever is cheaper. But we want to be very close to the parks and have a nice pool because we won't go to the parks everyday. 

I'm having zero luck on vrbo. Please help!!!

11 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

I thought this was a Yellowstone trip report....I missed the part where you checked into the Wilderness Lodge. :D

Sent from my handheld doohickie

I know that's what I though about when I saw it!  I'm glad I got to see the original!!  

We went to the Old Faithful visitor center and got a map and found out the next time for it to go off.  Found us a good spot and got all settled.  There are benches all around it and the hubby and I stood and the big boys sat down on the ground in between two benches.  I will say we travel with kids a whole lot and other people getting annoyed with them does happen.  We try to avoid them causing an annoying situation but they are kids and technically they have just as much right to be there as anyone else.  And frankly an annoying kid is way better than annoying adult any day of the week.  But anyway...  My boys were siting there being calm and good and an old man says excuse me excuse me like there was an emergency.  Well the emergency was that he needed to stand directly in front of where the boys were standing.  So after a few seconds of disbelief, I made them go sit in front of where he was standing.  What annoyed me so much was that he could have stood behind them no problem.  They were sitting so they didn't block his view at all.  I still don't understand why he had to go stand in front of him.  They sat in front of him and all was fine.  They could see great.  F3 did begin to fuss some, and the wife of the man fussed about her video being ruined because of him but at that point I didn't care a lick.  Plus all of the other people around us were so aggravated with them we felt like F3 wasn't bothering anyone else.  But I did realize as the day went on that apparently there are many tours that older people do that just takes them to this area.  There were groups everywhere.  And they tended to think they owned the place.  So we just went on our merry way and did our thing.   It was amazing!  One of the best experiences of my life.  Here's the pictures!  

This was our view.

This was to the left of us.  There is a semi circle around Old Faithful with a big wood walkway and benches.  It was pretty crowded so we got there fairly early.  It clears out when it's done, so if you want to sit in the front on a bench you can just wait until the next one and get a better seat.  

Boys waiting on it to start!  

Boys watching the show! 

We enjoyed this so much!  I can't even explain how amazing it is.  We just kept talking about the people who walked up there and saw it for the first time over 100 years ago.  Can you imagine?!?!  Yellowstone is seriously like being in another world.  More Old Faithful area soon!

So we left off with us finishing up Artists Point and we headed back to our camper for supper.  This was Wednesday.  As we were eating I saw a few kids run past our camper.  So I knew something was up.  We looked out the window and there was a bison walking down the road through our campsite.  Of course the kids went nuts.  I got one picture.  

We ate our meal that was in the crockpot and ready to go and then we walked to the Visitor Center for a "ranger talk".  This was something the boys had to do to complete their Jr. Ranger program.  This one was close to our campsite and just worked out time wise.  The walk from Fishing Bridge to the Visitor Center is pretty easy.  It is a walk through the woods somewhat but there is a path and there are lights along the way.  I would suggest taking a flashlight.  

The talk was wonderful.  There were great pictures and it was really neat.  We met a fellow Alabamian.  And the big boys loved it.  Baby brother didn't love it and I had to walk around with him the whole time.  But it was nice and peaceful.  We headed back to our camper and hit the sack!  

The next morning we headed out to Old Faithful!  We were pumped.  We knew there was a lot to see in this area we had some must dos, much like we do in Disney World, but we wanted to enjoy it and be laid back so we knew we couldn't see it all with three kids.  

We headed out and sort of took it easy.  The plan was to get there in time to eat an early lunch at the Old Faithful Inn and then to set out around Old Faithful.  There are geysers EVERYWHERE in this area so it is a pretty long walk on wooden paths.  They are all flat though so it's an easy walk.  Also this Visitor Center is AMAZING!!!  So much to see and do.  

Here we are!  

The food was delicious at the restaurant.  It was a very fun experience.  There was a buffet and we got to try some strange things we would have never ordered.  The bathrooms were amazing.  

As I mentioned before there was no air conditioning in any of the hotels.  But this hotel felt much cooler.  It is so beautiful!  

Next up, is Old Faithful!  

 

 

On 1/12/2017 at 0:07 PM, Seals said:

Great idea for a picture. You're going to always remember how bad it smelled!

Thanks for returning to the Trip Report. I'd been hoping for more. Really enjoying it.

Thanks!! 

On 1/13/2017 at 8:52 AM, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

Happy to see that you're continuing with this report!  More great pictures.

Thank you!  I'm sorry I'm so slow.  

12 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I am glad to see that you're back at work on this report!

The Artist's Point photos are amazing.  I know exactly what you mean about being freaked out about a dangerous situation where you can't control the kids.  That would freak me out too.

I guess you know that the fancy restaurant at Disney's Wilderness Lodge is called Artist's Point.  I didn't know it was named after an actual place.

TCD

Thanks. I know pretty cool. You know Disney's love for details.

1 hour ago, rm0530 said:

That's a cool headband for his BAHA. One of my students has one but hers clips onto her shirt. 

Yes F3 has bilateral microtia which  makes him hard of hearing. He wears a bone conduction hearing aid. Most people have never even seen them. F3 has to wear his on a band, he now finally has two aids thank the Lord, because he isn't old enough to have the implant. When he is about 5 he will have snaps surgically implanted in his head and the same hearing aids will snap to his head instead of his band. Then it will clip to his shirt like your student. Just the line to help keep up with it in case it pops off the snap. Cool that you noticed! I couldn't let him wear it the entire trip because he's still in the age of throwing it when he's tired of it. I really didn't want to loose it. 

More bison blocking the road.  

Next we made it to Artist Point.  There is a super awesome old Disney cartoon that my kids love about Paul Bunyan that shows this part of Yellowstone.  When you get to the parking lot you can choose to go look more at the canyon, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which is to the left or the Artist Point viewing area.  Well we of course wanted to see both so we just went to the left.  WELL let me just tell you if you have kids with you or you are scared of heights or you generally aren't insane, DON'T GO LEFT.  There are a few very skimpy hand rails but most of it is just a straight down cliff right on the edge of a very small path.  I am very scared of heights, well I mean it's kind of weird if I know that I'm not going to fall then I'm fine. But if it doesn't seem safe I loose it.  And I couldn't hold on to all my people.  So my legs were shaking and felt like jello.  I was FREAKING out.  Hubby knew I was loosing it and took a few quick pictures and so did I and we got the heck out of there.  AHHH!  It is probably way less dramatic than I remember it, but never again. Here are the pictures from my near death experience.  

Then I gained my composure and we walked over to the Artist Point viewing area.  It has nice sensible rails.  And the view is AMAZING!  

 

 

 

So sorry for the extreme delay.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the new year.  We went camping for a whole week with my family (parents, siblings, etc) during Thanksgiving and then everything got crazy for us.  

We left off with a very busy Tuesday, our first full day in Yellowstone.  We did a fishing excursion and drove up to the Mammoth area where we did a wildlife tour.  We got back to our camper late that night and went straight to bed.  

Wednesday was a much more relaxed day.  On the agenda was to check things out around our campground, Fishing Bridge, and check out the mud volcano area.  Also we planned to go up a little ways like we did the day before and check out Artist's Point.  

So here we go!  

We started out by going by the Visitor Center there at Fishing Bridge and getting the big boys Jr. Ranger packets.  Once again we were blown away with how kind and informative they were with me and the boys.  The Visitors Centers are all amazing by the way with so much to see.  We then got held up by some traffic so we decided to scratch the go back to the camper and eat lunch plan and go grab the cooler and go ahead and put supper in the crockpot.  That was a very wise decision as traffic was a little crazy.  But there is so much to see and we are patient people.  

All over the place are steaming bubbling ponds.  It is very cool.  

Here we are at the Mud Volcano area.  It is more marshy and wet and well muddy than the Mammoth Hot Springs area.  It is much much easier of a walk with their being a few gradual big hills and a lot of flat areas.  This was very fun for all of us.  

This whole area smelled so BAD!!  But of course the boys loved it and thought it was hilarious.  Insert constant flatulence jokes and blaming.  

 

It started pouring rain briefly right when we were done.  So we hopped in the car and headed to our next stop.  We stopped here to look at all the bison and check out the awesome view! 

Notice wet hair! 

This is their manly pose.  

More in a bit.  

 

A few more of that evening.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got back to the hotel and this was right outside!  

 

 

Phew, that was a busy busy Monday.  Up next is Tuesday and we stay fairly close to our campsite.  

 

 

So for our tour... We were told to do a tour if at all possible.  We went with the twilight tour.  It was maybe the hit of the trip.  Oh my gosh we had a wonderful time.  My husband loved it because he hadn't been able to look as much as we had because he was always driving.  It lasts 4 hours, you can take snacks, and there are plenty of potty breaks.  We were with 2 other families.  We left from the Mammoth Hotel.  Our guide was amazing.  He has come every year for I don't know maybe 30 years.  He retired and his gift to himself was to live in a camper and work at Yellowstone for the summer.  He told us he applied on line and got the job.  Honestly, I hope and pray the hubby and I can do that one summer.  I don't care if I work in a store, I'd just love to get to be there.  It would be so much fun!  Our guide is also a part time wild life photographer.  He knew tons and tons of information about the park in general and true to what we were told we were so glad we did that on the first day.  We did not see as much wildlife as we had hoped but we were okay with that.  

This is one of our last pictures from the tour but I thought I'd start with it since it shows the awesome vehicle we rode in.  When we first got there he asked if we wanted to take the top off and it was a unanimous yes.  We saw a group with theirs on and I have no idea why.  It would have been much less fun with the top off.  These buses were built in the 30s I believe.  They have kept them up since then.  They are in great shape.  

 

 

 

 

 

See the elk?  

 

 

That's our tour guide.  We were looking at mountain goats.  

 

 

See them?? Little white dots??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see one of the wild fires in this picture.  There were 3 going on while we were there.  This is pretty common.  They used to actively fight all wild fires in Yellowstone but they have found that wild fires are necessary to the health of the forest.  They do so much good.  Now they let the fires burn as long as they pose no threat to human life or property.  There were some places that we saw later that had been completely burned recently and it is sad to see.  But the benefits out way the negatives.  

 

This picture cracks me up!!

 

This is what F2 did for about an hour.  

All three kids had their own set of cheap binoculars.  It prevented lots of fights.  

 

 

I know this picture is blurry.  But this is an interesting story.  So see the tree growing right beside the rock.  These are Douglas Fir trees and the rocks beside them are called Nursery rocks.  This particular area is pretty tough for a baby tree.  It is very windy and dry.  And the winters are very harsh.  The only way a tree can live here is beside a rock.  The rock protects it and gives it time to grow.  They are everywhere in this area.   Every single tree has a nursery rock beside it.  If you google nursery rock Yellowstone there is a neat video on the subject.  

 

 

 

 

 

On 11/8/2016 at 4:16 PM, caveat lector said:

This is my favorite comment!!!  it's the way everything should be. :)

Yep!

On 11/11/2016 at 6:42 AM, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Thanks for all the good info, enjoying the trip.  That baby carrier is a good idea.

We couldn't have done it without it! 

On 11/11/2016 at 1:01 PM, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Maybe I missed it, but did you guys just camp in a central location and then drive to your destination of choice and back each day?

Yes we stayed at Fishing Bridge the whole time.  It is the only one that is full hookup and with three little kids we just didn't think we could do without that on such a tiring trip.  I'm so glad that's what we did.  

On 11/7/2016 at 3:04 PM, DaveInTN said:

Great pics of Mammoth!  I loved that area.  Did you get to the Boiling River?  Probably not an easy place to visit with kids...but I enjoyed soaking in the river.  

Here I am in the Boiling River....in 1994.  Wow, I feel old.  

 

No we didn't make it there.  We wanted to see it, but we heard it was too dry maybe I can't remember.  But it wouldn't have been fun with the wild children.  Next time for sure!  

On 11/8/2016 at 7:23 AM, djsamuel said:

Wow. These pictures are great.  We've been planning on returning to the area.  the last time we stayed at the Old Faithful Inn.  We are intending on taking the camper into the Grand Tetons and concentrating more on hiking there; but your pictures have me wanting to get back into Yellowstone more.  Thanks for posting these.

The Tetons were great and I think we'll camp there at least one night next time.  We loved Yellowstone so much.  If it was closer I'm sure we'd go every year.  

And we arrive in the Mammoth area of Yellowstone.  If you look on the map it is the northern most "area" or "town" in Yellowstone.  Mammoth is a very cool area.  First of all it is the only part of the park that stays open all year.  If you want to go in the winter you can fly into Montana, take a shuttle to some location, and then Yellowstone comes to get you in their Snowcoach.  Google Yellowstone snowcoach.  They are awesome.  Anyway, Mammoth also has Hot Springs.  They look like you are walking around on Mars.  Almost all of Yellowstones trails (the most popular ones) are pretty easy.  These are a tiny bit more strenuous.  But just because it is quite hilly.  Mammoth has a little town where workers can live with their families.  The whole area is grassy and beautiful.  So different from other parts of Yellowstone.  They even have a family of elks that live right there.  They love the beautiful green sod and they lay out by the hot springs to stay warm.  They were just out in the yard by the hotel.  Not phased at all by all the people.  Here are pictures from the Mammoth area.  

We saw an elk as soon as we arrived.  

Hiking to the top.  

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but Yellowstone is not safe for a kid younger than probably 4 to just walk around.  There are some handrails but they are not built in a way to keep a child from jumping in the hot springs.  If you are taking a young child I highly suggest a backpack carrier, an Ergo, or something like we had.  We bought the Saddle Baby.  Its basically a set that goes on your shoulders and it straps their feet in so they can't fall off.  F3 LOVED it and it worked great for us.  We got tons of complements on it.  We saw a few people with strollers.  I do not suggest that.  FYI I love this about Yellowstone.  This is the attitude.  "Hey this is nature, you're own your own" (safety wise) Ha!!

An elk enjoying the springs.  

 

Next up, our Twilight Tour!  

22 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

4 of the 5 Great Lakes freeze completely over in a typical winter, and those lakes are massive. I grew up on the shore of Lake Erie and we prayed for the lake to freeze over as that would finally shut off the lake effect snow machine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

That blows the mind of an Alabama girl.  

22 hours ago, Seals said:

I'm really loving your report of a place I've never been but hope to go some day. I remember how much I enjoyed your report on your trip to China also. It's sweet to see your boys having so much fun together. 

Thank you! If you'd have told us we'd be doing this trip after F3 was home 18 months, I'd have said you were crazy!  

21 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Wow... good to know.  If we hit Yellowstone on the way back, we'll have to budget that into our time.  We will probably no more than two days there.. so we will obviously not get to see much at all.

I find that amazing... and cold!!

I'd try to do Old Faithful area and Mammoth area if you only have 2 days.  

4 hours ago, dblr....Rennie said:

Great report, we toured Yellowstone years ago on snowmobiles, we covered 90 miles and was a great trip, have to get back in the summer some time to see it.

We would love to see it with snow, but I only have a small windbreaker so we'd have to buy lots of gear.  

14 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

Your pictures are awesome.  That drive to Mammoth brings back good memories.  When INC and I went there 22 years ago (yikes), we tent camped at Canyon.  Looks like you drove past there.  I'd love to get back someday.  Hopefully before it blows its top.  LOL.  

Thanks.  We want to go back with F2 is 10 or so.  We loved it!

14 hours ago, Beckers said:

Wow!!! The pics are awesome!!! 

Thanks!

2 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Beautiful pictures!   The lake completely freezes over... wow!!   That's insane!

I know we couldn't believe it.  

8 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Is that two hours a typo?  Or does it take that long to drive because of the winding roads and bison?

I don't know much about Yellowstone beyond Old Faithful, so I'm already learning a lot from your report. Like about the size of Lake Yellowstone.  I had no idea!

TCD

If you google map it, it is about 1 hr and 30min.  But 2 hours is a good guess.  Sometimes there is a lot of traffic and animals do block the road.  It took us way longer because we stopped at tower fall.  Yellowstone is HUGE. We were there from Monday to Friday and we still didn't see parts of it.  The roads are windy but its just huge.  Also there is construction usually.  The time when the park is open (May - September) is really the only times they can do work because of snow.  

After our fishing trip we had our lunch packed in the car (FYI I do not premake sandwiches we pack all the stuff and make them there its easier).  We headed towards our next destination.  I had read that doing a guided tour early in your trip is the best thing to do.  They explain so many things to you and its just a fun way to learn more about the park.  So we had a sunset tour of the Lamar Valley planned.  The tour left from Mammoth Hotel on the other side of the park.  About 2 hours away from Fishing Bridge.  We planned on stoping on the way to see a few things.  

This will help you get your bearings.  We were heading from Bridge Bay up to the Canyon area and then to Tower Fall eventually to the Mammoth area.  Remember all the little areas are like their own little town.  Most have hotels and restaurants and gas stations.  

 

There are even mechanic shops should you need one.  

First up after leaving Bridge Bay Marina - LUNCH!

Then some playing time by the river.

Then we were on our way.  This bison would not stay out of the rode.  The rangers tried and tried to get him to get off the road.  I think he had traffic blocked for a while. 

Next up we drove through the Hayden Valley.  Yellowstone has a very popular valley for viewing wildlife called the Lamar Valley but we saw way more in the Hayden Valley.  I think it was because of a wildfire near Lamar.

See that steam!

On up through the Dunraven Pass.  I don't have many pictures because I was completely freaking out.  I had my eyes covered 80% of the time.  It was so scary.  

And then we arrived at Tower Fall.  It was beautiful.  When you are leaving it, you drive past the TOP of it with the bottom right there beside you!  

Next time we'll arrive to the Mammoth area. 

 

8 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

I love the photos of your boys, especially how loving they are with each other.  No doubt they have their moments....

Good price for the boat trip, was it just your family on it that day?

Thanks.  They do love each other very much.  

We thought it was a good price.  From what I understand they only do 1 party per boat and from one person to 5 is all the same.  $100 per hour

When we left off we had gotten parked and settled at Fishing Bridge Campground.  A lot of people move from camp sight to camp sight as they go to different parts of the park.  With such young kids staying at one the whole time worked better.  But the move around method might work too.  We really enjoyed Fishing Bridge.  We thought it was beautiful.  So cozy and tucked right in the trees.  We have no complaints at all.  We left a day earlier than we thought (I'll explain later) and the refunded us that day, which we did not expect.  Everyone was super nice!  Can't wait to camp their again one day.

So on to Monday.  We had a busy day planned and were very excited!  First off was a fishing charter on Yellowstone Lake.  We left from Bridge Bay Marina, which is very close to Fishing Bridge.  We did a two hour trip and it was $200.  That was boat, guide, fishing stuff, for all 5 of us.  We thought it was a good price.  No we did not catch a thing, but we learned so much on this trip.  The guide was wonderful.  Never got frazzled with the kids and explained everything.  Would I do it again? No   Am I glad we did it?  YES 

Here we go!  First lets talk Yellowstone Lake.  It is 22 x 16 miles.  (please don't quote me on this stuff.) And like maybe 200 foot deep.  It is gigantic.  Like being in the ocean.  There are 2 kids of fish only.  Lake trout and cutthroat trout.  You can not use real bait of any kind.  Only lures.  You can put your own boat in the water but it has to be thoroughly inspected.  Skiing and such are not allowed.  Yellowstone Lake completely freezes in the winter.  In fact I have a friend that worked there one summer and arrived in May.  He was shocked in June when it started melting because he had no clue there was a lake there.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow on the mountain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Wow... okay, all caught up! :)

Love all the pictures.  How were the roads into the campground at Yellowstone?  I've read that some of the roads can be very tough to navigate when towing a camper.  

I'm appreciating this TR as I'm looking to drive out West (GA to WA) with my kiddos in June.  In order to save vacation time, my husband will fly out and drive back with us, at which point we may do Yellowstone as I really want to visit Glacier National on my way out.  

The roads into Yellowstone are fine.  But there is a road called Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone and there is no way I'd take a camper on it.  But there is another route.  There's campers everywhere.  And TONS of them driven by people who have never driven one in their lives (they rent them after flying there).  So if they can do it, you can do it. 

7 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Thanks for the fix.  I went back and now can see all your photos.  So pretty.  What a great big open sky out there.

Again, thank you!

It is amazing! 

7 hours ago, caveat lector said:

Pics are working for me.....and they are GREAT.  Wyo chamber of Commerce should hire you.

Bison are cool. 'nuff  said

Thanks!!  

6 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I'm glad you got the photos fixed!

Keep them coming!

TCD

Hopefully I will! 

Any our drive to our campsite.  As I said before, we entered through the East Entrance.  And we camped at Fishing Bridge.  It is the only campsite in Yellowstone with full hookup and boy was that the right decision.  

 

Beautiful Yellowstone Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

I think I finally got it fixed!  More to come.