My husband has been wanting to take a road trip with the family fo’evah. Yup, that’s how we hard core New Yorkers say it. Another thing about us hard core New Yorkers: we don’t take road trips…to far away lands…like the Rocky Mountains and beyond.  Nope.  We fly.

But, when you are a member of a family of five, it seems that road trips become the way to go, no matter where you are from.  So we ventured out on our trip, and saw several great places,  and the one place I was eager to see was Yellowstone National Park. I have always heard it’s a wonderful place to visit, especially with kids and that it is beautiful. And when we arrived there I could see that all of that was true.

We did several things while in Yellowstone.  We skipped pebbles on the lake, we camped, we saw caribou and buffalo, we even went for hikes.  But it was the scenery in Yellowstone that really made the trip wonderful. First let me just say, that to get from the East entrance of the park to the West entrance it took us about 2 hours.  It is, of course, huge.

One of the first places we stopped to admire where the geysers. From Old Faithful to the smaller ones, all are just incredible to watch.  You can feel the increased heat in the air and the humidity from the steam that comes out of these geological masterpieces.  It’s quite a site.

The waterfalls, located in what is called The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Park, are also amazing.  Our children were in awe of the sites as much as we were. Even from the the great distance between where we stood and the crashing falls, the sound of the unbelievable amount of water was strong and forceful.  A spectacular site indeed.

And last, but by no means least, the Mammoth hot springs.  I worried that my children might walk out into these hot, fragile beds of boiling water, there were no gates or railings along most of the walkway, so we made sure to hold on tight to them.  In watching this almost barren land, dried and transformed by the sulfate and other minerals dripping and gushing from these streams, you can’t help by feel so small and helpless in the face of Mother Nature.  I have never seen anything so scary, and yet, so beautiful in my life.

There was a lot we didn’t see during our trip to Yellowstone.  I’ve heard of even more incredible places that we just did not get to in the almost 4 days we were there.  And that is because around every bend there is something to photograph, something to watch, something to discover.  It truly is the a nature lovers paradise and a wonderful family destination. It made the experience of our road trip incredibly worth it.  Even for this hard core New Yorker.

Photo credit: Carol Cain