Here is an easy guide for exploring Yellowstone in 1 Day!

Get your Free 4th grade pass before you hit up any National Parks this year. You have to print it before you go, and your 4th grader must be with you in the vehicle to redeem.

Wildlife! 

It's everywhere in Yellowstone. Keep your eyes peeled and watch for people pulled of the side of the road. They are probably looking at something amazing.

Norris Geyser Basin

If you only have time to see what Geyser area, this is the one we recommended. It was like walking on the moon! So incredible, so beautiful. The kids loved it. There were a few stairs at the beginning of the trail, but the rest was paved or a board walk, so you could take a stroller. This place also had a small museum and book store.

We were swimming at fire hole just an hour before we got to Norris and we needed jackets. Be sure to bring layers of clothing because the weather changes fast.

Fire Hole

This is the coolest place!

Pack your swimmers for sure! The water was mild (mixed with a hot spring). Not freezing like the Ogden River. Plus, our kids are obsessed with swimming in rivers. Glad we brought our life vests.

A few steps down, and then you have to hike about 10 feet to the water edge. No stroller needed for this spot. But you will need to assist the elderly or small children to get down the rocks. 

On the other side of this sign you can cliff dive and find a good spot to float the river.

Cliff diving was a huge hit here. We saw several while we were there.

Just passed the cliff diving area is this spot. You can cross the river into that little cave and sit down on that first little rapid and the water will shoot you down the river

Here are the guys coming out after being shot down the river with the current. Then the river opens up to the beach area where we were playing with the rest of the kids.

The water is SO deep! You can see here how its so shallow you can walk along and then it just drops off a ledge (watch your step)

Grand Canyon

This was my favorite part! The views were breathtakingly beautiful! We walked to several of the look out points, but it is DEFINITELY worth the short hike down 600ft to get to the edge of the water fall. It was unreal! The views from the fall are worth every step. There are about 20 switchback to get there but they are very mild and paved. We did see a couple people with strollers, but recommended you only take one if its a jogging stroller because there were lots of pot holes. We carried our (2 yr olds) and the rest of the kids walked. They even made it back to the parking lot with out stopping once.

Picnic Area

Just after fire hole, about a mile down the road we pulled off to the right to a little picnic area. The river was wide and slow. We had just changed out of our swimmers, otherwise the kids would have ben swimming in this river too! It was a perfect spot for a little picnic while the kids played (also, it had outhouses).

Our picnic blanket is a leather mat. Be sure to check out our review HERE. 

Hot Pots

after lunch we headed south from Fire Hole and pulled off the road to the first Hot Pots that we saw. There was a large parking lot (it was full) so we parked on the side of the road and did a quick loop of these amazing pots and after seeing the geysers, we decided to skip the crowds at old faithful and call it good. This spot had a perfect collection of things to see and only took us about 20 minutes to see it all!

We ended the night by pulling off the side of the road where there were picnic tables and fire pits. We had the whole place to ourselves. The sun was setting fast so we cooked dinner while the kids helped build a fire. They had so much fun running around the woods and picking up dry branches to throw in. We had the most magical day! I didn't think we would be able to really do it all in one day, and actually it was more like a half a day. But we did and we all LOVED it!