Yellowstone National Park
Geology
Yellowstone National Park covers 3,471 miles. It is located between 3 states, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Yellowstone is located on the top of a volcano, explaining the park’s famous geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. Beneath Yellowstone lies a vast magma chamber.
Location and Lodging
Yellowstone National Park is located in the Northwestern United States. The closest town to stay would be West Yellowstone. There are some options inside the park, Old Faithful Inn, Canyon Lodge and Park Hotel Yellowstone besides campsites.
It has 2 close regional airports, Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Airport. The closest major airport would be in Salt Lake City and it is a 5 hour drive.
Family Friendly Trails
There is a lot to see and many areas do not need much hiking. Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin has the world's most famous geyser (it erupts about every 90 minutes, you can check the prediction time online or at the visitor center). The Grand Prismatic has a nice boardwalk with many geysers (around 2 mile loop) and you can also see it from above if you want to hike the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook (0.6 mile hike from the Fairy Falls trailhead).
Other great hikes with kids is the canyon area, you can go to the Artist Falls (minimal walking) but also short hiking trails to the Upper Falls View and Lower Falls Lookout.
Near the North entrance, you can visit the Mammoth Hip Springs with short hiking trails to the the terraced travertine formations.
If you still have more time at the Yellowstone, there is a lot more to see as driving through the Hayden Valley ( where we saw a few bisons), West Thumb Geyser Basin and Yellowstone Lake.
Grand Prismatic Trail
Lower Falls Trail
Old Faithful Geyser
Fun facts/tips
Yellowstone is very close to Grand Teton, so we visited those 2 parks in one trip.
Plan ahead when visiting popular areas in the park, because parking can be limited, arrive early. The park is one of the largest but the driving is beautiful and we saw a lot of wildlife. Carry bear spray with you!
We stayed at West Yellowstone and Firehole BBQ was our favorite restaurant by far. We came back the following day!