It was not.
Yellowstone, though pretty, and even beautiful in places, is a big land of too much driving and too many crowds. I did not anticipate being in the car for the majority of our stay in Yellowstone. I drove us out there so we could enjoy God's creation, not so we could spend all day in the van driving from place to place! I mean, it was so much car riding that by the end of the afternoon, we skipped some pretty cool looking things (like the terraces) to just be done with being in a vehicle.
The campground was massive and not very pretty. We much better preferred our time at West Tensleep Lake Campground in the Big Horn National Forest, a few hours east of Yellowstone. They make big deal about bears and your food, so I was annoyed to be constantly worrying if my messy kids were going to attract bears due to their eating habits. Come to think of it, there were probably more bears at our previous campground, but I wasn't overly worried about attracting them.
Another thing that caused much stress, well probably this is the only one that actually caused me stress....the bear thing was just an annoyance really, was the fear of my extremely active and wily 3 year old son would run off and end up being scorched, boiled or scalded to death by breaking through the thin crust of land surrounding the hot springs and geysers. This was a relevant fear because he is fast, *usually* does not instantaneously obey the directive to stop, he's fearless (until scared), and did I mention he is fast?! I mean, you all remember hearing about the kid that fell into the gorilla pit. Well, that so easily could have been my son, in a split second.
Case in point, he was up and almost over the railing of this waterfall in literally 1 second.
The walks on the boardwalks were unenjoyable due to the crowds of people and the lack of a leash for my son. I don't like kid leashes, so I'm not sad I did not have one. I think they are despicable. but one would have been nice to allow him a false sense of freedom. Instead he was free to walk/roam, until he became disobedient. At that time he was forced to hold my the rest of the way. This led to being dragged at points because I don't coddle him. If he wants to go limp and throw himself down while we are walking, and I'm holding his hand, I just keep on walking, still holding his hand. Ain't no one got time for that crap. He learned real quick not to do that.
Learning about the caldera of the volcano. Yes, Yellowstone is comprised of a super volcano.
The Grand Prismatic Spring was cool, but it was so steamy, and crowded, when we went that it was hard to see the cool colors.
We did make it to the Boiling River, but my oldest was let down because it wasn't what she had envisioned. The hot water is nice and hot, but the cold water is cold. And, it's not very deep. Oh, and like always, lots of people. In addition, it is a mile or so walk from parking to the swimming spot.
Camping fun:
The kids got their Junior Ranger badges for Yellowstone, so that was fun. Another one to add to the list. All in all, Yellowstone would be fun for a day trip from some other destination, like the Grand Tetons just south. Or if you have older kids (or a good adult/child ratio) going on hikes through the park, as opposed to drive-park-boardwalk-drive-park-boardwalk-repeat. I was greatly outnumbered with 3 kids to 1 adult. Such is life.
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