Yellowstone National or Route 66?

[Razor]

No matter what you decide, the only way to travel is the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

 

[heyyou]

I live an hour from Route 66/I-40 in Arizona. It parallels the railroad here.

Winslow has a statue of the hitch hiker that the Eagles sang about--standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine site to see, there is a girl, Oh Lord! in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me.

There is an amazing pertified wood store in Holbrook.

Old 66 is still drivable 85 miles from Seligman to Kingman where the interstate bypassed the RR route.

Consider a store, a statue, and the old highway to California near the Grand Canyon or a jewel of a national park with geysers and buffalo and waterfalls--take your kid to Yellowstone and the Tetons. Do your homework first so you know about the geology and the history. I believe the yellow is compacted volcanic ash. Yellowstone resulted from part of a continent sliding over a very deep hot spot, not unlike what has formed the Hawaiian Islands. Read John McPhee's "Rising from the Plains" for more info. The H. Islands are moving across their hot spot at about the speed that your fingernails grow.

 

[Brat]

Yellowstone by all means. Make housing reservations inside the park NOW and schedule everything else around that availability.

We spent two weeks almost every summer in the Tetons with the kids for almost 15 years. When they are young views don't register so if time is pressing save the Grands for later. Once they are at the hiking, fishing, rock climbing stage they will want to stay forever. Until then it is too abstract.

 

[FinanceDude]

I am close to booking reservations with yellowstone for 2008. I think it would be nice to stay IN the park, maybe the Yellowstone Lodge. Old Faithful is a short walk away, and it's one of the main staging areas for all the bus tours.

I have been advised to take the bus tours for exploring the park......you avoid the hassles of all the traffic and 50 foot RV's slowing down to take buffalo pictures, and you end up seeing more.

Thoughts??

 

[retire@40]

I am close to booking reservations with yellowstone for 2008. I think it would be nice to stay IN the park, maybe the Yellowstone Lodge. Old Faithful is a short walk away, and it's one of the main staging areas for all the bus tours.

I have been advised to take the bus tours for exploring the park......you avoid the hassles of all the traffic and 50 foot RV's slowing down to take buffalo pictures, and you end up seeing more.

Thoughts??

I enjoyed driving in the park and stopping when I wanted to stop to enjoy the scenery with my family for as long as I wanted to enjoy it.

I would leave the bus tour for the people who can't or won't drive.

I agree with staying in the park. It is so big to begin with, it wouldn't be a good idea to have to drive outside the park every time you needed to go back to your hotel room.

 

[Brat]

Absolutely stay in the park, and at the Lodge if you can get in. Don't expect 4-star accommodations, they have a tough time maintaining the facilities and they get a lot of use seasonally.

Parking can be a hassle. It has been years since we visited but if they have a system where you can hop on and off a bus that would be best with children, it would be a pity to leave a site before the kids are finished exploring just because your bus is scheduled to leave. This will be a trip they will tell their childern about.

 

[Goonie]

I think it would be nice to stay IN the park, maybe the Yellowstone Lodge. Old Faithful is a short walk away, and it's one of the main staging areas for all the bus tours.

I have been advised to take the bus tours for exploring the park......

Thoughts??

I didn't stay in the Lodge, but I was in it a few times.....Nice! I did stay in one of the Lodges at Glacier, and though it was rustic and not 4-star, it was a VERY nice experience, and I would HIGHLY recommend it!!! Staying IN the park is the best!

As for the buses, you could take one of the bus tours to get a nice overview, and then drive back to those areas that interest you or other areas that you'd like to explore. That way you get the best of both worlds. We've done that a few times

And like Brat said, if they have tour buses on a system where you can hop off one bus, and then hop on the next one, that would be great. We've done that on some of our trips.

 

[mountaintosea]

Here's another vote for Yellowstone. I went on a family vacation to Yellowstone when I was quite young (don't remember exactly) but the experience is unforgettable. It is probably different now, but I remember the moose standing by the side of the road and the bears walking in between the cars. The bears wandering between the cabins at night, the geysers! I'm sure that Old Faithful is still around. And now they have wolves!
(Hey I'm not kidding) By all means take them to Yellowstone! One of these days I must go back myself!!!

 

[Cantuar]

We stayed a couple of nights at the hotel at Lake Yellowstone then a couple of nights at Mammoth Hot Springs and it was really different in the two places. Mammoth Hot Springs is a lower elevation and is where you find the elk, and at the lake there are bison and moose. There's great geology going in in both areas, too.

 

[Gail]

We and our adult daughter made our first trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons this past summer, and it was well worth the 5000 mile round trip. We were there at the end of August, so we didn't experience the traffic jams or parking problems that we were warned about. We did have to stop a couple of times to let the bison cross the road - took a picture of one from about five feet away as he walked by the car window. With small kids, I think it would be great fun to actually stay in the park, and that would give you a lot more time to actually view the sights.

We did a float trip through the Tetons and really enjoyed it.

 

[tightasadrum]

This weekend there was an High Definition nature program on TV, I cannot remember which channel, that showed geology, history, sites etc about Yellowstone. It was a great program. I'm ready to go back again.(It's been over 25 years since I was last there.) Now if I can just figure out what to do with all the pets...

How have others solved this problem? Losing the pets is not an acceptable answer.

 

[FinanceDude]

We and our adult daughter made our first trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons this past summer, and it was well worth the 5000 mile round trip. We were there at the end of August, so we didn't experience the traffic jams or parking problems that we were warned about. We did have to stop a couple of times to let the bison cross the road - took a picture of one from about five feet away as he walked by the car window. With small kids, I think it would be great fun to actually stay in the park, and that would give you a lot more time to actually view the sights.

We did a float trip through the Tetons and really enjoyed it.

yup.....it's Yellowstone in 2009..........are going to Phoenix as family in 2008...........