Daley Family Travels

We started our trip off by visiting the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center where we talked over our options for the day and also picked up two Junior Ranger packets for our girls to work on. Because of coronavirus, the ranger gave us the girls’ badges ahead of time and we were to give them to the girls once they finished their booklets. Near Mormon Row is Menors Ferry Historic District, another homestead location that also has a working General Store (currently closed for COVID) and ferry. We felt like it was a great place to bring our kids and would love to come back and explore more next time.

From our site, we could walk down to Madison River and it was ideally situated in the park near the West Yellowstone entrance and not too far from Old Faithful. Parts of Yellowstone National Park are open year round, but most entrances open the beginning of May. Mid-summer will definitely be the busiest (with the nicest weather), while the shoulder seasons (late spring, early fall) will be far less busy, but with potentially unpredictable weather. it was practically empty and we saw a ton of animals (including baby bison!), but some roads were closed due to snow Overall, Yellowstone National Park is amazing and definitely worth a visit!

We had a really great time and I’m so glad we went when we did, because the park closed about two weeks after we got home. You can also get tickets from Costco or sometimes the hotels in the area also sell tickets (my in laws came with us to Disneyland and bought their tickets from our hotel lobby and got a great deal on them). We also figured that the girls would overall have more fun at this park as well and everyone was excited to check out the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It’s a free-fall type thrill ride (so not great for younger children) and was my favorite ride at CA Adventure.

The Grand Canyon has 3 rims– North, South (technically there are two entrances here), and West (this is owned by the Hualapai Indians, not the National Park Service). Aaron and I had visited the West rim previously before we had kids and it was gorgeous and really interesting learning more about the American Indian tribe, but this time we opted for the South Rim to try something new (and so our girls could get their Junior Ranger badges 😉). Then, we made sure to warm up by heading over to the Visitor’s Center and picking up the girls’ Junior Ranger packets. The girls both finished up their Junior Ranger packets (they now have a badge from Olympic, Rainier, Cascades, and the Grand Canyon) while we were there so that we could turn them in once we were back at the visitor center.