Guided Adventures Yellowstone avoid crowds
How much longer?
It is the familiar lament heard from parents that their cars creep forward in traffic on the roads in Yellowstone National Park – some 466 miles – as vehicles slow gawk at the wildlife.
But we are running. Together with our Austin-Lehman Adventures guides, Matty Kirkland and Katie Gugliotta, we have kayaking on Yellowstone Lake to a wilderness camp called 7M7. We paddle five miles from the point where a fishing boat sank in us and to spy osprey and deer along the way, but no other people. We will spend the next two nights in tents with outdoor potty, no shower, no Internet or cell service, and we can not wait, especially since we do not have to set up tents or cook. Is that a bald eagle flying over your head? Wow!
There are many remote campsites along the big lake, which stretches 20 miles north to south and 14 miles east to west and offers 141 miles of the coast – and we are about as far from the crowds as we can get. Last year, Yellowstone, a record 3.6 million visitors, setting visitation records for the third time in four years. National Park Service recorded 906,935 visitors in July – the second highest monthly level ever visit, but down slightly from last summer – booking in park lodges are sometimes difficult to obtain.
When we visited last week in July, the park is filled with families – particularly around the Old Faithful (only one of the park's 300 geysers) and the new children's discovery area at Old Faithful Visitor Center. And despite plenty of room to get away from the crowds – Yellowstone stretches 3472 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho with 1,000 miles of trails – The National Park Service, says the vast majority of visitors do not get more than a quarter of a mile from the road, although only about 3 percent of the large park can be seen from this vantage point.
The Way That's why we decided to let Austin Lehman way. The company has been guiding families in Yellowstone for 25 years – several hundred a summer – and even if they offer trips all over the world, including many specifically for families, Montana and Yellowstone remains their most popular trips (look for an extra Montana family route next summer to include more camping) if you log on to tour with other families or organize a trip just for your family, as we have. Our family trip included my cousin Jayme and Mike Sitzman from Denver and their children, Ethan, 9, and Hannah, 6.
"The guides were able to get places that we would not even have noticed if we were alone," said Katherine Shatrau, visiting from suburban Chicago. She was only terminate an Austin-Lehman trip with her husband and 7-year-old son at Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa just outside Yellowstone.
"This trip was no stress at all," Shatrau to. "No problem about where to get gas, whether we were lost. All we had to do was wake up and take with our camera / water bottle / sense of adventure!"
Mike Sitzman agreed. The guides meant that he could focus on having fun with their children in such an iconic and memorable place instead of sweating the details. "And it was great," he said. Just as significant, with the friendly guides in the lead, did the kids do not whine or squabble (much anyway), does not seem to want electronics can not live without a home.
When we spied a bear by the way, did Matty Kirkland a U-turn (no small feat with a van and trailer), parked and ran up the hill to create a space so we could watch from a safe distance (Park rangers say visitors should be at least a football field away) while he chowed down on the greens in a field of flowers. When it was time for kids to sworn in as junior rangers, Gugliotta and Kirkland whispered in the Ranger's ear to "make a production" of it, exciting the children and makes everyone around us smile as they hand over their coveted Ranger badge.
Keeping children occupied Our guides knew exactly where to hunt frogs and honest animal balloon for a scavenger hunt at our camp, they had a magnifying glass at the ready for nature walks, so they could see up close the bugs and flowers and the children helped construct a bona fide arc from the rock along a trail and snapped pictures the whole way, put them together on one CD that they gave us at the end of the journey to chronicle our adventures.
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"With children, it is always about the journey, not the goal," said Matty Kirkland, who has been guiding families for Austin Lehman for 15 years.
Sure it costs more to tour the park in this way (usually $ 400 per person per day, less for children), but that includes everything – accommodation (no worries here about getting rooms at the Park Lodges), star meals (how about a taco picnic while the kids bang away at a piñata in the picnic area?), activities (We finished the trip with a peaceful raft trip down the Yellowstone River) and most important knowledgeable guides who not only interpret what we see (did you know pine sap makes good chewing gum?) , but also entertains the children with a never-ending source of jokes, riddles, songs, riding piggyback and snacks.
Of course there were bugs. The mosquitoes were terrible at our campsite. The crew who set up our camp did not give the promised fishing rods for children. A hot springs where we planned to swim in the park was closed due to high water. However, because our guides were always ready with a plan B (ready to fly a kite instead of fish) such as might have derailed another trip turned out to be only minor annoyances, and the adults can relax instead scramble for alternatives.
Other thoughtful concern made us all smile. Think homemade ice cream made with a special REI gadget and served in cones on top of a hiking trail with the bright turquoise Grand Prismatic Spring – the third largest hot spring in the world – spread out in all its glory below us or yogurt presented parfaits on a silver platter during a waterfall.
"Absolutely worth the money," said Atlantans Tim Mast, whose Austin Lehman family trip also overlapped ours. His wife and three daughters had such a good time – their first on a group trip – they were already thinking about next summer.
Our last morning in Yellowstone, 9-year-old Ethan declared, "It's better than Disney World, I do not want to leave."
© 2011 Eileen Ogintz … Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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