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Montana

Wildlife & Geysers: Yellowstone With Your Younger Grandchild

Program No. 14910RJ

Get to know Yellowstone with your grandchild as you kayak, ride horses, discover spouting geysers, watch for bears, wolves and bison, and earn your Junior Ranger badge!

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6 days

5 nights

14 meals

5B 4L 5D

Check-in, Registration, Welcome Dinner, Orientation

West Yellowstone, MT

Intro. to Yellowstone, Grizzlies & Wolves

West Yellowstone, MT

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Norris Geyser Basin

West Yellowstone, MT

Yellowstone Lake, Kayaking

West Yellowstone, MT

Horseback Riding, Bicycling

West Yellowstone, MT

Program Concludes

West Yellowstone, MT

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At a Glance

Explore the wild wonders of Yellowstone National Park with your grandchild. Investigate bubbling mud pots, hissing steam vents, spouting geysers, thundering waterfalls, animal diets and more during hands-on activities. Get a close-up look at the park’s carnivores at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, discover how to recognize rarely seen animals using silhouettes and tracks. Spend the week learning from an expert naturalist and park rangers as you work towards your very own Junior Ranger badge!

Activity Level

Outdoor: Spirited

Hiking up to two miles daily on varied terrain; some inclines and stairs. One-hour horseback ride and kayaking four hours. Elevations of 6,666-7,800 feet.

Best of all, you’ll…

Connect with your inner cowboy on a horseback ride through prime wildlife habitats, and keep your eyes open for fox and other fur bearers along the way.
Grab a paddle and hit the water on a kayaking excursion on Yellowstone Lake. You WILL get wet!
Identify Yellowstone’s elk, bison, marmots, pronghorns and birds of prey using spotting scopes with the help of a naturalist.

General Notes

Program is for grandchildren ages 8-11. For a Yellowstone program for older grandchildren (ages 9-12) check out "Yellowstone’s Great Outdoors With Your Grandchild" (#17306). For a family adventure for all generations, check out "Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family" (#20977).

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Zack Baker

Zack Baker attended high school in Livingston, Montana, 52 miles north of Yellowstone. His love for the park started while snowshoeing and observing wildlife. At Montana State University in Bozeman, he earned a B.S. in plant science, but it was Yellowstone’s mammals that grabbed his interest. He led private wildlife watching, hiking, and photography trips, and drove snowcoaches in the winter. He joined up with Road Scholar in 2017 and is now the Program Director for Road Scholar at the University of Montana Western.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Zack Baker View biography

Heidi Schwandt View biography

Heidi Schwandt's upbringing on cattle ranches in Southwestern Montana gave her the freedom to explore the woods and mountains. A short stint with the Forest Service on a trail maintenance crew solidified her love of hiking. Heidi has been instructing Alpine skiing for more than a decade, including a women-only skiing program she piloted at her local mountain. Two decades as a 4-H volunteer have showcased her passion for connecting with people and inspiring them to learn by doing.

Suggested Reading List (11 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Wildlife & Geysers: Yellowstone With Your Younger Grandchild

Program Number: 14910

It Happened in Yellowstone: Remarkable Events That Shaped History

by Erin Turner

Discover true tales from Yellowstone's past that shaped its history including geologic events like the volcanic eruption that formed Yellowstone over 600,000 years ago and the massive 1959 earthquake that created Quake Lake. Read about wildlife, the historic Nez Perce flight and early tourists, Truman Everts-lost in Yellowstone and a great stagecoach robbery.

Yellowstone National Park (True Books: National Parks)

by David Peterson

Ages 7 and up. An introduction to Yellowstone National Park includes a look at its thermal features, wildlife, habitat and human history. Includes map, index, related titles, important terms and online sites.

Watching Yellowstone and Teton Wildlife: The Best Places to Look From Roads and Trails

by Todd Wilkinson and Michael L. Francis

Pack this guidebook, along with your binoculars and enthusiasm, when visiting both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The authors identify numerous viewing areas for optimum wildlife watching and have included maps, color photographs, samples of animal tracks, driving tours, hikes and animal descriptions including behavioral information.

Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country

by William Fritz & Robert Thomas

Updated, classic roadside geology book for the Yellowstone Region explains current geological theories.

Decade of the Wolf, revised and updated edition: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone

by Douglas W. Smith and Gary Ferguson

Research and storytelling meld to document wolf recovery in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wolf biologist, Smith, and nature writer, Ferguson, provide an inside look at the Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Project ten years after the controversial decision was made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to reintroduce wolves into the park. Smith, wolf project leader who has worked with the Yellowstone Wolf Project since its inception, has studied wolves for 25 years. Ferguson, whose writing largely arises from intimate experiences, followed through the seasons, the first 14 wolves released into Yellowstone National Park. Their collaboration offers hard facts and 'impressionistic portraits of individual wolves that reveal their epic lives full of struggle and conquest.' Here is the history of the return of the top predator to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Place Names, 2nd edition

by Lee Whittlesey

Yellowstone National Park Historian's well-researched and entertaining reference source for information on many of Yellowstone's place names and their origins.

After the Fires: The Ecology of Change in Yellowstone National Park

by Linda Wallace, Editor

The ravaging fires of 1988 caused many scientists to predict long-term devastation which did not come to pass. This scientific summary by wildlife biologists, ecosystem and forest scientists and landscape ecologists discusses the many things that changed and did not change in the Yellowstone area. Realize the role of fire in the ecosystem and the resiliency of nature.

To Save the Wild Bison: Life on the Edge in Yellowstone

by Mary Ann Franke

The author brings clarity and revelation to one of Yellowstone's most complex struggles by tracing the history of bison and humans into the 19th century and further into the national parks era. Here's discussion of bison management and park policy - the battle over brucellosis, snowmobiles and groomed winter roads, desires of Native Americans, bison and predators.

Hey Ranger? Kids Ask Questions About Yellowstone National Park

by Kim Justesen

Here are real questions - some smart and some silly - that kids ask rangers every day. This well researched, educational guide is fun to read and filled with fascinating facts and amusing anecdotes.

Who Pooped in the Park? Yellowstone National Park: Scat and Tracks for Kids

by Gary Robson and Elijah Brady Clark

Accurate information that is fun to read. Kids will learn how to identify critter scat and tracks in a straight forward manner. Lots of extra detail is included such as how to tell the difference between similar looking tracks, why wolf scat has hair in it and much more.

Lost in Yellowstone, Truman Everts' Thirty-seven Days of Peril

by Lee Whittlesey, editor

Read this true life adventure of the fifty-four year-old, nearsighted Truman Everts who visited the Yellowstone area with an exploration party in 1870. Although he was an inexperienced woodsman, he was determined to map and investigate the grand and mysterious Yellowstone country. After becoming separated from his party and abandoned by his horse, he wandered Yellowstone for thirty-seven days, injured, alone and with little food and shelter. Lee Whittlesey, Yellowstone National Park's historian, edited Everts' story which records one of the American frontier's most grueling survival adventures. Appreciate many early day photographs of Yellowstone National Park which illustrate the book.

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Wildlife & Geysers: Yellowstone With Your Younger Grandchild

Enroll with Confidence

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

General Notes

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