Island Park & West Yellowstone

The last week of school we took Cambree out early for a family vacation. We asked her months ago if she wanted to go to school for the last week or go camping, she said camping but before we left she said she had changed her mind. She loves school and wanted to go and say goodbye to her friends. Sadly for her we couldn't change our reservation, thankfully she got over it pretty fast!


We arrived in Island Park at the Uppercoffee Pot Campground. We just kept it pretty simple since we got in so late.

The next day we were off! We went to West Yellowstone and toured the Bear and Wolf Discovery Museum.

Afterwards we headed into Yellowstone. It was so pretty!

We saw lots of bison, they stopped traffic quite a bit!

We saw some hot pots and Old Faithful. We only waited about 35 minutes before it erupted. Cambree kept busy by putting lipgloss on.

We got home pretty late and took the kids to play in the river at our campsite. Rain was in the horizon but it was gorgeous with all the dark clouds.

Before we left the next morning, we did a bit of fishing. Benton caught some june suckers, not the prettiest fish but the kids were happy! We also had pelicans flying over our campground diving for fish.

We next morning we headed to Gallatin since I heard there was exceptional BBQ there. Unfortunately we arrived at noon and the restaurant didn't open till 3pm. If you know me, you know my love for good food. So Benton was kind enough to kill time in Big Sky, Montana till the restaurant opened. We found a fun park and the kids ran off the 90 minute car ride for food.

The next day we headed back to West Yellowstone to see more sites. We did the hike to The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The waterfall was breathtakingly beautiful. It was my favorite thing we saw in West Yellowstone.

The hot pots were pretty cool & incredibly hot!

We stopped a bit here and there to let the kids play and of course for Benton to throw in a quick cast. The fish were just not interested!

On the last day we took our kayak out to the lake to see if we could catch any fish. Sadly we didn't catch anything but it was fun to play on the beach and enjoy the sunny day!

Afterwards we got back to camp and decided to go on a 3 mile hike with the kids and let Benton attempt to catch some rainbow trouts that he knew were in the river. But of course they were being so stubborn and just wouldn't bite. But we enjoyed our time together talking and playing outside even if the fish didn't want to be caught.

We only did one fire the whole time we were there, we were just so dang busy!

And just like that our trip was over! It goes by so quickly but I know our camping trips are going to be some of the best memories of our lives! Sure love my family.