10 Tips For Viewing Wildlife at Yellowstone National Park- Family Travel

Yellowstone is over 2 million acres and has tons of wildlife.  Our family had an amazing time seeing all sorts of animals in their natural surroundings.  Here are some tips for seeing the wildlife in Yellowstone.

1. 1. Safety first! Remember, these are wild animals.  Stay in your car and a safe distance away. Stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards away from other large mammals like bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and coyotes.
   2. Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley have a ton of wildlife and is also a beautiful drive.  Hayden Valley is on the Grand Loop and is a little easier to drive through if you are not venturing to the northern part of the park.  
   3. Be sure to not stop in the middle of the road.  The park has pullouts for you to pullover and stop. 
   4. Cars pulled over in the pullouts is a great indicator that there is an animal nearby to view.  If you are out looking for animals, this is a good way to get your feet wet, just pullover when you see others do it.
   5. Bring binoculars! Some of the animals are very far away, but binoculars let you see them up close, like the wolf we got to view.  It was truly amazing!
   6. I feel like this is common sense, but NEVER FEED THE WILDLIFE! It is bad for everyone involved, so just be responsible and don’t do it.
   7. A camera with a telephoto lens will help you get great shots of animals far away.
   8. Have patience, but I promise you will see wildlife.  We saw 3 female moose with a baby moose in the first 15 minutes of being inside the gates of Yellowstone.  Shortly after that we saw the wolf.  Each day we saw lots of wildlife.  In Hayden Valley we saw lots of bison and Elk.  We went at the end of June and their was so many of young bison in Hayden Valley with the herds. 
   9. The bison aren’t always in groups.  We saw one by itself several times in the Old Faithful area and one in the Lake Village area hanging out near the general store.

Be careful while driving.  We saw a red fox and it all of a sudden darted across the road almost getting hit by another car.  Bison are also often hanging out on or near the roads.  Keep the animals and yourself safe while driving responsibly.My whole family agreed that driving around and seeing the wildlife was our favorite part. You can’t see animals in their natural surroundings like this at a zoo. 

Have you visited Yellowstone and have a favorite animal siting?