Olympic vs Yellowstone
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Anonymous
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Planning a national park trip for summer 2026. I'm interested in Olympic and maybe another northwestern park or two - the variety of landscapes looks amazing and we could visit a friend or two in Portland if we flew in there. My tween is interested in Yellowstone because he learned about it in school and thinks it "sounds really cool." I'm not as excited about it, but we could also hit Grand Teton, which looks stunning.
We're looking at about 1-2 weeks during peak season, unfortunately. Kids are elementary aged, can hike a few miles but nothing too challenging. Where did you love, and why? Help me decide! |
Anonymous
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I love Olympic NP. It has everything- snow capped mountains, forests, mountain lakes, rainforests and some of the most spectacular coastline in the country.
Compared to other parks in Western U.S., Yellowstone really didn’t do a lot for me. There is a lot of wildlife to view, but the mountains aren’t as spectacular. |
Anonymous
| I want to go to Olympic but it seems so big I am daunted in planning. Any advice? |
Anonymous
Thanks - this is what reading about the parks has made me think about the landscapes. But my kid is curious about stuff so I don't want to write that off either. |
Anonymous
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Completely different experiences. There really isn't much like Yellowstone on the planet. It's a geologic anomaly, frankly. It's worth visiting at some point.
For actual outdoor activities (hiking, backpacking, etc), the PNW is amazing. You could visit some of the falls on the Gorge from Portland (and hike up Multnomah), the Olympics are pretty cool but you get more reliably good views of the mountains from east of the part...and there is nothing like Mt. Rainier NP in the summer. If your kid wants to visit Yellowstone, though, I'd go there. |
Anonymous
| We visited Yellowstone with our kids and LOVED it! |
Anonymous
| We did two weeks in Yellowstone, grand Teton and jackson hole and it was my kids favorite vacation. They were 12 and 8 at the time. There are a lot of easier hikes you can do and everything is gorgeous. |
Anonymous
| We spent 10 days in Yellowstone/Tetons and our 6-9 year olds loved it. We are a hiking family and put a lot of miles on in Tetons but and thought Yellowstone offered a lot of options for short/easy walking. This year we did all 3 Washington parks with tweens and absolutely loved Olympic. We spent 4 days there and every day was completely different. However, we also woke up at 5 am most days to avoid the crowds. Arriving mid day to Hoh rain forest can lead to hours long wait times to get in. Both yellowstone and Olympic require a lot of drive time to get around. We stayed in both parks in multiple spots to try and reduce drive times which worked well. |
Anonymous
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Been to both, multiple times. They are great! So much for kids to explore. Some highlights for our kids in each park:
Olympic - beachcombing along the Pacific Ocean, short hike in rainforest, kayaking mountain lakes, sweeping views at Hurricane Ridge, drive on ferry boat ride. They also remember LOTS of driving because it is huge. Yellowstone and Grand Teton - geyser fields, short hikes above geyser pools, guided wildlife tour where we saw bison and wolves and more, river rafting in Tetons, elk. It is also a huge park. Keep in mind that driving times can easily be thrown off by entertaining "bison jams." For popular sites, consider early morning and evening visits to miss crowds. Both are fantastic. Enjoy! |
Anonymous
Dirt in My Shoes or We're in the Rockies both have inexpensive, well thought out itineraries. |
Anonymous
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You really can't go wrong with either vacation. The Washington trip was my favorite family trip. In addition to the Olympics, we did Rainier and the San Juan Islands, and did a day trip with a hike in the North Cascades. In the Olympics you get the amazing diversity from the coastline to the rainforest to the mountains. We did berry picking in Sequim as a little side trip. The ferry trips are fun if you are crossing water (though I imagine they get boring as a regular commute for the locals!). We did a whale watching trip from the San Juans which was very successful.
Yellowstone is great because it is like multiple parks in one. You have the underground geologic features like the geysers and springs, you have the mountains/canyon/hiking for exploration, and then the hoards of bison and other animals. We did 4 days (2 nights in West Yellowstone, 2 nights at Canyon Village) and felt that we got enough of the park. If you are avid hikers, you can certainly take more time. The Tetons are breathtaking. You can plan as much time around there as you want, but you'll just want to soak in the scenery. |
Anonymous
| We did 10 days in Yellowstone with grandparents, siblings + spouses and all the kids/cousins, and we could have stayed longer. It was amazing, everyone had a fantastic time, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Don't skimp out at Yellowstone. And, Old Faithful is the least exciting thing there |
Anonymous
Thanks! |
Anonymous
Wow! Long trip! What did you do? What was exciting for different ages? I assume not backpacking (which we aren't going to try given the age of my youngest). |
Anonymous
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We did a 10 day trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone with ES age kids and we all loved it. Grand Teton has great views and Yellowstone has the wildlife and geothermal features. We stayed in in-park lodging at both.
We have an upcoming trip to Olympic so I can’t compare the two. See what kind of lodging you can get at this point. |