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Montana

Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family

Program No. 20977RJ
Explore the wonders of Yellowstone National Park with your family as you horseback ride, hike, raft the Yellowstone River and learn about geysers, hot springs and fumaroles!
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Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
Yellowstone: A Great Outdoor Adventure With Your Family
National Parks Family Programs Small Group Ages 9 – 18
Length
6 days
Rating (5)
Activity Level
Starts at
2,999 / ADULT
1,999 / CHILD

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Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone? 800-454-5768
climate
Plan ahead.
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Age 9 - 18
ROOMING OPTION PRICING
The figures below indicate the rooming options available.
DATES
Jul 3 - Jul 8, 2023
Per Adult
2,999
Per Child
1,999
Select
Jul 3 - Jul 8, 2023
2,999
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
2,999
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
3,649
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
SOLD OUT
Filling Fast!
Jul 17 - Jul 22, 2023
Per Adult
2,999
Per Child
1,999
Select
Jul 17 - Jul 22, 2023
2,999
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
2,999
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
3,649
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
Limited Space
Jul 31 - Aug 5, 2023
Per Adult
2,999
Per Child
1,999
Select
Jul 31 - Aug 5, 2023
2,999
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
2,999
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
3,649
/ Adult
1,999
/ Child
SOLD OUT
Jun 17 - Jun 22, 2024
Per Adult
3,249
Per Child
2,199
Select
Jun 17 - Jun 22, 2024
3,249
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
3,249
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
3,899
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
Select Date
Jul 1 - Jul 6, 2024
Per Adult
3,249
Per Child
2,199
Select
Jul 1 - Jul 6, 2024
3,249
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
3,249
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
3,899
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
Select Date
Jul 22 - Jul 27, 2024
Per Adult
3,249
Per Child
2,199
Select
Jul 22 - Jul 27, 2024
3,249
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
3,249
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
3,899
/ Adult
2,199
/ Child
Select Date
Deposit, Transfer & Cancellation Policy
Optional Trip Protection Plan
Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone? 800-454-5768
6 days
5 nights
14 meals
5B 4L 5D
1
Check-in, Program Registration, Welcome Dinner, Orientation
Gardiner, MT
2
Discover the Mammoth Area and Norris Geyser Basin.
Gardiner, MT
3
Old Faithful Area, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Gardiner, MT
4
Yellowstone Park morning hike, Rafting & Riverside Camp-Out
Gardiner, MT
5
Rafting, Horseback Adventure, Cowboy Cookout
Gardiner, MT
6
Program Concludes
Gardiner, MT
View Full Itinerary

At a Glance

Tie up your hiking boots, hop on horseback and climb into a whitewater raft to explore America’s first national park on foot, horse and water. With your family by your side, take part in hands-on explorations of Yellowstone National Park in streamside habitats and forested mountains. Find out how the plants, animals, bugs, fish, water and weather patterns all work together to create this fascinating ecosystem. Plus, visit Old Faithful — the world’s most famous geyser — to investigate hissing fumaroles, steaming geysers, sulfurous mudpots and bubbling hot springs.
Activity Level
Outdoor: Spirited
Walking up to three miles on moderate terrain. Horseback riding one hour. Whitewater rafting seven miles on Class II/III waters. Long distances travelled by large motorcoach. Elevations of 5,200-7,700 feet.
Small Group
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Experience the exciting Class II and Class III rapids of the Yellowstone River on a rafting excursion, and enjoy a picnic lunch along the river.
  • Make trailside discoveries in the high country as you ride horses together, and end the ride with a cowboy cookout.
  • Set up camp along the river as you take in a Montana sunset and sleep under a star-filled night sky.

General Notes

This is a Family program for participants, their adult children and grandchildren ages 9 and up. For a comparable intergenerational adventure for just grandparents and grandchildren, check out "Yellowstone’s Great Outdoors With Your Grandchild" (#17306). For a Yellowstone program with younger grandchildren (ages 8-11) see "Wildlife & Geysers: Yellowstone With Your Younger Grandchild" (#14910).
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Mike Rosekrans
Mike Rosekrans received his bachelor's in outdoor recreation from Winona State University and moved west to pursue his passion of teaching in the mountains and forests of the Western U.S. In 2016, Mike earned an M.Ed from Western Washington University where developed an interest in the ecology and natural history of grizzly bears. He spent a summer in Denali National Park before moving to Yellowstone, where he realized his dream of teaching programs related to grizzly bears while developing and implementing youth programs within Yellowstone.

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

Profile Image of Zack Baker
Zack Baker View biography
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.
Profile Image of Virginia Shoup
Virginia Shoup View biography
Virginia Shoup comes to Yellowstone with a long history in outdoor education and the Girl Scouts. She first worked in the park in 2012, thinking it would be a fun summer job. After falling in love with the animals, thermals, and even the lodgepole pines, she never left. Over her years as a Yellowstone naturalist, Virginia has worked with families, teachers, school groups, and everyone in between. She uses her degree in theater to make the natural world come alive for students of all ages.
Profile Image of Mike Rosekrans
Mike Rosekrans View biography
Mike Rosekrans received his bachelor's in outdoor recreation from Winona State University and moved west to pursue his passion of teaching in the mountains and forests of the Western U.S. In 2016, Mike earned an M.Ed from Western Washington University where developed an interest in the ecology and natural history of grizzly bears. He spent a summer in Denali National Park before moving to Yellowstone, where he realized his dream of teaching programs related to grizzly bears while developing and implementing youth programs within Yellowstone.
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.
Search for a Title
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.
Super Volcano: The Ticking Time Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park
by Greg Breining
Yellowstone sits atop one of the world’s five super volcanoes. The Yellowstone volcano has erupted about every 600,000 years and is now about 30,000 years overdue. The author suggests that the Yellowstone caldera is potentially the most explosive, most violent, most deadly active volcano on the planet and what will happen, in human terms, when it does erupt. Find out more as the author describes how volcanoes function and explains complicated and violent geological processes, the important field of plate tectonics and more.
National Geographic special issue - Yellowstone
by David Quammen
Divided into three parts and an epilogue, this issue spotlights Yellowstone National Park and includes, of course, marvelous photography. Part one - The Paradox of the Park explores the concept of why "What wilderness means to people has steadily changed since Yellowstone National Park was founded." Part two - Into the Backcountry considers how "Yellowstone has become a natural laboratory for tracing the delicate web of relationships that keep an ecosystem alive and healthy." Part three - Living With the Wild shows how "Yellowstone's wildlife is adapting to its changing realities" and why "Now people must adapt as well if the park is to remain untamed - and intact."
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.
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.
Mountain Spirit: The Sheep Eater Indians of Yellowstone
by Lawrence Loendorf and Nancy Medaris Stone
Drawing on the results of ongoing archaeological excavations and extensive ethnographic work among descendant native peoples, the authors discuss the many Indian groups, in particular the Tukudika Shoshone, who visited or lived in the Yellowstone area in prehistoric and historic times. The Tukudika or Sheep Eaters made skillful use of their environment and maintained an abundant way of life closely related to their primary source of protein, the mountain sheep of high-altitude Yellowstone.
Letters from Yellowstone
by Diane Smith
Through correspondence - detailed letters and telegrams - follow an 1898 scientific expedition whose purpose is to collect flora unique to Yellowstone National Park. Learn of the park's early history, trials of pioneer scientists and the engrossing and often funny story of Cornell medical student and amateur botanist, Alexandria Bartram, who emerges as a brave leader and serious scientist. Delightful fiction.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country
by William Fritz & Robert Thomas
Updated, classic roadside geology book for the Yellowstone Region explains current geological theories.
Scats and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains
by James Halfpenny
Scats and tracks have a story to tell and the author, a nationally renowned tracker, teaches the reader how to read signs to figure out who passed by. Includes written descriptions, track and gait pattern illustrations, glossary and more.
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.
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