Will your children remember family vacations when they are grownups? Travel experts Pauline Frommer and Beth Harpaz contribute to our list of destinations that will make a big impression on the little ones, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Grand Canyon.

Going to Yellowstone, located mostly in Wyoming, is like going on safari. “I can think of few vacation destinations with as much variety for families,” said Pauline Frommer, Bing Travel contributor and creator of the Pauline Frommer guidebooks. Frommer’s daughter loved Yellowstone’s volcanic landscape, bubbling mud pits and unpredictable geysers. She enjoyed getting stuck in a “traffic jam” of bison, hearing wolves howling in the distance, encountering moose and finding huge animal scat right outside the tent in the morning. “It’s an amazing place to take your kids,” Frommer said.

The Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, Australia, is so large that it can be seen from space. It’s 1,260 miles long and home to thousands of separate reefs. It also lives large in the imagination. “My older son visited at age 13 on a youth trip,” said Beth Harpaz, Associated Press travel editor. “Four years later, he’s still talking about it, and there is no other snorkeling experience that can compare, according to him. He said it was like swimming in an aquarium.”

While the concept of the Continental Divide might be a big yawn to kids, the scenery won’t be. The line that separates watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from the river system that drains into the Atlantic or Arctic oceans is a great place to see gorgeous mountain scenery. Take the kids and check out the peaks of the U.S. and Canadian Rockies, including this scenic overlook in Banff National Park.

Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state can keep the kids entertained all year long. In winter, the Paradise Visitor Center beckons with copious amounts of snow for sledding, snowshoeing or snowball fights. In summer, kids can easily catch sight of elk, deer, and whistling marmots (a kind of rodent). Some trails are accessible for strollers and small children, including Trail of the Shadows (in the Longmire area), Grove of the Patriarchs (near Ohanapecosh), and Emmons Vista (near Sunrise).

This 277-mile-long Arizona canyon simply dazzles both adults and children. “When we were there the spring before last, all my 10-year-old wanted to do was take pictures,” said Pauline Frommer, Bing Travel contributor and creator of the Pauline Frommer guidebooks. “She was simply awestruck by the beauty of the place and wanted to capture it to show her friends.” Frommer’s two daughters loved hiking into the canyon and were proud of their bravery and stamina, climbing downward for an hour and then up for 1.5 hours. “They didn't have a single squabble that entire hike, which for a nearly 3-hour period is unusual for the two of them.”

The Samburu National Reserve in Kenya is home to all three big cats — lions, cheetahs and leopards. It was one of the two areas in which conservationists George and Joy Adamson raised Elsa the Lioness, made famous in the book and movie “Born Free.” Families can also thrill to sightings of elephants, buffalos, hippos and giraffes.

Admiralty Island is home to about 1,600 brown bears, the highest density of these creatures in North America. The Pack Creek Brown Bear Viewing Area allows visitors to view them from a safe distance. If you’re taking a cruise to Alaska, this trip is often available as a shore excursion. You’ll take a floatplane into the wilds for viewings of bears, bald eagles — and possibly humpback whales.

The Redwood national and state parks boast the tallest tree species on Earth, aka Sequoia sempervirens, in addition to Roosevelt elk, bald eagles, and the northern spotted owl. Beth Harpaz, Associated Press travel editor, took her family there recently. “My younger son loved it — trees so tall you can hardly see the tops.” Her whole family held hands and tried to encircle a redwood but still couldn’t get their arms around it.