Yellowstone and Grand Teton from Denver
We're from UK and planning to pick up a Cruise America C25 RV from Denver in late May for a 4 or 5 week tour to include Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We've used an RV in USA before and generally like t...
Forum Discussion
You may already have this info, but, to help plan your route, you should visit:
http://coloradobirdingtrail.com/
http://dfobirds.org/
DFO is "Denver Field Ornithologists" and, if you would like a local contact name and phone number from that group, please PM me. They have field events most weeks during the year and you may want to join them for one or two while you are in the Denver area.
If US 34 is still closed ("Trail Ridge Road" through Rocky Mountain NP tries to open for Memorial Day weekend), I believe that US 287 through Lander, Wyoming, with a stay at Colter Bay, is the most scenic route from Denver. However, I would modify that route in Colorado and southern Wyoming by leaving US 287 at Fort Collins and taking CO Highway 14 over Cameron Pass to Steamboat Springs or Saratoga, WY. You will cross North Park, which is a major waterfowl area with numerous wildlife refuges. The Colorado State Forest, which you will also pass through on CO 14, has the largest moose population in Colorado and a campground with electrical hookups. Go to ReserveAmerica.com to check campground availability during your time period.
You can pick up US 287 again at Rawlins, WY. From Rawlins to Lander is open grassland and desert, but gives you a good feel for what much of the West is really like. Near Sweetwater Station, the highway crosses the early 19th Century Oregon/California Trail, Pony Express, and Overland Stagecoach routes.
If you are coming back to Denver after your Yellowstone and Grand Teton visit, you might want to return on the route I just proposed instead of going north on it. Instead, you might want to go north on I-25 to Sheridan, WY, then on US 14 to Greybull and Cody. I suggest going west because that is the "downhill" direction on this very steep road through the Bighorn Mountains. Climbing that grade from west to east will cost you a lot more for fuel!
As suggested by others, Cody is well worth a two- or three-day stop. You can spend that long just getting through all the different parts of the Buffalo Bill Museum. When you leave Cody, go northwest on WY 120, MT 72, and MT 308 to Red Lodge, Montana. From there, take US 212 (the Beartooth Highway) to Cooke City, MT, where you will enter Yellowstone NP via the little-used northeast entrance. You will be going uphill on the steep hairpin turns by going this direction, but that is better than downhill in an RV. Just be sure to stop frequently to enjoy the unbelievable scenery along this route.
If you take these routes coming and going, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have when I travel them!
http://coloradobirdingtrail.com/
http://dfobirds.org/
DFO is "Denver Field Ornithologists" and, if you would like a local contact name and phone number from that group, please PM me. They have field events most weeks during the year and you may want to join them for one or two while you are in the Denver area.
If US 34 is still closed ("Trail Ridge Road" through Rocky Mountain NP tries to open for Memorial Day weekend), I believe that US 287 through Lander, Wyoming, with a stay at Colter Bay, is the most scenic route from Denver. However, I would modify that route in Colorado and southern Wyoming by leaving US 287 at Fort Collins and taking CO Highway 14 over Cameron Pass to Steamboat Springs or Saratoga, WY. You will cross North Park, which is a major waterfowl area with numerous wildlife refuges. The Colorado State Forest, which you will also pass through on CO 14, has the largest moose population in Colorado and a campground with electrical hookups. Go to ReserveAmerica.com to check campground availability during your time period.
You can pick up US 287 again at Rawlins, WY. From Rawlins to Lander is open grassland and desert, but gives you a good feel for what much of the West is really like. Near Sweetwater Station, the highway crosses the early 19th Century Oregon/California Trail, Pony Express, and Overland Stagecoach routes.
If you are coming back to Denver after your Yellowstone and Grand Teton visit, you might want to return on the route I just proposed instead of going north on it. Instead, you might want to go north on I-25 to Sheridan, WY, then on US 14 to Greybull and Cody. I suggest going west because that is the "downhill" direction on this very steep road through the Bighorn Mountains. Climbing that grade from west to east will cost you a lot more for fuel!
As suggested by others, Cody is well worth a two- or three-day stop. You can spend that long just getting through all the different parts of the Buffalo Bill Museum. When you leave Cody, go northwest on WY 120, MT 72, and MT 308 to Red Lodge, Montana. From there, take US 212 (the Beartooth Highway) to Cooke City, MT, where you will enter Yellowstone NP via the little-used northeast entrance. You will be going uphill on the steep hairpin turns by going this direction, but that is better than downhill in an RV. Just be sure to stop frequently to enjoy the unbelievable scenery along this route.
If you take these routes coming and going, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have when I travel them!
