Campgrounds in Yellowstone...to reserve ahead or not?

Stayed 100% of my first trip to Yellowstone at Fishing Bridge back in 2004, fully reserved like you. Too cramped for my tastes, look at photos of Fishing Bridge full with RVs, rather than the post with empty spots. Have not returned Fishing Bridge since (except for dropping by for a shower or laundry). Determined that I was fine with dry camping (24'C, no toad), which opened up far more options in the park.

In the subsequent four trips, including the past couple years (August 2013 and July 2014), I started with a reservation somewhere in the park for a couple days, usually Madison if I can get it. This insures a spot even if you arrive late in the day. Rest of the nights were finding a spot at the first come first served campground in the park. Yes, except for Norris, they are all small (30 sites), but I was still able to get in if I was out on the road around sunrise, arriving before 8am at the next place. Sounds like you're an early riser anyway, so it's not a hardship.

Granted, the larger the rig, the fewer spots that you can make use of. Just about every campsite will accommodate a 24'C.

There are 7 campgrounds in Yellowstone that don't even accept reservations. Therefore, many people go there without reservations.

There are 5 campgrounds in Yellowstone that accept reservations.

I'm not saying you are guaranteed a site but this is just our experience. We've stayed in Yellowstone with our 40' motorhome about a dozen times and never had reservations. We've also stayed at Madison and Bridge Bay (reservable campgrounds) and didn't have reservations. We got sites because of cancellations.

What you need to do to get into a non-reservable campground is to stay outside the park nearby the previous night and move into Yellowstone early morning when folks are leaving.

We've also gotten sites in Baker's Hole national forest campground (not reservable) just outside of W. Yellowstone. It's a beauty right on the Madison River.

We rarely traveled with reservations in our 16 years of full-timing.

CloudDriver wrote:
In addition to Fishing Bridge, the Madison, Bridge Bay, Canyon and Grant campgrounds can be reserved and are much less expensive.

We stayed in Canyon (4 nights) and Madison (2 nights) back in June of 2010. Both of them were 100% booked when we arrived. I got reservations months in advance and it took all the worry about finding a place to stay each night away. No hook ups but Canyon had a nice restroom/shower area. I believe the cost for a shower was $3 and both Madison and Canyon had dumping stations and fresh water access. I only ran the generator about a hour a day just to charge the battery and so my wife could use her hair dryer in the mornings (big 80's hair!).

If you want to enjoy the park without the hassle keep your reservations. That is not much for the comfort of electric hookups. You will be touring most of the day but when you do get back "home" you can use all the conveniences of your RV.
I recommend keeping them!

Have a great time in the most beautiful park in America.

July is Yellowstone's busiest month.
No way I would go without reservations.

Just another option if it has not been mentioned and if you are towing a vehicle(I didn't notice what type of RV you had) but Baker's Hole outside of West Yellowstone does accept Golden Age, they do have water and electric sites and as I recall, they are first come, first served. We stayed their a coupe years ago and used it as our base camp...it required more driving but it sure is a beautiful CG right next to the Madison River. I realize that's still taking a chance on not getting a spot but thought I'd mention it anyways.

Avid hobbyist. My family is quite patient but Bridge Bay was nice because I could be out at first light for wildlife and then back to get them after breakfast. My family has sat in the car many a day at Tunnel View in Yosemite waiting for perfect light.

Wish I could have been in Grand Teton for morning and evening light but it was too far to be feasible to backtrack. When we lived in CA, I had the advantage of learning Yosemite and knowing my way around and where to be at what times. Of course the valley is small compared to any NP, much less Yellowstone.

Outdoor Photographer.....thanks. Another poster (Golden_HVAC) was mentioning dry camping and said "I did not mind finding a wide spot on a fire road". That was what I thought was meant by dry camping....boondocking basically. Thanks for the clarification.

I see that you're a photographer? Avid hobbyist or professional?

When I said dry camping, I meant campground with no hookups.

Gosh, so many replies! Thanks, folks! Rather than trying to answer you individually, since many of you made similar comments, I'll try to explain my reasoning for the original post. We've been to Yellowstone twice before....once camping at Fishing Bridge, and once staying in Gardiner. So we're familiar with how long it takes to get places. So we would like to stay inside the park if possible. But we'll be coming from the Black Hills area, and Cody, and there (because at Cody is over July 4th), we're also paying nearly $40-50 per night. A month of paying rates like that doesn't make camping very affordable. We're only just now getting seriously into camping with the RV on long distances, and we had hoped we could pay less per night for camping.

Since we have a generator, and since we are NEVER at the campground or hotel when we're in Yellowstone, we just hated to spend that much if we would be out in the park all day. We usually keep a cooler with us for food, and since we're avid photographers we like to be out early and late in the day. So we have pretty long days!

But I see the point many of you made. Why risk it? I guess we should go for the sure thing. And I like the idea of spending some time in West Yellowstone. Perhaps I could shorten our stay at Fishing Bridge and while there only do things closer to that part of the park. Then we could move west and stay a few more days to see the geyser areas and such.

Unfortunately, the only park that had any availability for reservations during the time we need was Fishing Bridge. I can keep calling to check and see if any other campgrounds become available. That could save us a bunch of money. But I certainly won't cancel Fishing Bridge until I have something else definitive lined up.

A couple of you mentioned dry camping. Do they allow that in Yellowstone? I didn't think they did. Please advise.

Again, thank you all for your advice and suggestions!