Camping in Cody, WY

My preference would be to spend the 1st 2 or 3 nights in 1 of the several Cody campgrounds, see the stuff in Cody and drive into the Park for a day, get oriented,etc. find out about all of the in-park campgrounds then go into 1 of the many Park campgrounds and use 1 of those for a base or 1 of the several Nat'l Forest campgrounds between Cody and the Park entrance. However, only 1 campground in the Park has any hook-ups(Fishing Bridge) and reservations probably needed.

We visited Cody for the rodeo but I wouldn't want to do that drive daily. I have info on our Yellowstone trip in my signature.

The drive to Yellowstone from Cody is about one hour just to the entrance. Then you have to plan on about another hour drive to get anywhere within the park. Add on the drive back to Cody and you can see why Cody is not a good home base for Yellowstone. However I recommend a stay in Cody just to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Just the gun museum portion of the Center alone will take a full day. Then you can move on to yellowstone and stay in the park for your visit there.

x3 (or more) Remember, given terrain, 2 lanes with other tourists ont he roads, wildlife, and speed limits, you won't be driving 50 miles in 50 minutes, or anything even close to that. If you want to basecamp outside Yellowstone for visiting the park, I strongly recommend West Yellowstone or Gardiner (North entrance) or Colter Bay area for South entrance, instead.

And yes, the Buffalo Bill Museum is a definite must!

Ponderosa Campground in Cody was very nice

We used Cody as a home base to do Yellowstone three years ago. It's about 50 miles to the gate and another 50 to Old Faithful. We did three trips into Yellowstone while we were there. Yes, it was a lot of driving but there was so much to see along the way. We love driving.

Also, we loved the Buffalo Bill Museum. The Night Rodeo was fun. There was also a nightly free wild-west-type show in front of the Irma Hotel.

We also took a trip to Thermopolis to swim in the hot spring pool and sightsee. It's about 1 1/2 hour drive each way.

Another spectacular drive is to take 120 to 308, take 308 over to Red Lodge and then south on 212 (Beartooth Hwy, I think it's called) to the north entrance of the park.

There are a lot of other things to do. You won't get bored.

We stayed at Yellowstone Valley last summer for two weeks. We used it as the base camp for our visit to Yellowstone and the surrounding area. There was a great deal of driving to get into and around Yellowstone. For us it was no big deal.

Cody was great to visit. The Buffalo Bill Museum was outstanding. We city slickers loved the rodeo. We visited the Internment Camp and learned a great deal. We loved the Beartooth Pass and Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.

When we return to the area we would not hesitate to repeat what we did again.

I agree with jamarynn1. We have been to Yellowstone several times, but never from the Cody side, so last year we did just that. While it was a pretty long drive, there is so much to see and we loved it. There is a ton to do in and around Cody. The Bear Tooth & Chief Joseph highways are a must do! The Cody museum is awesome. We went to The Old Trail Town, a tourist trap, but we enjoyed it. We stayed at the Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park. It is between Cody and Yellowstone. Have a great trip!

We stayed in Cody for 2 or 3 nights last year at Absaroka Bay RV Park, it was nice but a little "tight" but than so were the others we drove past too. It's very well managed. Would I stay there again? Yup I sure would!

There's a bunch of things to do and see just in Cody alone, plenty of good places to eat and of course there are a couple of shops too. :B

Buffalo Bill Museum is great, I'd plan on spending a couple of days going through there as it's pretty awesome! Go to the Irma Hotel for a lunch, another way cool thing to experience. The Old West Trail Town was another experience we enjoyed very much.

As for Yellowstone, it's a fair drive like others have said, it would make for a long day but would be doable. We drove through Yellowstone and stayed in West Yellowstone MT, made that our "base" and went back into Yellowstone from there, it's closer to the park and easy to drive. You'll be doing a LOT of driving in the park!

Dan

Stayed at the Ponderosa Campground last June, came out of Yellowstone. Easy walking distance to museum and not bad for downtown either. Good place for 3 day stay, would be a little far out for base camp to Yellowstone/Tetons. Although there are things to see and rides to take around the area.

OP, where are you coming from to get to Cody? I spent several days in Cody, then entered Yellowstone through the east gate and settled into Grizzly RV in West Yellowstone - for our Yellowstone base.