Camping in Cody, WY

Years ago, I worked in Yellowstone NP and stayed in West Yellowstone, Gardiner, and Canyon Village. Cody and Colter Bay (Teton NP) were too far from our worksite to commute on a daily basis. As others have said, Fishing Bridge is the only campground in the park with electricity, but, if your RV is less than about 30 ft. and self-contained, you can stay in nearly every gorgeous campground in the park.

Since Yellowstone is the size of many Eastern states, I personally would not just pick one campground and drive around the park from there. I would move two or three times to be able to experience Yellowstone Lake and Falls and the animals in Hayden Valley from one campsite, the Firehole and Madison Rivers and Old Faithful from another, and Mammoth, Tower Falls, and Norris Geyser Basin from another.

And I would also stay at the Forest Service campground in Cooke City. The drive over the Beartooth Highway from Cooke City to Red Lodge has been labeled "the most scenic drive in America." I highly recommend that you try it WITHOUT YOUR RV (it's a toad or tow vehicle ONLY road!). You can make it a loop drive from Red Lodge by returning on MT 72 and WY 296, so you don't have to drive the Beartooth both directions.

No matter how many times I have been to Yellowstone, there is always a new surprise on each trip. Like a herd of buffalo walking right past our car early one morning when we were the first car to arrive in the Yellowstone Falls parking lot (no, we did not get out until they moved a LONG way away). Or stopping to photograph a family of trumpeter swans floating serenely down a glassy-surfaced Madison River. Or seeing a geyser erupt in Norris Geyser Basin (the hottest in the park) that only erupts about once a month. So, wherever you decide to camp, it will be a great trip!

"The drive over the Beartooth Highway from Cooke City to Red Lodge has been labeled "the most scenic drive in America." I highly recommend that you try it WITHOUT YOUR RV (it's a toad or tow vehicle ONLY road!)."
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I don't necessarily agree that taking a toad or a tow vehicle is the only option; the decision of whether to drive one's 'RV' over the Beartooth depends on the type and size of the rig and the skill and 'mountain roads' experience of the driver. I've done the road twice, but I've been driving mountain roads for many years, and I drive a 24' C (wide, but 'short' and no toad).

Many RVers have driven 212 without problems, but if there's any concern about one's rig or one's ability or desire to drive the road safely and enjoy the ride, then by all means, do it in a smaller vehicle. IMO, the Beartooth is a 'don't miss'.

The OP is from Iowa and has not said what type of RV he has. You don't get a lot of mountain driving experience in Iowa, so I would definitely recommend not taking his RV over the Beartooth Highway on his first trip. Of course, that's just my advice, but I would not take a 40-ft. coach or a 5th wheel over the Beartooth. And I have lived in Colorado for 50 years and driven and towed my trailer all over the West.

Just for emphasis: Yellowstone is 2.4 times the size of Rhode Island, 1.5 times the size of Delaware, and 75% of the size of Connecticut.

And it has one two-lane road that loops through the middle of the park. And the speed limit on most of that road is 35 MPH. And the Park Rangers can and do give speeding tickets. And parts of that road are jammed with traffic during the summer.

The question then is: how much of Yellowstone do you really want to see? When you are satisfied with your answer to that question, you can decide how many times you want to move and where you want to camp.

Yellowstone has two loops, basically, mostly two-lane roads with some passing lanes. The speed limits are 45 over most of the Park, however, in a good part of the Park, it's hard to go that fast anyway. The lower loop goes from Grant to Canyon to Norris and back around to Old Faithful and to Grant. The upper loop goes from Canyon over to Mammoth and then back around to Norris. And don't worry about speed limits, if you are staying for a while, speed limits are illusionary, not mandatory. I would suspect average speed in the Park is less than 25 mph what with all the stopping to see sights and animal sightings, etc.

I was headed west to YNP from Buffalo, WY. taking US 16 from Buffalo to Worland, north to Greybull, then West to Cody for a few days to visit the museum. US 16 has the least climbs and descents across the Beartooth Range. I stayed at Absaroka Bay RV park. Nice folks running it. At my request, they gave me a spot near the laundry facilities. They, too, didn't know why 'Absaroka' was pronounced 'Absorka'.
And even though its near the end of the "Yellowstone Regional Airport", it isn't long enough to support anything larger than a small biz jet, so no noise.
BTW, if your taste buds are yearning for some Buffalo Jerky, Cody has several stores that sell it, along with all kinds of Buffalo souvenirs. Most of the souvenirs have a "Made in China" tag on them. :)