Grand Teton Park, Moran, WY

Uncle Grumpy, where the heck is that 20-mile stretch coming from Moran to Lander? I live in Lander and went up to Grand Teton three times last summer and twice more to Jackson this winter and I do not, for the life of me, remember any 20-miles stretch of severe frost damaged road. In fact, almost all the road from 15 miles outside of Dubois to the Turpin Meadows turn-off about five miles from Moran is new road that has been completed in the last eight years. Going from Moran to Rock Springs through Jackson and down the Hoback is a long ways out of the way for no good reason, unless you want to take a look at all the gas wells around Pinedale on the way to Rock Springs. Then you would hit I-80 and have wall-to-wall trucks for another 110 miles from Rock Springs to Rawlins. Not my idea of a great trip with an RV.

AuntEthel, unless you are worried about an hour trip each way from Colter Bay to the entrance to Yellowstone with some very nice scenery, you could stay in Colter Bay and day-trip to Yellowstone. We do it all the time, even towing our boat from Colter Bay to Yellowstone Lake to fish for the day. A person can leave pretty early in the morning to miss car traffic and tour the parks loops, one per day, and get back a little late in the evening, just in time to watch the beautiful sunsets on Jackson Lake as you are having dinner, etc.

Aunt Ethel - why not stay at an RV park at West Yellowstone, MT? It's right outside the West entrance to Yellowstone. A lot of folks recommend Grizzly RV but there are many nice RV parks there and there's even Baker's Hole, a forest service CG 2 mies North of West Yellowstone and it has electricity hookups and water at the entrance to fill up. We go there most years in the early Fall and there's not much traffic. We haven't been there in July so I couldn't tell you how busy it is.

I'd recommend a combination of the two above posts. Colter Bay for a few days and West Yellowstone for a few days. Even in light traffic, it's a long, long drive from Colter Bay to the north end of the Park (Mammoth). But if you don't want to move to another campground, commuting from Colter Bay is certainly doable. As Jalichty suggested, leave early and avoid the heavy traffic. I always recommend early sight-seeing. As a bonus, it's prettier just after dawn and just before sunset too.

That is exactly what I have planned. Staying at Colter Bay first and then West Yellowstone. I will be driving through Yellowstone when I move my 5ER. Highway 89 to 14 to 20 avoiding Craig Pass. I am still searching for a way to get from West Yellowstone to the east end of Yellowstone and then to Gillette WY. It seems, to avoid any steep passes, from West Yellowstone, I will need to take highway 191 north to I90 and then east down to Gillette WY. Has anyone else pulled a large 5ER West to East through Yellowstone?

newk wrote:
I'd recommend a combination of the two above posts. Colter Bay for a few days and West Yellowstone for a few days. Even in light traffic, it's a long, long drive from Colter Bay to the north end of the Park (Mammoth). But if you don't want to move to another campground, commuting from Colter Bay is certainly doable. As Jalichty suggested, leave early and avoid the heavy traffic. I always recommend early sight-seeing. As a bonus, it's prettier just after dawn and just before sunset too.

Good suggestion, Newk.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful suggesdtions! I really like the idea of Colter Bay and then heading to West Yellowstone. Going west was never on my radar, but looks like there are many campgrounds with hookups. We are traveling in a Jayco hybrid so Fishing Bridge is out. If we start in Colter we can take 80 west and then take 90 back with a stop at Mt. Rushmore and everything that part of country has to offer.

I was a little worried about dry camping because I read so many posts that people were using generators. I don't have a generator and have absolutely no idea how to use it! Haha! We are total rookies, as we just took our maiden voyage to Charleston, SC, a mere 1600 mile voyage. So, you can tell we just want to go!

In the Fall of 2011 we spent a week at Grizzly in West Yellowstone and 4 nights at Colter. It was wonderful and we never regretted the way we did it. We were our early and then in the evenings for photo shoots and far less traffic. And to see animals. And sunrises and sunsets. Great places. Enjoy. Be safe.

(For images of those areas you can go to www.LaurenBarbara.com and click on Wanderings on the left and go down to Wyoming. Of course, feel free to look at any other places as well! :-) )

AuntEthel wrote:
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful suggesdtions! I really like the idea of Colter Bay and then heading to West Yellowstone. Going west was never on my radar, but looks like there are many campgrounds with hookups. We are traveling in a Jayco hybrid so Fishing Bridge is out. If we start in Colter we can take 80 west and then take 90 back with a stop at Mt. Rushmore and everything that part of country has to offer.

I was a little worried about dry camping because I read so many posts that people were using generators. I don't have a generator and have absolutely no idea how to use it! Haha! We are total rookies, as we just took our maiden voyage to Charleston, SC, a mere 1600 mile voyage. So, you can tell we just want to go!

You can stay without a generator but you have to be conservative with the usage of your power. When we took a two week trip to Canada, and in September no doubt, we did not take our generator for two reasons - 1) we were pretty sure we could find hookup sites anywhere we went, and 2) we were trying to save on weight. Well, as it turned out, the hook up sites we wanted were taken and we much preferred the dry sites. Moral of the story is that we were just fine, but we were conservative with our power and charged with our tow vehicle every day.

Lauren wrote:
In the Fall of 2011 we spent a week at Grizzly in West Yellowstone and 4 nights at Colter. It was wonderful and we never regretted the way we did it. We were our early and then in the evenings for photo shoots and far less traffic. And to see animals. And sunrises and sunsets. Great places. Enjoy. Be safe.

(For images of those areas you can go to www.LaurenBarbara.com and click on Wanderings on the left and go down to Wyoming. Of course, feel free to look at any other places as well! :-) )

That's exactly what we're doing this summer - Colter & Grizzly. Can't wait!