GTNP & Yellowstone NP Camping

It never ceases to amaze at how much time & money people are happy to spend commuting at the expense of spending time at the scenic turnouts soaking everything in. Half of them don't even bother get out of their cars to take the short walk for the view that the turnout is all about. We are not trail hikers but we do have the energy to walk 5 or 10 minutes from the vehicle to get the views.

Many are like junior pilots doing touch & go's on a runway. They drive thousands of miles to get there then don't really see much.

Both Yellowstone & Grand Teton are huge. Add traffic & bison jams into time needed to get around & sometimes you wonder if a bicycle would be quicker.

I'm sure an established base at a full facility RV park is great for folks who've been there several times and have definite plans to go to specific places.

But I've found that if I setup a base camp for an extended period - I end up burning more fuel and miles and dollars on the TV for getting around than the cost of the trip to the area.

I could easily see a first timer spending 2,000 miles or more on the road in a two week trip from one base camp trying to see the two national parks.

4runnerguy wrote:

RFCN2 wrote:
We spent a week at Colter Bay in Tetons this past summer. A great place. Not a far drive to Yellowstone.

I guess I wouldn't call a 3+ hour round trip to Lower Geyser Basin, 4+ hours to Canyon or Norris Geyser Basin, or 5+ hours to Mammoth a "not far drive".

Unless you want to spend your vacation commuting, get a camp spot in or near each park.

X2
Unless you have 3+ weeks to spend in the area and willing to burn time and gas, we recommend you plan to stay in multiple places in/near the Parks. You want to be close enough for the freedom to do what you want when you want. Because we stayed in Yellowstone, we were alerted to a Wolf Mama and 2 pups in the area,drove over to see the Ranger set up...they were gone from view 2 hours later.
We began most days very early, to see roaming wildlife and then great morning light photo's. Then later enjoyed evening and nightfall in each of those Parks. These times produced great memories and photo's.
Enjoy your trip!

RFCN2 wrote:
We spent a week at Colter Bay in Tetons this past summer. A great place. Not a far drive to Yellowstone.

I guess I wouldn't call a 3+ hour round trip to Lower Geyser Basin, 4+ hours to Canyon or Norris Geyser Basin, or 5+ hours to Mammoth a "not far drive".

Unless you want to spend your vacation commuting, get a camp spot in or near each park.

If I were to go back to the Tetons and Yellowstone, and had sufficient time I would stay at multiple places - to cut down on driving back and forth. Definitely the Tetons, somewhere in the south, the middle (probably west Yellowstone/ Grizzly for that) and up north. I liked the northern part of Yellowstone the best.

We spent a week at Colter Bay in Tetons this past summer. A great place. Not a far drive to Yellowstone.

We always stay at Grizzly RV Resort in West Yellowstone. It's only a couple of minutes from the West entrance to Y'stone and so near town you can walk to the grocery or restaurants. We use the resort as our base and drive our car to the Teton, Jackson area and all over Y'stone and even forays into Idaho on occasion.

How long will you be in the area? Yellowstone is huge. It can't be seen in one day.

I don't think so.
That would entail a lot of time spent traveling.
This pass Summer we spent a week at Gros Ventre Campground in the Tetons.
At Yellowstone, we spent a week at Madison(centrally located) and a week at Mammoth located at the North entrance.
Yellowstone is a huge figure 8. Just take a look at a map.