We live 90 miles from Yellowstone and have gone through the park many times, but do not camp in the park. We normally enter though West Yellowstone, driving though the throng of people and cars, and the ever-present bicycles that slow you to a stop. The roads are narrow and the bikers don’t seem to understand it either them or the oncoming traffic, and I am not going to turn into the traffic. I was in the park last September and had to lay on the horn for two-hundred feet before the bike would get off the road. We leave the park through Jackson Hole, eat there, and drive home. The distance from Jackson to home is also 90 miles. We do it in a day.
Last September we went the other way through Jackson, Grand Teton Park, in our 23-foot class C, and stayed the night in Grand Teton Park. No problem finding a dry-camp spot, if you are under 25 feet, $16.00. Full hookups were $54.00 a night. Over 25 feet,there was not a choice, it was $54.00 or continue down the road. It was dang cold that night below freezing, no generator after 8pm.
If you want to stay in the park, you need to make reservations long before you arrive. There is only one campground at Fishing Bridge with full hookups. I stayed there one time several years ago. I might as well have camped in the middle of a city, very little room between parking spots. There are many campgrounds in the park, but Madison seems to be the biggest. No hookups, but does have a dumpsite, and I’ve seen some large RV’s in there.
Places to see the park are interesting and if you are from the city you will find it inspiring. My favorite place is not in the park. It is Cody Wyoming, 60 miles out of the park by way of Fishing Bridge. The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum is every bit as good as anything presented by the Smithsonian in D.C., I’ve been there. It is huge, so plan on a full day possibly two. Check it out online. Cody is a tourist town, same for Jackson Hole. Lot’s of places to stay and eat, but they are cut off during the winter so they have to make it during the summer. Jackson is year around, very big skiing destination.
Suggestion: There are well-appointed RV parks in West Yellowstone just outside the main entrance to Yellowstone Park, but you will also need to make reservations early. They are also online. From West you can visit Bozeman Montana and the University’s dinosaur collection. Twenty-five miles south of Bozeman, at Three-Forks is the Headwaters of the Missouri River where Lewis and Clark found the confluence of the Madison, Gallatin, and Jefferson rivers formed the Missouri. Nearby, are the Lewis and Clark caves, but may be closed for winter by September along with many state campgrounds.
South out of West Yellowstone, is Island Park Idaho, littered with state run dry camping areas also a KOA. It is an easy, short drive from Island Park back to West Yellowstone and into the park if you want to stay in a $16.00 a night campsite. There are also a few dry camping areas north of West Yellowstone, two or three miles down the road. In any of those areas, it is safer to stay in a hard-sided camper because of bears if you are not familiar with the area and wild life, same with the park. Like I say, by September many of the campgrounds could be closed for winter.
Our favorite time to go to Yellowstone is just after it opens. There seems to be more animals around, and we like to see the newborn buffalo calves, orange in color. Hope this helps a little. One of my novels is titled “The Land of Bloody Headwaters Gold” about the headwaters of the Missouri River. It’s on Amazon Kindle Books, along with three of my other novels. Another is titled “The Tethered Scalp” and has to do with Yellowstone in the 1860’s.
Jim
