RV Park near Yellowstone

kedanie wrote:
There must be a reason so many stay inside Yellowstone. While mileages will vary from where you start, generally attractions are closer if you stay inside. There are also many more campsites inside which are mostly full every day of the summer season.

Here is a little data on that.
Miles from West Yellowstone/ Miles from Fishing Bridge

Old Faithful Geyser .......... 31.3 miles/39.4 miles
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone............ 39.6 miles/15.7 miles
Hayden Valley............. 47.1 / 8.4 miles
Mammoth Hot Springs............ 48.7 miles/48.6 miles
Yellowstone Lake (nearest approach) ............ 48.6 miles/ .3 miles
Norris Geyser Basin............ 28.2 miles/27.7 miles
Lamar Valley...... 65.2 miles/41.9 miles
Tower Fall....... 55.4/31.8 miles
West Thumb Geyser Basin...... 48.3 miles/20.5 miles

So I guess West Yellowstone is actually more centrally located to ONE of the parks main attractions, it is 8 miles closer to Old Faithful.

Number of campsites in campgrounds total 2164 sites

In order of opening Dates* Nightly Fee/** Sites Elev (ft) Features RV Sites
Mammoth
All year $20 85 6,200 A,F,G Most are pull-through
Madison ??
5/2-10/19 $21 278 6,800 A,F,NS,DS,G Call for availability & reservations
Fishing Bridge RV??‡
5/9-9/21 $45 >325 7,800 F,S/L,DS,G, hookups Call for availability & reservations
Norris
5/16-9/29 $20 >100 7,500 A,F,G 2 @ 50' (signed); 5 @30'
Tower Fall
5/23-9/29 $15 31 6,600 V All @ 30' or less; has hairpin curve
Bridge Bay ??
5/23-9/1 $21 432 7,800 A,F,NS,DS,G Call for availability & reservations
Canyon ??
5/30-9/14 $25.50 273 7,900 A,F,S/L,DS,G call for availability & reservations
Indian Creek
6/13-9/8 $15 75 7,300 A, V 10@ 35'; 35@30'-pull-through
Pebble
Creek
6/15-9/29 $15 27 6,900 V Some long pull-throughs
Slough
Creek
6/15-10/7 $15 23 6,250 V 14 @ 30', walk through first to assess sites
Lewis Lake
6/15-11/2 $15 85 7,800 V All @ 25' or less
Grant Village ??
6/21-9/21 $25.50 430 7,800 A,F,S/L,2S,DS,G Call for availability & reservations

Keith

And the Parks in Gardiner are closer to Lamar Valley, Tower Falls, Mammoth and Norris than Fishing Bridge. Plus Gardiner and West Yellowstone have multiple restaurants, grocery stores, shopping and cellular service. The full service parks have wifi and cable tv. They also allow unlimited usage of the showers as compared to limited usage at FB. For many people, the access to the park is through those two entrances, so they can park their rigs without traveling the park roads with large vehicles. There are different benefits to each location.