west yellowstone drive?

I, too, stay at Grizzly. Two blocks from the west gate. If you can, go after school starts in the fall or before summer break in early spring. Fewer visitors, although driving the "Grand Loop" is slow all the time. One lap is about 140 SLOW miles. I allow at least one day for each of the four quadrants. When a herd of bison cross the road, they don't wait for a crossing guard. DO NOT try to drive through them. Those big heads are mostly bone and they can put a large dent in a vehicle and not even feel it. I've seen it happen. And remember that all the critters in the park are wild animals. Don't try to pet them. If you're too far away to get a good picture on your camera, buy a telephoto lens. Now, get out there and have fun.
I never tire of it. My first visit was when I was about 8 years old. That was a long time ago.

We always stay IN the park for the best experience.

The comments that West Yellowstone is "walking distance to the park entrance" and "the park entrance is a few minutes away" are misleading.

If you're going in the summer, you're going to have a line of slow-moving cars before you even get to the park entrance gate. Then you'll have slow-moving vehicles until you get to Madison Junction and all other areas of the park. Old Faithful area is a nightmare but you've got to do it. :) Also, if you "walk to the gate", you'll have many miles of walking and days to do it in order explore the park. Yellowstone is not a walking park.

If you need full hookups I would highly suggest staying IN the park at Fishing Bridge RV. A good easy way to see the park if you're planning on five or more days, is to move within the park to different campgrounds. If you need a shopping fix then take a half day and just drive over to West Yellowstone.

Also, it's recommend that you don't try to 'do' the adjoining Grand Teton Nat'l Park from a spot near Yellowstone. You could never do it justice by doing that in a day. Instead, move down to the Tetons and enjoy it's beauty for a few days. It's altogether different from Yellowstone.

Enjoy your trip!

We've been to Y'stone a number of times. Each trip we stay at Grizzly RV Resort in West Y'stone which is only a couple of minutes from the west entrance. We usually just start driving through the park and stop and look at whatever interests us. We usually stay a week to 10 days which gives us ample time to see the "must sees" and some extras like driving down to the Tetons or over into Idaho.

We stayed in West Yellowstone and it is a good location to see much of the park, the only thing we wanted to do was view the wildlife in the northeast corner (Lamar area) of the park and best viewing is early morning. That is difficult from West Yellowstone unless you want to get up at 4am.
So next time we go, we are going to split our visit between West Yellowstone and Fishing Bridge.

We stayed at Grizzly RV Park this past June and it is one of the nicest RV parks we have ever stayed at. The town of West Yellowstone is very nice, several grocery stores, several gasoline stations, IMax theater, many nice restaurants and it is handy to everything in the park. Make reservations for Grizzly RV Park early.
Have fun.

Try Madison Arm RV park. Beautiful seeting on Hebgen Lake. Full hook-ups east of West yellowstone. That is where we stay. Good fishing on the lake

With all the camp sites available inside YNP, why stay outside the park? There are over 1700+ sites inside that are available by reservation and 450+ more that are first come first serve.

West Yellowstone is no more than a tourist trap. Grizzly RV is a very nice park and a great place to stage prior to moving into YNP. For the most part, it is much more expensive to stay in West Yellowstone than inside YNP, the drive is longer each day, you miss out on the evening ranger led campfire programs and for the most part evening animal viewing. Not to say this couldn't be done, but one must then make the drive back out to West Yellowstone.

Sure, some vehicles are simply too big for the campgrounds inside, but most will fit. I've even see 43 foot MH's in Fishing Bridge where the limit is supposed to be 40.

Why travel all that distance and not experience the real YNP? Stay outside if you must, but by all means, at least make an attempt to stay inside. There is so much more to offer. Now if you need to go out for some groceries that are not available inside or see some of the tourist trap nonsense head for a day trip to West Yellowstone. Making that trip every day both in and out is a wast of time and money.

Keith

If you look at a map of West Yellowstone NP, Fishing Bridge is in the far eastern part and the town of West Yellowstone ie in the far west, it is a wash. Staying at Fishing Bridge is in the woods in close sites and you will pay the high prices for supplies that is controlled thru out the park. Staying at Grizzly RV Park gives you well manicured park, that is well patrolled, no nonsence, clean, secure, hot showers, multiple clean laundry rooms. The town of West Yellowstone gives you a break from the park, competive pricing on gas/diesel/propane, ice cream parlores, grocery stores, yes more than 1, IMAX Theater, sporting good shops, pizza, Mexican, etc. town of West Yellowstone gives you choices.
Enjoy your stay there.

For those that think that West Yellowstone is closer to attractions than Fishing Bridge, check the numbers!

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. Then again, there are other campgrounds that are even closer. Try Madison, Grant, Norris, Bridge Bay or Canyon! All very nice campgrounds just no full hook-ups.

Keep in mind that you are traveling all that distance to see Yellowstone, not a tourist trap like West Yellowstone!

Keith

We stay at an RV Park in West Yellowstone and drive into the park ... spend some time there