west yellowstone drive?

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!

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've taken the Yellowstone trip four times, most recently this summer. Grizzly is a lovely park right next to the park entrance, but I really enjoyed this last trip staying at West Yellowstone KOA, 6 miles from the park entrance. Quieter, more rustic, large spaces, well kept, just nice. We have found that there is so much to see in Yellowstone it is difficult to plan your trip based on mileage. We would start out after breakfast, be home for dinner, and never cover more than 100 miles, often less. So many turnouts, viewpoints, animals, and you can spend hours at the ranger stations. If you plan too much time and run out of things to see that tickle your fancy, Jackson is only about a 2 hour drive from West Yellowstone, and it is good for a few days of touring.
Happy Trails

You give no hint of how you travel. If you have something less than a motorhome to drive, staying anywhere in West Yellowstone will be the deal. If you are going to have to take the coach out touring, consider Fishing Bridge (reservations required). FB is kind of expensive, but during my analysis I figured out that the addition mileage required at 9.2 MPG would easily cover the additional cost. So, Make your plans and have a great time.

Matt

For a less expensive (especially on senior pass) site, but with electric only, check out the Baker's Hole NFS campground a couple of miles north of West Yellowstone. Electric only at about half the sites, no dump station, no water hookups. We paid $6 to dump tanks at Grizzly on the way home.

There are some very nice, large, private sites at Baker's Hole---it is a campground, as opposed to RV park. Get there mid-week for an electric site, unless things have changed, there are no reservations.

Grizzly is a very nice RV park. By far the best option in the area if you want hookups.

Having lived in West Yellowstone many years ago, I feel that it an excellent location to enjoy the park, it's easy to get to all the places and the RV parks in West are easy to get to from whatever direction you're driving from. Grizzly is a very nice park, especially in that it has full hookups. But, if you want a more rustic setting without hookups, I've always liked Madison which is just east of West a few miles.

It takes nearly an hour in good traffic following the speed limit to get from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful.
there is many things to see coming and going that time goes by quickly.
We figure along day to do each of the loops, north and south. We have been to Yellowstone numerous times and things change from the last trip to present.
We stay at Buffalo Crossing in West Yellowstone.
Decide and make reservations early! Later part of May through Labor Day can get very busy.

Another vote for Grizzly. We stayed there for 10 days this summer. Great park, nice town to walk around. Everything in Yellowstone is far from each other so regardless where you stay you will do lots of driving to see everything.

We have a 45 foot coach so our options where to stay were limited in the park. We really enjoyed staying there and enjoyed the driving.

Another vote for Grizzly RV Park.We were there this year in July.Make reservations ahead of time.Park entrance is a few minutes away from campground.Nice place I would stay there again.

we have stayed at Grizzly RV Park on both of our trips. We like having full hookups since we travel with dogs. There is more driving to visit the far side of the park but we didn't mind. We packed a lunch and took our time. If we weren't planning on hiking, we went ahead and took the dogs with us in the truck. Other times we left them behind. Can't wait to retire and spend more time out there.