" general level of crowds within"
We haven't spent much time in Gardiner before but it seemed to be busy when we were there, inside the park to--it is always crowded in the park from June thru October, as I said the crowds did not seem to be any worse than usual. But usual means a mob scene.
Don't know about private cg but the West Yellowstone and Gardiner areas were very busy and we got a 'cg full response' to a request for and overnight spot at a cg 40 miles from West Yellowstone and the very out of the way cg we did find a spot at was almost full.