Yellowstone campgrounds

The options outside the park offer more amenities, full hoookups, some places have pools and/or game rooms for the kids, laundry, some (West Yellowstone especially) options have access to dining, shopping, more of the comforts of home. The options inside the park offer more of a wilderness experience, especially some of the smaller campgrounds. The more time that one spends inside the park, the greater the chances of seeing wildlife. Oh, I guarantee that where ever you stay, once in the park, you will see buffalo, and probably elk and pronghorn, and maybe bighorn sheep, but more rare are wolves and bears. Staying in the park also offers a more personal experience within the park, as once it starts to get towards evening, the crowds thin. There are evening ranger led programs too.

I've visited YNP many times. Lately, I've stayed at Grizzly. Its 2 blocks from the West entrance and has FHUs which I prefer. And its 12 miles from the grand loop. I go thru the gate with my Seniors National Parks pass early in the morning. If you're 62 or older, its a one time fee of $10 and good for life. Here's the information.
And you can buy the pass at any place listed Here before you ever leave home. I got mine in Cincinnati at the William Howard Taft Home. There wasn't a crowd. :)

kknowlton wrote:
It's about 1/2 hour drive, give or take a few stops for photos, wildlife viewing, buffalo jams, picnics, etc., from West to Madison Jct.

We've seen the line from West just to the entrance station take 1/2 hour or more. I sometimes wonder if they are trying to "meter" the traffic coming into the park to keep traffic from backing up further into the park.

The OP has a generator so he apparently used to camping w/o hookups and can keep his batteries topped off. What I would strongly recommend is to decide where to stay and make reservations TODAY. It's getting pretty late in the game to find a spot in some CG's this summer.

Here are some pics of Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone itself with full hookups. Yes, the sites are close but at least there are trees. Some private parks are also close and don't have nearly the trees. Fishing Bridge is not perfect but it's just fine if you need hookups. Personally, we always choose other campgrounds within the park because of more space - but then, we're self-contained and we don't need hookups.

Yes, West Yellowstone might be 5 minutes from the west gate of Yellowstone. However, it takes a lot more than 5 minutes to enter the gate because of the lines of vehicles. Once you go through the gate you will still have a lot of slow driving to reach the next intersection in the park.

Everyone is different and that's good. Some like staying in the park for the scenic surroundings. Some like private campgrounds because of being close to shopping. To each his own.

Fishing Bridge Campground

It depends on what kind of camping you like to do...we prefer to camp in areas that we feel more like we are in the forest...we do not prefer to camp in "parking lots." With that said...Fishing Bridge is a "parking lot." But the three days we were there, we appreciated having the amenities of elec/water/sewer. Those were the days that we were VERY busy with hiking/driving/seeing the sights...when were back at the campsite, we wanted showers and all electricity.

We also had 3 days at Grant...it was much more to our liking...more rustic. campfires, picnic tables and trees. More space between sites. Much "prettier" within the campsite. However, not as convenient to amenities like Fishing Bridge.

If you are at Yellowstone, there is a TON of driving, so be prepared and plan accordingly. reservations are a must. If you camp at a private campground, you are going to be driving more than you do anything else.

We spent a week there and we could have stayed longer!!! Ready to go back!!

kknowlton wrote:

Keith makes some good points, but the reason I - and probably many others - recommend staying in West Yellowstone is that some of us need, or really like to have, hookups. Other than Fishing Bridge, those are just not available.

With just a minimum of planning, it's not difficult to secure a space in one of the campgrounds inside Yellowstone. This year will be our 5th time staying at Fishing Bridge and 8th time in the park. We have never had a problem getting a reservation when we wanted it. We just plan ahead for our visit.

There are over 2100 campsites available inside Yellowstone plus who knows how many cabins and hotel rooms. If one simply wants to do a drive through, check off Old Faithful, the canyon and falls, you haven't really seen Yellowstone. There is sooooo much else to see and do it will boggle your mind and much of that requires being there early in the morning or late at night. Having to retreat back to your "resort" outside really hinders participating in those activities.

Stay where you want, it's your money and time.

Keith

It never seems to fail that someone asks about camping in Yellowstone and end up getting people pushing commercial campgrounds outside of Yellowstone, predominately in West Yellowstone. It's almost as if they get discounts for doing it.

Reality is that if you choose to stay outside of Yellowstone, you will increase you daily drive significantly, not to mention missing morning and evening activities inside the park. Staying outside puts you in a tourist trap town that you won't spend much time at because you'll be driving back and forth all the time. Most who visit Yellowstone spend very little time actually in the campgrounds, the place is just too big and there is too much to see and do.

If you want to really see Yellowstone, stay inside the park in one of the many campgrounds available, the experience is worth it all. If you want to stay in a RV resort, well, you can pretty much do that anywhere, but not in Yellowstone.

Keith makes some good points, but the reason I - and probably many others - recommend staying in West Yellowstone is that some of us need, or really like to have, hookups. Other than Fishing Bridge, those are just not available inside the park. As for spending time driving into and out of the park, technically, it's maybe 5 minutes to the park boundary from Grizzly; longer, of course, from some of the other parks that are outside of town. :) It's about 1/2 hour drive, give or take a few stops for photos, wildlife viewing, buffalo jams, picnics, etc., from West to Madison Jct. And after all, aren't those stops what you spend a lot of time doing throughout Yellowstone? :)

Fishing Bridge worked well for us, as we were not there much. It was nice to have water and electricity to make the best use of the time we were. It was central to the park and we just did a different section each day. Make sure you plan on dusk animal watching. Have fun! We loved that park.

If you have time, the Tetons were amazing!

We stayed in Idaho but we spent a lot of time traveling to what we wanted to see

It never seems to fail that someone asks about camping in Yellowstone and end up getting people pushing commercial campgrounds outside of Yellowstone, predominately in West Yellowstone. It's almost as if they get discounts for doing it.

Reality is that if you choose to stay outside of Yellowstone, you will increase you daily drive significantly, not to mention missing morning and evening activities inside the park. Staying outside puts you in a tourist trap town that you won't spend much time at because you'll be driving back and forth all the time. Most who visit Yellowstone spend very little time actually in the campgrounds, the place is just too big and there is too much to see and do.

If you want to really see Yellowstone, stay inside the park in one of the many campgrounds available, the experience is worth it all. If you want to stay in a RV resort, well, you can pretty much do that anywhere, but not in Yellowstone.

Keith