Yellowstone

keepingthelightson wrote:
We stayed at Grizzly RV in West Yellowstone. Not far from the gate and in a nice little town.:)

I will 2nd this as a great park only a few blocks from the entrance to Yellowstone. Nice little town to explore too.

Check out this Yellowstone site from the park itself. It gives all the campground information along with 'clicky's' for things to do, etc.

Yellowstone Nat'l Park

We've been there often and even with our 40' motorhome we stay IN the park for the best experience. We enjoy the rustic campgrounds such as Madison, Mammoth and Bridge Bay. Some are no reservations and for those you need to stay nearby the previous night and get to the campground early morning when people leave. Don't try to pull in in the afternoon and expect a non-reservation site. Some accept reservations.

During your visit be sure to plan at least three nights in the adjoining national park - Grand Teton. It's beauty is altogether different from Yellowstone's. The hiking trails are awesome and of all abilities and distances. Take a gentle guided float ride down the Snake River and you might even see a moose in the water with you. It has a full hookup RV park called Colter Bay RV and also some very nice dry campgrounds - Colter Bay Campground is right next to Colter Bay RV and the campground has 300 wooded sites. Further south in the park and closer to the town of Jackson is Gros Ventre campground - also 300 scenic sites. Both have dump stations and water fill.

For the kids, a day or two checking out nearby Jackson is fun. There's also a rodeo in town. Major grocery stores and cheaper fuel is also in Jackson.

It sounds like you're still working and have limited vacation time but no matter how much time you have for this trip, even a few days in each place is much better than none at all. The kids will have great memories. You can always return!

Have a great trip.

WA7NDD
Like your post. Been there done that. So many more great places to camp than Yellowstone. We are 70 miles east and just travel through and don't stop. A lot nicer places to camp than a city in Yellowstone.

We live 90 miles from Yellowstone and have gone through the park many times, but do not camp in the park. We normally enter though West Yellowstone, driving though the throng of people and cars, and the ever-present bicycles that slow you to a stop. The roads are narrow. You can drive around a bend and find someone stopped in the middle of the road looking at a buffalo, so always be ready to stop, don't speed. We leave the park through Jackson Hole, eat there, and drive home. The distance from Jackson to home is also 90 miles. We do it in a day. Know that all lodging in the park is very expensive.

Last September we went the other way through Jackson, Grand Teton Park, in our 23-foot class C, and stayed the night in Grand Teton Park. No problem finding a dry-camp spot, if you are under 25 feet, $16.00. Full hookups were $54.00 a night. Over 25 feet,there was not a choice, it was $54.00 or continue down the road. It was dang cold that night below freezing, no generator after 8pm.

If you want to stay in the park, you need to make reservations long before you arrive. There is only one campground at Fishing Bridge with full hookups. I stayed there one time several years ago. I might as well have camped in the middle of a city, very little room between parking spots. There are many campgrounds in the park, but Madison seems to be the biggest. No hookups, but does have a dumpsite, and I’ve seen some large RV’s in there. Camp sites fill up early each day.

Places to see the park are interesting and if you are from the city you will find it inspiring. My favorite place is not in the park. It is Cody Wyoming, 60 miles out of the park by way of Fishing Bridge. The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum is every bit as good as anything presented by the Smithsonian in D.C., I’ve been there. It is huge, so plan on a full day possibly two. Check it out online. Cody is a tourist town, same for Jackson Hole. Lot’s of places to stay and eat, but they are cut off during the winter so they have to make it during the summer. Jackson is year around, very big skiing destination.

Suggestion: There are well-appointed RV parks in West Yellowstone just outside the main entrance to Yellowstone Park, but you will also need to make reservations early. They are also online. From West you can visit Bozeman Montana and the University’s dinosaur collection. Twenty-five miles south of Bozeman, at Three-Forks is the Headwaters of the Missouri River where Lewis and Clark found the confluence of the Madison, Gallatin, and Jefferson rivers formed the Missouri. Nearby, are the Lewis and Clark caves, but may be closed for winter by September along with many state campgrounds.

South out of West Yellowstone, is Island Park Idaho, littered with state run dry camping areas also a KOA. It is an easy, short drive from Island Park back to West Yellowstone and into the park if you want to stay in a $16.00 a night campsite. There are also a few dry camping areas north of West Yellowstone, two or three miles down the road. In any of those areas, it is safer to stay in a hard-sided camper because of bears if you are not familiar with the area and wild life, same with the park. Like I say, by September many of the campgrounds could be closed for winter.

Our favorite time to go to Yellowstone is just after it opens. There seems to be more animals around, and we like to see the newborn buffalo calves, orange in color. Hope this helps a little. One of my novels is titled “The Land of Bloody Headwaters Gold” about the headwaters of the Missouri River. It’s on Amazon Kindle Books, along with three of my other novels. Another is titled “The Tethered Scalp” and has to do with Yellowstone in the 1860’s.
Jim

Here's a link that will get you started.

BTW, You're brand new to the forum, so welcome. Yellowstone must be the most popular single subject on this forum. Lots of information. If you click on "Advanced Search" at the top of any page and enter "Yellowstone" and in advanced search, select "last 14 days" you'll get 74 hits. If you extend the time period, you'll have enough entries to get you through winter. :)

Just searvh on here for Yellowstone, enough reading to keep you until the day you leave on this great trip

If you boondock, check out Beaver Creek at Hebgen Lake. Not the Beaver Creek Campground, I mean Beaver Creek Rd/USFS Rd 985 off of Hwy 287/Hebgen Lake Rd. 20 minute drive from West Yellowstone, primitive camp spots, free, no crowds, peace and quiet, bears.

We stayed at Grizzly RV in West Yellowstone. Not far from the gate and in a nice little town.:)

Welcome to the forum.

Are you going to want to stay inside the park, if so you can't get the reservations squared away soon enough! There is one campground with full hookups available inside the park (Fishing Bridge) and the others are just roughing it.

WoodGlue