Yellowstone, '16

bjohns wrote:
We have been campground hosts in Lizard Creek Campground at the north end of Grand Teton National Park for 5 of the last 6 years. I can tell you that most of our campers have considered Lizard Creek to be the best campground in either Yellowstone or GTNP. There are no hookups, but we have many truck campers come in and stay. From Lizard Creek one can do both Yellowstone and GTNP without too much trouble, and as long as you arrived by around noon, there were usually campsites available. Drop in for a night, and if you like it, extend your stay there. Most people did that. As for wildlife viewing, we had many occasions of bear, moose, deer, elk and foxes, and one year even had wolves in the campground. We had probably an equal number of grizzlies and black bears, sometimes at the same time. You must be especially bear aware in all of the campgrounds, but especially in Lizard Creek. There are sites right on Jackson Lake.
One word of note to all, in 2015 we had record numbers of visitors, as did both the Parks and the commercial campgrounds as well. Next year due to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Parks, numbers are expected to surpass 2015. Plan ahead, stop and get your site early and then sight see after you have a site.

By far, this is the best advice, so far. Next year will be a spectacular year for visitors. Pretty much the week before the 4th of July through the 2nd weekend of August, the two parks campgrounds were filling up early. July alone, the campgrounds were filling by 9 AM, everywhere. Gros Ventre Campground filled 21 nights in a row, before 4PM in July. This campground is the biggest one (450+) and rarely fills, let alone multiple nights in a row. How would I know? Many years working for the Park Service in these parks. Including this last summer, where many of you stopped in to visit with me.

What do I recommend? If you can, go after August 16th, or any time after Labor Day. Don't bring your dogs, as described earlier. What wasn't was the number of Bear incidents we had, including one fatality, as well as 5 goring's by Bison. Leaving a pet unattended, in a vehicle at any time is prohibited. So, if you are tempted to bring them. Make sure they don't bark or stand on the dash of your truck and yap at the LE writing out a Cite.

This site should be on your must visit list to get information on the NPS park sites;

NPS.GOV web site for Planning a Visit to Yellowstone

Logistics is a big thing, as these are BIG parks and requiring a lot of driving in often slow moving traffic of all types. I would split the two parks in Thirds. South Tetons, stay at Gros Ventre Campground, North Teton and Southern Yellowstone would be Lizard Creek (One of my favorite campgrounds) to view both north and south regions of Tetons/Yellowstone.

Central Yellowstone, Grant Village or Bridge Bay. Northern side of Yellowstone, Canyon Village or Madison. There is only one campground that has hookups and that fills up by reservations a year in advance. Be prepared all the campgrounds are heavily tree'd. So if you are looking for Sat Reception or Solar, this is not a park for you to visit for long term exploring. Plan on driving to charge your batteries or generator use, where available.

Hiking, fishing, backpacking, horseback riding and just plain rubber necking is at its finest here.

If you and others are interested in my cheat sheet for those that are interested in exploring the country most visitors don't see, send me a private message. The link below will get you to one of my old TR on Yellowstone and Tetons. Most of the links are still working, but the photo hosting site went belly up.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks Trip Report Clicky

Have fun and maybe you might see me there next summer, again.

b