Yellowstone, '16

Thanks again all, will send out some PM's as well, thanks for the great offers. Noted about the dogs. I'll have to make arrangements, I want to experience the park and hiking is key. We are spoiled here in Oregon and being friendly for sure!


So I'll be making reservations and planning according!

2BLAZERS wrote:
Following this thread.... so is the park site seeing totally do able with the TC on the truck?

probably. We have been everywhere with ours over the years.

With it on, you can try some of the picnic areas for a picnic lunch instead of just the crowded popular sites.

Make sure the kids do the Jr. Ranger Programs. You'll learn from them too.

I am partial to the Historic Ranger Station Museum at Norris CG. You may want to hike into Boiling River (between Gardiner and Mammoth) for something they will remember- the cold and hot water on each foot. The beach at Lake Hotel- laying in the black sand in the sun.... Nice hike to Lone Star Geyser.... There are always animals in the LaMar valley. Ice Cream at Tower Store.

You can't not have a good time.

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

Grizzly RV Park in the town of West Yellowstone. Give Mark a call at Grizzly and make your reservations early. The wife and kids will thank you for staying there. Beautiful place. Enjoy.

We spent 14 days in Yellowstone and could have stayed 14 more. It is a shame that some people say they were there and saw it all in three days. That is a shame. If all you want to do is drive through so you can tell everyone that you were there then go ahead and drive through. But don't tell others that's all there is in Yellowstone.
Staying in two location will help. We chose Canyon and Grant with Grant being our favorite. We had a generator so no electricity was not a problem. Yellowstone is so large and so much to see that two location cuts down on your drive times. Get reservations and enjoy.

We spent 8 nights there this fall and stayed the entire time at Madison campground. My recommendation is you pick 2 different campgrounds for your stay. The park is huge and you will spend a lot of time driving. Stay in the park and bring a generator to recharge batteries 8 AM to 8 PM. There are a lot of visitors and an early start to the day is advised. I did get tired of looking at thermal features after the first 4 days. I loved the canyon area and could have spent more time there.

2BLAZERS wrote:
Following this thread.... so is the park site seeing totally do able with the TC on the truck?

Obviously, there is more than what we took a picture of with this camera, but you get the idea.

Yellowstone with TC 6/20-23, 2015.

We entered through the North Entrance. While there, we did the major lops, went to the East Entrance, and exited the West Entrance.

Yes, we have done all of both parks and the surrounding areas with our truck camper on the truck.

Following this thread.... so is the park site seeing totally do able with the TC on the truck?

We went in June this year and stayed in three different parks. We only had hookups at one park, Fishing Bridge. It is helpful to have LEDs and make sure your truck will charge your batteries while you drive. All RV parks in Yellowstone are expensive, but I liked being in the park. Truck Campers aren't allowed in Tent Spaces. They have length limits for some spaces. If you haven't been to the Tetons, you might consider going through there as well.

Read up on having dogs there. They are extremely limiting since most trails don't allow dogs and only relatively short leashes are allowed. Many of the side roads don't allow RVs. This is a conflict if you bring the dogs with you it generally means you will have your TC with you as well. Old Faithful has a schedule. Look up the schedule before you plan the trip.

Early AM and Late PM are two of the best times for spotting wildlife although they can be seen any time of day. I didn't have much of a problem parking in most areas. There are some pulloffs to fix a meal, so we did that instead of cooking in the campground.

It is high elevation with almost all of the park is over 7000 ft. If you use a Keurig, look up how to use it at high elevation. Some fridges have issues at higher elevation, but we didn't. Gasoline and Diesel and supplies is pretty readily available in park.

Bridge Bay - We liked walking the loops a lot because we like to walk a bit after meals. You can see a tent just off the left of the front. No shade on this one. They call it a pull through, but it's more of a pull off. :)



Grants Village - there were some back in spots. That little red spot to the left is one of the tents from our neighbors that had two small tents and two Harleys. No other vehicles.



Fishing Bridge - this is similar to the spots you see along the interstate as you can see. The roads were curiously really potholed. I found it funny that the one with the full hookups and more expensive was in worse shape. Not a problem ... just an observation.