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HuckleberryHunt's avatar
Aug 31, 2018

Trip Report: WA to Yellowstone/Grand Teton NPs and back.

We took a nearly two-week trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National parks and thought I'd share our experience(s).
We went with friends who also have a TT. Our setup is a 2016 2500 Silverado Durmax pulling a 26' (total length) 7500lb (GVWR) TT. Theirs is a 2002 1500 Silverado pulling a 28' ~7000 TT. We each had a family of four in the truck with generator and some gear in the bed. He was pretty much at max on his truck's capabilities and I certainly was not.
We left the Seattle area at 7am on Friday, Aug. 17th. We stopped at State Line, ID for lunch, then headed on for our first night's destination of Beavertail Hill State Park east of Clinton, MT. We got in around 6p (with hour time change), so was a long day on the road. The park was nice though, with electrical hookups, so had a pleasant evening and took a swim in the Clark Fork River.
Saturday we pulled out early and drove south to try sapphire mining at Gem Mountain. Quite a drive out of our way, but it turned out to be a fun excursion and the first fun activity for the kids. We spent a good three hours there. From there we drove to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. Since we hadn't expected the sapphire mining to take so long we arrived at the caverns later than intended at about 3:30p, but were able to book a 4:30 tour. Due to the nature of the parking, we did unhook our trailers at the lower parking lot and just took the TVs up to the upper visitor's center/caverns. The tour was worth it and we all really enjoyed that as well. Our next campground was at the Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks, MT (no hookups). Again, we got there in time to set up and make dinner.
Sunday morning we took time to all ride our bikes down to the various headwaters where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers all join to form the Missouri. There are some neat geological features and historic sites in that area and we enjoyed seeing and reading the various informational signs. We packed up and drove to Bozeman to visit the Museum of the Rockies. We spent a few hours there enjoying the various exhibits and then headed south to Gardiner, MT. We stayed at the Rocky Mountain RV park (full hookups) from Sunday night through Thursday making trips into the park each day. The RV park was great and we very much enjoyed the stay there and our visits to the park around Mammoth/Lamar Valley/Norris.
Thursday we headed to Madison. My DW had booked us four nights at Madison (no hookups) in the park, while our friends booked at Yellowstone Grizzly RV park in West Yellowstone. From there we traveled to Yellowstone Lake, Old Faithful, and other various geysers and hot springs. Our friend's had planned to head to Grand Teton after a couple nights, but we'd thought we'd stay in Yellowstone at Madison and skip Grand Teton. However, on Saturday afternoon we got a message from our friends that they had two campsites at Signal Mountain campground in Grand Teton, so after a day of hiking, we loaded up on headed south. We arrived at Signal Mountain at 8p. Sunday we drove to Jenny Lake and the kids completed the Junior Ranger Program there while three of the adults went on a hike above Jenny Lake. The kids were pretty much hiked out at this point after logging over 30 miles of hikes/bikes in Yellowstone. Monday AM we pulled out early and headed for Jackson, WY. We had booked a river rafting excursion there with Barker-Ewing guides, so pulled into town about 10:30 and met our guides at 11am. FWIW - Parking an RV in Jackson, WY is not simple. The town is small and crowded. There is a limited lot on the north side of town, but pretty much street parking through the rest of town. We rafted the Snake River south of Jackson in the rain and hail, crazy and cold, but with wetsuits, it was still a lot of fun. We ate lunch in Jackson, then hit the road headed for Idaho Falls, ID.
We made the naive choice to go over Teton Pass (10% grade for 4 miles). My truck had no issues, but our friends had to stop once on the way up and again at the top to let the transmission cool down. I would not recommend that Pass for most RVs. Knowing what I know now, we should have gone south down around Alpine, WY and the Paslisades Reservoir. We trucked on through to Idaho Falls, and stayed at the Snake River RV Park. Again, we got there just in time to make dinner. The RV park was nice with various amenities and a $3 all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. On Tuesday we drove to LaGrande, OR and arrived at Grande Hot Springs RV Park east of town. Also a nice park, but again, got there in time to make dinner. Wednesday we drove back to the Seattle area to end the trip. Total distance was about 2200 miles traveled.
It was a very active trip with little downtime, but we saw and experienced a lot. We didn't have any major issues and we enjoyed each place we stayed as everyone was different.
If we did it again, I might change a few things to include a little more leisure, but maybe once the kids are out of the house will we have time for that.
We were pleasantly surprised at the lack of crowds, with a few exceptions, and had a few different people between the towns and ranger stations say that the last two weeks of summer is the time between the "newlyweds and the nearly deads", referring to the changeover from the families visiting the parks during summer to the retirees visiting after schools start. Apparently we picked a good time to go. It was a bit hazy due to all the wildfire smoke in the air, but we had a couple good thundershowers to clear the air for a period. The temps were much more mild than anticipated as well, so we required more cold weather clothing than we'd planned for, but the generator never needed use either since we didn't need the AC and the periodic RV park stays let us charge up the batteries.
As for the driving, having upgraded from a 1/2 ton to a 3/4 ton diesel a couple years ago and more recently having acquired a newer TT, I was 100% happy with our combination and the drive was a breeze (sans some traffic). However, my friend and his 1/2 ton struggled on the passes and even keeping 65mph on some of the flat lands when we had a headwind was a struggle. I took the lead much of the time, so he could draft off me, which eased his burden. My transmission temp never got over 175 degrees, but his would reach 210 on the passes causing him to stress. My gas milage averaged for the trip was 12.7 MPG (13 MPG until we got back to WA). His was 10.5 MPG.
Hope some of this info is useful to some of you. I look forward to going back and seeing some more of those two parks at some point in the future.
  • VERY informative!! I'm planning the identical trip from Seattle next year. You've done a good job explaining what I can expect.
  • same trip and we got only 10.5 mpg using a full ton 3500 and a cummins turbodiesel pulling about 9000 lb. on the other hand we did Teton pass as easy as driving to the grocery store.

    staying at fishing bridge in yellowstone is absolutely worth it. avoids all traffic and we spent two hours fewer driving each day.
  • bobsallyh wrote:
    Huckleberry Hunter, glad you made mention of Teton Pass out of Jackson toward Idaho Falls. We spend quite a bit of time in the Yellowstone and Teton areas during the summer. We travel that road quite frequently with just our dually. It is not uncommon when descending into Jackson to see hot or burnt up RV brakes. And again when pulling the hump to see overheating. RVers, please take note of what Huckleberry Hunter posted and take the bypass he mentioned.


    Good point about the brakes on this grade. I used the exhaust brake feature combined with manually selecting gears on my Duramax and rarely had to tap the brakes at all allowing the compression to keep us in check. After the fact when we made it to the next destination, I learned my friend was manually using his brake controller in the TV in conjunction with his TV bakes to help limit stress on his TV brakes. The thought of having to do that made me cringe. Again, we made it safely, but we wouldn't repeat it with his half-ton combo.
  • Huckleberry Hunter, glad you made mention of Teton Pass out of Jackson toward Idaho Falls. We spend quite a bit of time in the Yellowstone and Teton areas during the summer. We travel that road quite frequently with just our dually. It is not uncommon when descending into Jackson to see hot or burnt up RV brakes. And again when pulling the hump to see overheating. RVers, please take note of what Huckleberry Hunter posted and take the bypass he mentioned.