Yellowstone Grant/Madison CG's

I’ll bet you are close enough for the federal government.

There are no measurement police, no one will come around with a tape measure to see if your unit is 30' or 30" 6" or 35' for that matter. If your unit fits in the site then you are good to go so long as it does not stick out into the roadway. I have never seen a NPS cg where the tow vehicle did not have room to pull into the site. Maybe not enough room but close. I had the rangers at Yosemite tell me to park my truck sideways once.

Not that being said, if you cannot get into the site then you are out of luck, no refunds and they will not find you a different site.

agesilaus wrote:
There are no measurement police, no one will come around with a tape measure to see if your unit is 30' or 30" 6" or 35' for that matter. If your unit fits in the site then you are good to go so long as it does not stick out into the roadway. I have never seen a NPS cg where the tow vehicle did not have room to pull into the site. Maybe not enough room but close. I had the rangers at Yosemite tell me to park my truck sideways once.

Not that being said, if you cannot get into the site then you are out of luck, no refunds and they will not find you a different site.

I appreciate your reply, but it does not answer the question. I know they will not measure my trailer, and I know if a vehicle is in the road you will be asked to leave.

What I'm asking in my OP is if anyone has had experience with actually staying in these campgrounds, and if the sites will actually accommodate anything slightly over 30'.

My Grayhawk is 30" 9", and I was towing a CRV. I called the campground number and over a few days they found me a 3 night and a 2 night opening,(2 different campgrounds) THAT THEY SAID WOULD FIT my equipment, so no surprises upon arrival.
I strongly recommend calling, not using the website.
and Yellowstone was great (only our 5th trip)...

ccchuck wrote:
My Grayhawk is 30" 9", and I was towing a CRV. I called the campground number and over a few days they found me a 3 night and a 2 night opening,(2 different campgrounds) THAT THEY SAID WOULD FIT my equipment, so no surprises upon arrival.
I strongly recommend calling, not using the website.
and Yellowstone was great (only our 5th trip)...

You did not mention but I'm assuming the 2 different campgrounds you stayed at were Grant and Madison. Were your sites back in or pull through?

I did make reservations over the phone but the folks I talked with were at a reservation center and not at the campground and basically were repeating what they had been told about the campsites, i.e. 30 feet max.

If you remember the number where I could actually speak with someone at the Yellowstone campgrounds I would really appreciate.

What I was trying to get across with my post is this: if a 30 ft unit fits then adding 6 inches won't make any difference. You are worrying over a problem that does not exist. When they rate a site as 30' that is approximate not exact.

dryfly wrote:

agesilaus wrote:
There are no measurement police, no one will come around with a tape measure to see if your unit is 30' or 30" 6" or 35' for that matter. If your unit fits in the site then you are good to go so long as it does not stick out into the roadway. I have never seen a NPS cg where the tow vehicle did not have room to pull into the site. Maybe not enough room but close. I had the rangers at Yosemite tell me to park my truck sideways once.

Not that being said, if you cannot get into the site then you are out of luck, no refunds and they will not find you a different site.

I appreciate your reply, but it does not answer the question. I know they will not measure my trailer, and I know if a vehicle is in the road you will be asked to leave.

What I'm asking in my OP is if anyone has had experience with actually staying in these campgrounds, and if the sites will actually accommodate anything slightly over 30'.

We drove through to check out Madison. We have a 35' FW (well 35' 5"). No way would we go in there but others, and plenty do. To us, the road is narrow, tight, and back in, except if you get an end site, would be a long process. If you are good, really good, at this type of situation, then go for it.

If you don't have a login to Campendium, do it. It's free, then check out their pics and reviews

Madison Campground Yellowstone NP

Grant Campground Yellowstone NP

Just a note, we stayed at Bridge Bay and really liked it. The internal road are wider and the sites out in the open are spacious.

At Grant (not stayed in Madison) the few times I have been there not had a problem. You don't know what type of site you will get until you get there it may be pull through or back in. From what I recall 6 inches is not going to make a difference. The last two times I was at Grant I ended up with a pull through that could have accommodated a longer trailer with no problem. However I had to go in backwards due to the tree placement in the site for my slides to extend (which they dont care about as long as you have someone working the traffic as there is no space for passing around an oncoming vehicle, obviously the back in sites that will make no difference.

If I am unfamiliar with a campground and can't get good info on it and they have the availability I have no problem reserving the next size up.

In any case I don't think you will have an issue from what I can recall about the site sizes. They are not overly large at all but again I don't recall seeing anyone having a problem at least once they got in their site. Also I don't believe they are counting on your rear overhang going over the rear backstop as part of the measurement however there may be a tree right there as well.

We stayed at Madison a few years ago in a pull-through site (our 5er measures just shy of 30') and we had enough room to fit in most of the sites. The pull-throughs probably give you some more options for positioning the RV for slides and awnings, but I doubt that you will have significant issues.