Advice on Yellowstone

[jbjuices]

Would love to get advice on our trip to Yellowstone next year. We're going the middle of July and would like get advice on the following:
-Where to set up camp:
-We'll be hauling a 34' trailer
-We need a reservation site
-Don't want to camp in a parking lot
-Full hook-up would be awesome, but can settle for dry camp also
-Central location
-Advice on dry camping. We have never been dry camping and my kids (and us included) are used to full amenities. At the least, we would like lights, so we're planning to get a small Gen to recharge during the week.
-We want to be able to take showers in the camper, so would need to fill the tank and empty the tank. We have all the needed items to do both, including a portable water tank and external pump to transfer into our fresh water tank.
-We love fires; whether we use our portable pit or buy wood there; especially as cool as it gets
-Any additional advice on what to bring while dry camping

[tomnytyz]

We spent 10 days there this summer. I recommend splitting your time between Madison campground and Canyon campground. They are both great locations to see each side of the park. The both have fresh water and a dump station. Canyon has showers and laundry. Madison is nice because it is close to west yellowstone. Canyon is nice because it is not far from all the valleys to see the wild life. In June I would not recommend Mamoth, it's much hotter than other parts of the park.

[jbjuices]

I really liked reading through everyone's post. We chose Grizzly RV Park since we wanted the full hook-up experience. If anyone has pics of Grizzly that they can post, that would be great.

[tkoden]

We stayed at fishing bridge. It was a great no frills, full hookup, site in the CENTER of Yellowstone. We found that we would come back to the TT for dinner and go out for short 1-2 hr excursions after dinner which was great because most people were staying outside of the park so they would leave for dinner and the park was empty. Because of the central location of the campsite you can easily plan your day trips from there. I would HIGHLY recommend the campground if you don't need a super fancy campground and want to be close to the action.

[Raptorx9]

this guy also "walked" right by our camper. he was about 5 feet.

[Raptorx9]

You are going to LOVE it!!! we went this last June for two weeks. It was amazing! The first night we were there it got down into the 20's so be prepared for that. We stayed one night at Fishing Bridge. It has full hook ups but it is a parking lot and does not allow fires. it was also quite expensive at $55 a night. it requires a reservation but there was a cancelation for the one night we were there. the rest of the time we stayed at Mammoth. it has water to fill your tanks but you cannot stay hooked up. No electricity. it was also more economical at $20 a night. It has lots of sites for large trailers and we did not have a reservation and got right in. The village of mammoth (right up the hill from the campground) has everything you would need. Gas, food, laundry, restaurants etc. I would recomend finding a spot for your trailer and leaving it there. Some of the passes are VERY steep and everything is at least an hour away. 20 miles can take and hour or more. Here are some pics from mammoth. The elk walked right past our camp site.

[tsetsaf]

Best way to find a Campground or RV park in or around Yellowstone West Yellowstone and Gardiner give you closest access.

[dlos]

We visited Yellowstone 2 summers ago and stayed in Fishing Bridge for a full week. While Fishing Bridge is an RV parking lot type setting, we used it solely for parking the RV, eating dinners, showering and sleeping.

We were gone from the site from 6am until we were done sight seeing every day. Fishing Bridge was a great location for us and we would definitely stay there again if we go back. We wanted full hookups. Did not want to move and set up camp again. Did not want to worry about moving camper without reservations. Fishing Bridge allowed us to get out and experience the park without having to make the 30-60 minute rides in daily through the various entrances.

Yes, some parts of the park were far away from from our location but with careful planning and early starts, even the farthest reaches of the park were a pleasure to travel to, after all, you're in Yellowstone!

[pawatt]

Mandalay Parr wrote:
The town of West Yellowstone has full service RV parks. The Grizzley RV park is nice.
Close to everything.

Agree

[ozkamper]

We went to Yellowstone 3 years ago. Dry camped at Mammoth hot Springs. No reservations (which can take forever) required, we arrived early in the morning and only had to move once. Close to a lot of things, especially the hot springs. Montana is less than 30 minutes away for groceries.

[AH64ID]

jbjuices wrote:
Would love to get advice on our trip to Yellowstone next year. We're going the middle of July and would like get advice on the following:
-Where to set up camp:
-We'll be hauling a 34' trailer

Depending on your TV size you might fit in a "back-in" slot at Canyon, but Madison's 50' spots will be your best bet.

That or the RV park at Fishing Bridge.

jbjuices wrote:
-We need a reservation site

Any place in the park that your setup will accept reservations.

jbjuices wrote:
-Don't want to camp in a parking lot

Can't do that in the park, and I don't reccommend staying outside the park. Everyone I know personally who has stayed outside the park and tried to see as much as possible, to include dusk/dawn drives has regretted it.

jbjuices wrote:
-Full hook-up would be awesome, but can settle for dry camp also

I would start training yourselves to dry camp. You will not spend as much time at the camper as you might think. Small things like LED lights, cheap ones from Amazon are doing great for us, will make a big difference.

Generators are allowed from 8am-8pm, so you might have to plan accordingly if you are gone a lot.

jbjuices wrote:
-Central location

Anything in the park where a 34' TT will fit is central.

jbjuices wrote:

-Advice on dry camping. We have never been dry camping and my kids (and us included) are used to full amenities. At the least, we would like lights, so we're planning to get a small Gen to recharge during the week.
-We want to be able to take showers in the camper, so would need to fill the tank and empty the tank. We have all the needed items to do both, including a portable water tank and external pump to transfer into our fresh water tank.
-We love fires; whether we use our portable pit or buy wood there; especially as cool as it gets
-Any additional advice on what to bring while dry camping

There are places to use small portable jugs for filling/emptying the camper fresh and gray in the campgrounds. You can also use the provided showers, which are spread thru-out the campgrounds.

Depending on your length of stay you can also tow to the dump site located at each campground and dump/refill if necessary.

I would recommenced a 2nd battery if you don't have one. If you are gone all day, which is very likely, you can fill your generator in the morning, start it and let it run out of gas. Do your neighbors a favor and get, rent or borrow, a quiet one. If all you are doing is charging batteries, no A/C or micro, then a 1000w unit is plenty.

There is also the Fishing Bridge RV park, but we aren't much for RV parks (or campgrounds) so that has never been an option for us so I cannot comment on it.

[ktmrfs]

Another option we have used is to stay slightly outside the park in FS campgrounds. Basically dry camping, with nice restrooms, water if needed.

Within 30 miles of west yellowstone are several FS campgrounds, that when we were there last year never filled up. Huge sites,

Similar options exists around gardner and other entrances as well.

and the cost is low, around $10/night.

[oughtsix]

We just came back from Yellowstone. We stayed at fishing bridge. Fishing bridge is a RV parking lot. We got a spot back to back with my sister and her RV. My only complaint was the septic hookup stuck up so far out of the ground that I couldn't empty my blackwater tank more than half empty. For a RV parking lot fishing bridge was above average. I don't know how they would do full hookups without the parking lot feeling.

There are lots of things to do in the west side of the park but the west side feels much more commercial. I.e. lots of places to spend money. When we made reservations they told us not to bother bringing our bikes or kayaks. I am glad we brought our bicycles and wish we brought our kayaks. The north side of the park is less traveled and less commercial. We liked the north side of the park the most. Just like every campground supplies at the stores where 2x to 3x what we would have paid at the supermarket at home.

As expected the restraunt we stopped at in the park was expensive and mediocre. The last few days we packed a cooler and a grill in the back of the truck and pulled over to one of the picnic areas when we were hungry for dinner (About 7:00pm). The first night we had the entire picnic area to ourselves (The entire area not just the picnic spot!) The second night there was another friendly family there that we chatted with a bit. The third night a coyote decided to lurk in the outskirts of the picnic area waiting for us to leave. (That was adventurous and fun). Eating at the picnic spots felt much more like capming than eating in our little section of the RV parking lot.

The best advice I have seen on here is to stay in 2 or 3 different areas to minimize driving. There are 2 loops, an upper and lower loop. The loops are 45mph and there are more than the ocassional traffic backup due to people pulling over to photograph a herd of bisen or an elk or moose. So it took us about 2 hrs to get from the west entrance to Fishermans bridge. You can easily spend 4 hours of driving in the car just to navigate the southern loop especially on the weekends. I wish we had stayed in a couple different areas of the park.

The park is busiest during the day. It was much nicer and more peaceful during the evening... except the mosquitos! Both my brother in law and I enjoy photography. My brother in law enjoys photographing the animals and I enjoy photographing scenery, particularly scenerey in the background with family in the foreground. Together we had lots of fun but I will admit I was buffaloed out by the time we stopped on the side of the road the the hundredth buffalo. 🙂 I must have taken pictures with 20 different cameras. Pretty much everywhere we stopped I would take group shots for others with their cameras. Most all of them recripricated.

[tll]

We just returned from there last week. We stayed at Bridge Bay campground just 3 miles south of Fishing Bridge. Make sure you ask for a site in the wooded area, much of it is very open. No services except a dump station and flush toilet bathrooms. Showers are available at Fishing Bridge. To prevent filling the tanks, we took showers by using the outside shower. We never filled either tank, or used up our 60 gallons of water in 5 nights there (it was really close though!)but we were water stingy. They have double wide sites that can fit larger campers. Ours is 33' long. They allow fires and we had several nice ones. Water is easily available to refill your tanks and the dump station is right outside the campground. We carry 3 batteries, one gets recharged by being hooked to the truck while driving around during the day. We went 8 days in a row,5 at Yellowstone and 3 at Glacier and had ample power all the time. We even watched movies on a 40" LED TV during a few rainy nights. No need to haul a generator, and no noise either.

[kknowlton]

If you want to be in the center of the park, Fishing Bridge is your choice. Otherwise, Grizzly is great - and convenient to the park entrance. Really an excellent choice if you plan to spend the bulk of your time touring the park. We've stayed there multiple times. We have also stayed at the older KOA (there are now 2, both west of West Yellowstone by a few miles) - years ago - and at Henry's Lake SP in Island Park, Idaho. Electric-water connections there only, and a dump station. Great scenery there, but it can be windy. If there aren't fire restrictions in place, you can have a campfire at your site. Not much shade, though, and sites aren't private, though they are spaced pretty well.