Mapping out our trip to Yellowstone - help

[Mote]

The wife and I are making plans for our first trip out West next June. The first try at the itinerary is shown below. We plan on making reservations at Yellowstone and Custer. Not sure where to stay in Cody thou. Let me know what you think?

Leave June 13
Saturday – leave home, spend night on road

Sunday – drive to Wall Drug then to Custer State Park, spend night at Custer

Monday – tour Custer state park and mount rushmore, spend night at Custer

Tuesday-drive from Custer State park to Cody Wy, spend night in Cody

Wednesday – look at the sights around Cody, spend night in Cody

Thursday – Drive from Cody to Red Lodge Mt, Beartooth highway and end up at Canyon Campground

Friday – tour Yellowstone, spend night in Canyon

Saturday – tour Yellowstone, spend night in Madison

Sunday – tour Yellowstone, spend night in Madison

Monday – tour Yellowstone, spend night in Grant

Tuesday – tour Yellowstone, spend night in Grant

Wednesday – start trip home

[bjohns]

DW and I have campground hosted in the Tetons for several years. Two of the best campgrounds are Indian Creek in Yellowstone and Lizard Creek in the Grand Tetons. Lizard Creek is right on Jackson Lake at the north end of GTNP. From there you can do either Yellowstone or Grand Tetons and get back for a nice evening. Lizard Creek is the best campground in either Park, and both IC and LC are great for truck campers. There are also other National Forest campgrounds around the Tetons and along the way between Cody and Yellowstone. Many of them are underused and all are pretty decent.

[yosemiteford]

We spent 1/2 our time in Yellowstone and the other 1/2 in the Tetons - an excellent decision and I encourage to at least visit the Jackson Lake Lodge. And if you like margaritas, make sure to have a huckleberry margarita.

[tc-lance]

I agree, generators are pretty noisy. I think that sold us on the Lance 850 over the roomier 950s. The 950s came with a built in genny, which added $3K to the price, and a couple hundred pounds. The 850 has no genny, solar, and dual batteries. It's all wired up to the truck, and charges when driving, idling, or solar. I figured we would use the truck engine for charging on an extended boondock stay.

[Bob__B]

In early spring, the falls and streams are really running hard because of the run-off and the Yellowstone falls are impressive.
In the fall the streams will be running slower but you may get into the fall colors.

We went on May 20 one year and one of the passes into Yellowstone was closed for a while because of snow. It was cold at night, but very nice during the day. There was also a multiple day power outage in the park....I don't remember what caused that. Lots of nursing buffalo calves, saw some moose calves also.

[Mote]

billtex wrote:

Mote wrote:
Is Fishing Bridge the only campground with electric at the sites ?

Yes.

But if the TC will be your only vehicle, I would not worry about it...you'll be driving enough to charge battery.

Hmm, I haven't hooked up the harness for the camper to the truck charging system yet.
Looks like I had better get that done before the trip.

I think I also need a new solar controller. If I have it hooked up the battery will drain very quickly. If I unhook it then the battery will stay charged for many days.

[billtex]

Mote wrote:
Is Fishing Bridge the only campground with electric at the sites ?

Yes.

But if the TC will be your only vehicle, I would not worry about it...you'll be driving enough to charge battery.

[Mote]

Is Fishing Bridge the only campground with electric at the sites ? We have a solar panel and a genny. I don't want to have to run the genny thou as it's pretty annoying. If we're going to use solar only I may need to add an additional battery.

[tc-lance]

Yellowstone set a record this year for September, over 500K visitors. Sept used to be a quiet month in YNP, but with summer visitation hitting big numbers, more people are going in Sept after most kids are in school. We tried late Sept on our last trip, and morning temps were down near 30 in Madison campground. This was 5 years ago, and we were hoping to be there when there would be less people. Nope, it was busy.

I have camped in YNP as late as the 1st week of Oct. In Oct, most services are shut down, or shutting down. We had to bail out early on the Oct visit because of heavy snow.

YNP and Teton get a lot of international as well as US visitors. If you plan to camp June-Aug, reservations are going to be necessary for the campgrounds than can handle large rigs (Grant, Fishing Bridge, Bridge Bay, Canyon, Colter Bay). The smaller campgrounds have unreserved spots, but very few sites will accomodate large RVs. Plan on small campgrounds to be full by 10AM.

I have never camped in the Fishing Bridge campground. That campground is limited to hard sided RVs, has hookups, and is basically a parking lot. Not my idea of camping in the rockies.

[daily_double]

If you go to Wall drug, you'll know why China is now the no.1 economy in the world.

[Dave_Pete]

Mote, the high pass of Beartooth would be more enjoyable temperatures for travel and touring during summer, although in June count on areas (some maybe large areas) of the previous year's unmelted snow still around. Typically don't plan high country (off road for example) travel until after 4th of July at the earliest. August is typically the best month for great temps and limited snow in the high country.

But August would be terribly packed with people in the lower Yellowstone. June through August is Yellowstone's worst. September is getting bad too, especially early September. Late September and even early October brings beautiful fall colors to the aspens around here, but most of Beartooth is above treeline, tundra. Tundra is most enjoyable (arguably) during summer. September will bring possible freezing temps over night in Yellowstone, maybe a snow flurry but generally gorgeous weather. Mid day is cool enough to walk the trails, wear a jacket with your shorts, limit total numbers of people. Our favorite times of year in the parks (Yellowstone and Teton) are Fall or Spring, before the people arrive and while the elk are departing (spring migration leaving the elk refuge near Jackson).

If you take the perhaps better weather (but potential hot and sh!!ty) of summer and brave the crowds just accept it's going to be crowded and work the crowd into you mental way of enjoying the trip. Your here in part for the wildlife right? We like to speculate on the people around us, what car will they get into? What state are they from? People can be quite entertaining. 🙂

If you take the fall time, expect more free space, less traffic, cooler temps, possibly awesome colors. We lived in Northern VA for a year and took advantage of living there to see things. One of our favorite memories is seeing Mount Vernon and Gettysburg in all four seasons. You should have the same viewpoint regarding the Intermountain west. In other words, at least four trips here over the rest of your life will not only lessen the total things to see and do during anyone trip, but get a few seasons. Really, nobody should die before trying to see Yellowstone during winter!

Hope some of this helps.

[jimh406]

You could always look up the temperature averages in historical data, but I think the bigger question comparing June to September is whether you want to see late Spring or late Summer. Just on memory, you have chances of cold weather during both periods.

[Mote]

Regarding the crowds in the park, would we be better off going the last two weeks of June or the first two weeks of September? Would our chances of warmer weather be better in September ?

[tc-lance]

infogeek, I think you will be disappointed in how much you can see with the parking and driving limitations of your MH. Maybe you can rent a car in Jackson or Billings.

I have been to yellowstone around 15 times over the last 30 years. Most of the trips were in a small pop-up pickup camper or a pop-up trailer. I went mostly for the fishing back in the day, and then family trips. Lots to do there with kids.

In the past 10 years, visitation numbers in YNP are staggering. Look up the visitation numbers, and that will give you an idea of the traffic to expect on the 2 lane roads around the park. Over 3M visitors in 2014, upwards of 600K-700K / month in the summer.

[realter]

Almost 35 years ago we visited the Tetons and then on up to Yellowstone. The traffic just creeped along for miles. Maybe this is the reason wife never wanted to go back. I tnink the longer the rig the harder ! Infogeek, best of luck.