Yellowstone National Park How Many Days?

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

We are planning a visit to Yellowstone. We plan to drive and see the sites no camping. How many days should we plan to see everything and any idea where to stay in the park?? outside??

Thanks

 

[Alan L.]

We are planning a visit to Yellowstone. We plan to drive and see the sites no camping. How many days should we plan to see everything and any idea where to stay in the park?? outside??

Thanks

I'd say minimum 3 days, more if possible. I'm not sure about wintertime, but in the summer reservations are usually required far in advance for inside the park. There are places to stay in Jackson, Red Lodge, and other surrounding areas if thats a problem.

I would not go in the winter, as much of the park is under snowbanks, and its very cold.

Its an awesome place.

 

[mjarrels]

What ever you decide, add two days just in case. Remember, always build a garage twice the size you think you need theory.

mark

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

The visit will be in July 2007.

 

[1bush2hog]

If you plan on just riding thru the park a few days should do it, however, if you plan on hiking, fishing, etc. allow additional time. We stayed in Jackson Hole, WY when we went. Grand Tetons are between JH and YS, also have the Snake River for rafting, and quite a few restaurants and places to stay there. JH is a nice place too. It was about 45min drive to park entrance if I remember correctly

Should be a fun trip no matter what you plan. Take a good camera and good binoculars!

 

[Bird]

If you plan on just riding thru the park a few days should do it, however, if you plan on hiking, fishing, etc. allow additional time. We stayed in Jackson Hole, WY when we went.

I agree on the time. We arrived on 9/3/91 and spent 3 nights in a campground in the park (we were full time RVers at the time). Then on 9/6/91, we went on to Jackson Hole for a couple of days. The little town of West Yellowstone was a pretty and interesting place, but naturally a tourist trap, so it might be a bit expensive to stay in any of the motels there. Of course, I'm sure things have changed a bit in the last 15 years.

 

[MossRoad]

We were just there in June. It is beautiful. We stayed in Cody, WY and drove in each day. I do not recommend that as it is a 50 mile drive to the park entrance, and then another 30-40 miles inside the park to the crossroads to other attractions. The park is HUGE! If at all possible, stay in the park. That will save you severl hours of driving each day. There are several entrances to the park. It appears that one of the entrances is under construction at any given time, so be sure to check well ahead of time which one they will be working on when you go. That can add an hour or more of delay. And they may close the entrance being worked on all-together at night, so no traffic at all is allowed through. For instance, had we not made it back to the east entrance towards Cody, WY each night by 8:00p.m., we would have to take an alternate route. That would turn the 50 minute commute to Cody into a 5+hour drive. So DO check out planned construction before you make your reservations and lodging plans.

The main roads are laid out kind of like a huge figure 8. And the Tetons are not that far to the south of the park. Well worth the drive as the views are spectacular. Old Faithful lodge was closed for remodeling last summer, so we couldn't go inside and look around. There is still plenty to see and do around that areas with lots of geysers, a couple other Inns, food and gifts as well, in that area, and maybe that lodge will be open by then.

The highlights of the trip for me were:
- Old faithful and the surrounding boardwalk. Take the boardwalk and be amazed.
- The mud pots. Something about scalding mud popping into the air gets me going.
- The Tetons.
- The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Easy access and good views on the south-east side.
- The Geyser Basin near the south end of the park along the lake is a must see.

I'd say a minimum of three days spent driving inside the park with stops for short walks. Many more days could easily be spent there.

 

[Bird]

You can certainly find lots of information on the Internet about Yellowstone. It was actually nothing at all like we expected; not too pretty 15-16 years ago because of the huge forest fire they had in 1988. Three years later, huges areas were still nothing for charred landscape. And of course years ago, you seldom saw a picture of Yellowstone without one or more bears in the picture. When we were there in '91, they still had the warnings to not leave food out, etc., but they also said it was very rare for a visitor to even see a bear, and in 3 days we never saw one at all. It did seem that they were over populated on bison, and we saw coyotes, deer, elk, etc.; i.e., lots of wildlife; just no bears.

 

[EddieWalker]

Steph and I were there this past July for our honeymoon. Two things thas suprised us were how empty the park was, and how cold it was. The weather was storming on us the day we were there, but we got lucky and were able to see the basics between thunderstorms. We sat in my truck for half an hour waiting for the rain to stop at the falls, but it was jsut partly cloudy when we were at Old Faithful. We couldn't see the Tetons in Jackson, but when we were in the park, it cleared up and we were able to get some amazing pictures.

We spent the day driving all over the place and only saw a few dozen elk and not one single bison!!! We saw more mule deer on that day then in all my trips there before combined!! No bears, moose or wolves.

If you have the time, three days is plenty. The sites are all something you can see in one day if you try, but two days will make it easy on you. To find all the animals, you need to ask around and stop at all the traffic jams. When animals are spotted, people pull over on the side of the road and get pictures.

Steph had never seen a moose and that was something we really wanted to find, but when we asked others, we learned that all the moose sightings were back in the Tetons and nobody was seeing in Yellowstone that day. We didn't have time to go back to look for moose, so we never saw one.

With three days, you should be able to find the animals and see the sites.

A few years ago, I stayed at Fishing Bridge RV Park. It was ok, but there were very few animals there. We drove to Madison every day to see the big bull elk and allot more animals. There was a heard of several dozen elk right beside Madison RV Park with several massive bulls. Of course, there's never a gurantee where you will find the animals, but with a few days, you will see them.

Be sure to go out the North Entrance and to the town of Gardner. There is a sporting goods store that sells wildlife and hunting vidoes made by Gordon Eastman. He was fairly famous for his videos back in the 60's and 70's. The guy who owns the place was his business partner and he knows the park and area better than the rangers do. He had a spotting scope in his shope and showed us two heards of bighorn sheep. He told me how to get up close to them, which we did, and I had the greatest time taking pictures of some huge bighorn sheep at just one hundred yards.

One disapointment that I found when we were there was that the Mammoth Hot Springs have just about stoped flowing and the calcium deposits are falling apart. They were very unique and something I really wanted to show Steph.

On your way to Yellowstone, be sure to go to the Black Hills in South Dakota. If I had a choice between the Black Hills or Yellowstone, I'd go to the Black Hills. For me, it's not even close!!! You can stay in Custer State Park, go to Wind Cave State Park, explore several caverns, see Mt Rushmore, Crazey Horse and the town of Deadwood. There are so many things to do there that a week wouldn't be enough!!!!

Just a short distance from the Black Hills, and kind of on your way to Yellowstone is Devils Tower. It was the focal point of the movie "Close Encounters of a third kind." It is this countries first National Monument and definatley worth seeing.

Then just before you get to Yellowstone, go to Cody Wyoming. The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum is there, and it's probably one of very few museums in the country that rival the Smithsonium. It's that good!!! Also in Cody is a collection of log homes and buildings from all over the old west. The owner bought them, dismanteld them and reasemebled them there. One salloon has the bullet holes in the walls from the Sundance Kid!!! It's just something that's very unique and interesting in one place.

A good website to read up on these places and traveling is RV.Net : RV Accessories, Supplies, Classifieds, Insurance, Financing & More They have a site similar to here, but focused on RV's, places to stay and what to do there. Lots of good information and helpful people. If I was you, I'd join that sight and ask for suggestions just like you did here.

Another very good thing to do is go to each states website you will be going through and request there tourist guides. They take about a month to get to you, but they are free and full of everything there is to do in there states. The one for South Dakota is a MUST!!!!

Have fun!!
Eddie

 

[Bird]

not one single bison!!!

I said things probably changed since we were there. Back then, they said they had several people injured every year by bison because there were so many, so close and they seemed almost tame. At Old Faithful, people were wandering around within 10-15' of bison grazing on the grass around the parking areas.