Yellowstone

[Hidden_Mickey]

We are planning a trip for next July. I feel like I need a Yellowstone version of the DIS, lol. Can anyone recommend any good resources? A forum? A guidebook, kind of like the Unofficial Guide to WDW? We are in NY. What airport should we fly into? DH wants to rent an RV while we are there. Can anyone recommend a good RV rental company? Any hotels, just for reference? Restaurants? Side trips? Is there a website with good info? Sometimes the "official" ones are like commercials but don't offer any practical advice.

Our kids will be 12 and 9 next summer, if that helps.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[wowsmom]

We are planning a trip for next July. I feel like I need a Yellowstone version of the DIS, lol. Can anyone recommend any good resources? A forum? A guidebook, kind of like the Unofficial Guide to WDW? We are in NY. What airport should we fly into? DH wants to rent an RV while we are there. Can anyone recommend a good RV rental company? Any hotels, just for reference? Restaurants? Side trips? Is there a website with good info? Sometimes the "official" ones are like commercials but don't offer any practical advice.

Our kids will be 12 and 9 next summer, if that helps.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

We visited Yellowstone 3 years ago. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Sun Spree resort (in West Yellowstone, Montana). It was old but clean, with friendly people, a small indoor pool and a washer/dryer (important since we were driving cross country!). Oh, and there is a train car attached to the front of the hotel - I think it's a restaurant.

We took a tour of Yellowstone that picked us up at the hotel. I'm pretty sure this is the company we used.

http://www.yellowstone-tours.com/

They included a bagged lunch that was really good, plus the driver was good and there weren't that many people on the tour.

I'm trying to think where we ate when there...I remember the morning we headed out, we ate at this pancake house that was delicious - huge pancakes, majorly tasty. It was a few blocks from the hotel but I can't remember where.

ETA: I googled it...it's called Running Bear Pancake House. Good stuff!

Hope this helps!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

http://forums.yellowstone.net//index.php?sid=1c74d2556462a040c9691838c6e6adb6

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

We are going to Yellowstone in August, I will have to try Running Bear Pancake House!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I answered you on another thread, but I forgot to tell you I'd recommend flying into Jackson Hole (we used United airlines). In that town there's a great bakery/sandwich shop called the Bunnery. Don't miss it! My DH also wanted to rent an RV (He's watched "RV" with Robin Williams too much), but afterwards even he had to admit that an RV wouldn't have been such a great idea. There are lots of areas where RVs can't go too well-in dunraven pass, negotiating areas of "bear jams", little out-o-the way places. Fortunately, he was happy staying in cabins in the parks.

 

[of the seas]

If you want to stay in the National Park, make your reservations as early as possible. Especially if you want to stay at the Old Faithful Inn.

 

[laurie31]

There is a wonderful book, Yellowstone Treasures, by Janet Chapple, that we found invaluable. We read LOTS of guidebooks before we went, but this is the one we took with us. We loved the format, and there were so many things we would have missed without this book.

You can buy it here http://www.yellowstonetreasures.com/guidebook.htm or I'm pretty sure you can get it on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.

I second the recommendation of the Yellowstone Forums - lots of helpful people there who will help you plan your trip.

I recommend staying inside the park, as it's so big you will be driving enough without staying outside. Also, we had thought about an RV too, but discovered the roads within the park aren't all that "rv friendly" if you get my drift. You might be happier in a car. We were.

We went in 2005. Wow, it doesn't seem like THAT long ago! Anyway, We flew into Jackson Hole, WY which was a very easy airport to navigate, and stayed two nights in the Tetons, at Signal Mountain Resort. We loved the Tetons, btw! Then we moved to the Canyon side of Yellowstone and stayed there for 3 nights. There is LOTS to see on that side of the park. The Canyon itself, plus the many waterfalls, and drive out into Hayden Valley near dusk to see lots of wildlife (although you will see lots of wildlife anyway!) Then we moved to Old Faithful Inn for 3 nights. Mostof the geysers are on that side of the park. My kids loved all the thermal features and were fascinated with the geysers and mudpots especially.

If you stay in the park, you need to book 12 months in advance. We called the day we could first book, and still didn't get our first choice of room at Old Faithful Inn

Yellowstone has been perhaps our best family vacation ever (shhhhh, even including Disney) and is the only place besides Disney that we would love to go back to over and over. We can't wait to go back!

I think I have pics from that trip on photobucket *goes off to search*

 

[jsmith]

My mother and my in laws live in Cody, Wyoming-and my father was a guide for this company-www.grubsteaktours.com-until shortly before he passed away.
Flights-while flying into jackson hole is an excellent suggestion it will be quiet expensive and if you want to rent an RV that will be horrendously expensive. you can also fly into Cody, Wyoming-but it will be roughly the same-if you are serious about renting an RV i would encourage you to fly to Billings, Montana or Pocatello Idaho-flights and RV rental will be much less.
If you plan to stay inside the park reserve camp sites NOW-you should have done this in January and may have trouble with availablity-if that is the case look in the surrounding areas-jackson, cody, west yellowstone or cooke city mt for camping.
Hotels-if you are not going to have an RV you will want to look in Jackson, Cody, West Yellowstone or Cooke City for accommodations-Jackson will be the most expensive-west yellow stone and Cooke City the least. There are hotels and Cabins in the park-at Mamoth Hot Springs, Lake, Canyon Village, Old Faithful and West Thumb-it is however pretty unlikely that you can get reservations this late in the year-although if you want to stay in the park i would certainly try. there is a range from fairly primitive cabins to standard motel rooms -nothing high end-and it will not be inexpensive. If you stay at Old Faithful make a reservation to eat in the hotel dining room-the food is-or at least was the last time i was there-really outstanding.
Keep in mind when planning travel in yellowstone or grand teton parks that distances are long and speed limits low-for example it is 100 miles from Cody to Fishing Bridge and the average speed limit is 45 mph.

Resturants-in the park-aside from the dining room at lake and the dinning room and a cafeteria at Old Faithful most of whats available is burger and fry concessions. Cody and Jackson have the usual range from upscale to fast food-concer with the PP who plugged the Bunnery in Jackson-and will add my own pitch for Jedidiahs house of sourdough-yummmmmmy-in Jackson and the Proud Cut Salon in Cody-but its not the place to take a vegitarian. the Irma in cody is rich in history and good solid food. There is a place in cooke city that makes to die for cinnamon rolls the size of a dinner plate-but i can not recall the name of it.
Good Luck and have fun

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I answered you on another thread, but I forgot to tell you I'd recommend flying into Jackson Hole (we used United airlines). In that town there's a great bakery/sandwich shop called the Bunnery. Don't miss it! My DH also wanted to rent an RV (He's watched "RV" with Robin Williams too much), but afterwards even he had to admit that an RV wouldn't have been such a great idea. There are lots of areas where RVs can't go too well-in dunraven pass, negotiating areas of "bear jams", little out-o-the way places. Fortunately, he was happy staying in cabins in the parks.

I the Bunnery!!

I agree with your DH, I wouldn't suggest driving an RV through Yellowstone. The roads can be very difficult to navigate, and you can't pull off the side of the road like cars do when animals are spotted. We go every year, but fly into Bozeman which is closer to our log house near Butte. We have flown into Jackson airport, too.


Have a great trip, OP..Yellowstone Rocks!! (pun intended!)

 

[laurie31]

Flights-while flying into jackson hole is an excellent suggestion it will be quiet expensive and if you want to rent an RV that will be horrendously expensive. you can also fly into Cody, Wyoming-but it will be roughly the same-if you are serious about renting an RV i would encourage you to fly to Billings, Montana or Pocatello Idaho-flights and RV rental will be much less.
If you plan to stay inside the park reserve camp sites NOW-you should have done this in January and may have trouble with availablity-if that is the case look in the surrounding areas-jackson, cody, west yellowstone or cooke city mt for camping.
Hotels-if you are not going to have an RV you will want to look in Jackson, Cody, West Yellowstone or Cooke City for accommodations-Jackson will be the most expensive-west yellow stone and Cooke City the least. There are hotels and Cabins in the park-at Mamoth Hot Springs, Lake, Canyon Village, Old Faithful and West Thumb-it is however pretty unlikely that you can get reservations this late in the year-although if you want to stay in the park i would certainly try. there is a range from fairly primitive cabins to standard motel rooms -nothing high end-and it will not be inexpensive. If you stay at Old Faithful make a reservation to eat in the hotel dining room-the food is-or at least was the last time i was there-really outstanding.

<snip>
Good Luck and have fun

On the flights - it depends on where you're flying from. We looked at flying into Billings, Bozeman, Cody, and Jackson, and Jackson was the cheapest for us.

I thought the OP was planning a trip for July 2010. If it's actually THIS July, then yeah, there's basically no hope of getting lodging in the park. But if it's next July, then you are good to go

 

[MontanaZoo]

On the flights - it depends on where you're flying from. We looked at flying into Billings, Bozeman, Cody, and Jackson, and Jackson was the cheapest for us.

I thought the OP was planning a trip for July 2010. If it's actually THIS July, then yeah, there's basically no hope of getting lodging in the park. But if it's next July, then you are good to go

I've stayed at West Yellowstone's KOA in their little cabins and they were great. Also have stayed at the Best Western Mammoth Hot Springs in Gardiner. Yeah, it's just a Best Western but Gardiner is right outside the main gate to the park, plus I don't think it has the sales tax that West Yellowstone does (Montana doesn't have sales tax except resort towns, I think just Red Lodge and West Yellowstone but not sure). The Best Western was great for a spur of the moment Labor Day trip, we really only slept there but you can get rooms that have a walkway looking right over the river and look across into what is actually Yellowstone.

If you have a choice, I'd fly into Bozeman and drive down paradise valley if staying in Gardiner or the east side of the park, drive down the Gallatin if staying in West Yellowstone or the west side of the park.

If you wanted more of a drive, you could fly into Billings and drive over the Beartooth Highway to the northeast entrance of the park.

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

My mother and my in laws live in Cody, Wyoming-and my father was a guide for this company-www.grubsteaktours.com-until shortly before he passed away.
Flights-while flying into jackson hole is an excellent suggestion it will be quiet expensive and if you want to rent an RV that will be horrendously expensive. you can also fly into Cody, Wyoming-but it will be roughly the same-if you are serious about renting an RV i would encourage you to fly to Billings, Montana or Pocatello Idaho-flights and RV rental will be much less.
If you plan to stay inside the park reserve camp sites NOW-you should have done this in January and may have trouble with availablity-if that is the case look in the surrounding areas-jackson, cody, west yellowstone or cooke city mt for camping.
Hotels-if you are not going to have an RV you will want to look in Jackson, Cody, West Yellowstone or Cooke City for accommodations-Jackson will be the most expensive-west yellow stone and Cooke City the least. There are hotels and Cabins in the park-at Mamoth Hot Springs, Lake, Canyon Village, Old Faithful and West Thumb-it is however pretty unlikely that you can get reservations this late in the year-although if you want to stay in the park i would certainly try. there is a range from fairly primitive cabins to standard motel rooms -nothing high end-and it will not be inexpensive. If you stay at Old Faithful make a reservation to eat in the hotel dining room-the food is-or at least was the last time i was there-really outstanding.
Keep in mind when planning travel in yellowstone or grand teton parks that distances are long and speed limits low-for example it is 100 miles from Cody to Fishing Bridge and the average speed limit is 45 mph.

Resturants-in the park-aside from the dining room at lake and the dinning room and a cafeteria at Old Faithful most of whats available is burger and fry concessions. Cody and Jackson have the usual range from upscale to fast food-concer with the PP who plugged the Bunnery in Jackson-and will add my own pitch for Jedidiahs house of sourdough-yummmmmmy-in Jackson and the Proud Cut Salon in Cody-but its not the place to take a vegitarian. the Irma in cody is rich in history and good solid food. There is a place in cooke city that makes to die for cinnamon rolls the size of a dinner plate-but i can not recall the name of it.
Good Luck and have fun

Just to clarify, we are planning to go in July 2010, I'm a DIS'er, aka an OCD planner.

Your advice is a great help, thanks so much!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Good luck planning! I remember when we were planning our first trip to Yellowstone. It was so overwhelming I remember telling DH repeatedly, "Now I know how the first-time visitors to WDW feel planning."

 

[DL55]

I see that you are from metro NYC. Have you done any camping? My DH checked the price of renting RVs...not cheap! They are not as easy as they sound. Assuming you'd use RV parks (for elec, h2o, sewer) you still need to do more than just park it.. fridge works best (and feels better) if rig is level. It really can be a pain.
I love the Old Faithful Inn. Be aware that the original inn has community baths and showers (men and women) and no elevators. There are newer wings that have private bathrooms. It's location is great for a base of operations to see the rest of the park. Plus you can just walk out to the geyser basin. There are no views of Old Faithful from rooms in the original inn (not sure about the new wings) but there is a nice balcony in front ( with lots of chairs) to watch the geyser.
If you like nature, you'll love Yellowstone. July is the busiest month so get your reservations in soon!

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Ooh, I'm jealous!!! Besides Disney, Yellowstone (and the surrounding area) is my FAVORITE place to visit. It's gorgeous!!! I don't really have a good site recommendation for Yellowstone, but I've used this site for Jackson Hole.

I definitely recommend staying in the park, if you can. We used to go every other summer for about 1-2 weeks. It was so fun! We stayed all over the park, but my favorite place was the Old Faithful Inn. It's gorgeous!!! Definitely make your reservations as soon as you can. It fills up fast. We also stayed at the Lake and Canyon cabins. That was a fun, more rustic experience.

I'd also suggest spending a few days in Jackson Hole. It's such a great town, and it's beautiful!!!!

Have fun!!

 

[minkydog]

We had a family reunion in Yellowstone 2 years ago. Half of us took our travel trailers and the other half stayed at Canyon in their cabins. Each group had good experiences.

My sister's family liked Canyon. It was comfortable and quiet and the dining area was pretty decent.We liked staying in our camper because we felt like we got a closer taste of the natural surroudings. 'Course, that might be due to the buffalo that walked through our campsite and peed behind the trailer. The good thing about taking a trailer is you can drop it at the campground and drive your car around. NO WAY would I go over the Dunraven Pass in a motorhome

If you know your dates already you just need to figure out whether you want to stay on-site or off-site. We spend a few nights in West Yellowstone which we found very convienent to the west and south sides of the park. Yellowstone is huge, the size of Rhode Island. Forget just driving around and seeing everything. We stayed there 10 days an *still* didn't get to see everything. Get your reservations as early as you can so you can get what you want.

Once you've decided on your hotel, might I suggest you plan to take the kids on the Roosevelt Chuckwagon. It's a great cowboy dinner that takes place in the back country. You can either ride horses to the site or they will take you in a horse-drawn wagon. The cowboys grill steaks, sausages, chicken and serve it with all the sides. You sit around teh campfire or at picnic tables and listen to the cowboys sing while waiting for your cowboy coffee to come to a boil over the campfire. It was probably one of the most fun things we did.

Good luck! Yellowstone National Park is one awesome vacation. Get out of your car and into the woods.

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

I see that you are from metro NYC. Have you done any camping? My DH checked the price of renting RVs...not cheap! They are not as easy as they sound. Assuming you'd use RV parks (for elec, h2o, sewer) you still need to do more than just park it.. fridge works best (and feels better) if rig is level. It really can be a pain.
I love the Old Faithful Inn. Be aware that the original inn has community baths and showers (men and women) and no elevators. There are newer wings that have private bathrooms. It's location is great for a base of operations to see the rest of the park. Plus you can just walk out to the geyser basin. There are no views of Old Faithful from rooms in the original inn (not sure about the new wings) but there is a nice balcony in front ( with lots of chairs) to watch the geyser.
If you like nature, you'll love Yellowstone. July is the busiest month so get your reservations in soon!

No, we have not camped before. I did it a little when I was young and prefer a nice bed and hot shower, thanks. A cabin sounds OK to me though. DH has seen RV and wants to be Robin Williams, lol. I think he will end up being more like Clark Griswold, though . I think an RV will be an expensive pain and we will get sick of staying in a small space. I assume RV's don't have showers? YUCK I am trying to talk him out of it. He trusts the DIS after two awesome trips to WDW so maybe he will listen to your advice.

 

[minkydog]

No, we have not camped before. I did it a little when I was young and prefer a nice bed and hot shower, thanks. A cabin sounds OK to me though. DH has seen RV and wants to be Robin Williams, lol. I think he will end up being more like Clark Griswold, though . I think an RV will be an expensive pain and we will get sick of staying in a small space. I assume RV's don't have showers? YUCK I am trying to talk him out of it. He trusts the DIS after two awesome trips to WDW so maybe he will listen to your advice.

Most RVs have toilets and showers, albeit small ones. If you've ever been to Europe you've seen an RV bathroom.

Given that neither of you have ever driven a motorhome I would I would encourage you to rent an RV and stay at a state park closer to home, see how you like it. If you rent an RV in NY it's going to take you almost a week of driving just to get to YNP. Do you want to travel that way? Also, with an RV you can't go as fast as you would with a car. Most people find that 300-400 miles a day is max and it's hard to drive more than 3 days in a row at max. We traveled a couple days, then stopped a day or so. This way we didn't get worn out driving so hard

Personally, I love RV trips. We took our kids on a 2-month trip around the country when they were 12 & 14. We had a blast and came home closer than ever. That's not to say that it's easy. If you want to know what it's like, spend an entire weekend in your bedroom with the kids, some board games and a cooler. Do not leave the bedroom except to go outside to play, drive the car or build a campfire. If you have to use the stove and microwave, go downstairs and cook, then bring all the food and drink back up to the bedroom. We spent 2 months in our 19-foot trailer. Very, very cozy. Let's just say we know more about each other's "habits" than you'd ever want to know. But we can't wait to do it again.

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

We had a family reunion in Yellowstone 2 years ago. Half of us took our travel trailers and the other half stayed at Canyon in their cabins. Each group had good experiences.

My sister's family liked Canyon. It was comfortable and quiet and the dining area was pretty decent.We liked staying in our camper because we felt like we got a closer taste of the natural surroudings. 'Course, that might be due to the buffalo that walked through our campsite and peed behind the trailer. The good thing about taking a trailer is you can drop it at the campground and drive your car around. NO WAY would I go over the Dunraven Pass in a motorhome

If you know your dates already you just need to figure out whether you want to stay on-site or off-site. We spend a few nights in West Yellowstone which we found very convienent to the west and south sides of the park. Yellowstone is huge, the size of Rhode Island. Forget just driving around and seeing everything. We stayed there 10 days an *still* didn't get to see everything. Get your reservations as early as you can so you can get what you want.

Once you've decided on your hotel, might I suggest you plan to take the kids on the Roosevelt Chuckwagon. It's a great cowboy dinner that takes place in the back country. You can either ride horses to the site or they will take you in a horse-drawn wagon. The cowboys grill steaks, sausages, chicken and serve it with all the sides. You sit around teh campfire or at picnic tables and listen to the cowboys sing while waiting for your cowboy coffee to come to a boil over the campfire. It was probably one of the most fun things we did.

Good luck! Yellowstone National Park is one awesome vacation. Get out of your car and into the woods.

Thank you because your comment about driving the RV through the pass got him to admit he is not too keen in actually driving the "rolling terd", lol, just thought it would be fun. I think he wants to go camping instead of staying in a hotel. Are there places to stay in a tent or cabin, but you are not totally roughing it on your own? I can see this turning into City Slickers

 

[ringaswan]

Have you hiked? Canoed?

Yellowstone is a great place to hike ... and there are several good guides for all different levels of hikes (and hikers).

Some places will be very crowded, like the Old Faithful area. Try heading towards the northeast corner of the park, it's very beautiful country and usually far from the crowds. There are ranger guided hikes too, look into them ... great learning experiences, especially for kids.

We can't speak for any of the accomodations as we have only backpacked in the park. But we did stay a couple days at the Grand Targhee resort (on the western side of the Tetons) and took a couple very awesome horseback rides into the backcountry (they were guided).

You can rent mtn bikes in Jackson and they'll have some good routes for you to follow ... we rode out to the cabin/barn that you always see in photos of the Tetons, and where the movie Shane was filmed.

Oh yeah, make sure you have bug spray ... skeeters are prolific and very hungry (short feeding season).