Yellowstone questions

[garyp4951]

We are planning a trip this year from Memphis Tn with a 30' 5th wheel, and had a few questions.

1. What is the best route to take to Cody Wy?
2. Should I see the Tetons first?
3. I'm retired so when are the crowds the smallest?
4. Should I take time to see the black hills?
5. I plan on staying at Cody, Red Lodge, West Yellowstone.

Thanks for any advice, I know this place gets busy with tourist, but have never been there.

[garyp4951]

Yall have given me some great info, and I really appreciate it, and it sounds like I'll be there for a few weeks at the least.
BPRescue, Im going to stay in the Jackson area for several days, and might be giving you a shout.

[Braces]

Going back again this fall. Most YNP CGs close mid Sept. Would not want to stay anywhere except Fishing Bridge because of travel time and FHUs . Park service says 3 hour travel from West Yellowstone to Lamar Valley which is the prime wildlife viewing area. Do Tetons also,we like GrosVentre CG electric only(some sites). Go back out through Cody, 1 day drive from there to Hill City SD,Custer SP,Rushmore. It would be nice to have 5-6 days YNP,2-3 days Tetons, 2-3 days Cody,3-4 days SD. From Cody go through Thermopolis and around NOT through the big,bad mountains further north. Rafter J Bar Ranch CG Hill City or one of the SP cgs. I know Fishing Bridge is not a great CG.

[RGar974417]

We were there in mid may of this year. Great time to go.Day time weather was high 50's low 60's.Night time in high 30's. It's a big park so I would suggest staying in the park some of the time. WE stayed at Madison which is centrally located. The Inn at Old faithful is the largest log structure in the world. The lobby is beautiful and the food is good and reasonably priced.Yes, check out the Grand Tetons.

[kohldad]

1) If you don't mind mountain passes, go across the Big Horns on Route 16. If you do mind the mountains, go through Casper, WY.

2) Tetons first or second would depend on if you are going before tourist season or after. Weather in Yellowstone will get warmer last and colder first.

3) Go before the weekend prior to July 4th or after Sept 1. A week farther from those dates would mean even less crowds.

4) Most definitely see the Black Hills. Figure at least four days in the area. Also don't forget about Badlands NP and Devils Tower.

5) The only place you mentioned worth seeing Yellowstone from is West Yellowstone. The other places are too far to make seeing Yellowstone practical. You want to be there early in the morning or evening to see the wildlife. Unless you can't stay in the park for medical reasons, I strongly recommend it. I hate Fishing Bridge, but if you need power, than it's a better choice than outside the park. Stopping in Cody for a night or two or three makes sense as there are some neat attractions.

Remember, during the times I suggested, you will not need air conditioning but will need some heat.

Enjoy, I've been twice, last time 12 years ago which is really too long ago. Hopefully this year will be the ticket for me.

[2gypsies1]

If you're retired and want to have smaller crowds then the first two weeks of June or the last week of August through mid-Sept. is good for this trip.

Each national park has a wonderful web site with lots of good information such as things to do, campgrounds, road information and special 'alerts'. Check them out.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm

https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm

For Grand Teton Nat'l Park try to stay in the park itself at Colter Bay RV park if you need hookups. If you enjoy dry camping, stay at either Colter Bay campground - right next door to Colter Bay RV or a little farther south in the park toward Jackson is Gros Ventre campground (our favorite). Both of the dry campgrounds have 300 non-reservable sites but even with our 40' motorhome we've always gotten a site. They rarely fill and won't be full in the shoulder seasons.

Here's a good road information detail for RVers: Note that from Red Lodge you will have a very steep mountain road to take to get into Yellowstone from that direction so keep it in mind. In May you would probably have snow issues to carefully check on.

http://www.rvtechmag.com/travel/4_yellowstonebyrv.php

It makes no difference which park you do first as they're right next to each other.

[BPRescue]

1- Don't know

2 - 1st or 2nd does not matter, but be sure to do it. This is my favorite entrance to the park; granted I lived in Jackson, so I am partial, but driving through Teton into the park is a nice drive. You could either stay in Teton, or close to it via night or two via Colter Bay, Gros Ventre or others which will allow you to spend some time in Jackson, Maybe take the Tram in Teton Village, and spend a bit of time in Teton. Don't treat this as a day trip while "on your way to Yellowstone", as you can easily spend two days or more here depending on what you want to do. Either way, you will find yourself stopping many times while "driving to Yellowstone". If you have more specific questions about Jackson or Teton, let me know. It is worthy of its own agenda, that is for sure.

3- This is a very tough question to answer as it depends on what you want to do/see and where you will be staying. As someone said, Memorial Day, through Labor Day is the height of the season, but also best chance for good weather and any activity you may want. Mid to late September is not as busy with early October potentially being a good time per the changing colors, animal activity, minimal crowds, etc. (same as mid to late May though snow will still remain in areas and not as much color). Here is a couple links that provide closure info... https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/ocd_locale.htm https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/parkroads.htm

Also, winter is a time that is beyond words. Very few people, though many areas and roads are closed. You have to hop on a snow machine and do this once in your life. Nowadays a guide is required, but still quite cool, uh cold; especially late Jan/early Feb. May want to get there before or after as it can be -30 for weeks, not days or hours as some might be accustomed to... That's just too cold for any activity, including being on a sled.

4- Black Hills? Only if I have time to Kill. Who knows, maybe Trump will be under construction... Nice place to see once I imagine if you are driving through, but if time is constrained, no chance it is taking up valuable time over N/W Wyoming. Not much in the US can touch it. Again, I am partial, but I have also been over most every inch of it.

5 - Yeah, I really don't like to stay at the entrances to the Park, but if you must, West Yellowstone would be my choice during the slow season anyway. It is the closest to the majority of site, though Red Lodge can be good if you want to hit Lamar and Canyon. I don't know how many nights you plan at each, but West Yellowstone could be the majority as the Upper Loop will take less time unless you are really trying to see some wildlife in Lamar. Either way, I would prefer stay in the park over outside since it wastes much time. If full hookups keep you out of the park other than the parking lot that is Fishing Bridge, West Yellowstone has some pretty good sites that are much closer to your activities in the park

[garyp4951]

Wow, thanks for all the great information folks. I can use advice from every post to plan my trip now. The Wapiti Ranger station said they might not be open until the second week of May due to heavy snows, so I might plan on being there when they open.
We are going to the Tetons after YNP, and stay a few days too.

[kalynzoo]

Enjoy. We like Jackson, it is a lovely beautiful town. We stayed at the Virginian RV park on both trips, it is a small gravel full hookup lot at the rear of a small, nice hotel, right in the heart of Jackson. It is all about location. Yellowstone is wonderful. Plan on at least 4 days of touring, at very least. We have stayed at both Grizzle RV and KOA West Yellowstone. Grizzle is right at the park entrance, well groomed, but with few amenities. KOA is a great KOA, large sites, heated pool, gym, small restaurant, and the preferred sites have concrete tables and benches and an adult swing bench. Really, just nice. Its been a long time since we were at the Black Hills, but it has great memories.

[CloudDriver]

garyp4951 wrote:
We are planning a trip this year from Memphis Tn with a 30' 5th wheel, and had a few questions.

1. What is the best route to take to Cody Wy?

As CoolMom suggested, take I80 to I25 to Cody, then route 20 to Thermopolis, then route 120 to Cody. No mountain driving.

2. Should I see the Tetons first?

The Tetons are less crowded than Yellowstone, so if you go in the Spring go to Yellowstone first. The Tetons are our favorite park.

3. I'm retired so when are the crowds the smallest?

Since you are retired, my suggestion would be to get there in late May to beat the families with school age kids. We also like to see the mountains with lots of snow on them in the Spring. We went one time in the Fall and the views were spoiled by smoke from forest fires.

4. Should I take time to see the black hills?

If you want to see the Black Hills, make a loop out of the trip and stop there on the way back. Lots of people love the Hills and we have been there. We would much rather be at Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

5. I plan on staying at Cody, Red Lodge, West Yellowstone.

In Cody we stay at the Ponderosa campground. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody is great.

I assume you are planning to move to Red Lodge so you can drive the Beartooth Highway. There is a better way to do that. Leave the RV in Cody and make a day trip that includes both the Chief Joseph and Beartooth highways. Take route 120 north out of Cody to route 296 (Chief Joseph Highway). Stop at the top of Dead Indian Pass for great mountain views. Stop at the bridge over the Clark's Fork River and check out the canyon. Continue to the junction with route 212 (Beartooth Highway) on over Beartooth Pass to Red Lodge. Take route 308 east to Belfrey then route 120 back south to Cody. We actually prefer the scenery along the Chief Joseph Highway over the Beartooth.

For West Yellowstone we like to stay at the Bakers Hole National Forest campground, 3 miles north of town. To dump tanks we move for a day to the Grizzly RV Park in town for FHU.

For the Tetons, we always stay at the Gros Ventre campground at the southern end of the Park. One loop with electric and they have a dump with fresh water as well. If you need FHU, your best choice is the Colter Bay RV Park.

Thanks for any advice, I know this place gets busy with tourist, but have never been there.

[Horsedoc]

1. What is the best route to take to Cody Wy?

If you take the 'most direct' route, you will deal with a lot of tolls in Oklahoma. You will also cross a lot of mostly unpopulated country in southern Wyoming. We did not like portions of that route at all.
The route we liked best and also the easiest and most scenic was from Buffalo (I-90) over the BigHorn mountains on US 16 to Worland. There is a shorter route but that involves US 14 and a lot of switchbacks and really tough grades.
From Worland to Greybull to Cody.

If you are going to see the Black Hills, it might be simpler to visit them first and then head west to Buffalo on I-90.
Red Lodge is a LONG drive from Cody, but a beautiful ride on the Chief Joseph Hiway and the Beartooth hiway (US212) Make the drive but it might not be a good idea to try to stay in Red Lodge as a base and certainly not a good idea to drive over the Beartooh towing or even in a large MH.
Again, Cody is a great little town but basing there means you will have a daily drive of a couple of hours to the Park and then that much back.
Suggest you look at Gardiner on the north side of the park or West Yellowstone in the west side. More facilities in W Yellowstone and more to do.
Just my opinions on a couple of things. WHere ever you stay, you will love the country around there.

[dewey02]

We went in mid-September and it was more crowded than we thought, so I cannot image what a zoo it would be in mid-summer. We also had snow one of the nights, but the days were very pleasant, so fall is a good time to go.

I would definitely say to see the Black Hills, and suggest staying at Custer State Park. They have the fall Buffalo roundup, which will tend to make things more crowded. If you don't want to see that, schedule your Custer stay either before or after roundup week.

[brooks379]

I have been to YS 4 times and the way I like the best would be ...Get to Cheyenne, WY. I 80 TO Rawlins then 287 N/W all the way to Grand Teton NP (BEAUTIFUL RIDE from Dubois west !!) I would start enjoying the area from Dubois on through YS. I would leave YS on hwy. 14/20 to Cody. When you leave Cody... 120 S/E to Thermopolis and then on to where ever your headed.

As far as going through the Black Hills IMHO.. they are nice and I enjoyed seeing them but YS is the Black Hills on steroids times 10. June, July and August YS will be full of tourist and I mean FULL. My favorite time to be there is early spring or any time in October. Might get some cold weather or snow but I love being able to just camp where ever and not much traffic at all. There are many ways to go and that's mine .....Good luck ,everyone should see YS NP.

[Hank85713]

We stayed in Jackson when in the area. The Tetons were in easy range and Yellowstone if only driving thru is relatively easy to get to from there.
Also in Jackson the National Elk Refuge is there and has a great visitor center and you can spend some time there plus wandering around the town is nice.

With a dually or long pickup most of the parking spaces will be confined so be forewarned.

As to the black hills guess it depends on what you want to see. Rushmore is a good couple of hours of looking walking around, crazy horse is a tourist trap, went there a couple of years ago and it has not really progressed from the 1st time we went there 20 years ago. Supposedly the black hills are a good motorcycle trip but mainly set for tourists as far as I know. Have friend thats been to the rally several times and he never really talks about much more than the rally and all the T&A that is there...

[Bumpyroad]

we went into yellowstone from the North and exited to the south past the tetons, don't think the order matters.
the main reason I visited the black hills was a college buddy in rapid city and to cross rushmore off my bucket list.
bumpy