West Yellowstone, Livingston, and Cody Route Advise

[blarsony]

Sorry if this is something posted elsewhere, but my searches resulted in nothing significant.

Taking family from Boise to Livingston Mt, then to Cody WY, with a return to Boise.

We have a 2015 Heartland Bighorn (41') 5'er being drug by a 2012 Ram 3500 and looking for the best route from W Yellowstone to Livingston KOA in Mt, and from Cody KOA in WY, then back to West Yellowstone's Grizzly RV Park.

Livingston - Currently planning on going thru West Yellowstone via US-20, then North on US-191 to Livingston KOA.

Cody - Currently have no return route planned. We will be heading to Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone.

Any and all advise or past experiences with routes or places we are staying at would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks...!

[bobsallyh]

We went to Bozeman on Monday. Down 191 from West Yellowstone. No road construction but the power company is rebuilding their line for several miles. Poles up on the side of the mountains etc. There were a coupe of flaggers just running "slow signs when we went thru. It could be possible that they shut down traffic for a short-short but I wouldn't let it bother me. Go straight thru Belgrade, onto I-90 then on to Livingston.

[kknowlton]

x2 on Cloud Driver's route from Livingston - Cody. We've done this multiple times.

Cody to West Yellowstone, just go straight back thru the park: East Entrance - Fishing Bridge - Canyon- Norris - Madison - West Entrance.

I don't recommend towing up the west side of the grand loop road either (Norris - Mammoth.) MAJOR surgery going on this year on that road, and it's a mess. Dunraven would be (IMO) a bit scary to tow over.

[SH]

blarsony wrote:

We have a 2015 Heartland Bighorn (41') 5'er!

...that looks suspiciously like a "Big Country." Very nice rig! We had an earlier 3450TS in the gray color scheme. Loved the floor plan! Best Wishes on your trip!

[blarsony]

Thanks for the "TO CODY" advise, definitely forgot to ask, and appreciate the input!

[CloudDriver]

Route 20 is an easy drive to West Yellowstone. Haven't done route 191 for a number of years, but it follows the Madison River valley and I don't recall anything exciting.

You didn't mention how you plan to get from Livingston to Cody, but the easiest route is I90 to Laurel MT, then routes 212, 310, 72 and 120 to Cody. The only other route is through Yellowstone, in the North Entrance and out the East Entrance. The North Entrance has a one mile 7% climb to Mammoth Hot Springs, then another mile or so of 6-7% to the plateau. You need to go around the west side of the upper loop, as the east side has a steep climb and descent over Dunraven Pass. The East Entrance has a 6-7% descent for several miles between Sylvan pass and the Entrance station, followed by a more shallow descent pretty much all the way to Cody.

We like the Ponderosa RV Park in Cody. Only a couple of blocks to the Buffalo Bill Center.