Critique my Yellowstone Plans

[Tdave]

Originally Posted by Hermes2

First, if you haven't made reservations yet for an RV park, better make 'em now if you can.

Second, as others have said, get up early -- like pre-dawn -- to get into the park. We found it best to travel as far into the park as we could to see sights and animals and then work our way back to the RV park by sundown. Makes for very long days, but it's the only way you'll see most of everything.

Thanks for the advice. I think I’m just going to have to “condition” the troops on super early morning rising a few days before our arrival to Yellowstone. Luckily mom is a natural early riser.

Campgrounds were booked as soon as window opened. I couldn’t imagine trying to find availability this close to the season.

[Tdave]

Figured for the record, and for future Yellowstone visitors on the forum looking for possible itineraries, I’d give a quick synopsis of what we did when we were there a week or so ago.

Family of 3, wife and I are in our 50s, daughter is 15
43’ 5th wheel
Dually towing vehicle
Dog
And we were there when things were “in flux” after the reopening, but 93% of the park was open.

We first entered the park via East Entrance, when the ALPS system was in place, but our plate number was proper for the day. Stopped along Yellowstone Lake a couple times as we made our way to South Entrance on our way to Grand Teton for a week. Slight construction delays south of West Thumb, but very light traffic.

On our return trip from Grand Teton to West Yellowstone (staying at Grizzly RV), we encountered no delays at south entrance, and road construction was inactive due to it being July 4 weekend. Being ahead of schedule we decided to attempt parking at Upper Geyser and see Old Faithful erupt, scheduled 15 minutes from our arrival. We found plenty of parking at 11am, caught the eruption just 5 minutes after arrival, did a visit to the Inn, sat and had a delicious coffee in rocking chairs, and were back to the rig within 1.5 hrs of arrival, putting us at Grizzly at 1pm check in.

Our first full day we decided to enter park at 7am and let the day unfold. We went to Norris Geyser, about 45 min drive from campground. We basically had the place to ourselves, spent 2 hrs there. We then continued to Mammoth Hot Springs, parking lots were 1/3 full, nice leisurely walk around entire location, visit to the visitor center, walk through the Fort, then back on road. Picnic lunch at Sheepeater Cliff about 15 min south. Stop at Roaring Mountain. Hiked Artist’s Paint Pots. Back at camper by 2:30. Woke dog up from a nap. Caught lots of candy during the West Yellowstone July 4 parade, and caught the town’s full fireworks display from the comfort of our campsite.

Day 2 we decided to push up departure time to 6:30am and headed to Canyon. Brink of Upper Falls first, only ones there, then to Artist Point, maybe 6 or 7 other vehicles there, then to Upper Falls overlook, then stop to view some mature elk sunning themselves near north rim entrance, then over to and down Uncle Tom’s trail for Brink of Lower Falls, then stops at each of the other overlooks on north rim. Not rushing, taking lots of cool photos, wrapped by 9:30. Trip to Hayden, stop multiple times to view bison herds. Then down to West Thumb for geysers and picnic lunch afterwards. Then another stop at Upper Geyser to walk more of the basin, picked up some of the delicious Milky Way Mochas at the Inn again, back to camper by 3pm.

Day 3 we depart by 6:30am again, straight to Grand Prismatic Spring in Midway Basin. Unfortunately, this early in the morning, the air temp is still so cool that the thermal features are very hidden by the steam. Grand Prismatic was pretty much covered and we couldn’t see a thing. To “kill some time” we headed to Biscuit Basin, checked out the thermals there, which were less shrouded, and did the Mystic Falls hike. Back from hike by 10, drive over to the Grand Prismatic overlook, do that hike, check out Spring from above which was by then fully visible and amazing, hike back, and drive to Bridge Bay Marina. Again: we’re not rushing, and taking our time with very little crowds, easy parking. Drive to Bridge Bay was a little long as road construction was back in force, some one lane closures. Arrive at marina by noon, rent one of their power boats, go for a cruise, eat lunch engine off while drifting by Stevenson Island, and back to camper by 3 to relieve the dog. South loop traffic definitely denser, but no stoppages except at construction.

Day 4 (last full day), we “slept in” to 7am, since our destination was north loop. We checked out Norris Geyser Porcelain Basin again, but it wasn’t apocalyptic steaming like our first visit (looked like we were on another planet), but it was still cool. Then up to Mammoth and continued to Tower Junction to do a back country hike, Lost Lake. With guidance from the rangers, we picked our way through the flood carnage near Roosevelt Lodge and got on the trail, did a 700’ elevation ascent and ran smack into a bull bison on our trail, had to forge a new one around him, continued the hike past the lake (found) and Petrified Tree, and through some amazing mountain meadows in full bloom and then back down to ranger station, where they tipped us off to some wolf viewing up the ascent to Mt. Washburn, a bison carcass. Stopped at Tower Falls for a quick peek and some provisioning, then caught the wolves in our spotting scope by side of the road. Popped over Mt. Washburn, stopped in Canyon Village searching for an elusive VW Bus t-shirt (no luck), lunch in the truck as we make our way back to camper, did a quick side excursion to Virginia Cascades. Arrived by 3:30, pooch happy to see us.

Did a nice dinner in West Yellowstone that evening, and hit the road early for an uneventful 7.5hr tow to Glacier the next day.

Lamar wasn’t open, so we didn’t see that, and maybe we missed one or two thermals, like Fountain Paint Pots.

But, we saw A LOT, and didn’t feel at all like we were rushing. Maybe the closure put a delayed effect on traffic, but it wasn’t the nightmare I was envisioning, and we never ran into wildlife jams. Each day was 8-9 hrs in the park, and we just didn’t have the energy to re-enter twice each day. Logged maybe 650 miles in the park total.

But, we know there’s still quite a bit more to see, so we will be back. Maybe not with our camper next time, we might opt to fly in, rent a car, and do a tour of the lodges and some professional guide tours, to dive in a different way.

Anyway, hope my report can help others here. We really liked this itinerary. Your mileage may vary…

[BEE1234]

Tdave, what others parks did you stay in at Grand Tetons and Glacier?
Thanks!

[Tdave]

Originally Posted by BEE1234

Tdave, what others parks did you stay in at Grand Tetons and Glacier?
Thanks!

We stayed at Colter Bay RV Park in Teton (not the campground immediately next door, which does not have hookups). This was the hardest site to book on our long trip, as it is the only campground with full hookups in the park. I had to practice an online booking technique to beat the competition, which I detailed in another thread.

Lucky for us, the site we snagged, 486, was far end of the park (quieter) and next to trail that led down to Jackson Lake beach. After setting up when we got there, I sauntered down that path, came around the corner and the Tetons were right there across the lake in full view, literally took my breath away. Every morning I set my anti-gravity chair up on the beach and have my coffee. Was amazing.

Only downside to the RV park: no campfires. Rigs are too close together, they say. Our site had proper level and hookup proximity, but that can be a crapshoot, too. Maneuvering a big rig around inside the park takes some skill, too, pulling into our site I literally had inches to spare to make the turn.

In Glacier we did 3 nights at West Glacier KOA, the top rated KOA in the USA, and it was like a luxury hotel resort. We had a deluxe patio site, so we really were comfy. Grill, patio set, tall beautiful landscaping to hide you from neighbors, fire pit with rustic wood benches. Only downside was Wi-Fi, theirs was being real cranky and I discovered it was an issue with devices set to private browsing mode, but even after connecting it was spotty. And Verizon showed multiple bars but nothing would reliably get on the internet using cell connection there. Even my wireless backup camera was having connection issue, bizarre. Ice cream from their little stand was best we had on entire trip. But BBQ dinners they sell from their cafe each night not so great.

We drove across the park using US 2 and did another 3 nights in East Glacier at the St Mary KOA. A few steps down from West Glacier KOA (but what isn’t), a bit of a run down joint. We booked a site that backed up to the central flag circle of the campground, which gave us unobstructed views of the mountains. I would say those are the best sites in the campground. Upside of that KOA was proximity to gravel road for biking that went on forever. Otherwise, sites were dirt and pretty unlevel, and sewer connection was higher than the rig outlet on ours. But that’s kind of best to expect in East Glacier, which is totally different vibe than West Glacier village.