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Old 05-18-2021, 01:22 PM   #1
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Fitting in Yellowstone?

Now that we finally have our rig, my wife really wants to go to Yellowstone. She also wants to stay at campgrounds inside the park if possible. We wouldn't be going until next year, but the planning has to start now.

Our MH is about 38 feet, plus the toad will bring the length to over 50'. I've seen reports here of people getting into Madison, Mammoth & Bridge Bay with 40' rigs. How were you able to find a place that would fit your rig & toad?

Now that the camping areas require reservations and some list lengths of only 30 feet, how can we get a spot? Some of them have contradictory info. The main web page for Madison says 30 feet max, but the reservation site says 40 feet, including toad. But some people here have been in Madison with a 40' rig plus toad. The reservation site says they don't reserve specific sites. Showing up and hoping the site they assign is big enough doesn't seem like a good plan.

One site shows Mammoth can go up to 65 feet total. It also looks like specific sites can be reserved because they use a different reservation system than the other campgrounds. How can we tell if a site is big enough? The maps I've found for the various parks don't really show the size of individual sites very clearly.

Fishing Bridge is supposed to be open next year and we should be able to fit there, but people here have also stayed at Bridge Bay with bigger rigs. How to tell which sites will be big enough?

We went to Yellowstone in a rental Class C about 12 years ago. That was only 29' and we had no problem fitting at these campgrounds or dry camping with 5 of us. Now there will only be 2 of us.

Last time we went in late May and will probably do the same if we can next year. So we're about a year out. Anyone know how far in advance they start taking reservations?
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Old 05-18-2021, 05:06 PM   #2
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When you phone the reservation number the operator is looking at a CG map marked with site lengths. The site they designate for you will barely be long enough to also park your tow vehicle.
We've been in Fishing Bridge with our Chevy long bed, crew cab 4x4 dually and 40'5er 2x. Haven't been there with this MH.
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Old 05-18-2021, 08:47 PM   #3
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We stayed at 3 campgrounds (Grant, Canyon and Fishing Bridge) inside Yellowstone in the summer of 2017 in our 28 ft (29'5" bumper to bumper) coach, each location we booked a 30 ft site, and each site we barely fit in, mostly due to saplings growing up at the back edge of the pavement. The were all so short that I put out orange safety cones for fear we might get clipped by someones towing mirrors. The longest site of the 3 might have been 32 ft overall. One of them I had real doubts we would be able to back into due to the angles, and marker posts, but we managed to get in without hitting anything, though once we were in we were barely able to open our side door due to a tree being in the way.
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Old 05-18-2021, 11:40 PM   #4
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We had a 40' MH towing a Jeep. Here are my notes from staying there. We really liked Mammoth. We haven't been there in a few years so don't know if they've done any renovations or remarking of sites.

Mammoth - There are quite a few we could fit into. We had #43. The outside edge sites are best, from 4-45. Open views. No dump, no water fill but #43 is next to spigot.

Bridge Bay - In order of Pref. #284, 286, 417, 15, 396, 14, 369, Dump/Water Fill.

Madison - #196 pvt. & big, #F214, B54, C98, D139, C113, C73, B53, A26, A23 . Dump/Water fill.

Note: On some pull-thrus you have to be creative such as going beyond the site and backing in to the curved part or pulling in and the motorhome stops at the curved part. This is if the curved part is sharp or has a tree in the way. When leaving you would just back out of the site rather than pulling thru.

Here are photos of the sites:

https://www.campsitephotos.com/campg...-national-park
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Old 05-19-2021, 09:39 AM   #5
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Thanks twogypsies! That really helps, especially for Mammoth. Mammoth uses recreation.gov and we can reserve a specific site so knowing where we can fit is a huge help.

Any idea how to make sure to get one of the larger sites at Madison? They use yellowstonenationalparklodges.com for reservations. They open up for online reservations for next year on June 2, but they won't take calls until June 8. Since they won't reserve specific sites are we just at the mercy of the online reservation system to get it right?
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Old 05-19-2021, 06:09 PM   #6
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Any idea how to make sure to get one of the larger sites at Madison?
Sorry.... for all three campgrounds we've stayed over the years and multiple times, we drove to them early morning as folks were leaving and got a site - no reservations. For Bridge Bay and Madison we secured cancelled reservations. In fact, Mammoth never took reservations until this year. Things are changing, unfortunately.

I'd suggest staying part of your time at Mammoth and then because you'll probably have to dump or fill with water anyway, move to West Yellowstone for exploring the southern half. Many parks there and in closeby surrounding areas. Baker's Hole national forest campground is great if you can get in. Used to be no reservations but don't know about this year. They have some electric sites but we liked the ones in the rear near the Madison River. It's just about 5 mi. north of West Yellowstone.

Good luck!
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Old 05-20-2021, 08:15 AM   #7
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Get your reservation ASAP. Tell them the length of rig. Tow car can be disconnected and parked behind rig or in parking lot if required. I have never had trouble fitting jeep in by RV. Good luck


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Old 05-20-2021, 02:22 PM   #8
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Get your reservation ASAP. Tell them the length of rig. Tow car can be disconnected and parked behind rig or in parking lot if required. I have never had trouble fitting jeep in by RV.
Look at this Yellowstone campground page. Note that the only 2 campgrounds open right now, Madison and Mammoth, were filled at 6am - 8am! It's going to be a wild summer!!

Read the rules at the end of the page and it states "Overnight camping or parking is only allowed in designated campgrounds or campsites". As I recall the rangers give out tickets for unauthorized parking, especially at restroom parking areas. You have to fit on your site.

Giving the reservationist the length of your RV is definitely not fool-proof to getting a suitable site to fit the RV and vehicle. The reservationist isn't even stationed in the park and has no idea what the sites look like. Our experience comes from volunteering at Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park. We assigned the reservations each morning to match a campsite and we soon ran out of big sites. However, in walking the campground we knew there were more big sites. We mentioned it to the rangers and we were told their site map was very old and we were free to make them a new one. So... one day we went to every site and measured and made note of parking multiple vehicles. Sometimes you have trees or large rocks prohibiting you to make use of the whole site. Anyway... we found so many more sites for big rigs than the old map showed. We made the new map and the rangers were amazed!

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm
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Old 05-20-2021, 02:35 PM   #9
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If everything doesn’t work out in the park a great alternative would be Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park. It is only about one mile to the west gate. We stayed there and loved the park.
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Old 05-20-2021, 03:14 PM   #10
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If everything doesn’t work out in the park a great alternative would be Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park. It is only about one mile to the west gate. We stayed there and loved the park.
We stay clear of the in the park campgrounds because it is just to crowded and crazy with tourists. We stayed in Grizzly as well and it is very nice. Just hop in the toad and visit inside the park. Plus they have full hook ups and that can be very nice if a cold snap comes through like we experienced.
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Old 05-25-2021, 01:30 PM   #11
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We stay clear of the in the park campgrounds because it is just to crowded and crazy with tourists. We stayed in Grizzly as well and it is very nice. Just hop in the toad and visit inside the park. Plus they have full hook ups and that can be very nice if a cold snap comes through like we experienced.
Yep...I agree. We have been there a few times and once during July, it rained and was cold the whole time we stayed. Glad to have been plugged in at Grizzly. Easy to get into the sites and good power, water and dump at them as well.
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Old 05-26-2021, 10:20 AM   #12
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I also love grizzly but last stay in mid June the mosquitoes were bad enough to carry you away. They have water sprinklers and ran them daily. Not sure I will ever go back to them in June. Never had this issue in July or August when we stayed there. Safe travels and you are right to make reservations early.

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Old 06-02-2021, 12:40 PM   #13
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The information at Yellowstonenationalparklodges.com indicated reservations for summer 2022 would OPEN on June 2 at 12:00 AM Mountain Time. At exactly 12:00 AM Mountain Time we tried to reserve and within 10 seconds the dates were showing as SOLD OUT. That would not have been possible unless they opened the reservation system earlier than they indicated it would open. Then the reservation system had network errors preventing us from checking other dates. That was probably due to not having sufficient capacity to handle the demand. I was finally able to get through about 25 minutes later and found something at a later date. After clicking on ADD SITE and being taken to the payment screen the system said the site was now sold. I gave up and went to bed.

This morning I've tried the same thing with different dates only to have the system tell me the site is sold while trying to pay. I've had that happen at least 5 times, and yet when I go back into the availability section it shows the dates as still available. The system is either broken or poorly designed as when I click on ADD SITE it should immediately lock in until I complete the payment. The attempts to make payment were done within seconds of clicking on ADD SITE, so it's not like it should time out.

Very disappointed and apparently we will not be going to Yellowstone. I have already filed complaints with Xanterra, the National Park Service, my senators and congressman. There is no way all the sites could have been completely sold out within 10 seconds of when the system was scheduled to open.
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Old 06-02-2021, 01:37 PM   #14
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Ohhh.... so sorry for the problems. Have you tried calling? Here's the phone # for Yellowstone reservations.

https://www.xanterra.com/contact/national-parks/
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