Tetons, Cody, Teddy Roose, D tower, Custer...

[Danattherock]

We are taking our 8 and 10 year olds out to Wyoming, ND, and SD in August for 21 days, 4 days there and back. Went to Custer two years ago when we got our first TT, had a ball, eager to get back to the area

However, have no insight on tetons or Yellowstone, we will have 9-10 days total in the area. Plan as of now is to spend 4 in tetons and 5 in Cody. Curious of any suggestions for what amount of time to spend at each, campground suggestions, or any other things of interest besides tetons and Yellowstone themselves. Bridger Teton wilderness? Anything close by in Idaho a good day trip from Moran area, near Tetons?

After tetons and Yellowstone, heading to Teddy Roosevelt's park for 2 days, then dropping by devil's tower on 5 hour trip down to Rafter J Bar Ranch near Custer SP. Spending 3 nights there, needles, wildlife loop, Rushmore at night, the main plan. Then one night at Nomads bluff in Badlands on way back to NC

Would appreciate any campground suggestions for tetons, Yellowstone, and Teddy Roosevelt's park. Also trying to find some off road, fishing, or just interesting 1/2 day trips in those areas. Ghost towns. Anything the kids might remember. Have tundra TRD pro and comfortable on forest service roads and such. We would like to see some places that few people would visit.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Dan
NC

[hamm2018]

If you go out of the Tetons on John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway you go into the South Entrance of Yellowstone. It is about 1-hour drive. Tetons are beautiful, we went 2 days to visit. We spent 3 weeks at Yellowstone area, for us not enough time. We are heading back this summer for 3 months.
You can spend a week in Yellowstone and not see all of it.

Teddy Roosevelt NP is in Medora, ND. The Park is in different Units, North & South. Both are great and you need to see both. The North Unit is about 75 miles north, and on the way is another view of the park, it is an overlook easy in/out, while back to the South Unit.

[MtCamper]

Make your reservations NOW! You may already be too late. Don't try to see everything. Plan a couple of sites each day and leave plenty of time to enjoy them. You aren't going for yourself, you're going for the kids, listen to them. You may find the Buffalo Bill Museum to be wonderful and could spend two days there but the kids may see it a bunch of old boring crap that should only take an hour or two. Plan you days accordingly. If your kids like dinosaurs, check our Mikoshika State Park at Glendive, Mt. Expect large crowds in Yellowstone and Black Hills. Not so much to the north.

[Danattherock]

Thank you for the responses

I had not heard of that state park or any associated dinosaur interest there, thanks. We had planned on taking the kids to the dinosaur center in Thermopolis. We always try to incorporate something educational on our trips and archeology, or paleontology, would be fascinating for the four of us.

[andy29847]

We have stayed in Cody, WY and visited Yellowstone from there. It is a one hour drive to the east gate. We went early one day, saw Elk, saw Geysers, ate at the lodge near Old Faithful, hiked the trail behind Old Faithful, and saw the upper Yellowstone Falls. We decided not to go back because of the crowds.

We visited the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. It is a fabulous place with exhibits and live programs. I'm not sure how much fun it would be for kids though. We also enjoyed Dan Miller's Cowboy Music Review. The show is in an old theater downtown, across from Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel. There was a "in the streets" gunfight program the nights were there.

MY absolute fav thing to do in the area is drive over Beartooth Pass and visit Red Lodge, Montana. The scenery is fantastic. The last time we were there, we took our Jeep off on some of the dirt roads on the west side of the road and the Red Lodge side of the pass. The road was rocky, but was not scary. We went out to the end of the road where hikers park to take the glacier Lake Trail (county road 421). There is a fork to county road 2412 that goes up to the Hell Roaring Plateau Trailhead. We ran out of time and did not try this road. The map shows that it might be a little exciting.

We drove in too Cody from the east on US 16. The road over the pass is less demanding than 14 or 14A. The drive down the pass through 10 Sleep Canyon is very scenic.

Idaho rocks. There are lots of forest roads in the central and northern sections. We have stayed in Chalice and explored there. If you get that fat into Idaho, you have to visit the Custer Ghost Town. The Custer Toll Road is dirt through the woods from Chalice to Custer. It is a fun trip. If you stay near McCall, the ride out to Yellowpine, ID is dirt and super scenic. Yellowpine is the most remote town in Idaho. My favorite spot in Idaho is Elk City. It is buried in the woods. The McGruder Corridor is a mountain dirt road that runs between Elk City and Darby. It is 100 miles of wilderness.

Here are a couple of trip reports I wrote from a trip to the area:

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f38/summ...ys-260000.html

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/m...shirt.1084303/

[twogypsies]

For the best overall experience I'd highly recommend staying in the national parks themselves. They are huge and involve a lot of driving time. The roads are slow and crowded. Staying outside and commuting wastes time.

If you want hookups, Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone is the place.

Grand Teton: Colter Bay, 'some' electric sites in Gros Ventre or a private park Headwaters at Flagg Ranch which is in the park.

You'll want to tour the Cody & West Yellowstone areas and Jackson area for activities outside the parks but too much distance to explore the parks efficiently.

Both parks have lots of special things to sign up to do such as cookouts, rafting, etc. Explore the official park websites thoroughly. The sites change for the season so some things shown now may not be for the summer but you can get an idea.

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

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

[burgmark]

You did not say what time of year you planned to go. The campsites in the Yellowstone/Teton area fill up really fast. I was there last fall and stayed at Colter Bay in the Tetons for 5 nights and Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone for 8 days. You book campsites inside the parks at Recreation.gov. They fill up quick, so look now. Those get you closest to the parks; they are both huge and you will do a lot of driving to see all of them. The previous year I stayed outside the parks at Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone and Fireside Buffalo Valley RV park for the Tetons. A little further out of the main portion of the parks, but pretty close. You can see much of the Tetons in 3 days but Yellowstone will take at least 5 or 6 days to see the main sites. If you want to see wildlife be in the parks very early (which is a reason to stay close to the parks).

I visited the south portion of Theodore Roosevelt National Park last fall and 2 days is enough for that park. I did only 1/2 day in Wind Cave National Park (south of Mt. Rushmore). Depending on what you want to do you can see the Badlands in 1 or 2 days, but I spent three days because I wanted to hike the trails and do some photography.

I have lots of photographs at MarkBurgess.zenfolio.com

[Danattherock]

Thanks guys, I greatly appreciate your detailed responses and links to prior trip reports and pictures. I will share with my wife, as she is off today.

After hearing from you I think we're going to spend 3 days in the Teton area, we had been looking at fireside Buffalo campground ourselves. Then spend 6 days in the Yellowstone area, likely Cody.

Andy, really appreciate the heads up on Red Rock and the Beartooth pass, that looks like a awesome half day trip from Cody. I'll have to research Idaho further and see how far away the places you mentioned are from where we will be in Moran. Maybe we can make a decent day trip into Idaho while in the Teton area.

We are equally interested in Bridger Teton wilderness as we are the Tetons. In recent days I have heard about Green lake, granite Hot springs, and some gondola all within Bridger Teton wilderness, looks like a fantastic area to explore with the kids. And presumably less crowded than Jackson and the Tetons themselves.

When we leave Buffalo fireside in Moran and head up to Cody we ride right through Thermopolis and the kids will enjoy the dinosaur center. During 6 days at Cody we will plan to spend three of those in Yellowstone. And see some museums and make some fun day trips and other areas, for example Red Rock. That should give us a good tip of the iceberg experience and serve as a baseline for planning future trips.

We will finish up at Teddy Roosevelt Park for 2 days most likely then see devil's Tower on the way down to Rafter j bar ranch near Custer. Then finish our trip off with a night or two at the Badlands before making the trip back to North Carolina. Such a beautiful place, and one of our favorite camp spots from our trip to Colorado and South Dakota two summers ago.

If anyone has any other ideas of things to see in these areas, any dirt roads or off the beaten path kind of half day trips, lakes to fish in, etc please feel free to chime in. We will be leaving North Carolina the first few days of August and returning 21 days later. We're going to be in Custer toward the last part of this trip on purpose to avoid the crowds associated with the bike rally. But for now just trying to get my wife's vacation time approved and make a few essential reservations for tetons and Cody.

Thanks again for your time and assistance

Dan

[andy29847]

If you go to Idaho, and stay in Chalice, the Round Valley RV Park is a really good place to stay.

This ride report is from my first trip to Idaho. It is a report on a motorcycle ride with a group of friends. I'm including it for the photos and maps. Idaho is a good place to explore off the paved road with your family. The forest service maps are the best I've seen and the roads are in good shape.

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/m...shirt.1084303/

[rream]

We have been to Yellowstone 6 times in the last 8 years, Cody as a base is not good, its 77 miles from Cody just to Fishing Bridge - Yellowstone is huge already and you just added 150 miles to your day.


Try Grizzly or the KOA in west yellowstone, the Cody Koa has lots of things for kids,



Medora Campground (city campground) is the best campground for seeing Roosevelt

[Danattherock]

Thanks I really appreciate the additional insights. I'm actually looking now at some small campgrounds and primitive camping near Beartooth pass, about 10 to 12 mi south west of Red Lodge.

Looks like they're not too far from the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone. I have some reservations about traveling 3000 miles with my family and not knowing for sure we have a place to stay, but the scenery looks spectacular. We're kind of weighing those boondocking options against getting campground reservations at this point.

We've only made one trip out west since buying our travel trailer 2.5 years ago so we're still a little green. I'm not sure how crowded those small campgrounds which are first come first serve might be, and the boondocking options that seem to be available in many areas.

My wife and I were talking this morning and we've decided to spend five nights in the teton area and 8-9 nights in the Yellowstone area. I don't think that's going to be enough time, but going to Teddy Roosevelt, devil Tower, and revisiting Custer State Park and the Badlands would just have to be done on a separate trip in the future. I think we're going to focus all of our time on Wyoming.

[hamm2018]

Originally Posted by rream

We have been to Yellowstone 6 times in the last 8 years, Cody as a base is not good, its 77 miles from Cody just to Fishing Bridge - Yellowstone is huge already and you just added 150 miles to your day.


Try Grizzly or the KOA in west yellowstone, the Cody Koa has lots of things for kids,



Medora Campground (city campground) is the best campground for seeing Roosevelt

There is a campground in Medora named Boots Campground. If you have kids with you avoid this one at all costs. Nice views, but extremely tight, no room, no playground, just place to park and you can touch your neighbor's rig.
Outside of West Yellowstone there are 2 KOA within a mile of each other. North of West Yellowstone on Hebgen Lake is a nice campground, Yellowstone Holiday RV Campground:
https://www.yellowstoneholiday.com/

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by Danattherock

After hearing from you I think we're going to spend 3 days in the Teton area, we had been looking at fireside Buffalo campground ourselves.

Read the reviews.... the last one stated $120/night - for parking in a field!

Recommend you try for one inside the park!

https://www.campendium.com/fireside-...valley-rv-park

[andy29847]

Since we are talking about campground....my experience with commercial campgrounds in premium areas (like Cody) is that they are mostly places to park with utilities. We have stayed at Absaroka RV Park and at Buffalo Bluff RV Park. Buffalo Bluff was the nicer of the 2 mostly because it is newer. Neither could be called a "destination" campground.

A funny story about visiting Yellowstone from Cody. We had an ambitious plan to see the highlights in one day. My wife set the clock for an early rise for the big day. We were up and on the road in record time. the first clue that something was off kilter was when I missed my planned McDonald's breakfast. Mcdonald's was closed. We headed for the park without breakfast, and I started noticing other things. Mostly, it was really dark when the sun should have been up. It took a few miles, but we finally figured out the alarm clock was still on Eastern time. We meant to leave at 530a and we had left at 330a.

The mistake turned out to be for the good. We had an easy entry, saw a lot of wildlife along the road to Old Faithful, Saw Old Faithful do her thing before 800A. Walked over to the nearby park lodge for an excellent breakfast. then toured the geyser field and went to Yellowstone Falls. Everything was relaxed and easy until we got to Yellowstone Falls. It was difficult to find parking there. After the falls, we wanted to ride around some but people in the park tend to stop whenever they see anything unusual and traffic moves very slow. After waiting out a couple of traffic jams I was glad to turn off the loop and head back to Cody.

The big parks, Yellowstone, Glacier, etc. are fabulous. That is why they are crowded. However, sharing the sights with thousands of people detracts from the experience for me.