Can you see the park in two days? YES and no... I will start off with the fact that I live in SE Idaho so Yellowstone is only about a two hour pull for me with the camper. Let me say this.
Yellowstone BEFORE the camper went like this... Get up and out of the house by 6AM. Drive to the park. Go in, drive the lower loop, and see old faithful go off once. Then make my way around to yellowstone lake. Go North and stop at the Grand Canyon. Keep going north to Mamoth, loop back down and back out the west entrance and drive home... Arrive home around 10PM... I hated it when my friends would come and visit from out of town (I was transferred here by work 8 years ago). Everytime I'd ask what they wanted to do, you guessed it...
Now, Yellowstone WITH a camper... I can't tell you how much I absolutely LOVE to go to Yellowstone now. You can easily see the park in two days and leisurely stroll around and see what you want. If you're the folks that like to do a lot of the back country hiking, then no, you couldn't see the whole park if you had an entire summer there. However with two days, you can spend one day on the lower loop and one day on the upper loop. Granted you might not make it to all of the little offshoots to see every entrance, but you'll see the good bulk of the main tourist attractions. And I highly recommend when you're up at Mamoth take the extra 15-20 min to drive to the North entrance, the rock arch is amazing (IMHO).
As for places to stay, I haven't yet stayed in the park, I haven't been avoiding it, just never got around to it. I have driven through a lot of the campgrounds and I will say if you don't absolutely have to have hookups then avoid fishing bridge, they pack em and stack em in there... Fishing Bridge area is one of my favorite areas's of the park, but not the CG.
We have stayed at Grizzly RV in West Yellowstone several times and I'll say that there is nowhere else in West Yellowstone that I would consider staying after the awesome experiences I've had there. Great staff, great facilities and they even include a couple of hours of internet per day for those like me that just can't seem to let go of the outside world, even on a weekend away.
We had no problems staying at Fishing Bridge. Made a nice central area and we then picked different areas to explore each day. We were only at the camper to sleep.
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I am moving from Washington state to Ohio in late May. I will be driving back with my father, while the wife and kids fly (kids too young to travel that far). Will I have any problem finding a campsite for us and my travel trailer without reservations? The dates are too up in the air to make any reservations. Want to see Old Faithful and Buffalo Bills place.
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Late May... Not at all... My wife and I decided to hit Grizzly RV a couple of years ago over memorial day weekend and didn't have any problems getting in. They had several sites open.
There were a ton of open spots inside the park too.
Northwest_Flower wrote: We are planning on Yellowstone in June, and now have lots of great referrals to stay. Side question, can you see the park in two days? If time is limited, what do you recommend for a first trip, thinking we'll stay around the West Yellowstone entrance?
if you only have two days, IMHO, don't even bother going there.
we were there 7 days and never even got to the north end of the park.
4 days would be enough to just scratch the surface.
i would say seeing the west side of the park, with the geysers, would be a good first trip.
I totally agree with the comments of bikendan.
Yellowstone is an awesome place and the more time that you can allow to fully enjoy it is a must.
As I have said - Grizzly RV Park. Two days? Yellowstone is huge - bigger than the state of Rhode Island. We spent a week there and did every road. So much to see - so much diversity. It is far more than Old Faithful!
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hoss1045 wrote: in late May. Will I have any problem finding a campsite for us and my travel trailer without reservations? The dates are too up in the air to make any reservations. Want to see Old Faithful and Buffalo Bills place.
If you want to stay IN the park, and it's highly recommended that you do so, you won't have any problems getting a spot in late May without reservations. Try for Madison campground which is centrally located or Mammoth at the north end which doesn't even take reservations at any time. We've stayed in both and are very nice. If you have time, scoot south and spend at least a night in Grand Teton Nat'l Park. Colter Bay campground is huge and on the north end and Gros Ventre campground is a little more south toward Jackson. The Tetons will be magnificient in May with all the snow covering them! Even though you're "just passing through" and not on a destination vacation, just seeing both parks for a short time is well worth it. Better than not at all! Have a great trip!
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Two days better than no days!! Read up on some different things and hit the ones you like best! Come back again when you can.
I really like staying in the park, but that means no hookups(except fishing bridge). Saves a bit of driving and gives a more "camping" feel, Ranger talks and such. many like West Yellowstone(Grizzly) as it is close to the park and in town should you care more for that setting.
Yellowstone is just AWESOME, so have agreat time!
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West Yellowstone without a doubt. People think if you stay in the park you are saving miles and gas, which is not true. You do the park in loops. For example, fishing bridge is farther away from Old faithful then West Yellowstone (40 miles from FB vs 31miles form WY), yet mammoth is the same distance from either.. Pick one of the first come first serve campgrounds in the park if you want to be in the park. We stayed at fishing bridge and will never stay there again. We were 12" from from our neighbor in the back, it's horribly over crowded. The first come first serve campgrounds don't give you full hook ups, but you get plenty of space and privacy, they are really nice. West Yellowstone gives you convenient modern amenities.
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