Yellowstone National Park Travel Forum

Hi everyone. I'm in the process of planning a trip to Yellowstone in late June of 2009 and would like for someone to review my plans and give any input you may have. It will be me,my wife,and 2 kids (10 & 8).Nothing set in stone yet but this is what I'm thinking of...DAY 1- fly out of NYC to Denver . Drive up to Casper for the night (Best Western Ramkota)maybe stop at Cheyeene or Ft. Laramie on the way. DAY 2- Drive to Cody (stay in Cody Cowboy Village) check out museums and rodeo. DAY 3- Drive into YNP (stay in Lake Lodge Western cabin for 4 nights) The only choices I had were Lake Lodge or Mammouth Springs with no bathroom. That would give me 4 full days to tour YNP. Day 7- Drive to Grand Tetons spend the day sightseeing. (stay in Jackson at Cowboy Village Resort). Day 8- Hang around in Jackson, shop, enjoy Fourth of July activities ( Cowboy Village Resort again). Day 9- Drive to Salt Lake City airport Depart for NYC. Any ideas on driving times to Casper from Denver and to Cody from Casper? I'd really appreciate any input. We have never visited the area before and I can use any help you can give me. Thanks Rob

You will love YNP! It is very family friendly. We spent 2 nights in
Jackson/Tetons. Make sure you make the 40 mile drive.(we saw moose) Take the Jenny Lake Ferry
over to Inspiration Pt. hike. Even if you dont do the whole hike, it is a lovely boat ride and fun hike. Also, take the gondolas up to the restaurant
at Teton Village. You can have a great hamburger up there and watch the
parasailors take off the mtn. Then ride back down, we hiked down but that is optional. ( takes 2-3 hrs.)

We flew in and out of SLC, it is 5 hours from Jackson on Hwy 89. Pretty drive.
We stayed 2 nights at Old Faithful Inn ( no rooms at Snow Lodge?!) , 2 nights at Yellowstone Lake Hotel ( another great boat ride), and 2 nights at Mammoth cabins. It was nice moving around YNP, it's a pretty big park.
Check out Flying Pig Adventures in Gardiner by Mammoth, great raft trips and
cowboy cookouts. We were scheduled to stay at the Lake Lodge Cabins but
they were really trashed when we were there, wasnt quite what we had in mind.
The Cody entrance had a rock slide, lots of folks couldnt check into their rooms, so we got lucky and moved to the YL Hotel ~ lovely!!

The drive from Grand Canyon Yellowstone up to Mammoth is beautiful! Pack a picnic, there are lots of places to pull off. We even saw fly fishers.
We swam ( soaked really) in the boiling river at Mammoth. We swam in Firehole Canyon, over by Old Faithful.

These were our highlights... dont know much about Cody. Make sure to sit in on some Ranger Programs if you can, they are really good! And you may want to try again for other accomodations by Mammoth so you can split up your trip. The cabin we had was really nice. Gardiner, MT may have some availablity also.
Flying Pig can help you with that. Gardiner is a pretty 15 minute drive from Mammoth.

Good Luck.

If you cut and paste the link below into your browser you can see a very similar journey I did with my family.

http://www.uk-2-usa.com/Routes/wyoming.html

Denver to Casper is around 300 miles and will take 5 or 6 hours plus stops.
Casper to cody is around 210 miles and will take 4 hours or so plus stops. However, I would recommend a stop in Thermopolis and let the kids play in the water parks with the geothermal springs.

You might want to add a day to Cody and drop a day from Yellowstone so that you can see the Buffalo Bill museum, trail town and the rodeo.

The other posters were correct about SLC being closer, but you would miss some spectacular scenery. Go for it.

One of the world's great western wear stores is in Caspar. I don't remember the name, but it's right downtown in a gorgeous old-fashioned two story building.

I recommend staying in more than one lodge, if possible. It's slow-going on the park roads. But it sounds like you didn't have an option.

Right before you go, check out this link - http://www.yellowstone.net/forums/ - look at the trip reports and wildlife photo pages. You can get a lot of good hints for where to find wildlife.

Cody is my hometown, and a visit to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center is a must while you are there. Buffalo Bill Historical Center was presented with the National Medal for Museum and Library Service at a White House ceremony this year, and has become a partner with the Smithsonium in DC. You can spend a small time, or two days in this museum depending on how much you read the info, and if you are interested in all 5 museums that are within the BBHC. I have extensive information on this museum on my things to do Cody pages, where I have highlighted each of the 5 sections, so that visitors to Cody can find out what is in each. This will help you to prioritize which sections you would be most interested in seeing. I also have a travelogue on the museum. Old Trail Town is also pretty special, if you have time to take in two museums. The rodeo is considered one of the best small town rodeos.

When in Yellowstone, of course you have to see Old Faithful, as it is the most famous of all the geysers. It is a nice one, but I have to say there are a few I like better. Beehive Geyser is my favorite in the park. It is located in the Old Faithful area, but unfortunately this geyser can be dormant for long periods. This geyser is generally higher than Old Faithful and certainly much noisier as it roars while the water is forcefully shot upwards. Check at the Old Faithful Visitor Center, to see if there is a prediction on when it may erupt. One thing that is fun is to take the Old Faithful Lodge historic tour. It is quite interesting. If you don't want to do this, at least go in and look around. It is the most outstanding log structure I have ever seen. Besides the Old Faithful geyser basin, the Norris geyser basin is nice. Try to see Eucinas geyser erupt while in Norris. It use to be very regular, but isn't anymore, so this may be difficult. One of our very favorite geysers is Great Fountain, which is located on the Firehole Lake Drive. You can get an estimate of when it might erupt at the Old Faithful Visitor Center. Be sure to see the Canyon area and it's falls. Artists Point is my favorite look out point, and a must see view. Inspiration Point is also very very nice. The mud pots are pretty interesting, but they are really at their best in the fall when they are really just like moving mud, in the spring with the snow melt off they are watered down and are more like gray liquid water, so you might want to skip these in June. If you have enough time Mammoth Hot Springs area and Tower Falls are also very nice to explore. If you want to eat out in a nice restaurant the old log lodge at Old Faithful, the Lake Hotel, and the lodge at Mammoth all have excellent restaurants, although they are somewhat pricey. I have a lot of pretty detailed information on places to eat, see, etc. on my VT Yellowstone pages.

Only thing I'd add is another day (preferably 2) to your Grand Teton National park part of the journey.
To us, it's even more scenic than Yellowstone.
There are many hikes, along with horseback riding trips, white water rafting, drives you can do in GTNP.
A favorite, enjoyed by many tourists (and a must do in our book) is hiking up to Hidden Falls.
Start early in the morning, take the boat ride across the lake and hike up.
Stock up on sandwiches at Dornan's before heading out and picnic at the base of the peaks overlooking the glaciers.
Driving to Oxbow bend, especially in early morning or late afternoon will guarantee plenty of wildlife sighting.
Driving up to Signal Mountain in late afternoon will offer you gorgeous views of the valley.
Taking the Gros Ventre Road up to Lower Slide lake will also put you into some of the more scenic vistas of the valley, along with getting you up close and personal with the local herds of buffalo and some proghorn antelopes.
In this area, you will also find old homestead cabins which you can explore at your own pace.