Drive through Yellowstone

[ODB]

Also, by the end of September/early October, the park is a lot less crowded.

Definitely enhances it.

YUp.

 

[Durran87]

Drive the Chief Joseph Highway—I was just there and it’s amazing…

 

[Archer86]

I avoid any roads through yellowstone during the day any chance I can. I don't have the patience for Tourons it can be hit and miss one day it's not bad and the next they will have the road blocked both directions. That said the gate out of cody to the tetons is fairly boring not much to see the north east gate through tower road is a better drive if you really want to go through the park.

 

[CMP70306]

100% better to take Beartooth Hwy to Cooke City and go thru the Lamar Valley then take North Loop down.

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Yes. Head north over the Beartooth Pass into Cooke City, then west to Lamar valley and to Tower Jct.
Beartooth Pass is the best views in the whole region.

My suggested route:
Take Highway 120 north out of Cody

Turn west on Highway 296 (Chief Joseph Scenic Highway), travel to Highway 212

Turn west on Highway 212 and go through Cooke City and Silver Gate and enter Yellowstone at the northeast entrance.

Proceed on through the Lamar Valley to Tower Junction and turn left (east). Continue on this road over Dunraven Pass to Canyon Junction.

At Canyon Junction you have two options:

1. Go straight on south through the Hayden Valley to the Fishing Bridge Junction and continue south along Yellowstone Lake until you come to Highway 191. If you want to see Old Faithful you will have to go to the northwest at the intersection. If you are ready to leave Yellowstone at the point, turn to the southeast and stay on 191,

2. Turn west and proceed towards Norris Junction, here you can turn south on Highway 89 and head in the direction on Old Faithful, You will come to the junction with Highway 191, turn south on 191 and this will take you to Old Faithful. After seeing Old Faithful turn eastward on 191 and it will take to south out of Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park and eventually to Jackson.

As several have mentioned there are many, many things to see along these routes so it will most likely take longer than you think to make the drive.

ClearCreek

I will agree with the above, I went on my honeymoon at the beginning of May, the park had just opened but Beartooth pass was closed so we missed the Lamar Valley and all the scenery up that way. The eastern part of the lake down to the east gate and over to Cody was the least exciting part. Most of the forest is burned out so when we were there it was snow covered with next to no animals present and a fairly boring ride. Not sure how different it is going into fall.

It was also raining and 35 degrees so my new bride was less than thrilled going down the mountain side in those conditions. The pictures below were when we went back into the park the following day after visiting the Buffalo Bill Center for the West.

 

[MuleyFever]

Thanks for the tips. We had a great time. Filled out tags then went to check out Cody and get showers and some sleep at the KOA. We headed north out of Cody and hwy 296 was an awesome drive. Hit the Lamar Valley then headed to Canyon Village and over to 89 to see Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful. Stayed the night at a campground between the parks and drove by the Tetons in the morning then checked out Jackson. Glad we got to see the parks this time of year. Can't imagine how busy it must be in summer.

 

[AndrewD]

Yellowstone....beautiful but so frustrating. We were doing a NP trip a few years back, trying to camp in the parks rather than somewhere out in the NF. We hit Glacier for one day and were able to camp in the CG on the east side of the park. Headed south, planning on Yellowstone. We stayed at a hotel in Big Sky so we could be at the gate in West Yellowstone when it opened, giving us the best chance to find a campsite in the park.

It was September mid week and we were surprised to find a small line of vehicles waiting for the park to open. We were even more surprised when we found out that the NPS employees at the gate could provide no information about available campsites in any of the campgrounds since they were all managed by a private contractor. We were advised to stop at the campground just past the west gate and talk to one of the contractor employees. We were extra surprised to find out that the contractor hired by Yellowstone, arguably the most iconic park in the entire NPS system, to manage ALL of the campgrounds, had no system in place to provide ANY data on campsite availability.

Basically, you could ask an employee at the specific CG if there were spots in that CG, but they had no way of telling you anything about any of the other CGs. So we were told that we should drive to each CG and check at the gate. This was not a big deal for us, since we wanted to see the park. We had planned on staying for 3-4 days.

We started heading north. Then we encountered the mentality of average Yellowstone visitor at every turn in the road. There would be an obviously tame bison chewing cud 3 feet off the road while cars backed up for miles so everyone could take their identical pictures of said bison. People would just park their car in the road and walk hundreds of yards to see the not-wild animal. Deer would generate a similar response. Several gigantic jams seemed to have been based on the nebulous rumor that someone had seen a grizzly somewhere up the road within the last several hours, which generated a massive blockage that would last long after the bear, which might not have been there in the first place, disappeared. I get it that homo pavementus get excited when they see anything other than a pigeon or a rat, but I can't imagine the gall it would take to literally turn off your car while parked in the middle of a highway to take a 30 minute stroll up the road to see what might as well be a zoo animal, forcing everyone behind you to wait (two lane windy mountain roads, no way to pass the hundreds of yards of parked cars). There were numerous other signs that the park was not for us, such as the hilarious yet disgusting illustrated signs in the toilets telling visitors that they should not defecate in the urinals or stand on toilet seats to defecate.

It took us 6 hours to personally visit all of the northern CGs and find out that there were zero spots. We were so sick of the Yellowstone mentality that we decided to gut the centerpiece of our road trip and GTFO to Grand Tetons. 4 hours later we left Yellowstone's south gate and made our way to GT, where the views were amazing, courtesy existed, and the contractor running the CGs (different company than the one in Yellowstone) actually cared about the visitor experience. We spent our 3-4 Yellowstone days in Grand Tetons and it was a fantastic time. I can't say for sure that I will never go to Yellowstone again, but it sure feels like I have no need to ever be there.

 

[Dust Rider]

Thanks for the tips. We had a great time. Filled out tags then went to check out Cody and get showers and some sleep at the KOA. We headed north out of Cody and hwy 296 was an awesome drive. Hit the Lamar Valley then headed to Canyon Village and over to 89 to see Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful. Stayed the night at a campground between the parks and drove by the Tetons in the morning then checked out Jackson. Glad we got to see the parks this time of year. Can't imagine how busy it must be in summer.

Pics of the Pronghorns?