Yellowstone NP - things to do in and around

[tyeager2964]

I would second after school goes back in session

 

[PMcGee]

This really sounds like the way to go. We were thinking of camping in Teton NP as a base and just going out from there. But from a campground in Teton, to just say Old Faithful (tourist trap-sure, but something I want to see at least) its about 1.5 hour drive. More I'm researching, the more I think packing up camp early morning, getting to the general area you want to be for the day and grabbing a site at the closest campground is the way to go.

It's a lot of driving for sure. We stayed in Big Sky so we had an hr drive just to the park. We did one of the loops each day then drove back to Big Sky. The only problem I see with your plan of moving camp is what if there isn't a camp spot open where you are at? It seemed as most of the camp site are occupied all time.


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[austinphps]

It's a lot of driving for sure. We stayed in Big Sky so we had an hr drive just to the park. We did one of the loops each day then drove back to Big Sky. The only problem I see with your plan of moving camp is what if there isn't a camp spot open where you are at? It seemed as most of the camp site are occupied all time.


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That's definitely a risk, but seeing as how most of the sites are first-come/serve; maybe there is a decent amount of people leaving daily, or thinking the same thing I am.
I think at most, we would find a site in the general area we want to be for 2 days, after that pick up and move a few hours to another site. Worst comes to worst, leave the park all together and spend the night in the national forest....

 

[ChrisS]

That's definitely a risk, but seeing as how most of the sites are first-come/serve; maybe there is a decent amount of people leaving daily, or thinking the same thing I am.
I think at most, we would find a site in the general area we want to be for 2 days, after that pick up and move a few hours to another site. Worst comes to worst, leave the park all together and spend the night in the national forest....

There are very few first come first serve sites relative to the number of campground sites in the park. There are more hike in sites, but those can also be booked ahead of time (and likely are). We booked a site in Madison Campground for two nights and planned on a third in the eastern half and whiffed on a site and ended up heading out of the park a little early to find a spot for the night.

I've got to have stuff planned out and I don't want to spend an hour or two trying to find a place to park for the night.

 

[TexanSam]

Take your fly rod and hit up the north fork east of the park

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[Deepshax]

Just got back a few days ago. I want to thank you all for the suggestions and tips. What an amazing place, really lucky to have something like this in our country. We basically did a two week circle starting in Bozeman > YSNP > Tetons > Jackson; then back up through Idaho > West Yellowstone > Big Sky > Gallatin > Bozeman. There is so much stuff do do in this area, I really wished I had another month or two to explore. With the sun rising before 5am and setting after 10pm, it felt like we were burning it from both ends. We tried to do everything we could, looking for wild life and hitting some of the attractions first thing, doing hikes through out the midday and then looking for wild life and hitting more attractions until lights out. I was definitely exhausted towards the end. Was very excited to take some milkyway/astro pics but I never made it, I was out as soon as I got to camp :/

We ended up lucking out and picking off a site at Indian Creek on the first day; using this as a base camp our entire time in Yellowstone. The original plan was to jump over to slough creek but at the recommendation of the camp-tenders this was not a good idea and might find ourselves having to stay out of the park. Early morning and late afternoon until sunset were great around the park. Little to no traffic and lots of animals moving around. I just wished I would have purchased or rented a long lens for my camera...only brought a 50mm and a 16/35mm with me wasn't really able to get any good wildlife pictures.

Mosquitos were horrid in some areas and I forgot my thermacell, bad idea. Got torn up and literally had to run through some spots to keep them off.

I was also able to kit out my wife a bit and she was able to use my optic/tripod/quick release etc system. She now has a new appreciation and (almost) sees why I spend so much money on this "crap" lol. After looking through some other systems she made a comment about how "ours" was so much nicer to use and look through...I told her we could go back to Schnee's and pick up those EL's if she wanted; no go on that but Ill count it as a win bino snob in the making lol.

Only had one (really) close encounter with a brown bear down in slough creek, pulled the spray but didnt need to use it. we were making our way up hill through a little draw that was twisting off to the east, bear was grazing behind a boulder on the blindside of the trail...as i started to clear the boulder saw him out of my peripheral but figured I was pegged either way so I slowly kept moving forward. he barely acknowledged us. heart was pumping for sure.

We also hit the grizzly/wolf discovery center. It was a good stop. The coastal grizzly they have there is enormous! It was definitely weird watching the wolves, their mannerisms and way they act is just like my dog!

what a great area, cant wait to make it back.

 

[CorbLand]

I hope you ate a ton of huckleberry ice cream. That shit is bomb.


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