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I've only been once, when I was a teen, and only passing through. I am thinking of devoting several days towards it this summer (undecided as of yet). We would be camping every night--something I have not done on family vacations before. Does anyone have tips on how to pack in enough food for several days--say, up to a week?
I am wondering, for those of you who have been there, what do we need to make sure and see? We can handle gentle hikes, with three kids ages 6, 4, and 2. I definitely want to see the geysers again--one of the few things we did catch back then. I have access to internet interactive maps, but they never give as much information as I want for this sort of thing. I feel like I need to talk to an actual person who has been there and knows stuff about the place.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I would like to camp within the park at a different site each night. We would be in a tent. Unfortunately, we don't have another option available to us--that I know of at this point, anyway.
Edit: Oh, as for how long, as long as is reasonable. No longer than a week. But I'm not sure it is realistic for us to be camping that long with the resources we have.
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That sounds like a lot of fun. I've never been to Yellowstone, and I've never really done a lot of camping period when you get right down to it, but I'll bet you guys have a great time!
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Well, there are different areas within the Park that are pretty well spaced, so it's kind of fun to spend one night in each area. The Canyon is kind of the central hub and has the busiest (but easiest) hikes, and you have to do the short hike to the Grand Canyon. It's also relatively close to Old Faithful and the best geyser hikes. My personal favorite part is Mammoth, up at the Northern entrance, which has good camping, swimming, and easy hikes on boardwalked terraces. From there, you can go on little trips out to the east toward Cooke City, which is pretty but not anything special. There's also the Lake area, which has nice camping and hikes, but not as many fantastic geological happenings. There are other parts of the Park that are cool, but more for the serious hiker type. The drives between all of the main areas are nice.
Are you going this summer? We're going to have serious, serious water shortages this year and if your dates are flexible I'd aim for May or June to avoid dryness and the inevitable fires. It's nice to be able to see everything, but Augusts have been harsh lately and some years much of the Park was shut down and the rest smelled pretty toasty.
So much fun!
If you want to spend any of your time back in civilization, see if you can see a show at the Playmill in West Yellowstone. It's small-scale, but they do three musicals every summer and are usually very good. There's also an Imax in West Yellowstone. Bozeman is an hour and a half from the west entrance, but has a rather nice natural history museum and just happens to be the coolest small city on earth. There are also nice ghost town trips you can take - through Virginia City up towards Bannock, but those will eat up a whole day by themselves.
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Ooo! I didn't realize just how close the Tetons were to Yellowstone! We went through there too, when I was a teen. We should at least spend one day there!
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Annie, I was thinkin' July, since a lot of the campsites don't appear to open until mid or late June. But we could do June too.
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quote:I would like to camp within the park at a different site each night.
Just a question, but have you actually done this anywhere else, camping in a different place each night? With your kids? I ask, because this past summer we drove to Montana with our 11 and 2 year old. We didn't camp, but we stayed in a different hotel each night. It had sounded like fun so that's how we planned it. In the end, it was so much work that way, I wouldn't do it again. It would be fun with older kids, but with a 2 year old, it was just plain work.
We did have a good time overall, though.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Nope. The last time I camped at a different site each night I was sixteen and backpacking thru the Cascades with other teens. I'll bet it is a lot of work--which does indeed give me pause, but doesn't deter me completely.
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Wow, Yellowstone is my home away from home.
The major car accessable areas of the park include Old Faithful, Canyon, Yellowstone Lake, Mammoth, Tower and Norris. All of these areas, except Old Faithful have campgrounds. To stay in the Old Faithful area, you need to stay in one of the lodges or the cabins. The closest campground to Old Faithful is at Madison Junction (~15 miles from Old Faithful. You can get reservations at Madison Campground, which is a big advantage, but its is several miles from any of the major attractions.
Yellowstone covers a huge territory. The distance around the lower loop is 100 miles and it's about 70 miles around the upper loop. To see all the major attractions, you will spend alot of time driving. Despite that, moving camp everyday is a major hassle. Not only does it take alot of time, there is often fierce competition for sites (not all campgrounds take reservations). Once you get a campsite, its best to keep itt. It will probably end up being more time efficient to camp in one location and make day outings to the others.
The two campgrounds that have the most attractions in walking distance are Canyon and Norris. Canyon is more developed with cabins, gas stations, restaurants and stuff. It also has several spectracular short hikes.
We have friends on that work for the Park Service who live in Norris, so that is where we usually stay. The Norris Geyser basin changes faster than any other place in the park so it can be very fascinating. The campground is in easy walking distance of the Geyser basin and borders a beautiful large meadow and the Gibon River that is an excellent place to view elk, moose and a large variety of birds.
If you want to be closer to amenities, stay in Canyon. If you prefer a quieter less developed area, stay in Norris.
The road over Dunraven Pass, between Canyon and Tower is closed for construction and probably won't open until late summer, so don't plan to drive around the upper loop.
Packing food for a week in Yellowstone shouldn't be a big problem. Milk and fresh meets will be your biggest problems. The ice in your ice chest won't last tha long, but ice is available in or near the major campgrounds. There a small stores in the major tourest areas where you can buy milk and an assortment of fresh things (at outrageous prices) to suppliment your supplies. There are also grocery stores in West Yellowstone and Gardner which have more variety (although much less than you find in an Orem Grocery).
If you plan to eat canned stuff (stew, chilli, spagetti . . .) later in the week and pick up milk at one of the general stores you should be just fine. Bring stuff for lunches that you can pack up in the morning and take along for the day so that you don't need to return to the campground for lunch. Then, no matter where you camp, you can spend a day in the Old Faithful area, A day in the Canyon Area, a day at Mammoth and so on.
Have fun. I'd be happy to answer any more specific questions as your plans start to firm up.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Some great advice there, Rabbit! I just talked to Porter, and he isn't so keen on the idea of staying more than two nights. That makes me sad. I am hoping to compromise somewhere in the middle. We also may or may not have access to some sort of camper, which could help.
I am intrigued by the descriptions of the Canyon and the Norris campgrounds and think it would be fun to try both out--but I also understand that camping at a different place each night might be far more trouble than it is worth.
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Pick one camp spot and stay there. Otherwise you spend too much time packing, unpacking, and fighting for a spot. We like the Roosevelt area because it's away from the crowds.
Stop at The Merry Piglets in Jackson Hole and have one of their burritos.
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Pick up one of these Coleman XTreme coolers at Sportsman's Warehouse. A block of ice will last a week. We love ours.
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Two nights is simply not enough. It will take about 7 hours to drive from Orem to Norris if you go through West Yellowstone. It's about 1/2 an hour further to Canyon, (1/2 hour shorter to Madison). If you go throught Jackson, it will take longer because the roads are much slower. Once you get into the park, driving will be slow. The maximum speed limits are 45 mph and there are frequent traffic jams due to road construction and tourists who stop in the middle of the road to look at something. If you only go for 2 nights, you will end up spending most of your time in the car.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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And you really have to spend some time in Grand Teton National Park, and Kelly, and the elk refuge up on the Sleeping Indian, and fishing on the Gros Ventre, and . . .
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Excellent! I've been to Yellowstone tens of times, I love it!
I second just about all the suggestions here. In terms of hardware for cooking, you're going to need one propane stove, period. Then plan out each dinner. Your plan could include stopping at a grocery store (which they have at a couple of the more populated parts of Yellowstone) and getting hot dogs or something, but make sure the dinners are accounted for. In addition (or redundancy) to what everyone has said, Beef Stew, Mac and Cheese, Chicken and Dumplings, hamburger helper, Chile, are all family favorites that can be stored indefinitely without reregistration.
Once you've planned the dinners, pick a theme for lunch and breakfast. Get the cereals everyone likes and maybe some oatmeal (oatmeal is a wonderful, warm way to wake up in the morning, but it does take longer since it involves heating up the stove), get maybe some bread (you'll have to purchase more for the rest of the week, don't try and store a week's supply with no refrigeration) or some bagels and cream cheese. Then, when you make your plans for travel (which I wont try to talk about places to go, that's already been done so well by Annie ) put in as much variance or lack thereof as you like, except plan one day that you'll know you can get to a store. Visiting Old Faithful could be that day. This way you make sure you don't run out of perishables, and you can restock appropriately.
And have fun! Yellowstone (and the Tetons if you think about going there, I personally prefer them ) is such a wonderful place, especially for families.
quote:If you go through Jackson, it will take longer because
because you'll have to stop in Star Valley and get some squeeky cheese curds. Then you'll have to stop and buy fireworks. Then you'll have to stop at Lunch Counter Rapids and watch the rafters. And of course you'll have to take the ferry across Jackson Lake and hike to the waterfall.
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OK, I'm back on this. I recently learned that there probably aren't many places in Yellowstone that allow soft-sided camping--if any. (Whether we do a tent or Porter's parent's camper--it is a soft-sided pop-up. We don't have access to anything hard-sided, and I am too cheap to consider a cabin--at this point. )
I am trying to do a search right now to find sites that may allow it (meaning bears don't go there) but I am not having any luck yet. Does anyone out there know of a campsite for sure that does allow soft-sided camping?
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Hmmm, I just made a reservation for Grant Village. Does anyone know if that is a good site? I liked the sound of Norris or Canyon, but they said they didn't have sites large enough. I did overestimate on size to be safe. I don't know the exact size of the camper we have access to, and I can change it later. Grant Village is near the guesers, which I definitely want to see again and I'm sure the kids will love. As long as they don't fall in one of them.... :/
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