My wife and I are trying to book reservations for next summer. No real surprise the only campground with full hookups is full which means primitive or staying on the edge of the park and driving in.

We are okay with primitive, but like most small fivers we so not have huge tankage. That means we need restrooms and showers. If you have done it in Yellowstone, how did it work out?

How about private campgrounds on the edge and driving in?

And my wife said to ask if anyone has stayed in the Canyon Campground in Yellowstone and how was it? If there was a better choice in your opinion, which one was it.

Sounds like grizzly bears abound. Haven't ever had to consider anything larger than small black bears in the Smokies before.

Thanks,

Steve

 

We love Yellowstone!!! we stayed at Fishing Bridge campground a few years ago and the rangers tell you "WHEN" ..... not if the bears come in at night make sure you have everything put inside your rig. The rangers will patrol the campground and if they find any type of food stuff, barbq, trash etc at your spot they will be banging on your door telling you to get out and clean it up.

Now that being said, we didn't hear any bears at night but lots of coyotes. We did see one small grizzly in a pasture but I wouldn't go hiking on the trails, never know when you might run into momma griz and her kids. There are lots of bison everywhere and wolf packs in certain area's, didn't see any though. Can't tell you about the dry camps but if you have to camp out of the park you can still drive in and see plenty. It's a great trip no matter where you have to camp, absolutely a beautiful place.

 

We couldn't find a CG space last year in late August in the park so stayed at a pretty nice, new KOA ~7 miles West of the town West Yellowstone, Montana. While it did present a 15 minute drive to the West Gate of the park, the fact that we could dump, do laundry and do some shopping/eating out if we wanted plus were able to get away from the constant movement of people. Oh and the temp this morning there in town is 32*F vs 78* at 0600 here in Upstate NY.

 

Thanks, given length limitations which seem pretty darn strict, we did find a double space in Fishing Bridge (pricey) for four nights in late June next summer and are still exploring possibilities outside the park. My wife keeps asking me how long I think we want to stay and boy, that is a hard question. I have never been one to jump in and see how many miles I can drive before I fall over and sometimes even 30 or 40 miles is fine if there is something we want to see.

We are studying possible routes, considering the value of updating to a Garmin for RVers, etc. Fortunately we have time to plan, but that just seems to open the door to more possible places we want to see. Guess no one else has ever been in that boat before.

Steve

 

My only thought is everything is reeeeeealllly far away. We stayed at Yellowtone's Edge in Livington, MT and it was a solid hour at 70+ MPH to reach the park entrance. I'd definitely stay inside the park the next time I go.

 

Sounds like the near $50.00/night at Fishing Bridge may be worth it.

 

Steve - as a suggestion, get on line to each of the states tourism sites you will be visiting - or at least pass through and request their guides. Between the ones from last year and the other states we will be visiting, I probably have a stack 18" high. One of the pluses is a much better map then a standard Rand McNally or the one I use, Michelin. Oh and that Michelin atlas book - much better IMO then the R-M once you figure out how to use it. I also have a couple other Michelin maps that are very good, including the Four Corners and their full size driving map for point-to-point driving. We ran out of time last year which is why we are going back, leaving on the 23rd.

The RV GPS's work well. I prefer Garmin products, but the Good Sam R-M works fine as well but tends to send you to only GS RV campgrounds first then, maybe, others.

 

If possible, visit the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody WY

 

Any thoughts about East versus North entrance? I know the North is the less challenging. Although I like our 7.3, I admit to be enamored with exhaust brakes having had them in our diesel motor homes. We debated buying a new truck for that reason, but the service manager where we have our work done was very persuasive as to why that was not a good idea in terms of reliability. Adding one to our 7.3 is a point for some debate in the diesel forum. How will our truck do on the East entrance?

Steve

 

If you want camping with FHU, I would definitely recommend staying in West Yellowstone. Nice little town, and literally minutes to the west gate of the park. Your park pass is good for a few days, so no problem going in/out.


From the west gate, you have a good central location for the remainder of the park. The north gate is good for a day trip. And what we did was leave out the east gate, so we saw that too. The east gate is kind of far from the better attractions. The north gate is near many things to see too, but I think you would find yourself going south and then back north a lot each day.


Just to be clear, we were not camping when we visited, but it was on our mind, so we paid attention.


I do think it would be really nice to camp at Fishing Bridge. Just not sure it is worth the lack of hookups, and cheek to jowl spacing of the sites. You might find you don't really spend much time at camp anyway. There is just so much to see all day long.


If you are interested, pics of our trip are online here:
Pounds Tour 2003


Glad you are planning to go. Everyone should make it a point see Yellowstone. There is nothing else like it. Yosemite? Not even close.

 

Thanks Bill,

Fishing Bridge does have full hookups and we are thinking we might do a primitive campground for a few days too. Our Old Farts' pass, as Denny calls it gives us a 50% discount in the primitive campgrounds. Length poses a real restriction, which is why we are reserving a double space to have enough for both the truck and the fiver at Fishing Bridge.

If anyone has done primitive, let us know on that too. How about those big bitty bears in the primitive campgrounds, an issue or not? The primitives allow tents while the full hookup campgrounds are "hard sides only". That seems strange.

Right now we are thinking of coming in from the West. We have read a lot about the grades coming in from the East.

Steve

 

The last time I camped in Yellowstone I was in a tent. I had no issues with critters, big or small. Having grown up in Wyoming I was used to keeping a tidy camp site.

If you can, hit the Big Horn National Forest on the way west. Lots of NF campgrounds (dry) throughout the forest. I really like that area, especially in June before it gets busy.

 

We stayed in West Yellowstone, at the KOA when we went in '09. Great CG, very clean and quiet, with plenty of amenities. It really wasn't a problem for us to travel into the park each day to see the sights. It was a long day's trip on the day we went to Cody to see the Buffalo Bill Museum. The rest of the park we split up into sections and hit each section in a day. We never camped inside the park, so can't give you any feedback on that. Our motorhome/trailer combo was too large for any of their spaces.

 

We have stayed in West Yellowstone before. It is a great place for base camp and you can get anything you need there. It only adds a little time to your drive to see the important sights. We have also stayed at Fishing Bridge a few times. It is tight but we get our 38'10" Montana in the site with a little help from a spotter or 2. Fishing Bridge makes a great central location. It has new electric service and sewer. The gift shop has a great counter diner but of course it is a little pricey. They have diesel right there also. There is also Headwaters at Flagg Ranch between Teton and Yellowstone. The reviews aren't great and I haven't stayed there. But if you plan to do Teton, which you should, then it might work. They too have full hookups. The main thing I recommend is to plan plenty of time. We do about 10 days and always feel like we should have done more. The first trip we drove over 1100 miles inside the park trying to see everything. Good Luck with it.

 

One thing I forgot to mention.......take plenty of skeeter spray, we got there in June just as the hatch was underway and man did we get bit. We thought we were in Alaska.........not fun.