rubigayle

Can anyone give me an opinion? We are flying into Salt Lake City July 22 and leaving on August 6th. We have 2 kids 12 and 14. We generally stay in nice but not overly expensive hotel accommodations. we do like to take small hikes, light whitewater rafting, animal watching and love beautiful scenery, Son likes this but needs his souvenir shops also, and husband needs restaurants. We have done road trips in alaska, pacific northwest, glacier/waterton/canmore/banff so they can handle long trips but not too many days in a row.
I am thinking of two itineraries:

Day 1 fly into salt lake
2- SLC
3 Drive to Bryce
4 Bryce
5Bryce /area
6. SLC
7. Craters of the moon, Idaho. stay idaho falls
8. West YEllowstone
9. yellowstone
10 yellowstone
11 Tetons(stay Teton Village or Jackson Hole)
12 Tetons
13. Tetons
14 Drive Back to SLC
15 Fly home


The other one was
1-Fly into SAlt lake
2 SLC
3. Craters of the moon stay Idaho falls
4 West Yellowstone
5. Yellowstone
6. yellowstone
7. Yellowstonre
8. Yellowstone
9,Tetons
10Tetons
11Tetons
12Tetons
13.SLC or could spend extra day in tetons/ yellowstone
14SLC
15 home.

Obviously one entails more driving than the other and shorter stays which means more packing and unpacking,but keeps interest level high.

The other would be more relaxing and give us more time to really explore. Do you think 4 days at yellowstone is enough? which two areas would you recommend staying at in yellowstone. I am really anxious to book acommodations as I feel itis beginning to get late.

bigtyke

I think 4 days at Yellowstone is plenty. I think 2 full days at Teton is plenty. We stayed at the Old Faithful LODGE cabins and really liked them. We got two of them (we are also a family of 4) and they were reasonably priced. We just stayed in the one area, but you are wise to stay in two areas as the drinivg times are much longer than the distance would lead you to believe.

We liked Bryce alot, but I would also visit Zion and other southern Utah/Northern Arizona sites, so I would leave that for another trip.

bob_brown

I have been to all of those places more than twice and enjoy ALL of them greatly.

Your plans seem to be taking into account the problems I face when I plan a trip out there: namely, it is a long drive from Bryce to Yellowstone. The question then becomes: Is it worth it?

I honestly don't know the answer because once you are in Bryce, it seems a shame to miss Utah Route 12 from Bryce to Torrey and then spend at least a day touring and hiking Capitol Reef National Park. I find Capitol Reef to be a fascinating place full of twisting slot canyons and towering cliffs and natural bridges and arches.

If I had to trade off between Capitol Reef and Craters of the Moon, I would go with Capitol Reefs every time.

If you revise your plan to omit Craters and include Capitol Reef, I would say that your Bryce option itinerary is a good one.

I think you have included enough time for Yellowstone to see the highlights which for me are these:
1. The Upper Geyser Basin with Old Faithful, Grand Geyser, and Castle Geyser. My favorite of those 3 is Grand because its puts on a tremendous show.
Castle is also spectacular and spouts and spews for 45 to 50 minutes.
2. The Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
3. Other thermal features like the Mud Pots, Fountain Paint Pots, Great Fountain Geyser, and the Norris Geyser Basin.
4. The lake itself, which is huge and beautiful.

In the Tetons, the best view is from Signal Mountain. The best hike is Amphitheater Lake, but only for the stout of lung and strong of leg. It is uphill and the altitude can get you a little if ill conditioned.

The best places I think for Yellowstone in order to be in position to see the park are at Old Faithful and at Canyon Village. If available, I like the Western Cabins, but there are not many f them at Old Faithful.

If you stay in the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, you get an ok room, but prices in the park always struck me as high for what you got.

In the Tetons, many people Like Signal Mountain Lodge or Colter Bay Village.

Jenny Lake Lodge is the high priced establishment. I think you can pay more than $300 a night there, which to me is obscene for a National Park.

You will find plenty of shops in West Yellowstone and in Jackson with all kinds of made in China bric a brack.
Little bears, tomtoms, hatchets, key chains, etc.

utahtea

On the first itinerary, I agree with bob_brown's idea of dropping Craters of the Moon for Capitol Reef.

Day 1 fly into salt lake
2- SLC
3 Drive to Bryce
4 Bryce
5 Drive to Torrey via Hwy 12
6. Capitol Reef
7. Drive to Vernal, Utah near Dinosuar National Monument
8. Tetons
9. Tetons
10 Spend time at Tetons but move to Yellowstone
11 Yellowstone
12 Yellowstone
13. Yellowstone
14 Drive Back to SLC
15 Fly home

If you decided not to do all the driving of this route, you might want to add Dinosaur to the second route. I've never done any, but there are white water rafting trips in area.

I like 5 days for Yellowstone, but 4 would do and 2 for Tetons, but that's just me.

Utahtea

RedRock

Just down the road on US-20 from the Craters of the Moon is EBR-1, the first first Atomic reactor in the world to produce electricity. It is open for tours and they are only an hour so. It is a step back in time.

http://www.atomictourist.com/ebr.htm

rubigayle

what would be the travel time from Vernal Utah near Dinosaut national monument to Tetons? How long would it take to get from yellowstone to Salt lake city. so far all lodging inside the park is showing as booked,if I wanted to stay in two different areas of yeallowstone, where would you recommend?

dmpalena

I knew I'd be in trouble for reading this post. My family (husband, two sons 15 and 20 and myself) are planning a 12 day visit to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in August. I thought I was set on these destinations until I read rubigayle's itinerary which brought back all my previous yearnings to see the Bryce and Highway 12 area. Now I'm wondering if we could "do it all" in a two week period, or if I should eliminate Glacier or stick with the original plan to do the Montana and Wyoming area only. I want to see Glacier, I want to see Bryce! We don't hike, just enjoy sightseeing some beautiful country. Anyone have any suggestions or comments? Rubigayle, hope you have a great vacation! Thanks fellow Fodorites!!!