J_Correa

My husband and I have been talking about a summer vacation for next year, and a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP has come up as a possibility. Other possibilities include a trip to Utah or a trip up the Oregon coast. We are in the SF Bay Area and we have roughly 10 days for the trip.

I've been to Oregon as a child and through Utah and into Wyoming as a teenager, but not to Yellowstone. My husband hasn't been to any of these places.

If all goes according to plan, we will be buying a house (fixer-upper) this summer or fall and will be in dire need of a vacation by next summer We also wont have a lot of money because it will all be going into the house, so a road trip it will be - budget motels, rustic cabins, tent camping, picnics and cooking out to keep expenses down.

We have our annual weekend trip to Yosemite planned for May and probably a trip to Lassen later in the year - my dad is building a house up that way so we can take advantage of the free lodging I thought we could get a national parks pass (there is an REI store just down the street) and continue with that theme.

Has anybody driven to Yellowstone from in or around the SF Bay Area? I'm thinking that 2 nights enroute should do it - the days would be long, but not brutally long. There are 2 of us to drive and we don't have children. We could arrive in Yellowstone in the morning of the 3rd day. I have heard that if we are going to camp in Yellowstone, it is best to arrive early in the day to get a good spot.

The basic plan would be to leave home on a Saturday morning, drive through the weekend and then arrive in Yellowstone on Monday morning. I am thinking that the park would have fewer people earlier in the week than later in the week. Any thoughts on that?

For a route to Yellowstone, it looks like I80 to Wells, NV, then cut up hwy 93 into Idaho, and follow 86/15/20 into the west entrance to Yellowstone would be good. Neither of us have been to Idaho, so it would be nice to drive through on the way.

After a few nights in Yellowstone, we could go on to Grand Teton, spend a couple nights there and then come home via Salt Lake City.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

How far in advance should we make reservations in Yellowstone and Grand Teton for rustic lodging or campsites? Any recommendations? We'd like to have hot showers and flush toilets near by and stay where we can cook out and have a campfire in the evennings.

Thanks!

connette

All of your guesses about driving time, etc. are good. The thing I would tell you that is if you want to stay inside Yellowstone, you will want to make your reservations ASAP. Believe it or not if you are going during peak season a year in advance is not too early. Late Aug or Sept would be an exception. If you stay just outside the park like in Gardiner or West Yellowstone you can wait until next year.

Connie

It's a LOT easier to get campsite reservations closer to your arrival than it is lodging. You will want to do that several months out to get what you want.

For camping with showers, you will want to stay in Grant Village or Canyon. We like Canyon because it is centrally located. Both areas have lots of services like laundry, stores, restaurants, gas station, etc. Also, they both take reservations--not all Yellowstone campgrounds do.

Once you have campsite reservations it doesn't really matter when you get there. They are going to assign you a site vs. other campgrounds that let you pick your own. I have asked to be moved and was able to, though.
It'll save you a lot of money cooking your own meals and paying $15 for campsites vs $85 and up a night for lodging.

I had a chance to see inside the Old Faith cabins last summer (2003). They had been completely redone, inside and out so even though they look very rustic they were nice. They are located right next to Old Faithful Geyser.

You can also stay inside Old Faithful Inn fairly cheaply if you are willing to stay in a room without a toilet or shower (you do have a sink). Request to be above the first floor. It is very noisy with all the tourists and the showers are on the 2nd floor. I never had to wait to get into a shower. I did have to walk through a tour group with a big white towel on my head to get back to my room!!!!!!

My husband stayed at Signal Mountain Lodge last summer. They have cabins and campsites too. Beautifullyl located on Jackson Lake.

Jayne11159

We stayed at Signal Mountain Lodge a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I don't usually enjoy "rustic", but our stay there was among the most enjoyable we've had on a vacation. The lakefront cottages are more pricey, but we stayed in what was considered a non-lakefront cabin because it sat back about 300 yards from the lake vs. the others that are almost right on top of the lake. We loved sitting on the front porch at sunset with an unobstructed view of the lake--incredible.

One word of warning--pack a citronella candle or one of those mosquito coils. They have the biggest mosquitos I've ever seen and I'm from FL! They charge an arm and a lake for them there so bring your own along with insect repellent to use on yourself.

Don't miss the hike on Jenny Lake. A launch takes you across the lake to the trailhead and it's one of the most beautiful and relatively easy hikes I've taken.

utahtea

J Correna,

I'm sure you know how much I love Utah...well, with only 10 days, I say go for Yellowstone and Grand Tetons!

It's already been mentioned to get reservations for lodging now. You can wait if you want to get campsites. We've gone at all times of the summer and have always managed to get a campsite in Yellowstone with out reservations...but you do need to get there early in the day for that first night! I would suggest a combination of cabins and campsites. You can't camp at Old Faithful so that might be a place to do a cabin. Even if you have a cabin you can go to a picnic site for cooking meals.

I highly recommend going the first 2 weeks of June if you can swing it. The crowds don't hit the park until about the 2nd week.

I really don't thing weekends will make much difference in this area...it's not close enought to go for day trips from to many areas.

Your routes sound good. Two days both ways should be plenty of time. After you leave Grand Tetons come down Hwy 89 past Bear Lake and take Hwy 89 thought the Logan Pass into Logan, UT. There are many nice national forest campgrounds along the way.

Utahtea

J_Correa

Thanks for all the great advice. Early June sounds like the time to go if we can. How are the wildflowers that time of year?

utahtea

I don't remember what the wild flowers were like that year. It was 4 years ago. You might try asking questions over on this message board.

http://www.yellowstone-natl-park.com/wwwboard/chat2.htm

Utahtea

J_Correa

Great - thanks Utahtea!

Clousie

We're also in the process of planning a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I came across this site describing a lot of hiking and camping possibilities that may be of interest to you.

http://www.stehno.com/frankp/sagemes...npnotes.htm#jl

NorCal_Jo

J Correa - not sure if you still need input but I also live in the Bay Area and have driven to Yellowstone a few times on my way to MT (grew up there) via both the Wells/Jackpot route and the SLC route. With one long first day and a early departure, I've gotten as far as Pocatello but if you can make it to Twins falls - there are inexpensive hotels between there and Pocotello right off the highway (only problem is we had hard time finding our latte's in Idaho!). The reason I recommend such a long first day drive is that IMO H80 thru Nevada is a necessary evil that I do as fast as possible and try to get into Idaho where it starts to be pretty by 8-9 at night. Then you have Sunday to leisurely drive the pretty section of Idaho (assume highway 20 through island park/targhee pass into west yellowstone)? If so, you can even stay in West Yellowstone on Sunday night at a good price if you book ahead and be in the park first thing on Monday. I've driven this route straight through(but is really long!). My husband (bay area native, i'm a montana native) had never been to Yellowstone/Teton and we spent 3 days near yellowstone and 2 days in Tetons driving from Big Sky to SF via Salt Lake and he loved it! Tetons are gorgeous and as one poster said, do the hike from jenny lake to hidden falls/inspiration point (.9 mile) but don't stop there! Keep going as the trail is literally almost flat after inspiration point into the cascade canyon - gorgeous and 90% of the people stop at inspiration point. We typically stay over in SLC so we can enjoy the drive from Teton to SLC and make the big push back to the Bay Area from SLC - depending on when we leave SLC, we have stopped near Reno to avoid doing the pass thru the sierra's at night. Hope this helps. Get the parks pass for sure - will save money. Any questions, feel free to post. I check periodically.