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My husband and I have America West airline ticket vouchers to use before October. We are traveling from Boston. The plan was to visit the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area in September. As it turns out, AW doesn't fly to Wyoming. The closest location would be Billings, MT. Does anyone know if driving from Billings to the national park area of Wyoming is too great a distance with only one week to spend in this area? America West primarily serves the Southwest area and we recently visited AZ, Vegas and CA. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

We're flying into Billings for our August trip to Yellowstone. We plan to arrive @ 3:00 pm & drive to Cody, Wy for a few days & then over to Old Faithful Inn for a several more days & then up to Mammoth Hot Springs for a couple of nights & back over to Billings via the Bear Tooth Hwy. We've spent some time in the Tetons so didn't plan for it this trip, but I think it would be possible to do. Yellowstone is very close to the Grand Tetons, but you might want to chose a stop off in Cody on your way to the Tetons. I belive it's only a couple of hours from Billings & then maybe you could consider going back by way of the B

Sorry for the break- you may choose to stop off in Cody & then travel the Bear Tooth Hwy on the way back to Billings. I believe Bear Tooth was recently mentioned on this site and is considered a very scenic drive.

Billings is a great place to fly into for visiting Yellowstone; maybe the best choice. A week will be plenty of time to see Yellowstone and the Tetons. The Beartooth Highway is indeed a pretty drive. For the sake of variety, you could also loop down past the Little Bighorn battlefield on the way down; then heading west through the Bighorn Mountains, over to Cody and up into the park. It should be an excellent time of year, with the tourist traffic down because of kids heading back to school. You'll be driving through a lot of beautiful, rugged western landscape. Bring some clothing adequate for potentially crisp mornings in the high country.

FLYBOY
I'm not sure because I never fly to the parks because I live in Montana but wouldn't Bozeman be a better choice to fly into to visit Yellowstone????

John, if geography was the only consideration, Bozeman would be a bit closer, it's true. Air service is not all that bad, considering that Bozeman is probably about a third of the size of Billings -- but perhaps not quite as diverse and competitive as Billings. In the case of the original poster's situation, it's a moot point since it is not served by America West.

I believe America West is serviced in Montana by Big Sky airline(known locally as Big Scare) If that is correct than LMT10 could fly into Bozeman,Kalispell etc.
Worth loking into LMT10!

Thanks very much for the helpful responses... As a New Englander, I have difficulty comprehending the vastness of the west and always underestimate the distances.

My husband and I are also going to Yellowstone in September and are flying America West.We're flying into Salt Lake City and then driving up to West Yellowstone and stayong at Hibernation Station.We know it's a 5 1/2 hour drive but America West does fly into there and we got a pretty good rate.Then we're visiting Yellowstone for 5 days and driving back to SLC.We've traveled on America West before and are very peased with their on time performance.

Just a note about America West-we have used them to Baltimore, Indianapolis, JFK and Ft.Lauderdale and all over the West. They also fly to Boston, JFK, Chicago,Newark,Philadelphia,Newark,
Raleigh/Durham... well you get the idea. We are impressed with their on-time performance and good service and at least this week, they are not going bankrupt !