My husband and I just got back from 10 fabulous days in the Tetons and Yellowstone. Just wanted to thank everyone for their tips and reccomendations, they were all very helpful in making our plans.
The parks were beautiful this time of year and we were able to see alot of wildlife.
Wolves at Antelope Creek. Bison everywhere. The Elk were very active especially at Mammoth. There was a massive Bull Elk at there that was causing a lot of stress for the Park Rangers. Charging at cars and people the rangers decided it would be safer for all to remove his antlers. So that they did.
I will be happy to answer any questions.
Cherie

Where did you stay?

tcapp-here is where we stayed and a few places we ate:

2 nites-BestWestern Lodge at Jackson Hole
1 nites-Alpine Motel Cooke City MT
2 nites-Signal Mtn Lodge
2 nites-Yellowstone Basin Inn-Gardiner
2 nites-back to BestWestern Lodge At Jackson Hole

We flew in and out of Jackson Hole.

The BW at JH was very comfortable,very nice staff and they provided a full breakfast buffet each morning.
The next 2 days we traveled with The Teton Science School through the parks and stayed in Cooke City at The Alpine Motel. Clean no frills.
At Signal Mtn we stayed in a lakefront retreat. Very dated room, could get the same view if you walked about 10 feet out of any other cabin on the property. I would not pay the extra money for the lakefront again. We had breakfast here one morning, and one dinner at The Trapper Grill, both very good. The wait staff were friendly but the girl I encountered at checkout was just the opposite. The following morning we had breakfast at Jackson Lake Lodge they had a great buffet breakfast, would highly recommend it.
In Gardiner Mt we stayed at Yellowstone Basin Inn. Again a very clean and modern motel. It is about 5 miles out of town. After seeing the other accomodations in town I was glad we had chosen this location. I found that what you see on the internet is not always an accurate portrayal. This was a great location, very close to Mammoth and where The Boiling River pours into The Gardiner River. Great soaking. Don't miss it. Also had an excellent dinner at The Park St Grille.
I did not make reservations for the last 2 nights, I wanted to keep it open, we ended up going back to JH. We decided to stay at BW again as we knew what we would be getting.

A few more places we ate:

Bubbas-it was OK
Billys Giant Burgers-very good burgers
Dornans-beautiful views from the roof
Merry Piglets-great mexican
In Livingston Mt we ate at The Montana Rib & Chop House-Excellent
The Bunnery for Starbucks coffee and baked goods
Lake Hotel beautiful place but they forgot to take the paper of the slice of cheese that was on my sandwich-
Mammoth-breakfast in The Hot Springs Dining room-again just OK
Hope this helps if you are considering going.

Cherie

We also have just returned from GTNP & Yellowstone. Absolutely great trip! We flew into SLC drove up Hwy 89 to Jackson, stayed 3 nights then 1 night at Yellowstone Lake Hotel and then 2 nights at West Yellowstone before driving back down Hwy 20 & I-15 to Ogden, Utah before flight out of SLC.(We stayed at an exceptional Holiday Inn Express in Ogden next door to Cactus Red's Restaurant - fine place to eat!)
The only part of the trip I would have changed would have been staying at the hotel. Definitely not worth the cost of staying there. Drove up thru Cooke City and up the Beartooth Hwy as far as we could drive. It was great seeing the mountain goats! Our previous trip was in early June - the waterfalls were more abundant at that time due to the spring thaw. And the wildflowers were also beautiful at that time. However, it was hard to beat the beauty of the golden aspens in the fall. I'm convinced the beauty here is unsurpassed ANY time of the year!!

My husband and I went there last month, and fell in love with it!
Our "home base" was in Big Sky. We stayed there one night, then took 4days/3nights for YNP and GT, then drove back up to Big Sky for the remaining 2 nights.
We stayed in Lake Lodge at Yellowstone, then Colter Bay in GT, and then in Grant Village in YNP.
Yellowstone was so cool - no matter how many times you watch the shows, being there in person is so different. And the Tetons - oh my, I was completely blown away! I'd go back there in a heartbeat. We didn't make it down to Jackson Hole, but I'd love to do that next time.
We saw hundreds of bison, tons of elk, some deer, coyote, fox, moose, and 3 bears. It was great!
Glad you had a good trip =)

Dear Matt1225,
What exactly about the Lake Yellowstone Hotel did you not like? My husband and I were considering staying there but now I'm not too sure! I do need some place that's centrally located for a couple of nights. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks!
leeann44

This trip was our 2nd trip to Yellowstone. In 2004 we visited and stayed in Jackson for the whole week - driving each day back & forth - which we realized was not the best of ideas!
It always required departure way too soon to get back to "home base" of Jackson. So, for this trip we decided to divide it up.
I am just comparing the price of what we had to pay at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel to what we paid for our motel (with free Continental breakfast!) in West Yellowstone. We could have stayed 2 extra nights! Our first choice was the Old Faithful Inn - but it was closed due to the renovation.

At the Lake Hotel we were on the backside of the building - ground floor - next to the sidewalk.
We couldn't open our blinds to look out without people walking by & looking in our room....
Our heat never came on in our room.
At 5:00 a.m. the 4 of us was starting to wake up to begin our day early, when all of a sudden the green light from the smoke detector kept getting brighter & brighter until it lit up the whole room & then dimmed down. From that point we determined that there had to be some remaining ghosts left there!!!!We did not eat in the restaurant because of the price and reviews - but instead opted for a hot sandwich at the snack bar down at the store. Blah!!!!
We did go down to the Lake Lodge for breakfast & it was very good with enjoyable view while having your meal.

For our family I think for the next trip we would definitely consider staying in Gardiner due to the location being so convenient to the north side of the park - because we love going up the Beartooth Hwy.

Just to give another opinion, my family stayed at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel in 2001 and enjoyed it very much. We were fortunate to have a large lakefront room that was very nicely decorated. Lakefront wasn't necessary as you didn't stay in your room much; however, it was a nice large room.

We really enjoyed the large sunporch/lobby. By the time we got there, we had been on the road with two young children (5 and 7) for a week. It was nice to have a place to relax, with some room, and play games, etc. We found the food at the restaurant to be fine although a bit pricey. I would not have wanted to stay in their "cottages". They looked like barracks. And I can appreciate the view of the previous poster--being on the ground floor of the back side of the hotel would not have been very private.

We stayed 2 nites at Old Faithful and 2 nights at Lake Yellowstone and thought that worked well.

We also stayed at the Lake Hotel last year and enjoyed it, but our room was on the second floor and the front of the hotel. It wasn't inexpensive, but YNP is so big that I would gladly trade the extra expense for not having to drive in and out each day. We ate in the restaurant each night and with the exception of one entree thought the food was good, altho again not inexpensive.