As part of a longer3 week family road trip,( Denver-Yellowstone-Grand Teton, Arches- Grand Canyon North Rm -Bryce-Zion ) we will visit Yellowstone this summer. We are aware of the difficulties with finding lodging inside the park. We have some nights booked but we have not been able to find the number of nights we want yet or maybe the best locations,,but we will continue looking. We need some advice on the itinerary as it looks now, decided by the lodges we managed to find. Ideally we would like to find availability at least for 2 more nights.

Day 1: Will probably be arriving from East Entrance having spent night in Cody. ( driving up from Denver) Have 1st night accomodation at the Old Faithful Inn. ( only 1 night available)
How long will it take to drive from Cody ?
Is there a lodge inside park that would be better for a first night stop coming from that entrance?
Day 2: Roosevelt Lodge
Day 3: Lake Hotel Cabin

As first time visitors to Yellowstone we have no knowledge of driving times, best loop to drive, the must sees etc. We have seen that you sort of drive a figure 8, but is there a prefered route to take to explore the park. We do plan shorter hikes and hope for a lot of wildlife viewing at dawn and dusk so we will be up and about early. We do know that there will be crowds in August but we have no other option as to go then.
Any advice on itinerary, lodging, routes etc would be much appreciated. I know that there are loads of information to be found on nps website but it is always good to get great advice from fellow travellers !

To get from Cody to the NP will be about an hour and a half if you don't hit any traffic, bison jams etc.

The Lake hotel/cabins area is probably the closest to that entrance.

Lodging outside of the park to the west in West Yellowstone or to the north in Gardiner is probably the easiest.

Since the roads through the park are sort of an 8 you can do loops in either direction and go through the lower, upper, or whole outside depending on where you are and what you want to see/do.

I think it is very easy to overthink this. The road in YNP is made up on two loops that makes up a figure 8. It makes absolutely no difference in which direction you start or finish.

You are going in summer. Days are long. As long as you have reservations you don't have to worry about which "village" is closest to which entrance. You'll have time to get to any location in the park on the first day - if you get a start in the morning.

Your reservations will work fine. In fact, they are excellent. I'm returning this year and I would be thrilled with those locations. Consider the cookout while you are at Roosevelt and a lake cruise when you are at lake.

Use this interactive map to help gauge drive times. Click on a section to see details.
https://www.nps.gov/features/yell/interactivemap/
Double the mileage for approximate drive times. 20 miles = approximately 40 minutes

Keep trying Xanterra - daily if needed. People drop reservations all the time. There are new buildings at Canyon so rooms should open up.

Re the long days- June 15th = 5:38 am sunrise & 9:11 sunset
Twilight - 9:48 pm
15 hours of daylight is a LOT of time to see the parks.

Thanks for good advice.
Is 3 nights enough though and only 1 night at each location ?Considering the slow driving and the heavy traffic it may take a while to move around I assume.

There are a ton of great waterfalls to check out in YS. Two of my favorites were viewing the Lower Falls via Uncle Tom's trail and also Mystic Falls. I recently wrote a trip report about all the waterfalls I saw in YS - including my reviews of each and where/how to access them http://livelifeoutofoffice.com/2014/...f-yellowstone/

Get one of the guide books that follows the sequence of the Figure 8. Then just drive. You will encounter animal jams, animals in the distance. Groups of stopped cars will indicate that there is something going on. There are turn offs, lookouts and small parking lots with short hiking trails. If one place is too crowded, move on to the next. Other than a few famous places like Old Faithful, just flow along the roadway.

Bring snacks and drinks in the car. There are Park Service places with food and bathrooms - but we never knew when we would end up at one.

Re the waterfalls at Canyon -
Inspiration Point and the Brink of the Upper Falls are both closed for the entire season -
https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

Now (as in right now) is a great time to book hotel room in YNP. A huge amount of rooms were just released from hold by charter companies. It's a very rare availability of rooms in the park - including at Lake and Snow Lodge at Old Faithful. They will go fast. They are premium rooms, some of the most expensive ones in the park. $200+

I haven't read the other posts so somebody may have given you the same advice.

It doesn't take long to realize that you should book lodging a year in advance.

We also know what happens to plans made a year in advance. Quite often people book lodging on the chance they'll be able to go on a trip.

So start calling your preferred lodging about 6 weeks before the trip when reality starts to set in.

Call every day.
Call twice a day.

When somebody calls to cancel, you want to be on the next call looking for lodging.

Call, call, call and you'll get what you want.