late summer trip to yellowstone
 

Looking for opinions. i plan on about 10 days out at yellowstone/grand tetons. I plan on flying into Jackson - the rental cars have unlimited miles there, billings they do not....and billing cars are more $$. i am using fflier miles for the plane...

I want to visit the Lamar valley. i did a lot of geyser gazing on my last trip. i want to do wildlife watching and hiking on this trip. i didn't get a lot of hiking in at Grand Teton either so i want to hike there AND i want to cruise the beartooth highway!

opinions on lodging. i was thinking of non national park lodging for Grand Teton. (i don't want to spend more than an average of 9 nights at 125/night)

I've been looking at places in moran, moose for gt. i was thinking about staying at yellowstone lake for 2 nights (i've stayed in the canyon area and old faithful inn before)

and either gardiner or cooke city. my thoughts are

fly to jackson, drive to yellowstone and stay 2 nights at yellowstone lake, drive to either cooke city or gardiner and stay 4 nights and then down to grand teton and stay 3 nights then home. this way i am near the airport on my last morning..... any lodging suggestions any great hikes folks endorse?

i was planning on Mt. Washburn (yellowstone), heritage point (grand teton) hikes don't have to be in the parks! i prefer hikes no longer than 8 miles round trip and rise in elevation no more than 700 ft per mile (but i'll hike longer and steeper if it's worth it!) (but even with flat hikes no more than 12 miles in a day)

all ideas suggestions opinions gladly accepted! -sorry this got so long-

sounds like a great itinerary. Fall and late summer is the perfect time to go.

Thinking about a very similar trip at that time. Trying to decide whether to fly into Billings or Jackson since our focus will be on Beartooth and that area of the park as well as Tetons (for same reasons as you). Guess it will be Jackson. Looking forward to replies to your post.

Just one other question. When do the crowds thin out a little bit -- any difference between end of August and beginning of September. How is Labor Day as far as crowds? We've gone at the end of September in the past and had no trouble getting rooms while there (don't need in park accommodations). We'd rather have flexibility.

Hi Just me,

Sound like a wonderful trip. Cooke City is very small, but quite near the Lamar Valley. I don't know if you would be bored there for 4 days.

If you want to drive the Beartooth Hwy, you might want to think about staying 1 night in Red Lodge, MT. Fun little town at the north end of the Hwy. Then you wouldn't have to drive it back and forth in the same day.

Last August, I drove from Cooke City to Red Lodge, spent the night, and then drove on through the Paradise Valley, MT to Gardiner. Beautiful drive for most of the way. I didn't care for Gardiner as much as Red Lodge, but it is a good base for seeing the northern part of the park.

I go up almost every year and the one time I visited the last week of August was nearly empty of visitors. Later in the season is becoming more popular though and Labor Day weekend is busy with folks who live nearby.

Have fun and definitely take a spotting scope and tripod to see wolves.

because i am travelling solo, i like having some amenities in my lodging -that would mean hot tub after a long day of hiking and tv!

-(due to an eye condition reading at the end of the day is very diffiicult i get extreme tired eye and have to close one eye in order to read....) so amentities are sketchy in the parks and that's a main reason for short stays in the parks.

i don't need night life, just chilling is good and not going to work in the morning even better!!
believe it or not, labor day weekend here in the east (jersey shore) is not that bad, the weekend before is worse!

these days, schools start before labor day and college starts and folks are moving into their places so i like using labor day weekend.

fYI i also looked into bozeman and it was similar to billings. i figure that i am putting an extra 1/2 day on the road using jackson, but i am really concerned about the mile limitation from the billings car rentals. you can really rack them up in the west.

i also figure with jackson at the end, i'll have had enough rustic/nature and a cute town will be a good way to end the trip thanx and keep the comments and recommendations coming!

Hi again Justme,

I think you are doing the right thing taking the rental car out of Jackson. Yes, you will enjoy Jackson at the end of your trip.

One thing to think about - the later you go in the year, the higher the likelihood of major forest fires burning in this area. Last year the fires ruined the end of my trip. It was so bad in MT, I couldn't breath, let alone enjoy the scenery. I went home 2 days early. You couldn't see the scenery! Just something to think about if you do have a chance to go earlier.

From now on, I'll take my trips in June!

The North East part of the Park along the Lamar Valley to Cooke City is our favorite area of Yellowstone. Less people in that area. Most don't stray off the Grand Loop Road that runs thru the Park. We always camp in one of the NPS campgrounds in the Valley or the NF CG (Soda Butte CG) just east of Cooke City. We have also stayed in the town on occasions. Its a good jumping off point for a drive over the Bear Tooth Highway. The few times we have stayed in a motel it was the Hoosier Motel. Clean and spartan as are most motels in that part of the country.

http://64.82.6.189/netcam.htm

http://www.colorado-west.com/cooke/CClodging.html

i went to washington in 2001, that was the year of their fires- those fires really affected part of my trip. they were actually using the water buckets taking the water out of Lake Chelan. i got pics of it, but the air was thick with smoke.

fortunately the fires didn't affect the north cascades part of my trip. just the chelan portion. I am going to think positive on this as every time i've been in the rockies, it's been either the end of sept./oct or may. i'd like to see late summer rather fall and spring.

ttt any more insights out there?