Hello,

My wife and I are planning to visit Yellowstone NP during the July 4th holiday. We’ll be flying from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City, renting a car, and driving up north. It seems all the lodging inside the park (www.travelyellowstone.com) is unavailable. Can anyone please suggest any alternative locations/hotels right outside the park? There is a huge abundance of motels around the park, so we need a hint. We’ve never visited the area before, so any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

You'll get a better response if you post this on the Wyoming page.

Another idea is to check out www.tripadvisor.com for West Yellowstone lodging. I find the site very helpful.

We stayed in the park when we went several years ago so I'm no help.

I don't know of specific lodging, but for location, location, location, look at West Yellowstone, Montana. This is the closest location to the geyser areas.

Utahtea

ccrosner - there is no wyoming page - it all gets dumped into US.

First night, stay in/around Jackson Hole. We used jacksonholeresortlodging.com and stayed at Teton Village - very close to Grand Teton, about 15 minutes outside Jackson. Do not know length of your trip, but I would stay there 2 nights and see some of Grant Teton National Park.

Another couple of nights in West Yellowstone. (This is Montana - I did not know that and had trouble with various hotel search sites because of it). We stayed at Comfort Inn, but there is just about every moderate priced chain around. West Yellowstone is just minutes from west entrance to Park.

We then did another 2 nights in Gardiner. Again, chains (not as many) - we stayed at non-chain Absaroka Lodge (really a motel) which overlooks Gardner River. Nothing fancy, but fine.

I suggest either this or at east entrance to Yellowstone. However, it is quite a long drive to do in one day from anywhere in Yellowstone to SLC - not so much distance but traffic and animal jams. So you might want to break up the return trip depending on time of day of flight home.

The three closest places to stay near Yellowstone are West Yellowstone, this is mostly a tourist haven. If you want less of that you can stay in Gardiner or my favorite, Cooke City - SilverGate located near the NE gate. Few people venture this far off the Grand Loop.
http://www.colorado-west.com/cooke/
There is a little snow on the ground now, it will look a little different on the 4th of July.

West Yellowstone is a great location, its about 30 to 40 minute to the Old Faithful area. Many chain motels, fast food, convenient to Yellowstone
You could also plan a couple days in the tetons, try the Jackson Lake Lodge.
Try to see both parks, they're great

Gail,
I'm confused about this "dumping into the US folder" and am hoping that you can help me out. When I create new posts, I was click on the state that it's most closely related to when I create the message. Then, when someone clicks on the "California" board, they will see my post and others that only have to do with California. I know that it also shows up on the general US board; however, some people only check certain states, countries, etc.

Am I not right about that? I think it helps focus fodorites onto the areas of the board that are most interesting to them without having to do a search to get there.

But I'll admit, I'm not at all a techie so I may be using the wrong terminology.

Carol

hilda - I don't want to to be riding with you if you are going to make West Yellowstone to OF in 30-40 mins. Its 30 miles of two lane mountain roads inside the park. Please slow down and enjoy. There are many slow moving cars and RV's, most of which are taking their time.

We always stay in West Yellowstone. We fly from Philly to Salt Lake and drive up to Pocatello, ID the first night. Then to West Yellowstone the next day. Check out wyellowstone.com for accommadations. We have stayed in a couple different ones, none too bad.

ccrosner - you are correct, if I understand you. All posts entered while on US board go to US board. They can also be sorted by individual state, but they will still also end up on US board. In my experience, most readers here chose to skim entire board (such as US, Asia) rather than select only a specific state to read. If they are interested in, for example, Denver hotels, they might enter a search item such as "Denver lodging" but would not limit their reading to Colorado.

I think we are probably talking about the same thing, but merely use the board differently.

(And then we can always get into a discussion about where Bermuda belongs, since those on Caribbean board are fond of telling people that Bermuda is not in the Caribbean)

Thanks Gail. That clears up my confusion.

We stayed at Motel 6 in Gardiner and also in West Yellowstone igWestern pine motel 234 Firehole ave. Paul

Thank you !!

Gardiner and WEst Yellowstone are both great places to stay to see all of the park. The figure 8 through the park is easy. Get a place with a hot tub if you plan on hiking a lot!

You didn't specify what nights you needed but checking the link you noted only July 3 seems completely unavailable in the park

After college, worked for a summer in Gardiner, MT. It's a small town on the northen doorstep of the park. THere are a number of mom and pop places as well as a Best Western and a couple of other chain hotels. Its much less congested than West Yellowstone, but from SLC you'd have to drive through the park to get there, whcih isn't a bad thing. Look up Wilson's Yellowstone Lodge on Google, and thats where I worked. Clean, quiet and friendly is te best way to describe it.

I spoke too soon! I couldn't find a lhttp://www.yellowstonemotel.com/ink to Wilson's but this is a nice place:

Maybe you could get a couple nights in the park and the remainder elsewhere. If Old Faithful area snow Lodge or the Inn is available its a great location