We are planning to spend a few days in Yellowstone this June. My family enjoys camping and I'm debating trying to camp in Yellowstone, however, we don't really want to lug camping gear to the airport. Are there places that rent tents, air mattresses, etc. between Bozeman and Yellowstone? I have yet to find any on the internet.

I took this on as a personal challenge and have to admit defeat! I found lots of outdoor stores in Bozeman, Gardiner, Hamilton, etc., all selling camping equipment, but none mentions rentals.

If you can fly into Missoula instead of Bozeman, you can rent camping gear there from REI.

Thanks! Already have tickets to Bozeman.

I didn't find anything either. Rather than lugging it all to the airport, could you ship most or all of it instead? That might be cheaper than paying for extra luggage.

I always wanted to start a company that rents sporting goods equipment called Ballbuster.

Good idea.

basm - I can't help except to encourage you to get a big duffle bag and bring the camping equipment! We have done it to camp in Utah/Arizona and Alaska (from Washington, DC) the past two years and plan to do it again for Yellowstone/Grand Tetons this summer.

We bought pads to pack instead of the air mattress we use when camping in Shenandoah, and that made the duffle lighter. It is worth it!

That is what we do too, for the Grand Canyon trips. Tent, Thermarest pads, sleeping bags, etc. all fit into a large duffle, which we check on the plane.

LL Bean rolling duffles are GREAT!

I am flying from CA to Bozeman and also want to camp. enzian, how did your trip work out? Has anyone else rented camping gear near Bozeman or Yellowstone?

Just ran across my old post. Trip was great. We stayed in a cabin near Cooke City and in the park lodges. Those were rustic enough and a lot less work than hauling camping gear. Also, we don't have much cold weather camping gear and it was near freezing every night of our trip. We'll save our camping for trips for when we don't have to fly!

We rented an antire car camping kit from a company online called mountainsidegearrental.com this past June and it was great. They shipped the gear to the Bozeman airport and it was waiting for us at the FedEx counter. It couldn't have been easier! We are going to rent a backpacking tent and backpacks from them for a trip to Maine this October. Definitely reccomend checking these guys out.

No rental help, but if you do decide to bring camping equipment, be careful about stoves. We packed in backpacks and had very little camping equipment (we were meeting son who had equipment), but they searched for our stove and fuel, which we did not have. Just an FYI.