Stay in West Yellowstone?
 

I tried to post this before, but it did not show up. Please advise on advantages/disadvantages of staying in West Yellowstone vs. in the park. The park lodges seem rustic and expensive. But I don't want to waste a lot of time driving in and out of the park each night. Suggestions/advice? Is it worth spending the money to be in the park? How long will I spend driving to places like the canyon area if I stay in West Yellowstone?

For another lodging choice in the park, stay at the cabins for about $70 a night, except at Mammoth which cost around $95. A Pioneer cabin has its own toilet and shower. Depending on which area, the cabins are also rustic, although Mammoth's appear to be newer. I personally like staying in the park to be close to the attractions. However, none of the lodgings has TV; our cabin had no radio and we were out of touch with the world the time we were in the park. For food, you are also limited to what the cafeteria and dining rooms have to offer.

West Yellowstone lodgings do come in a wider range of prices. For $50 a night, I had free use of kitchen facilities, hot tub, and breakfast of cereal, bagel, danish, and juice/coffee/tea/cocoa. The small town had a grocery store, more choices to eat, and souvenirs appear to be better priced.

Even if staying inside the park, I found it is best to stay at different areas. To visit the canyon area, the Lake Village is more convenient.

Note that max speed limit in the park is 45 mph, with reduced speed around attractions and congested areas. Patrols enforce the limit. There's warning for first offense, but I don't know what happens if you're caught again.

West Yellowstone to Canyon is only 40 miles, but you may have to contend with slow-moving campers or cars, by wildlife on the road and by wildlife viewers blocking the road . In some areas, there are also road constructions. The 40 miles can be anywhere from 1 hour on up.

Thanks! That is helpful. I am confused about the cabins. How many do they hold? I will be travelling with my family - 2 adults and 3 boys. Are their cabins with two bedrooms? It would be nice to stay in the park some nights for convenience to east end attractions like the canyon. What is the best place to stay around the canyon area, both by price and by niceness of accomodation?

bbkay
I answered this in your other post, do you know you have two going? The lodges are better than the cabins. The cabins are what I think you do not want as they are more rustic. I recommend Dunraven Canyon Lodge. If you look at a map of Yellowstone you will see that the Canyon area is pretty central to the Park and Dunraven Canyon Lodge was built in 1998. The room we had was good size, had two double beds and was large enough for a roll-a-way. Just remember that nothing inside the park has TV or music(we brought our boom box with our own cd's)

I was in Yellowstone after Sept 1 and by that time several areas had already closed; my choices were limited. Canyon was already closed by then, so I had to stay at Lake Village. The prices I gave you was for a cabin for 2.

Best to go to www.xanterra.com website; the company runs the lodgings in the national parks. Your choices are described in detail, including when they are available. Then call the number listed in the website. I did see that accommodations listed are for 2-4 persons, and you need to call reservations to inquire about bigger rooms.

Check yellowstone-natl-park.com for links to photos to lodgings and a more specialized chat board--the best for Yellowstone info!

Have heard some people book the 2 double bed cabins and rooms, then bring a sleeping bag for the other child. Some of the "cabins" are attached more like old motel rooms--you can get two adjoining rooms.

The dunraven canyon lodge quotes $135.00 per night for a motel 6 style room. I think that is outrageous. Is it really worth staying in the park?

bbkay
I agree it is high. For us, staying in the park was worth it because we covered the whole Park, except for Mammoth (we didn't think it offered anything we wanted to do)in three days and we wanted up early, breakfast and off. I guess it is a personal call. What the lodging offers is location. The Snow Lodge is behind Old Faithful Inn and newer. We did not see a room but was in the Lobby and it was nice. You might want to check the prices there.

I have checked the price page for lodges and cabins. The general range is $75 - $150 for anything from a rustic cabin room to nicer lodge room. For me that means $150-$300 a night because I will want two rooms for 3 kids and two adults. WOW! I can understand why people camp. Campsites are only $17. Question? What are the prices for food inside the park. Will also pay monstrous prices for brkfst, lunch and dinner?

One morning we had breakfast at Old Faithful Inn and I do not remember the price. I do remember them having a breakfast buffet for somewhere around $10.00 each but we ordered off the menu and it was good. However, here is where we make up for some of our other expeditures. I take bagels and peanut butter and fruit into our room as they last without refrigeration and that is usually what we have for breakfast. It is nutrious, cheap and fast. I took a coffee pot to Yellowstone. Canyon has coffee pots in the room but Old Faithful Inn does not. That way we could even have tea at night or you can bring packets of instant soup and styraform(sp?) cups for hot beverages. The lodges do have cafeteria's but with each item a cost and with 3 kids?????That does get expensive. Call the number on Xanterra's website and ask about the family suite in Old Faithful Lodge. I think it was $165.00 and had two rooms...would be large enough for your family. It was rustic, but in a good way and it had it's own bath. (housekeeping was cleaning it as we walked past so we went in and looked at it.)

Thanks for the tip! Another Question? Can you have food/picnic lunch in your car during the day? I have heard that you have to remove food from cars because of bears.

Also could I camp for sleeping but use the restaurants for food, so I wouldn't have to worry about cooking meals or bear troubles at a camp site?

I would not keep food in the car for that very reason. (Although we looked and looked for bears and never saw one but they are there) And yes, you absolutely can eat anywhere in the Park that serves food. I don't know how old your children are but one of the most fun things we did was the cookout at Roosevelt Lodge. You meet there at around 4:00 (must make reservations ahead of time and any Lodge in the Park has an activities desk that can do it)anyway, you can ride horseback to the dinner site or take a covered wagon. There they cook steaks and have a dinner wagon bring all the sides. It was very good and they had a cowboy singing song. Get as close to the campfire as possible if you go, it's the best seat around.

To give you an idea of cafeteria prices, hamburger in the park is $7-8.

I believe the food warning refers to open containers of food. I don't think unopened cans of food stored in the trunk will be a problem.

I did not camp in Yellowstone, but have camped in other parks and when attracting bears is a problem, there are bear-proofed containers available for use. I can't imagine why Yellowstone would not provide the same thing.

We just got back from Yellowstone last week and we stayed at Hibernation Station in West Yellowstone.There are 40 cabins that can accommodate up to 8 people....very cute..Most of them had kichens.It was 2 blocks from the west entrance of Yellowstone and the owners were very friendly and helpful.They were built in the mid 90's so they are pretty new and very clean.We would highly recommend Hibernation Station.And,the ride in and out of Yellowstone wasn't bad at all.Between the beautiful scenery and wildlife along the rode the time went by very fast everyday.But,if you want to stay in the park we would recommend Old Faithful Inn......there's just so many geysers right in that area and the Inn is the best place to stay in the park.As far as tv....we also wanted a tv in our cabin/room so we opted to stay outside the park.If I could do it over I would stay at Old Faithful Inn because even in West Yellowstone we could only get 4 tv stations.Next year is the Old Faithful Inns Bicentennial so if you're going then I would make reservations now.
Have fun......we did!!!!

As far as the cabins being rustic---I had a look at an Old Faithful cabin friends were staying in and they had just been completely renovated, inside and out.

I have never thought the food inside the park was all that expensive.

Yes, you can keep food in the car. We ate nearly all our lunches out of our cooler.

Camping is a great way to experience Yellowstone. Grant Village and Canyon have lots of services, including restaurants, cafaterias, laundromats, showers, stores, gas stations, etc.

It is totally reasonable to stay in one place and see all of the park.

Make reservations ASAP, especially if you decide to stay in lodging. I made res. in December and was so glad. By late spring, this board was full of people not able to get a room or having to take whatever they could get.