Teton and Yellowstone reviews.....
 

We just returned from ten glorious days at the Tetons and Yellowstone. I thought I would give you our recommendations on lodging and restaurants as I appreciated reading reviews before we went.

We flew into SLC June 1st and drove to Jackson straight from the airport. The drive along the country roads was an absolutely beautiful one. Our kids got to play in snow for the first time on our way to Wyoming. Bear Lake in Idaho is gorgeous!

We stayed at Buckrail Lodge the first night. I highly recommend this motel. It has beautiful grounds, is very clean, inexpensive ($69 a night!), and has the cozy, log cabin feel. The owners were very friendly and helpful during our stay. While there, we had pasta dinners delivered from Philly's Finest since we were too exhausted to go out. They were great and we had enough left over for dinner the next night. The next morning on our way to Teton, we had an excellent breakfast at The Bunnery.

Our next two nights were spent in one of Budge's Slide Lake Cabins on Slide Lake in Kelly, WY. We were very impressed with how spacious our cabin was. It was absolutely spotless and had all of the ammeninites we could have asked for. Our only regret was that we only allowed two nights there! If we ever make it back to that area, I know where we'll be staying.

Our next destination was the only glitch in our trip. I had reserved a 3/2 "bed and breakfast" for two nights at Slip and Slide Ranch in Gardiner, MT. What a mistake that was! If you have the desire to vacation in the basement of a strangers home, this is the place for you! I was told that we had access to two of the bedrooms (who knows what was behind door number #3) and the laundry room which happened to be their personal laundry, stored with their muddy boots, coats, dirty clothes, cleaners, etc. It was used as a storage place for their personal items and had no privacy from their main living area. (The door leading upstairs had no lock on it.) Their grandkids were running amok upstairs, which was horribly loud in the basement. The grill that was offered for our use looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in months. The sheets were dirty, (a dead bug was even found in one bed), as were the bathroom rugs, and the furniture had potato chip crumbs all over them. The more we looked around, the more disgusted we got. We decided to go back into Gardiner and find another place to stay, even if it was in a small hotel room. When we tried to reason with the owner and explain that we felt she misrepresented her "bed and breakfast" on her website, she became offended and refused to give us our refund back. When I pointed out that it looked like they used their basement as a living area themselves, that their food was even down there (a loaf of bread and plastic container of cornflakes were sitting in the kitchen), she offered the explanation that those were for her guests breakfast as part of her "bed and breakfast" set up. After talking to some people in town and sharing with them some digital pictures that I took there, I found out others had complained around Gardiner about Slip and Slide also.

We were lucky after leaving the basement behind and found a beautiful 2 bedroom, kitchen suite at the Best Western in Gardiner.

After two nights in Gardiner, we headed to the Best Western Desert Inn in West Yellowstone. The room there was very nice and conveniently located to stores, restaurants, etc. We had a great dinner at Bullwinkles the first night and not so great pizza from Gushers the next (blech!).

Our last night was spent in the Shilo Inn in Salt Lake City. Very nice! Our kids thoroughly enjoyed their indoor pool after dinner that night.

Being from Florida, it was still cold to us during our visit to the parks and even snowed snowed part of the time, but we felt that we went during the best time possible. We never had to deal with the crowds or bad traffic jams that we read about before our trip. Even the crowd at Old Faithful wasn't bad at all. If we vacation in that part of the country again, we'll make sure to go during the early spring again.

Did you get a refund from the B/B? Thanks for posting the information. I've heard good things about the Bunnery in Jackson.

No, the wife refused to refund our deposit, saying her accomodations are perfectly clear on her website. (Far from the truth!) Her husband wanted to give us a refund, but she told him to shut up and go inside (several times). I should have followed my instinct after not finding any reviews on their so called B/B anywhere on the net.

Again, I can't express how great the Budges Slide Lake cabin in Kelly was! It was a far cry from what we found at Slip and Slide Ranch.

I'm sorry to hear about your B&B experience. Make sure you post a review on tripadvisor.com - I think you can even post your photos. Future travelers will thank you.

Thanks for the report. We will be in West Yellowstone in a few weeks and we will check out Bullwinkles.

Thanks, Tripadvisor is next on my list as that is one of the sites I used for advice also.

Enjoy Bullwinkles and don't forget to try The Bunnery if you get a chance.

If you charged the deposit on a credit card for the Slip and Slide Ranch in Gardiner, MT, I would contest it and let them get your money back. If you didn't stay...you shouldn't have to pay.

Utahtea

Thanks, but suprise suprise, she only accepted cash, MO's, or checks. I plan on contacting the Gardiner licensing board or whoever oversee's B/B's in that area.