Yellowstone
 

Hi All,

I’m new to this site as of yesterday. I found it while I was looking for reviews of the Old West Cookout that leaves from Roosevelt Lodge.

We (Myself, my 16yo son, my best friend and her nephew -18yo) are going to Yellowstone the second week of August for 7 nights. This is the 10 year anniversary of when we took the boys the last time. :D and it’s her nephew’s graduation present. Luckily the boys are excited for which I am eternally grateful!! The first time I ever went I was a horrible teenager.

Anyway, here’s the deal. I want to spend this trip doing things that I have never had the chance to do on my other 2 visits either due to my own teenage snottiness or the fact that the boys were young the last time. One thing that we are doing that I had never done before is the old west cook out. My son and I are taking the 2 hr horseback ride, and I’m STOKED!! I also want to hike a lot of the back country trails, get away from the crowds and hopefully see some awesome wildlife and take a ton of pictures. My son has agreed to take a couple of Ranger lead hikes with his hold mom. However my friend is not an “Outdoorsy” type girl and does not want to spend the whole vacation hiking. Why she wants to go again is still a mystery to me LOL.

I need help figuring out what we can do that will be new and exciting and keep everyone more or less happy. We have one day planed for fishing, One or 2 days for the Grand Tetons as we did not get to do that last time due to fires. On that day or days we think we will do Jackson Hole too.

Oh we are staying the whole 8 days at Roosevelt. No where else had availability during that week, when we booked a year ago.

Is it feasible to do Jackson Hole and the GTNP in one day from Roosevelt? I am having a difficulty remembering travel time in the park. OH and if one of the Hikes leaves OF at 7:30am when should we leave from Roosevelt?

Thanks in advance.

I can't answer all your questions, but your post was sinking fast and this will get it back to the top and perhaps generate more responses.

If you want to split your time in Yellowstone - which I'd do if I were you - then call every day to see if someone has canceled. It happens all the time so it's often possible to snag another location even though they're all sold out now. Our first trip we were able to change on the day we arrived due to someone canceling as the deadline arrived.

I can't recall travel time to Jackson from YS as we spent a couple of nights in the Tetons. But I think doing it round trip in one day would make for a really long day. I'm sure others who know the area better than I do can help you with this.

Maybe while you're hiking your friend can find an area to sit awhile and watch the wildlife or wait for one of the spectacular - but less predictable - geysers to erupt. Who knows, with all the interesting things to see she may discover she more "outdoorsy" than she (or you) thought.

We were just in Yellowstone in February and I can't wait to go back.

Have a fabulous trip.

RE: "Is it feasible to do Jackson Hole and the GTNP in one day from Roosevelt?"

What do you want to do in Jackson Hole? What do you want to do in GTNP? Rmorgan, I respectfully suggest you look at a map. I see that it is 78 miles from the south entrance of Yellowstone to Roosevelt Lodge and I'm not sure how far that entrance is from Jackson Hole, we drove it and it's not short, but I don't remember the mileage. IMHO you need a couple of days in each place to do each justice.

I did Jackson Hole-Yellowstone last year. Road travel betw the two looks deceptively easy, but it isn't ever fast, and can be very slow due to construction, tourists and wildlife (buffalo in the road held us up for an hour once). Round-trip from Roosevelt to JH/GTNP would eat up most of your day. You'd be better off staying a night or two in Old Faithful or JH itself (which is worth an overnight stay, esp with teens). I highly recommend the wildlife safari from GTNP ranger station at sundown and the bookstore/museum there. I agree you should keep calling everyday for cancellations (don't rely on website)--worked for me in Grand Canyon!

Great Thanks for your suggestions. The Safari sounds fun. Now that I"m starting to remember. The last time we were there we did spend a couple of nights in Grant Village strictly because we wanted to do the GTNP...

The light breaks...it HAS been 10 years :D

For those who want to take advantage, this weekend (July 18th and 19th) Yellowstone is offering their annual free park admission. I can't remember how much it is (lass time I went it was with a sightseeing tour company (http://www.tours4fun.com) with admission included, but I guess if you have a big family it might save you some dough.

It will be a long trip between Yellowstone and Jackson if you plan to do it all in a day. it can be done but you will spend a lot of time in the car. It always looks shorter than it is.

You may want to consider going whitewater rafting on the Snake River. The outfitters are based in Jackson and the boys would probably love it. It is a big shot of adrenaline!

I would recommend spending the night in Jackson so that you can see and do more. A place that i always go to for breakfast outside GTNP is Dornan's in Moose, WY (right outside the entrance to GTNP). You sit outside by the Snake River with great views of the Tetons and eat a very simple breakfast (eggs, pancakes, bacon, coffee, hot chocolate etc) that is cooked outside.

Enjoy your trip!

We just returned from both parks and can't wait to return. We split up our visit and are glad that we did. Although you can do the drive in one day, you will (1) only travel a maximum of 45 mph, (2) may be slowed down due to animals in the road, and (3) want to get off/on the road every few minutes for the sights along the way. We stayed for four nights at Roosevelt cabins. We had a cabin with its own bathroom. Since we love to go rv'ing, it was just like rv'ing with maid service. We loved it! Their restaurant is great and reasonable. We took the Chuckwagon ride in the pouring rain, and still had a good time. The park employees are wonderful to talk with about their experiences there and how they have come to work in the area. We took one day and drove the Beartooth Highway into Red Lodge, MN - a beautiful drive. We stayed at Signal Mtn Lodge while in GTNP, and The Best Western Lodge while in Jackson Hole. Both were very nice. Have a wonderful trip!

We have 2 roughrider cabins I love them. :)

besides the rain how was the chuckwagon dinner? Did you ride in one of the wagons or did you horseback it? How was the food?

When we get to the park we'll try to get lodging in the southern end of the park for the last few days.

We did the chuckwagon dinner. Rode the wagons and loved it but were sorry we didn't do horseback. The dinner was very, very good, steak and chuckwagon beans, other sides but I can't remember what except they had coffee in tins over an open fire and it was the strongest coffee ever!!I had wine! A fun time, you will enjoy.

We just returned from Yellowstone and did the chuckwagon dinner. The dinner was very, very good with a steak allowed for everyone - including children. There was plenty to eat. We were serenaded by a singing cowboy (he was very good). We didn't do the horseback but it looked like it might have been fun. Be sure to take bug spray!!!
While in the area, be sure to watch for bears. We saw 3 grizzlies and 3 black bears while we were there. As well as all the other animals.

you saw the bears AT the cookout? WOW. People look at me funny when I say that I really want to see a bear when we go. Not close enough to be a danger of course.

Check with the Antler inn in JH, rustic and inexpensive. They own 5 or so other hotels and can probably help. Take the tram to the top of Rendevous Mt at JH Mt Resort. Go to Moose as discussed above. Definitely spend time in Jackson especially if you can make it for the Western Style shoot out on the sqaure, mid day. Look for the Antler Gates...

The hike around Jenny lake at Grand Teton is pretty easy and only takes an hour or so..

We were on the wagons coming into the campground and I saw the bear probably a hundred yards out. Easily enough to see and once I pointed it out everyone else saw it too.

To answer: we took the wagonride out for the Chuckwagon dinner at Roosevelt Cabins. We, too, hiked to Inspiration Point and Hidden Falls (gorgeous and easy) and took the 100-person gondola up to Rendezvous Mtn in Jackson Hole. Really nice up there. The ride and the views were spectacular. There's a coupon on their website, too, for $3 off each ticket.