We traded for a time share in Island Park, Idaho about 20 miles from the west Yellowstone entrance. We are there June 15-22. We have a 12 and 14 year old. We are looking for advice on where to fly into coming from Dallas. Also rafting companies, and any other activity recs. kids are great in the car. We want to get to the Tetons as well. Thanks!

The only non-stop from DFW to that area is the AA flight to Jackson Hole. It is a late day flight and then you would have about a 2.5 hour drive to island park. That might not be a problem because it will stay light until after 9:00 p.m at that time of year. Alternatives would be Delta via Salt Lake or Frontier via Denver. Unfortunately, the return AA flight leaves at 8:30 a.m. which would require either a very early start from Island Park or a night in Jackson to make the flight.

So far as I can tell, the alternative airports, e.g. Idaho Falls, Spokane and Billings are further from Island Park. But, you might want to post this on the air travel forum because the people who post there are very knowledgeable about feeder airports and smaller airlines.

Thanks! Any other advice would be great too.

Yesterday, I was planning on booking our flights for September 2013, and when I looked, they weren't there! There is USUALLY one flight per day in/out of JAC. Don't know if they cancelled them, or the flights are on "hiatus." I haven't talked to an agent yet since I have time.

If you fly into Billings, you could drive Beartooth HWY. It should be open by then, but may not be during a heavy snow year or late snow season. The Beartooth is good enough to even keep a 12 year old entertained. Possibly the single best drive in America. Certainly in the Top Ten.

I would spend a full day just around the Old Faithful area geyser basin. We enjoyed Castle Geyser and Riverside Geyser far better than Old Faithful. There are other geysers there too that you can see that they predict the eruption times. Most of them are unpredictable though. Old Faithful is the easiest to catch, but the other predictable ones might require an hour or two wait(well worth the wait though).

Plan on spending the better part of a day around Canyon area.
Plan on spending some time in Hayden and Lamar Valleys looking for wildlife.

Perhaps consider a horseback ride and historic Yellow Bus Tour

We liked the Tetons. We did a rafting tour of the Snake River and we didn't think it was that great. I would see Mammoth area of GC, but it was our least favorite

Yellowstone and Tetons are great and you will love them, far better Disney(even though your name suggests you love it).

If you go hiking at all I would buy bear spray, just to be on the safe side.

Yellowstone is hard to plan as you will stop several times throughout the day to view wildlife.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsWgw
pictures above from our trip Jun 15-19 2009

Disneymom,

Yellowstone is a huge park and takes a lot of driving time to see. You will need to get some VERY early starts from Island Park as your timeshare location there will add over 30 minutes of driving time just to get to the W. Yellowstone entrance of the park.

Be sure to have a cooler in the car with lunches, snacks and drinks. Places to eat in the park are few and far between and you don't want to take extra time for that. Plus, most of the food is pretty bad.

Nobody has yet mentioned that during the summer months Delta Airlines flies to and from West Yellowstone from Salt Lake City. Starting in 2011 they scheduled two flights a day in each direction, but I'm not sure what the 2013 schedule will be. It is very convenient to Island Park and a delightful flight.

janetchapple...what is the name of the city (west Yellowstone) Delta flies into in Summer?

The only cities I knew of were Jackson Hole, WY(south near Tetons) Cody, WY (East Yellowstone Entrance).

Then further North would be Billings MT, and Northwest Bozeman MT.

That is the name--- West Yellowstone. Yes, there are flights there in summer only(at least in previous years they have). Could be more expensive, but certainly might not be. It may very well be Delta, but it is most likely Skywest, which flies under both United and Delta(i'm not sure).

It takes 4.5 hours to drive from SLC airport to Island Park Idaho (300 miles). SLC is open every day of the year and has more than twice the air traffic as the small airports.
I'm guessing the flights to SLC and the rental cars at SLC will be cheaper. The trade off is the distance and some gas money.

Thanks Janetchapple & Spirodog.

All the years traveling to my Dad's in Cody, WY(checking/caring elderly parent multi times a year) I did not know there was a Delta flight into West Yellowstone.

This at least would give me another flight route in summer.

You all rock with great tips! I am assuming SLC is Salt Lake City? Any advice on rafting. Before kids we did rivers That were 4-5s and we know how to paddle. Kids have done a bit, but are 12 and 14 so not sure in June if the water is really running. thanks so much for the help!

June should be when it is running the most(I would think). Snake River isn't whitewater as it goes thru Tetons, but I'm pretty sure it is after. I think there are companies also near/in Gardiner that do rafting.

June is odd on the Snake downstream from Jackson---plenty of rapids, but so much water that some of them disappear. I would recommend Barker Ewing white water trip--its a blast!

Island Park is a nice place to vacation. Horseback riding nearby and floating the river there. The drive up from SLC isn't bad (to me) It takes us 5-6 hours from SLC to West Yellowstone. We also stop at the Museum of EAstern Idaho in Idaho Falls, they get some really cool traveling exhibits and it breaks up the drive.

Big thanks to everyone! We are excited to share with the kids. We looked at driving from Dallas, but don't have the time. Not sure where we will fly into yet, the schedules aren't out for Jackson Hole yet. Any other advice is greatly appreciated!

What do you mean the schedules aren't out yet for JH? I'm not following, for some reason.

Re: Schedules -- I do know that i attempted to schedule flights from DFW to JAC for Sept. 2013 and they no longer show anything FROM DFW to JAC, but show the one flight FROM JAC to DFW.

Hopefully early next year, they'll start flying again from DFW.

AA typically only has one flight per day.

They do, and they used to have one FROM dfw to jac, now they don't. Hopefully they'll bring it back.

Yeah, But back to my original thought. If it is for this June, then the schedule is out there.