Yellowstone dates - choices
 

I have three available dates to travel to Yellowstone National Park next year, from Australia. The 8th to the 27th April OR the 1st to the 17th July OR the 24th of September to the 9th of October. We want to spend most of the two weeks at Yellowstone and Tetons.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each set of dates?

It is just my wife and I. We like walking, and want to see as much of the geology as possible. If there are 1000 hot springs to see I want to visit at least 999. I would prefer no crowds but with 3 million visitors accept that we won't be alone.

The park won't start opening roads and facilities till mid April so I'd forget that time period.

Sept 24th - Oct 9th many facilities will be closing and the weather can start getting bad.

July is going to be very crowded but it doesn't take to much walking to get away from crowds. It's going to be the best of the three times to guarentee you see all of the park and have the best weather. If you can possible come the first two weeks of June, then the crowds haven't started in full force yet.

You can read more on the opening and closing dates here:

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisi...closedates.htm

Utahtea

Another good time to come would be early September. Kids are back in school and the crowds have left and the weather can be pretty decent.

Utahtea

Are those your only choices? If so, as Utahtea says - july is the only really practical period.

Can you tweak the dates at all?

I just got back from TNP & GTNP. The first week of August.

The weather was excellent and while I was a bit surprised at how many cars were in some of the parking lots, the crowds were only really big at the Old Faithful viewing platform (though very manageable slightly off hours such as 7:00-8:30 AM & PM) and the Jenny Lake hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point (probably shouldn't have done it on a Sunday).

Thanks but, the dates can't be tweaked. They are School holidays here - we have four terms.

I could wait until 2013-14 when I have more long service leave, and flexible dates. This would give more time (7-8 weeks)and more places. But having been to Hawaii last year I am leen to go to Yellowstone.

Then by all means, go in July - but do book your accommodations well in advance. July 4th is the big summer Holiday in the States - and being on a Monday, things will be pretty much full from July 1 - 10.

I thought that might be an issue as well. Hawaii on th e4th of July was great though.

You are coming to the right place; Yellowstone is absolutely crammed with geology.

So you're going to check the place out in person, eh? ;-)

I agree with the others that July is your best choice. We went in early June, and there was still a bit of Yellowstone where lodging was closed. If you like, you can read my trip report by clicking on my screen name.

Lee Ann

I know. I've been meaning to go for years but decided to do the third world type countries first while my stomach was young and fit enough, not to mention the rest of me.

Every time I see a documentary on Yellowstone, I want to go! Guess what I watched last night?

I'd consider adding in a trip to Glacier NP - especially if you like geology.

You will love Yellowstone. You can avoid the crowds on the roads and the most popular thermal features in several ways.

One is to stay in the park some of the nights so that you start from your hotel/cabin door rather than driving to reach the park. Also, go see the most popular attractions (such as Old Faithful) early in the morning or late in the evening. In July the days are long, so lots of light.

www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/
for online reservations in the park. Some lodging is already booked full for the July 4th weekend, but rooms are available in others.
To use the early up/out plan, many people split their stay in YNP into 2 or 3 shorter stays in different lodging. For example, 2-3 nights in the Old Faithful area, 2-3 nights in Lake or Canyon, and 2-3 nights in Roosevelt. Then a separate stay in the Grand Teton area. If you check out the old posts here you will see everyone has different preferences as to which locations and which types of accommodations are "best" for them. Lodging in the park is relatively expensive and not as nice as the hotels in West Yellowstone, but you have to drive in from there.
You can make reservations online now (and I think your credit card is charged a deposit), but then you can cancel without any penalty up until almost the time of arrival. Very generous policy.

Thanks Kay and Starrs. How far away is Glacier NP?

There was a fabulous documentary series on earlier this year on the history of the US National Parks. I aim to visit as many as I can over the next few years.

Do as much as you can early and then later in the day. Wildlife is better at those times anyway. I had Old Faithful to myself one morning at 6:00am(well there was one other person there). We watched Castle Geyser go late in the evening and there were just a couple of other families there. If you catch OF in the middle of the day expect several hundred people. I would spend as much time viewing the geysers near OF. There are other geyser basins, but I found them to not be as good(do visit them though). Mammoth area wasn't much at all IMOP. If you go in July, the waterfalls will be going better than Sept. Canyon and Tower area is pretty neat and has some really nice waterfalls.

With two weeks. I would spend about 2/3 days in Tetons, 5/6 in Yellowstone and 5/6 in Glacier. We are going to be at Glacier July 14 next year, btw. I haven't been there yet, but looking forward to it.

If you decide against Glacier, a lot of people add Mount Rushmore to a yellowstone visit. You might consider 3/4 days there as well.

Book all lodging ASAP!!

If you search on this board, you will find trip reports from folks who have combined trips to the parks. There are a couple of driving routes depending on whether you depart/arrive at the parks on their west or east sides and where you measure start/stop from. I would say 6-7 hours drive from YNP to Glacier.

If you do decide to visit all 3, then it makes sense to go from north to south (Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons) or south to north because the distances are so great. An open jaw ticket with rental car drop off saves a lot of time. There are relatively small airports near each park. Kalispell near Glacier, Bozeman, Cody, West Yellowstone and others near YNP, and Jackson near Grand Tetons.
Some people save money on the airfare by flying into the large airport at Salt Lake City, but that is another 5 hour drive south of Grand Tetons.
Some people access Glacier from the north, flying into Calgary, Canada, and driving down through Waterton Lakes Park before Glacier. This is another 4-5 hour drive from a major airport. However, it can be difficult to do an international drop off of a rental car.

If you do add Glacier to your itinerary, I would try to start there because it would probably be less crowded over July 4th weekend than Yellowstone.

We did all three earlier this summer. Our route was kind of crazy in the middle section (someone else planned it) but it was a great trip. We flew into Jackson, WY and started with Grand Teton NP. We ended up with Glacier NP and flew out of Kalispell MT. I really liked that combination.

If you go south to north, I'd do 2 or 3 nights in Jackson, 2 to 3 nights in Yellowstone area, take the Beartooth Highway and stay in Red Lodge MT. We really enjoyed about 3 days of doing almost nothing (after all that driving) in the Big Timber area of MT and then on up to Glacier NP for 2-3 days.

There's a lot of pretty places we didn't see in MT and I'd also be sure to spend the night in Great Falls. We rushed through the 3 things I wanted to see in Great Falls.

I'd go back and do the whole trip all over again tomorrow if I could. I WILL be going back next summer :-)

They say that you lose 85% of the people within 50 yards of the car. May not be totally correct but somewhat.

The only place we found the crowd annoying was the Jenny Lake hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. We could have formed a human chain. I guess it would have been wise not to do this on a Sunday.

While it's also true that Old Faithful gets the largest crowds, they were really manageable. The biggest crowds on the viewing platform are between 9AM and 5PM.

I watched eruptions at 7AM with a dozen other people and 8:30AM from Observation Pt with 5 others.

Early the sun is coming up from behind you when standing in the middle of the platform. As the day goes on you're better of moving to the left and then by mid-afternoon walk thru Geyser Hill and be one of a very few people sitting on a bench at Plume Geyser watching OF erupt from the opposite side.

One of the fullest parking lots is Tower Fall and that's also one of the biggest disappointments. Now that the trail to the bottom of the falls is permanently closed the high angle and amount of the falls hidden by trees make this waterfall a waste of time. Many others better.

There's a very little seen waterfall at the Brink of the Upper Falls (don't bother with the Brink) called Crystal Falls. Nobody knows about it and some maps don't even show it. You'll be all alone in a very peaceful setting. Not even an observation deck or anything.

So crowds shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure you have inpark lodging as most wildlife are out just after sunrise and just before sunset.

Thanks People. You have given me lots to work with. I think at this stage I will leave the Northern States for a year or so until I get long service leave and can take more time during your summer. I still have two trips this year to finalise.

We want to use our timeshare weeks and from what you have said the chances of any timeshare being available in July next year are nil.


I am now leaning towards the South West States and their National Parks over Christmas next year when I will have 6 weeks holidays. So keep and eye out for me again, once I have done some more research.

The miss match between our long holidays and your winter doesn't help with travel.

I knew deep down that with two weeks and little flexibility I would be doomed.

Thanks again for all your help.

Don't know which Southwest Parks you are refering to, but most of them don't have the greatest weather at that time either. I would definately go to Yellowstone in July vs. going to Utah Parks at Christmas. They would be pretty, but likely to have a lot of snow and trails would be closed.

I don't do timeshares, so I am not familiar with their availability in the Yellowstone/Grand Tetons area--maybe in West Yellowstone or Jackson? So, I'm not sure if YNP will work with timeshares even if not July 4.

As sprio says, the Utah parks and Grand Canyon are at high altitude, get snow, and many facilities close in the winter.

I doubt you're going to have much luck with timeshare in the areas you are mentioning. Maybe Sedona?

I will show my ignorance of your weather and geography. I was thinking of Yosemite, Death Valley; Monument Valley; Grand Canyon; Sequoia. Not necessarily all of them.

Will their altitude be my down fall weather wise?

OK! Where can/should I go? I want National Parks/ Nature. We are not really into cities but will spend a day or so in them on the way to or from the Parks.

We don't mind cold and a bit wet. We did Iceland, Norway and Finland in Autumn and got snowed on in all three. Granted it was only a couple of inches. But we happily coped in that kind of weather. Eight degrees Celsius was the warmest it got for us in Finland.

We have absolutely no real concept of northern winters nor do we have the clothes that would even come close to keeping us warm. But would like to experience it.

The keeper of the purse strings and manager of all things pertaining to domestic harmony (aka She who must be obeyed) has reliably informed me that:- having driven 5000 miles to see a big red rock in a big red desert in July and soon to be flying across the country to see rocks in farmland (Wave Rock) followed by rocks in forests and mountains of Tasmania (Cradle Mountain) at Christmas, that perhaps next year might not be so hectic and that one long trip to the USA is more economical that two short ones. Perhaps a trip to where there is chocolate, coffee and cider might be better? Not that she doesn't like rocks. Its just that I love them.

I informed her that neither of us are getting any younger. Her glacial stare intimated that said domestic harmony is not as constant and unchanging as one might think.

I'm sure the USA makes fine chocolate and coffee and the best is found in or near National Parks. She however, remains unconvinced.

So, July looks out of the question, unless I can find a chocolatier that delivers by the ton.

Christmas is another question.

There are two lines to get into heaven. One for hen pecked husbands and one for those not hen pecked. My wife says I will need to join the non hen pecked line.

PS How long have you been standing behind me, Dear?

To answer your questions about Christmas time and Yosemite, Death Valley; Monument Valley; Grand Canyon; Sequoia.

This is the travel time to Death Valley and it will most likely be croweded. Yosemite is beautiful in the winter but you won't be able to go over Tioga Pass because of snow. The waterfalls should be going, but not like in the spring. There will most likely be snow in the Valley and might limit your hiking. Half dome hike will be closed.

Grand Canyon is open but the roads can close for snow. It's going to be cold, the south rim is at 7,000 feet. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon will be closed. Zion is at 4,000 feet and they might have a little snow in the valley but it usually doesn't stick around long. Bryce will have snow, but it's beautiful then. You can rent snow shoes at the lodges.

Haven't been to Monument Valley or Sequoia during the winters. I do know that the Kings Canyon part of Sequoia will be closed for winter.

Utahtea

So we are looking for a US destination for December 2011 for several weeks that combines geology, chocolate, coffee, and cider?
Perhaps some winter weather/snow, but not severe?

You could combine San Francisco for cold/wet/no snow but coffee etc. with Yosemite Valley. As Utahtea says, the valley is open, but the pass closed. The roads to/from the park close with the snow and chains on tires may be required. Same for Lake Tahoe. Also a lovely spot in the winter. However, your plans have to remain flexible for possible snow and road closures.

Sequoia/Kings Canyon can get a lot of snow as well, so it just depends on how early the snows start that winter. I have lovely photos of the sequoia trees from an April trip a few years ago during which I was walking on 3-4 ft of packed snow and the road through the park was still closed.

If the snows came early you could head north from SFO to the Redwoods National Park--interesting trees rather than geology. It would be cool and wet that time of year, but not cold/snow.

I agree that the Utah parks and Grand Canyon can be pretty with snow on the red rocks. Again, you just have to be flexible and be ready to stay longer in one place than planned if bad weather comes in. One year we drove from Las Vegas (which is an interesting site to see even for us non-city folks) to Zion, but did not proceed on to Bryce because of snow and icy conditions on the road that day. We didn't have enough days to be flexible, so missed it on that trip. Another time when weather was not so good at Grand Canyon, we went down to Sedona (another lovely place).

You might want to start a new post asking about Winter travel to SW National Parks + chocolate to get some experiences from that season.

Thanks for all you wonderful advice. It makes for a good start.

I will start a new post when I have done some more research and have specific questions.

We are always flexible, as that is part of the fun of travel. We very rarely have a fixed intinerary. Generally, a few places we want to see and then fill in the gaps as we go. Las Vegas is one the cities I would like to see. How long I would stay there is another matter. Likewise for Los Angeles and San Francisco.

So simply, there is lots to see and do, weather pending as always. So we will havea great time.

Thanks again.


PS My wife really is lovely and had a good chuckle at my last post. She doesn't mind where she goes as long as it is with me(ohhh). She can bring her own chocolate if need be.

IF you go to Yellowstone, go to Cody and this tiny town outside of Cody.

Your wife will be very happy -

http://www.meeteetsechocolatier.com/

In the winter, I always think of Death Valley or the Everglades as the two best options for National Parks. Secondary choices are Big Bend, Saguaro, and Joshua Tree. Perhaps even Channel Islands. Yosemite and Grand Canyon would be great, but you are limiting the experience somewhat. My only trip to Sequoia was in the snow and it was great, but I think it would have been better in the summer. The problem with most National Parks is that most of them are best visited June thru Sept. A lot of them are partially closed the rest of the year.

Believe it or not, this is Fair Dinkum.
I emailed my wife the above website. When she returned from work I asked her what she thought. She loved the chocolates. I asked her about the man holding the chocolates. "What about him?" she said. She only barely registered that it was a man not a woman holding the chocolate.

I replied that I think the general idea of the site was to drool over both the man and chocolates. "Why would I look at a man when there are chocolates to be had?" was her reply. She did not notice the photo of him with the saddle either. No Chocolate in that one!

The list of parks is impressive. I had forgotten about the Saguaro and other parks. I've had a very quick glance at the NPS Website. I think I will be well pleased with what I see.

I plan to do several trips to the States over the next decade or so. So what I don't get to see the first time I can see later.

Thanks again and look for us next Christmas.

Well, peter, the chocolates are worth drooling over, and we never saw the cowboy chocolatier. He was out on the ranch :-)

Enjoy your trip but if you are still going to use time-shares as your lodging you are going to have interesting routing. I think you're going to need to bite the bullet and pay for hotel rooms in the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area. And, if you stay in the parks, it'll be worth it.

Ok, for what it's worth -

The past two falls we have stayed a week at the Worldmark timeshare in West Yellowstone, right at the park entrance. Last year we stayed in mid-late September, the year before it was early-mid October (think we checked in around 10/6). We loved it, although there was an odd heat wave last year and it was much hotter than we had hoped.

Yes, things start to close then. Yes, you can run into the beginning of winter weather - although I believe you are more likely to see the beautiful fall color. The crowds are gone, the elk are beginning the rut, and if you have fall weather/color, it is gorgeous.

We were able to get a timeshare week then due to it being shoulder season. In July, it's always been much too high demand. April is too early, believe that entrance is still closed and it's still winter. We have a friend who lives in West Yellowstone and she sends pictures every now and then of the winters (say, November through April) -- brrrrr.

Thanks for your advice.

In the past we have used a mix of Timeshare and other lodgings. We stayed a week in time share then moved around for week or so, then time share, depending on what was available. We are not locked into using timeshare, but use it if it is convenient.

We do the same thing, typically combining a one-week timeshare with a couple of nights here and there into a 2-week vacation. That way we have one place to "settle" for a week but can still do a scenic driving loop.

Go EAST young man, GO EAST!
Don't neglect the other half of the country. ;)

Come to PA in the autumn, along with plenty of sites there's a whole town of chocolate (ok, it's only Hersheys, but its still a town of chocolate...), and some of the best apple cider anywhere!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Pennsylvania

http://www.manta.com/mb_44_C2042_39/...s/pennsylvania

We Will. We Will. Our goal is to do all fifty states before we die. So far we have done ONE - Hawaii. So 49 to go. We have at least another 30-40 years of travel left in us.

Thanks for the heads up about Pennsylvania.

If you go to PA, go see Fallingwater -
http://www.fallingwater.org/

Of geological and aesthetic interest, to tuck away for future:

in NM: Bandelier Natl Park for interesting cliff dwellings. Hot Springs all over northern NM, some with nude hippies in them. Chaco Canyon.

AZ: Besides the Grand one, Canyon de Chelly.

MO has loess hills, loads of karst topography with sinkholes and caves, and what they claim is the world's largest spring, Big Spring in the Ozarks. The Ozarks are very old mountains, worn down limestone with a few igneous intrusions.

I just drove my daughter from Jackson Hole WY to Tacoma WA, and could hardly believe the changes in topography in that 14 hr drive. Come check it out.

Stop making me drool.

Well, some of the hippies are old, too.