peterSale

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.

utahtea

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

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

janisj

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

Can you tweak the dates at all?

Myer

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).

peterSale

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.

janisj

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.

peterSale

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

stokebailey

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

ElendilPickle

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

peterSale

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?

starrs

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

Kay2

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.

peterSale

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.

spirobulldog

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!!

Kay2

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.

starrs

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

Myer

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.

peterSale

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.

spirobulldog

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.