Yellowstone Final Lodging Help
 

I am in the final stages of my Yellowstone planning & am looking at the following since it is the only thing I could get for availability. FYI - we're moving to a ranch outside of the park after these 2 nights...

Drive from SLC & stay 1st night at Lake Yellowstone Hotel in Front Side Room for 1 night THEN switch to Canyon Village in Frontier Cabin for 2nd night

There's nothing available at the same place for both nights.

The 1st night also has the Roosevelt cabins with no baths available for 1st night - which would you choose & why?

The 2nd night also has Mammoth no-bath rooms available AND Dunraven @ Canyon available. Which would you choose & why?

THANKS!

We live in Utah and travel to the Yellowstone area every 2-3 years. We have stayed inside the park before, but a better choice is to stay outside the park in West Yellowstone, and do Yellowstone as some daytrips; do a different loop each day. Staying inside Yellowstone is very expensive for the type of accomodations and service you get. I don't know too many people that have been real happy with their lodging, with the exception of staying at the historic Old Faithful Inn. Alot of the hotels in the park are dated, but yet pricey. We stay for 3 nights in West Yellowstone, doing daytrips into the Park. Then drive down through the park and stay just outside the park on the south side in the Grand Teton National Park. The accomodations are nice down their and the views are beautiful. We have stayed at the Grand Teton Lodge and also the Signal Mountain Lodge in Cabins. Good luck on deciding. Also, note that it will be hard to sightsee and get checked into new lodging (long lines, etc). In my opinion, will waste precious time on vacation.

I would not want to stay at Mammoth - period. The Roosevelt cabins with no bath are no better.
If you can get a front side room, I think you will be fairly comfortable.

A Frontier Cabins not the best cabin, but it is also not the worst.
I had rather be there than at Mammoth.

I prefer to drive the extra bit and stay in a motel in West Yellowstone.
Yes, it takes longer on the road. But I sure as heck enjoy my night's sleep better.

Thanks for your suggestions so far. I will say that I doubt we will be in our rooms that often these 2 nights, so I am thinking we'd prefer to be in the park. Now, I just need to figure out the best of the "worst". My night at Lake Yellowstone is costing me $200 bucks which I am hating especially since we probably wont be arriving til early evening. Hmmm. What to do. We're trying to squeeze this trip in before a conference. Maybe the best thing is to can the whole idea & plan when we have more flexibility.

sclubb
If I had the chance to visit Yellowstone for a few days before a conference I would grab it and take the lodging available as long as it had a bath. However, I would also call daily for cancellations. That is the way we got Old Faithful Inn and loved it. The Snow Lodge is right beside it and also a good place to stay.

We're planning a trip this summer, too and I agree that staying in the park is best. While accomodations may be a little nicer outside, for those of us that may visit only once or twice in a lifetime, the extra driving time is precious! We're not finding exactly what we want at this time, either, but the posters who tell you to keep trying are correct! I've been checking on-line every few days an have seen rooms evaporate while others (including Old Faithful Inn and Snow Lodge) become available. As your vacation time draws closer, you'l see even more cancellations. Book what you can now and cancel/change later. Good luck to us both!

One more thing...I'd like to hear what others think about the Dunraven (and Cascade) Lodge in the Canyon, as well. We're currently faced with cabins or the Lodges in the Canyon area and have read some scary things about the so-called cabins, but the Dunraven has had pretty good reviews. We'd prefer a cabin-like room, but it sounds as though the "cabin" choices in YP are not "cabins" at all.

Definitely take the Dunraven Lodge rooms! It's one of the newest facilities in the park and all rooms have private baths.

We have stayed at the Dunraven and the rooms are fairly large with baths. I think it's only 3-4 years old.

Last summer we stayed in a newer lodge in the Canyon area. I can't remember if it was Dunraven or Cascade, but it was clean, fairly large and comfortable.

I was relieved that I did not book a so-called "cabin" in the Canyon area. I did not see the inside of any of these structures, but from the outside they looked like flimsy card board boxes that could blow away in a strong wind. I would rather sleep in a tent.

As far as the location, I think Canyon is great. We were in the park for only two days but we were able to see the highlights of the park due to the central location of our base.

If I couldn't get a room at the Old Faithful Inn or the Snow Lodge (my top choices for next time) I would book at Canyon again.

Thanks for the thoughts & confirming my thoughts of staying in the park. Here are a few more questions (and I will definitely check the availability each day to see about cancellations) -

for those of you who prefer in-park

1 - would you still opt to stay at 2 different places in the park if thats the best you could get (only have 2 nights)
2 - is the canyon area really crowded mid-June? we want to be in a central location, but also don't want tour buses & crowds everywhere we turn.

i am going to keep my fingers crossed for the Snow Lodge; I think Old Faithful doesn't open until after our dates. thanks!

I don't think there is anything wrong with switching both nights. I loved the lobby of the lake lodge. After you get there, you can relax, look out at the lake while a string quartet plays in the background and someone brings you a drink (At least that was what it was like when we were there).

Canyon is also a nice area, but more crowded. but then you won't have to backtrack to the lake region while touring.
(BTW - we were able to stay at many places in Yellowstone even though they were booked up with last minute cancellations)

sclubb
You can check for cancellations on-line, which I did, but I picked up our room cancellations by calling. Have fun!

You can want to "be in the park" all you want, but if the temperature is 90 and the room is even hotter, small, cramped and miserable, I have a feeling your zeal for being in the park will fade rather quickly.

I stayed at Old Faithful Inn under those conditions once and left as soon as I could. The room was awful and being in the park did not help me one whit.

We walked the geyser basin until nearly midnight just to give the room a chance to cool off. It didn't even toward morning.

Besides, being in a tiny, miserable room does not help me enjoy anything!!

Thanks for all the advice. The average high when we are going is 61 and lows in the 30s so I am not too concerned with the heat, and to be honest really don't expect to be in the room all that much anyway - especially since we're most likely taking my father in law in the same room with us! Assuming the trip works out, we are definitely now set on staying in the park. Maybe if I were staying for a much longer visit, I'd feel differently.