wbmike

In July of 2006, my wife, 9 year-old grandson and I will be spending a week in Yellowstone. This is our first visit and would appreciate an itinerary for a day-by-day tour showing time guidlines. Our plan is to fly to Billings, MT and drive to Cody, WY and spend the night. We then plan to drive to the east entrance of the park and do the "Grand Loop" in a counterclockwise direction with plans of ending in Grant Village to then head to Grand Teton. Again, we have no idea of how to pace ourselves. Moreover, we would like tips on what hotels to stay in and where to eat along the way. Thanks for any help provided.

brookwood

Why such detailed approach? I have been to Yellowstone 7 or 8 times and never had a detailed itinerary. I schedule my comings and goings to the predicted eruption times of the big geysers the first two days and fit in the other places as I can. I do carve out time for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the falls. Other than that, I see my primary objectives well and let the other stuff fall into place as time permits.

I don't recommend any of the accomodations in the park except for some of the Western Cabins at various locations, such as Canyon Village.

Old Faithful Inn has some nice rooms for around $200 a night.
If price is no obstacle, then get one of the higher priced rooms at Old Faithful or the Lake Hotel.

Dayle

Hi W,

OK, if the start of your trip is Cody, be sure to take at least a little time to see the Buffalo Bill Cody museum. It's one of the world's great museums and you can spend as long as your interest allows. Then head into Yellowstone.

Maybe spend 2 nights at Canyon and 2 nights at Old Faithful area. You will be driving significant distances to see the sights no matter where you stay.

From Old Faithful, go to Grand Teton for 2 nights. Several lodging choices, Coulter Bay, Signal Mtn, Jackson Lake Lodge or the town of Jackson.

Where are you flying out from?

I second the suggestion to plan your time in the geyser basins around predicted eruptions. Absolutely amazing, although some patience is required for a 9 year old!

Hope this rough outline helps.

Do be sure to get up early to see wildlife - especially the wolves in Hayden Valley (Yellowstone). Moose can usually be seen along the dirt road that runs from Teton Village to Moose Junction in GTNP - early evenings. Also good moose viewing around Jackson Lake Lodge and Coulter Bay ponds. The short, easy hike out to Swan Lake at Coulter is one of my favorites. There really are wild swans nesting there.

keysmom

You need to book some room reservations now but the rest can wait until closer to time. We just returned from Yellowstone and spent all our nights at the Canyon cabins. They were fine. We stayed in a cabin at Jackson Lake Lodge. Nicer than Yellowstone. I don't see the need to move several times during the trip. However, if you are also leaving from the north entrance then maybe you would want to do a couple days in Yellowstone, a couple in Grand Teton and then back to Yellowstone and back to the airport. I have a trip report on the board - click my name for info on what we did.

wtm003

I think Dayle's suggestion of 2 nights at Canyon and 2 nights in the Old Faithful area is a good one. I liked the Canyon Lodge (make sure you ask for the newer buildings), the Old Faithful Inn (east or west wings) and the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Although, I haven't stayed in any of the cabins, I wasn't impressed by their looks. Make reservations as soon as you know your dates. I used travelyellowstone.com to decide on my room choices and make reservations. I like the cottages at Jackson Lake Lodge in GTNP. The view from the main lodge is stunning. I haven't stayed at Signal Mountain Lodge, but I might for my next trip.

Food is mediocre in both parks. I really enjoy bringing a big cooler and camp stove for picnics for at least half of my meals.

hilda

Your trip sounds wonderful, Billings to Cody is a nice drive, Cody is very interesting and then a gorgeous drive to Yellowstone. I agree 4 nights in Yellowstone. I would do 3-4 nights in the Tetons at the Jackson Lake lodge or Jackson Lake cabins. You should do a rafting trip out of Jackson, it is an hour bus ride from the meeting point, then a couple hours on the river. VIsit Jenny Lake, take the hike to Inspiration Point. If you want to splurge, look into a dinner at Jenny Lake Lodge. If you can do multicity consider flying home from Jackson Wyoming. As far as eateries, when you are in Yellowstone you will take your meals at whatever lodge area you stay in. The food is decent and reasonably priced, not fancy. At Jackson Lake Lodge, go to the Mural Room for a wonderul dinner with a view. They also have a casual restaurant that is OK. There are many nice restaurants in the town of Jackson. Take your grandson to the nightly shootout downtown Jackson on the square, then have dinner. There is also a show oriented barbecue restaurant, I think it is called Bar J. Its a great trip and will be even better with a grandchild. In Cody there are chain motels and a couple of historical hotels downtown. Go to a bookstore and buy the Fodors or Frommers guide to Montana/Wyoming. read and it and follow these boards for more info.

dtrout

We stayed at the Irma Hotel in downtown Cody. Fun place for a night, VERY old with a lot of character and named for Cody's daughter. Ask for a room that faces the main street.

frchteaze

It's so wild for me to see how everyone responds with such different ideas of a great Yellowstone vacation. The best thing you can do is get some good travel guides and read up about the area online and decide what your interests are.

When I went to Yellowstone about 4 years ago, we stayed in the cabins at Yellowstone Lake (not the hotel). Although the cabins weren't spectacular by any means, they were clean and the bed was good. The location was perfect, and the price was only $55 a night. We woke up to an animals in the field every morning and tracks in front of the door. Very rustic! The food at the lodge was also the best budget food we had while we were there.

Getting up very early every morning and driving around to see animals was more fun than I ever would have thought. We broke the park up into areas and did a different area each day. This worked out really well since we didn't spend a lot of our time driving around. I also worked it out so that we had some organized activity in each area, such as horseback riding at the Canyon and the wagon trail steak dinner in a different area.

As far as time goes, it will take a long time to drive the roads. When the guidebook says 45 minutes for 15 miles, believe them.

hilda

It was the Hotel Irma I was thinking about in Cody. I forgot to mention take your grandson to the Cody rodeo. Supposed to be great.

keysmom

I thought the Old Faithful area was too crowded - I would not want to stay there. (But of course, you'll want to visit and perhaps have dinner in the dining room). Plus, it was only about a 45 min drive back to Canyon. If I were to pick two places to stay, I would make one of them Mammouth. You'll want to do the cookout dinner at Roosevelt and the valley has lots of animals.
If you plan to go in the rivers, take shoes that can get wet - - these rivers are rocky.
A note about the Jackson rafting. There are two types of trips. The first is a float trip down the Snake River. You can take cameras on this trip as you don't get wet -- you just take in the view. You can take this trip from Jackson Lake Lodge and other locations in the park. The other trip is a "u-paddle" white water trip. You will get wet! THere is some floating between rapids. It's not really taxing but you do need to be able to paddle. (or at least, most people in the boat need to be able to. Our 9 yo daughter didn't paddle. She sat in the very front of the boat and got soaked!) OUr family loved both trips.

bigtyke

we stayed at the Old Faithful LODGE cabins and thought they were great. Very good value. After the daytime crowds leave, you almost have Old Faithful to yourself.

Jayne1973

There is certainly no ONE way to do Yellowstone, and you can't see it all in one trip anyway, so just choose what interests you and take the time to enjoy it.

I loved staying at Old Faithful Inn, and the rooms were only about $70 per night in the original part of the inn. There were two double beds and a sink in the room and the bathroom was down the hall. I made reservations about six months in advance, and the reservationist was very helpful when it came to choosing a room. It was very pleasant.

The Inn is absolutely beautiful and so historic, plus you can sit on the balcony and watch Old Faithful erupt. There's a great geyser trail right outside your front door, too.

Your grandson would love the chuckwagon dinner at Roosevelt... make reservations for it as soon as you can because it books up fast.

Have a wonderful trip--Yellowstone is awesome!

Tripletdad

We just returned from a week-long trip to Jackson and YNP. For YNP I highly recommend the lodging and learning program put on by the Yellowstone Association. Ours was called the Yellowstone for Families program and was geared to 8-12 year-olds. It ran from Monday evening to Friday at noon at which time the kids get their junior ranger badges. The program is led by a very knowledgeable guide from the Yellowstone Institute who does all the driving and was a wealth of knowledge about the park's origin, history, flora, fauna, etc., and was also very patient with the kids. The hikes were not too strenuous and well off the beaten path. We saw every animal imaginable. The looks on our kids faces when we saw moose, bear, wolves, osprey, etc., was priceless. The groups are small; ours had three families with 5 kids combined including a grandfather and his grandson. Let me know if you have any questions. The link is http://yellowstoneassociation.org/in...il.aspx?cid=64.

lyntom

We (husband of 65, wife, almost 12-year-old son) returned last week from a three-week trip that included four nights in Yellowstone. We stayed one night at Mammoth, one at the Cascade Lodge in Canyon Village and two nights at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. We really liked and enjoyed all our accomodations. The room at Mammoth was very spartan but was very clean. The hotel lobby is so nice and inviting; many families sat in front of the fireplace reading and playing games.

The room at the Cascade Lodge in Canyon Village was very nice. I would not stay in the cabins; They may have been clean on the inside, but they look so bad, I wouldn't go in to look (camping, to me, is the Holiday Inn).
Same with the cabins at Roosevelt Lodge, although we met people on the cookout who were staying in the Roosevelt cabins and weren't complaining. I would definitely take your grandson on the Old West Cookout from Roosevelt Lodge. Even though the wind blew and it rained and hailed, we had a super time. It was lots of fun, and I think your grandson really would enjoy it.

The room at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge was very nice--hot, but nice. It is the only room we stayed in in the park that had a phone--at least, I don't think there was one at Mammoth. The lodge is very pretty and really nice. We ate both nights in the Obsidian Dining Room and the food was delicious. I had the prime rib (delicious and perfectly cooked), my husband had chicken coriander one night and we can't remember the 2nd night. My son eats only pizza and chicken nuggets so he ate in the fast food restaurant (he says the chicken tenders there are great). The prime rib at $19.50 is a good value, I think, when you consider the cost of a hamburger w/fries is $13.50.

A wonderful trip is to walk the Lonestar Geyser Trail to see Lonestar Geyser. It is 2.4 miles one way but is flat and very easy to walk. The trail follows the Firehole River and is shaded. The geyser erupts every three hours and is well worth the walk and our wait of 2 hours. Be sure to take a book or deck of cards to make the wait easier. Also TAKE BUG REPELLENT as the mosquitos are awful. The geyser acutally is in an open area and you can continue hiking while waiting. We would have left but two others convinced us it was worth the wait and it definitely was.

Another fun side thing to do is to (on the road to West Yellowstone) park and walk down to the Firehole River to swim. This is off to the left on Firehole Canyon Dr. (going towards West Yellowstone) and is a one-way road. It is almost impossible to find a spot to part--but maybe that is because we were there mid-afternoon. My son really enjoyed "swimming" down the little rapids.

We stayed at the Signal Mt. Lodge in the Grand Tetons for one night and did the boat ride across Jenny Lake and the hike to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point and on to Cascade Canyon. Beautiful and would definitely recommend, especially going on to Cascade Canyon.

The lodge is nice and has a living room, kitchenett, bath and bedroom. We were in the rooms that overlook the lake. Drive down Oxbow Bend near dusk and you will see lots of Moose--take binoculars.

In Jackson, we stayed at the Ranch Inn which was a huge, clean room. The people were super friendly and helpful. The location is great as you can park your car and walk to everything. We went whitewater rafting through Mad River Adventures and had a wonderful time. The guide (Aaron) was nice, fun, and very concerned with safety. We did the 8-man rafts and the ride was not scary at all. It provided just the right amount of thrills.

For more details (if you can stand it) I have posted two installments of my trip report on this board). If you have any questions, I'll try to help.

Lynda