Yellowstone plans
 

Hi, we are a family of 3 including my 8 year old daughter. We are planning a Yellowstone trip mid July.

We plan to fly in and out of Jackson Hole.

The current lodging plan looks like this:

Day 1 - Fly into Jackson Hole late evening. Stay at Jackson Hole.
Day 2 and 3: West Yellowstone
Day 4: Cody
Day 5: Back to Jackson Hole
Day 6: Morning flight out

We have 4 full days for Yellowstone (and if recommended to combine, Teton). Its a long trip with multiple hops and so extra days look unlikely.

Lodging inside the park seems impossible to secure. Everybody recommends calling but given the time difference, that's tough. Does it make sense to spread out the nights across Jackson Hole, West Yellowstone and Cody?

I am still working on a day by day plan of which areas and potentially which walks / hikes. Any recommendations that fit a 4 day schedule would be highly appreciated. Also, hikes will have to be easy to moderate given my 8 year old...

Thanks for all your inputs.

The Tetons are beautiful. The ferry at Jenny lake was fun for our kids. They weren't so gun ho on all the hikes. We did take lunch enjoyed picnic there.

We ate lunch at Old Faithful Inn, it was nice break. Some of the springs are fun to stop and soak in nature.

We stayed many years back in Jackson Hole and it worked fine. We would have enjoyed staying in the park, cuts down on driving. There is a nightly shoot out at Jackson Hole, my kids enjoyed. Plus is there are some good places to eat.

There is/was A great pizza place close to the airport. It was a great find.

I think it will be great trip!

The advice you've had to call is valid if you want lodging in the park and the closer you get to the time of the trip, the more places open up when people find they can't make it.

While Cody is on the other side of the park from West Yellowstone, and is interesting in its own right, it is farther from the park than West Yellowstone so I would probably either spend that night in West Yellowstone or plan on a night in Grant Teton or Jackson Hole at the end of the trip to get a bit of GT.

Thank you. Plan to take my brother's help to call them for the next few weeks and see if something opens up inside the park.

Will also look at moving the night at Cody back to W Yellowstone or down to Jackson. Was never convinced moving to Cody for just one night made sense :)

The lake looks like a fun idea and Old Faithful Inn lunch was already in the plans. Thanks.

If you can't get a night at Mammoth, try for a night 4 in Gardiner.

I would recommend staying in OF or Lake area for 2 nights and Canyon or Mammoth for 2 nights - that puts you at the south entrance and at the center or north entrance so you won't spend most of your time driving. It is a huge park and you'll want to be in it for the best wildlife viewing at dawn and dusk.

Keep calling and you'll likely get the dates you want for lodging in the park. The boardwalk trails at Old Faithful and Norris are great. Also do the boardwalk at Grand Prismatic. Much of your time will be spent viewing wildlife at different sites throughout the park. Enjoy your trip!

We are going in June and had luck finding park lodging online.