We are planning a trip to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole in July.
At this point the plan is to fly to Jackson, and drive direct to Cody for two nights.
We would drive the Beartooth highway on the second day and stop in Red Lodge.
Days 3, 4, and 5 would be for Yellowstone, with days 6 and 7 in Jackson.
Would appreciate suggestions on where to stay outside of Yellowstone, since inside the park locations are sold out.
Also is there anywhere in Jackson that is nice at a reasonable price?

West Yellowstone has chain hotels and is 45 minutes to an hour from Old Faithful
Jackson is pricey, but there are some motels. Do a search or get a AAA book for the names, they may be booked. Try to secure lodging asap, you may need to plan your route around lodging availability

PS, call the national parks people on a daily basis for cancellations. They do happen

Other places that you could stay are Gardiner and Cooke City. The latter is less of a tourist haven than Jackson or West Yellowstone.

http://www.cookecity.com/SodaButtenetcam.htm

I second Hilda's suggestion to call daily. There are cancellations, they just go fast. I called daily and ended up with what I wanted.

I second West Yellowstone for location, location, location. It's one of the fastest entrances to many of the geyser areas of Yellowstone.

Utahtea

Thank you all for your suggestions.
I will keep calling the park reservations.
We saw some nice comments about a place in Gardiner called Absoroka that sounded pretty good.
We are thinking if we skip Cody we could take a day trip to Red Lodge over the Beartooth Highway, and use Gardiner for a home base to visit most of Yellowstone.
Utahtea, it's nice to hear from you again as you have helped us with many trips like Zion, Bryce, Lake Powell etc. Do you think West Yellowstone would be a better "home base" than Gardiner, or should we split it and stay in both towns part of the time?
If we stay in West Yellowstone, wondering which motels are nice?

I think it's smart to skip Cody and spend the time in the park. The Beartooth is worth the time!

I'd split it up between Gardiner and West Yellowstone. Gardiner to Old Faithful area is almost 60 miles one way and it's not a fast drive. West Yellowstone to Old Faithful area is only 31 miles one way.

Utahtea

We enjoyed Cody, but I wouldn't do Cody and pass up YNP or GTNP, and Beartooth is worth the trip. Are you staying in Jackson? Have you considered staying in GTNP? There was a deal for Jackson Lake Lodge recently on travelzoo.com

Well, we have a tentative plan now, which is,

Day 1, Fly in to Jackson, stay at the Ranch Inn. See parts of Jackson Hole like Jenny Lake, etc.

Day 2, Drive to Gardiner, Mt. Along the way see much of the Eastern side of the Yellowstone loop.

Day 3, Drive to Red Lodge over Beartooth Highway, and back to Gardiner.

Day 4, Move to Lake Hotel at Yellowstone Lake, and see more sights along the way.

Day 5, Drive the western side of the loop, Old Faithful through Norris Geyser.

Days 6 and 7, move to Jackson for relaxation.

Any comments or suggestions would be apreciated.

You could save a 100+ miles of drive time if you would stay in Cooke City the night before you drive the Beartooth. Or save half that by staying in Cooke City for the second night on your return from the BT. If this is done you could do the Beartooth, US212, to Red Lodge. Cut over to Belfry on MT308, their mascot is the Bat. Then drop south on MT/WY72 to the Chief Joseph Highway, WY296 and return to Cooke City. You could get a litle more for your drive time that way. The roads are slow and its is a good 1-2 hours from Gardiner to the NE entrance and Cooke City. That much time could be saved.

Hello Red Rock

Thank you for your suggestion.
Tell me if I am wrong, but since we are going to be in Yellowstone already driving up from Jackson, wouldn't we be driving almost the same amount of miles? Instead of driving from the Northern loop area to Cooke City, we would stay in Gardiner and drive through Cooke City on the way to Red Lodge. After Red Lodge we are planning to be in the Yellowstone lake area.

Its 50+ miles from the north entrance to Cooke City and the NE entrance. If you depart Gardiner for the BT highway and then return to Gardiner it will make for a long drive. Its not so much the miles but the roads you will be driving. You will be driving 35-45 MPH (not averaging) most of the time, when factoring in stops it will make for a long day. I would Think you would be planing on stopping along the way or even having something to eat in Red Lodge. The way I suggested you would not have to double back the the entire way. The difference would allow for driving the Chief Joseph as well as the BT with little additional time used.

http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2281/travel.html

http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/inte...emap/index.htm

How does this sound?

Day 1 Jackson plus part of Tetons

Day 2 Drive to Gardiner, through the Eastern side of the loop.

Day 3 Drive to Red Lodge over the Beartooth. Spend the night in Red Lodge.

Day 4 Drive from Red Lodge through the Eastern entrance of Yellowstone to Lake Hotel.

Day 5 Drive the lower loop and back to Lake Hotel.

Day 6-7 Back to Jackson seeing more of the Tetons on the way.

That will work. Try to make the Lamar Valley early morning on your way out, its on your way. Good chance to see wolves or bears in early morning along the river. You can't miss the best vantage points, there will be others watching and waiting.. You will have the time since you are overnighting in Red Lodge. If time permits in Cody you could visit the museum. For the past several years they have been working on the road to the East Entrance expect delays.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

http://richgros.com/Cody/BB_museum.html

Thank you RedRock. I expect that we will be passing through the Lamar Valley by around 8:30 am.
We would like to see the museum in Cody so we will leave time for that.
It has been 6 years since we were in Yellowstone, but I would imagine there isn't much that ever changes in a place like that.
Curious, is the name RedRock related to somewhere like Zion or Sedona?
I am going to try and start a new thread on favorite places in the western US and Canada.

mikec54321-- The user name "RedRock" was chosen after our visit to the Red Rock Lakes NWR years ago... The Greater Yellowstone area and the western part of the country just happens to be one of our favorite places. You're correct, things in YS change little. They keep improving the roads and thats about it, I only hope it stays that way. We have been going there for many years and each time we see and learn something new...

http://www.fws.gov/redrocks/