Hello all,
We are currently planning our Sept 08 to YS and surrounding parks. We have four nights reserved in the park itself- everthing else is still open.
Our main interests are scenery, driving and NP's. We love the NPs and have been to Yosemite and G Canyon on previous trips
The two of us are flying in from Europe. Denver, Salt Lake City, Chicago or San Francisco would seem to be the main gateway options
Main question: Is there any particular airport that stands out? Or is it mainly the one which gives the best price?
Thanks all

The closest airport to Yellowstone is Jackson, WY. This is a small airport and will not have non-stop flights from Europe or even many US cities any distance away. It is often quite expensive to fly into Jackson, although the airport is large enough to use real (large) planes.

Salt Lake City is a drivable option, usually less expensive airfare, but will take up most of one day driving to and another day from to get to the airport from YNP.

Other airports such as Bozeman, MT and even Idaho will present same issues as Jackson.

And just so you know, even Jackson is not right at YNP. It is about 15 minutes from Grand Teton National Park (beautiful) which is a rather narrow and long Park. You drive thru GTNP which is contiguous to YNP. YNP is huge and to drive from northern most area to Jackson could take half a day - roads are often blocked by huge buffalo and no one wants to tell them to move.

Keep that distance in mind when you book lodging and plan for return flight.

Have a great trip - Yellowstone is fantastic.

Thanks for that info. We have 2-2.5 weeks, like driving- maybe 3000 miles. Just wondering which aiport provides for the best drives, intersting things to do, etc.

Agree with gail. Jackson Hole, WY is by far the closest airport. You can get non-stops from/to there via Chicago (ORD), Denver (DEN), Salt Lake City (SLC) and Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW). Of those, SLC is the closest to Jackson if you didn't want to make connections into Jackson itself. The drive from SLC is nice, but agree it would take the better part of a day (it's roughly 350 mi). The other cities are too far to consider driving IMO (with DEN maybe being an exception - but it's still about 500 mi from YNP). I would probably check all options into or through those 4 cities and see which ones give you the best fares, schedules etc.

Hello again,
We are inclining towards SFO as our base mainly because it has the only direct flights from Ireland. Also, it will give us a chance to see part of Napa/Sonoma.
I greatly appreciate input on the following schedule
Day 1 Car pick / stay SFO airport
2 Winnemucca, NV
3 Idaho Falls
4- 8 Jackson & YSNP
9 Winnemucca
10-14 Healdsburg
15 Back to Ireland

A number of questions
1. As we have been to SFO itself we are thinking of omitting this time in favour of the wine / coast. Would Healdsburg be the best base?
2. Any must do sights between SFO and YSNP ?

Thanks all

You are driving at least 4 or 5 days with not really much to see or do on the drive. I would hate to have to drive it one way, yet alone twice in the span of two weeks. Since you have 2 weeks you should spend at least 2 days in Grand Teton and 4 days in Yellowstone. I would fly into Billings, drive the Beartooth Highway, then the parks, followed by Jackson. Stay @ Old faithful Inn a couple of nights and perhaps Mammoth Hotel one night, and Lake Hotel another night, while in the park. Try Jackson Lake Lodge or splurge and Jenny Lake while @ Grand Teton. I think lodging in the town of Jackson Hole is way overpriced compared to most of the US. There is a ton of options in Grand Teton and Yellowstone for things to do.

Day 1 Fly to Billings
Day 2 Beartooth Hwy into Yellowstone
Day 3-5 Yellowstone
Day 6-7 Grand Teton
Day 8 Jackson driving to Salt Lake
Day 9 Drive to Wine Country
Day 10-14 Sonoma
Return home

Have you driven south of San Francisco on PCH 1 to Big Sur?

Thanks for that. We have driven a fair bit in the west before and usually don't mind a few long day trips ( 5-700 miles ) We found the PCH one of our highlights. For this reason we would like to see the coast north of SFO, especially as Sept seems to be one of the better times.
What is the best route from YS to the coast. Considering we have only two weeks would a drive from YS to Eureka be too much? Maybe it would be more feasible to drive back closer to SFO such as Healdsburg or Mendocino.
Sorry for all the questions! On our two previous trips to the west we found research pays off as there is so much to see and so little time

cut out some time and try for flying to idaho Falls and rent car there?

just be aware that in some of the smaller airports, billings, helena etc. the rental car miles are NOT unlimited. you need to get unlimited miles with your rentals Jackson Hole airport rentals have unlimited miles, i would think that salt lake also unlimited but be sure to check.

I agree with the suggestions to fly from SFO to a much closer airport. It will save you time, and probably money. Nothing much more boring than the drive through Nevada, either. It is a huge waste of your precious time. You would be better off flying and enjoying the drive once you get closer to YNP.

We used to live in Idaho Falls and drive to West Yellowstone. It was an easy drive, and only about 2 hours or so. We did this trip 3 times between Feb. and April and loved it.

The snocoach tour as previously mentioned is fantastic!

If you want a scenic drive into Yellowstone, travel through the Beartooth Pass into the Northeast entrance. You can fly into Billings and drive down, but you could also drive east from SLC, north from Rock Springs, over through Riverton, north to Thermopolis (hot springs) area and then go north to Beartooth Pass ... incredible mountain scenery ... just google it and you'll see what I mean... Also, Cody, Wyoming has the Buffalo Bill museum, an amazing museum that is actually several museums in one. If you're at all interested in geology, buy some road books that explain the country you're driving through ... incredibly old stuff...

Sept can be great in Yellowstone but it can also be cold so be prepaired. Senic wise the drive from Billings over the Beartooh Hwy can't be beat and is a must see if you have further questions on Yellowstone contact me direct [email protected]

I live in West Sonoma County and think adding a trip up the coast to Eureka and on to Yellowstone is really a stretch. Hwy 1 which hugs the coast is slow going from SFO and HWY 101 is not on the coast. Getting from Eureka to Yellowstone would also be a slow trip. That being said, the northern coast of California is worth exploring. You could easily spend a week north of SF and then not have time to get to Yellowstone.

By the way, we're planning a trip to the Yellowstone area and plan to fly from SFO to Salt Lake City and spend a day driving. The drive from SFO
to Salt Lake City is about 16 hours about 12 of that pretty uneventful.

Last summer, we went to Yellowstone. Originally, we were going to fly into SLC and then drive up from there, because I assumed the short hop from SLC to Jackson would be prohibitively expensive. Then I decided to check it anyway, and discovered that the round-trip fare from SLC to Jackson only added another $30 each to the cost of our tickets (on Delta). A no-brainer, I thought.

Everything went fine on the way in. On the night before the morning we were flying out, Jackson got hit by one of its not-uncommon major thunderstorms. Delta decided not to fly up from SLC that night, so at 7:00 a.m. the next morning, we arrived at the airport and were told there was no plane to take us to SLC.

So we wound up driving from Jackson down to SLC. We left around 9:00 and were in SLC by around 2:00 or 2:30 that afternoon. We drove by means of Bear Lake and the canyon through the mountains between Bear Lake and Logan, Utah, rather than heading west to the interstate and trying to take the fastest route possible. Scenically, there were some nice stretches, but it was still a relatively long, tiring drive.

In spite of our problems getting out of Jackson (a function of it being in a valley surrounded by mountains), I would recommend giving flying in there or somewhere else nearby serious consideration. Anything that gives you more time in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone is worth doing. I would recommend at least two full days in the Grand Tetons and 4-5 in Yellowstone. We stayed a total of 12 last summer, and had a great time with no shortage of things to see.

I would second the suggestion that you stay in two different places in Yellowstone. We stayed at the Snow Lodge at Old Faithful and the Cascade Lodge up near the Canyon, and those worked well.

I've done the drive from SLC across Nevada to SF in the past, including going through Winnemucca. Unless you'd like to try and find some ghost towns along the route, there is really very little to see.