We're planning a trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton for early to mid-August and having trouble deciding which gateway city to use as a home base (for a variety of reasons we've decided not to stay inside the park). We'll be approaching from the north and flying out of SLC at the end of our trip, so I'm thinking West Yellowstone, Gardiner or Cooke City for the first 4 days or so and then on to Jackson Hole for another 3 days at the end of the week. Our only real requirement is at least a few decent restaurants (they don't have to be fancy) to sample in the evenings after a long day of hiking/touring and, of course, we'll have to find a place to stay.

At the moment I'm leaning toward Gardiner (since Frommer doesn't seem to like West Yellowstone and Cooke City seems sparse) but which city would you recommend?

Thanks

When we visited Yellowstone several years ago, we stayed in West Yellowstone, which we picked primarily because it was closest to the things in the park that we wanted to see (Old Faithful, etc.). The restaurants in West Yellowstone, IMHO (actually, that of my spouse, too), were not so good. We're not big meat-eaters, and it seemed that (5 years ago), everything was barbeque, steak or pizza. I can't tell you anything about Gardiner, only our experience of West Yellowstone.

Jackson has a number of good restaurants (though restaurants there are weighted twoard steak/meat too); we ate two very nice meals at Nani's Genuine Pasta House. The food (especially the pasta) was good, and reminded us of of our trips to Italy. The staff was friendly and helpful, and enjoyed interacting with our then-young children.

Have a great trip!

If Frommers doesn't like West Yellowstone, I sure don't know what they would see in Gardiner.

I'd pick W. Yellowstone over Gardiner any day.

If you only want to do one location, then I would pick West Yellowstone. It's the most centrally located for visiting all of Yellowstone and also closer to the geysers, canyon, lake sections, and not that far out of the way for the Mammoth Hot Springs area. The roads in Yellowstone are slow driving and you will also run into a lot of traffic so the closer you can be to the bigger attractions, the better.

Utahtea

I never thought much of Frommers.
West Yellowstone has a few shops and restaurants and some good motels. It is also much closer to the Old Faithful and the Norris Geyser Basins, and even time wise to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

I have never seen much that was socially redeeming about Mammoth and Gardner does not help it much.

I cannot explain Frommers' logic.
I know where I would go and have gone.

We have come in from all four directions. Gardiner isn't much and is far from everything except Mammoth Springs. Code is nice but too far away. South entrance is what we went thru from Jackson and Grand Tetons where we were camping. West Yellowstone has most motels and resturants, not real fancy but you should be able to find something nice. It is also closest to center of park if you can't stay inside. The main road is figure 8 that we drove at least two or three times in our 10 days there.