 Places to stay close to Yellowstone National Park
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The Yellowstone National Park – how to get there, planning your visit
Ever wondered who writes these pages, and what they think? Well in this instance its me, George, and when it comes to visiting Yellowstone as a tourist I have first hand information about Yellowstone National Park.
When I made a visit to Yellowstone, it was as part of an epic drive around America, and we approached this fascinating National Park area from the South, so I will begin my travelogues from there.
My wife and I had travelled up from an early start at Lake Powell, and late in the day we found ourselves approaching Salt Lake City, which incidentally, if I go back to visit Yellowstone National Park again I would consider as a good starting point, because of the attraction of Salt Lake City itself and the fact that it does have an ideal entry point into the US and this region at Salt Lake City International Airport.
Having spend the night in Salt Lake City we left it behind us and we travelled North towards Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, (Grand Teton National Park is covered by another page, which I recommend you also visit) especially as it has accommodation listings for Grand Teton, and in particular Moran just north of Teton Village, where if travelling to Yellowstone from the South I would recommend you make an overnight stop, as during the day, especially in the summer months the entrance to Yellowstone National Park can have long queues of traffic, staying overnight in Teton Village places you towards the head of any queue with an early start into Yellowstone the following morning.
I would assume that the same applies places to stay near all the Yellowstone Park Entrances and we have shown the nearest accommodation to be found near to West Yellowstone and the North or East entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
Therefore approaching Yellowstone National Park from the South you travel the US191 and highway 89 from Jackson via Grand Teton National Park and Teton Village which is about 50 miles away from the south entrance to Yellowstone, the South Park Road may be closed in winter.
If you were to approach from the North from Glacier National Park, the nearest town to Yellowstone is Gardiner, Montana which is approached from Bozeman along highway 89, this is also a good place to stay if visiting Yellowstone as it is quite close to Mammoth Hot Springs, but you should be aware that whilst this entrance is open all year round to wheeled vehicles, in winter you may need chains or snow tires.
The North East entrance from Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana along highway 212 is also open year round, but the problem here is that east of Cooke City the road is often closed during winter months.
The East Entrance is served by US14 US16 and US20 out of Cody, and the nearest town to the East Entrance of Yellowstone is Red Lodge. About 1 hour away from the National Park entrance.
The West Entrance to Yellowstone is probably the second most popular, a good place to stay would be West Yellowstone located practically at Yellowstone’s west entrance, and the home of Yellowstone Airport, this town is ideally placed if you are travelling from or to San Francisco or Lake Tahoe, the West entrance is open during summer months, but when the winter snows arrive then ordinary vehicles cannot operate and only tracked vehicles can move within this area of the park. Many winter sports activities operate out of West Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park - lower and upper loop roads
We took four days to see this fascinating area, and quite frankly its not enough, I would allow at least another two days if I went again, and possibly longer to make good use of all the parks resources.
There are two major loop roads with the park, and we divided our visit between them.
We arrived in lat August, along with the first snows flurries of winter.
Our first journey around the park took us along the lower loop road, we stopped the Grant Village Visitor Center to get the most recent National Park information guide, and then proceeded to West Thumb Geyser Basin, here are miniature geysers and hot springs, and along the shore of Yellowstone lake we got out first close view of wild life, here within a few metres of the road a small herd of Elk foraged amongst newly planted trees.
Of course everyone who visits Yellowstone wants to see the world famous Old Faithful Geyser and we were no exception, so turning left at West Thumb we stopped of at the Lone Star Geyser before arriving at the Old Faithful Visitor Center, as we approached we saw many Bison and some more Elk grazing alongside the highway, in fact we had to stop a couple of times as the Bison crossed over in front of us.
Having seen Old faithful we walked around this area, along wooded walkways which make it quite accessible for wheelchairs, as do many of the Parks board walks, here amongst the steam which was more prominent as the weather had cooled, Elk and Bison could be seen using its warmth as a respite from the cold air.
We did meet a Bison walking towards us which gave us some worry, however he must have been as concerned with the encounter as we did as he suddenly turned at right angles to the path and hid his head in a bush, presumably working on the theory that if he couldn’t see us, we couldn’t see him!
Leaving this area we travelled alongside the Fire Hole River stopping off at Fire Hole Geyser and Morning Glory pool with its beautiful azure waters.
Midway Geyser Basin was one of our next stops, along Upper Geyser Basin, here Castle Geyser erupts every 3 to 10 hours, Daisy Geyser when it pleases, and Grande Geyser from 18 to 90 hours.
Lower Geyser Basin, and Fountain Paint pot, are next on the lower circle, Great Fountain Geyser erupts every 6 to 10 hours and attains a height of 98 to 196ft. White Dome Geyser erupts every 17 to 19 minutes.
We made a stop at Fire Hole Falls which is along a loop road, before continuing to to Madison which is a right turn, where you meet the road coming from West Yellowstone. Just past Madison are Beryl Springs and Gibbon Falls, along the road to Norris and Norris Geyser Basin and its Museum, around here are Fire Hole Geyer Basin and the Back Basin and Porcelain Basin trails. In the first is the world tallest geyser, known as Steamboat, and Echinus, which erupts regularly every 35 to 75 minutes.
Turning right at Norris we arrived at Canyon Village with its Visitor centre, from here around a mile east and 2.5 miles south there are entrances to a loop rood which leads to viewpoints along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone where the two enormous falls of water can be really appreciated from Inspiration and Artists Point.
We headed south from here along the Hayden Valley, as it was late summer we were privileged to see quite a lot of wildlife grazing along the Yellowstone River, and in the late evening sightings were especially good, we Saw Moose Bison Elk and possibly a coyote.
We split our visit into two sections, and moved to the northern end or the Park to give us more time to do the upper loop road.
We started this section of our visit from Mammoth Hot Springs, where there is a terrace of multi coloured mineral laden stone, laid down by the hot springs which find their way to the surface, and trickle down the pools and over the ledges which they have created.
Also at Mammoth at the time we were there (Late August) not only is the town full of tourists, but the local Elk population, possibly in an attempt to avoid hungry predators at this time of year invade the city limits, and as it is also the rutting time it is not unusual, in fact highly probable that Elk Bulls can be seen trying to steal from each others harems, this leads to many stand offs and Elk fights on Mammoths Streets and Lawns.
Leaving mammoth and travelling East we passed through Yellowstone’s Roosevelt country, it is a popular region of low rolling hills and forests, and at Tower Junction we stopped to see the 132ft Tower Falls with its volcanic pinnacle. Once again we found the link road to Yellowstone Falls which traverses the Canyon of the Yellowstone to Canyon Village.
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