Yellowstone

A place for members to talk about things outside of Virgin Islands travel.
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sea-nile
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Yellowstone

Post by sea-nile »

We are going to travel to Yellowstone in Sept if 2013. We have never been there and need advice on where to stay, what is the best place to fly into, etc. Are there any good forums out there about it? We don't need a fancy place but do not want a dump either. It will just be two of us. Thanks!
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michigancouple
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Re: Yellowstone

Post by michigancouple »

Hi seanile. We went to Yellowstone in Sept. 5 years ago. It was great vacation. I will warn you that at the time, the park tours end in mid to late-september because they could be getting snow. We flew into Bozeman MT and stayed the 1st night in Gardiner at the north entrance to Yellowstone. We did a great tour called Yellowstone in a Day. It was an all day bus tour that did kind of a figure eight through the park. It was well worth it and filled with stops at many locations and very interesting info offered by the driver. We learned about lots of things that I know we would have just driven right by if we drove it on our own. I can give you some other ideas too. I'll post again when I have more time.
--Nancy
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jayseadee
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Re: Yellowstone

Post by jayseadee »

When I was planning our trip to Yosemite, I got a lot of good info from the TA forums. Also see good info on Grand Canyon (next National Park).

Don went to Yellowstone several years ago and flew into Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
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jmq
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Re: Yellowstone

Post by jmq »

As a base of operations, best if you can get something in the park, but that stuff tends to book up way far in advance. Outside the park to the south, Jackson Hole WY has its charms and amenities because it is a nice skiing destination, whereas West Yellowstone Montana not so much. Jackson is also in the shadows of the Grand Tetons, which are not to be missed. A river float is a cool way to see them.
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sea-nile
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Re: Yellowstone

Post by sea-nile »

Thank you for all of the suggestions!
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michigancouple
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Location: West Michigan

Re: Yellowstone

Post by michigancouple »

OK... I'm back with the report of the rest of our Yellowstone trip. So, as I has said, the first day we took the Yellowstone in a day tour from the Mammoth Hot Springs area. It was a great day and very informative.

The 2nd day we got up really early and drove east. There are lots of good viewing areas of animals on that road. We drove all the way to the East gate and back. If you see groups of cars pulled off into little side roads or trails make sure you stop there also. That means the people are watching something. We saw a group with spotting scopes and binoculars so we stopped. They were watching, from quite a distance, a group of wolves that had taken down an elk. (disclaimer, it's sad to see an animal has been killed, but it's also the circle of life, and that's the principal the park goes on). A few folks let us take looks through their scopes. It was really cool to see how the wolves worked as a group and had circled around any animals that walked through to determine if that would be their next "catch of the day". That night we stayed in a cabin at Lake Yellowstone Lodge.

While we were at Lake Yellowstone cabins, we took a sunset tour in one of the old yellow buses. It is more like a 10-12 passenger car (from the 1930's). We stopped and did a little nature walk along a river. Then we drove way up to the top of a bluff where we saw the sunset. It was so beautiful. It was cool outside, so they gave us blankets to cover our laps in the vehicle. We saw lots of wildlife along the route. It was kind of like stepping back in time to the way tourists back in the 30's and 40's spent their time.

The next day we drove south and out of Yellowstone Park. We drove through the Tetons and into Jackson Hole. That was a gorgeous drive and we stopped all along the way and got out to take looks around and see the beauty. We spend the next day walking downtown Jackson Hole and hung out at a couple of the famous watering holes. We flew home the following day out of Jackson Hole. It was not a long trip, but I really felt like we had planned it out well (with the help of our friends who live in Gardiner where we started out our trip :) )
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michigancouple
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Re: Yellowstone

Post by michigancouple »

One more thing, here is a nice ink to the Yellowstone park area: http://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/

And I agree with the other person about a float trip in the Tetons. We didn't get a chance to do it, but when we had stopped along the way while driving through, we saw a float trip and it looked really nice.

I am glad we took a September trip. It was not crowded at all on the Yellowstone roads. I understand in the Summer there can be a lot of traffic issues. I didn't realize it until we were there that there a really very few roads in the park, so most of the traffic is all on the same roads and if there are animals to be seen, people just stop and pull over a little and that causes issues with traffic slow downs. We didn't really experience that much at all. Maybe once or twice for a very short time (15-20 minutes).
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sea-nile
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Re: Yellowstone

Post by sea-nile »

Thanks! That is great information!
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