Wyoming Bound and Lots of Questions

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Leaving on the 26th of July for Wyoming from Houston, Texas. This is going to be our 1st trip of this nature. Before, we made reservations at SP's. Going to try and fit this in a 15 day window. Before, we would drive till we got tired and look for a motel. It's hard for me to try to plan and make reservations at this point. Kind of want to play it my ear and start looking along the way for rest areas. Do I have to have reservations or can I just call ahead while on the road and check availability at RV parks, KOA's etc. Want to visit Yellowstone while up there but want to go into Montana and see some sights also. Is it a possibility I could find a good CS at Yellowstone without a reservation? Reason being, I don't exactly know when I'll arrive. Or, should I just find a good RV park and take trips to the park daily? So much to see up that way. Would like to stay in SP for the extra room. Not having any experience with RV parks, does anyone leave their TT hooked to their TV just to get some sleep and get an early start on the road? Seems like I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself planning this trip. Again, seems easier to just take off and play it by ear. Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated here. I don't want to be pulling into a strange RV park in the dark so I'll try to find one earlier. The wife and I sometimes have a loud way of trying to get the TT parked. I should be able to get to my 1st area of interest inside of 3 days. Like to find a CS and use it to view the sights then head west to Yellowstone. Probably won't have more than 4 days there before I start back. Want this trip to be memorable in a good way. Any thoughts to make this less stressful would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 

ksmith555

Active Member
We visited Yellowstone last June, but we flew into Jackson Hole stayed in a cabin in Canyon Lodge for 4 nights then made our way back down through the park staying at Old Faithful Lodge and then down to Grand Teton NP for our last 2 nights. We booked a year in advance but cancellations do happen often so you may get lucky. You can call Xanterra (handles their reservations) daily to see if something has opened up.
There are also some first come/first serve camping areas in the park but I'm not sure what type of hook up they offer. I'm sure someone else on here has more experience with the RV side of camping there, but the link to the campground info is
http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/camping-in-yellowstone.htm

In my opinion, if at all possible stay inside the park...I can't begin to explain how massive the park is, and just traveling within it can eat up hours of your day. We would take day trips from Canyon and just traveling from our cabin to the Lamar Valley for wildlife viewing would take over an hour one way. Add in a few bear sighting stops and photo ops and the day will fly by. Last summer there was construction at Tower Junction and that would add to the travel time, but we weren't in any hurry to get anywhere and enjoyed the sites and pull out stops along the way. Either way, if you get to stay inside or out you will love it. It is breathtaking and hands down the best trip I have ever taken, we can't wait to go back! Enjoy and safe travels!
 

olcoon

Well-known member
We seldom make reservations while traveling. But we also seldom travel on weekends, and especially in state parks, there are almost always vacant campsites, & most of them keep some campsites on a first come first served basis. As we are retired, we usually travel a max of 300 miles a day, so I'll check the night before we travel & see what's in the area 300 miles ahead. So far that's worked. As far as Yellowstone I think there is only 1 campground with FHU, Fishing Bridge, & it's usually full, but if you are lucky, you can get in...us & some friends lucked out a few years ago & got to spend a few days there. If you are going to come in through Cody, there are a few campgrounds in & around Cody, but it's about 1-2 hours away. There are also several smaller campgrounds in the park, but most have NO hook-ups, so you'll need a generator for power during the day & to charge your batteries. The town of West Yellowstone is very near the park & I've heard they have numerous campgrounds, but it's kind of pricey. If you stay in Cody & have time visit the Buffalo Bill Museum & plan on 2 days there, you can visit 1 day & get your ticket stamped for the 2nd day free. They also have a "shoot out" every night in front of the Irma Hotel (used to be owned by Buffalo Bill), they also have a rodeo there every night. Plan on doing a LOT of driving in Yellowstone! I'm sure a bunch of others will chime in with more advise.
 

Sunset4k

Well-known member
Baker, this should be an awesome trip for you. We traveled that way a couple of years ago and just fell in love Montana. When we travel, we know about how many miles we can travel in a day comfortably... usually about 320. We plan our route ahead of time, and I research the RV parks in the general area. I call them to see if it looks like we will need reservations. Most of the time it isn't necessary, but I do check, especially in the months. If we know we want to stay in a specific area to visit, we go ahead and make reservations. Most Rv parks are very accommodating. If we are just going to pull in for the night and leave early, we don't unhook the trailer, we just hook into the power and sewer. BUT we always make sure the sight is level enough to open the slides, and if it isn't, we level the trailer and unhook. It doesn't take us long to do this. We also tend to be loud when we communicate so we got walkie talkies which solved that problem!!

Wyoming and Montana are simply beautiful. If you like history, be sure to visit The Little Big Horn.. There is a great mill and Bakery in Wheat Montana, right in the middle of wheat growing country. Jackson Hole is a must!!!
 
If you go to the Custer Battlefield in Montana, stay at the 7th Ranch RV park. It's closest to the battlefield and a great place to stay. The sites are level gravel, lots of room and a lot of them have mature trees for shade, quiet because it is off the highway so no heavy traffic, no cable but the location and views make up for it. Everyone is very helpful and you are escorted to your site.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
About Yellowstone: Cody, Wyoming is great, has a terrific Buffalo Bill museum and nightly rodeo in the summer, but is too far from the park to be a base for daily visits to Yellowstone. West Yellowstone Montana is 14 miles on an easy drive (except for buffalo/wildlife traffic stoppages) East to the main park loop road. I have stayed at Baker's Hole National Forest service campground on the Madison River just 2 miles North of all of the shopping, etc of West Yellowstone. They have sites with electric hookup, and I paid $15 a night with the Federal Golden Age Pass. The sites are no reservation, first come first served.They have 1 potable water source to fill your tank at the entrance. Pay dump stations are available at one of the many RV parks in town. The Golden Age Pass also gets you into the Park for free. The Park entrance is right at the East border of town. In the two weeks I was there, I made it to all 4 park entrances, found the nearby springs that are the source of the Snake River (which flows to the Pacific Ocean), circled the Grand Teton Mountains, visited a nearby place where there was a deadly earthquake and massive landslide in 1959, and a former gold rush town that was the territorial capitol for a while. The park is larger in land area than Rhode Island or Delaware.

If you are camping "on the wing" besides a good internet connection and RVParkReviews.com (which lists locations nearby to that you are checking out), you might want to download the 14000 (and something) campgrounds listings on the online POI Factory to your GPS. This makes finding a campground as simple as pulling up the file on your GPS and seeing what is in the area (and how far away).

Have a GREAT trip!!!
 

Dean-Pam

Well-known member
We did Yellowstone this past May, stayed at Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone. Great place to stay and highly recommend it (if you can get in, they book early for the season). We also did Custer Battlefield, staying at 7th Ranch RV park, very nice, but no cable, wifi and limited over the air tv reception. We liked the park and wasn't there to sit in the camper. The only draw back was the park is off the beaten path and the road to the park is unpaved and very washboard when we were there this past may. You will love all the sites!!!
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
We are Camp hosting right now at Buffalo Bill State Park, Cody, WY. We are at the North Fork Campground with 67 all pull thru sites, but only 8 with water/elec hook ups, so for those, a reservation is a must; the others are always available, but is gorgeous here. We're 39 miles from the East Entrance to Yellowstone and 16 miles to Cody. If you decide to stop on make sure you let us know.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Keep in mind from Houston the Yellowstone NP it is a LONG 2 day drive. You will leave Houston and drive to Amarillo (or maybe Ratan NM) the first day and then the rest of the way the 2nd day. Doing it that way you will get into the RV Park or State Parks after dark each day. (bad idea). I would plan on a 3 day drive each way. That will take up 6 days round trip out of your 14 days. This time of year state parks fill up and so do RV Parks so I would try to plan ahead and make reservations since you are on a fixed time schedule. We made this trip back in my working days on a 2 week vacation and traveled at least 500 miles each travel day. We made Yellowstone and then traveled east to Mt Rushmore, and then back to Houston. It was a long trip and we did not waste anytime with side trips. But on the other hand it was a wonderful vacation (excluding the blizzard we got caught in near Yellowstone).
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
We are Camp hosting right now at Buffalo Bill State Park, Cody, WY. We are at the North Fork Campground with 67 all pull thru sites, but only 8 with water/elec hook ups, so for those, a reservation is a must; the others are always available, but is gorgeous here. We're 39 miles from the East Entrance to Yellowstone and 16 miles to Cody. If you decide to stop on make sure you let us know.

Does campsite BBNF83 (pull thru w/ water and elec) at Buffalo Bill SP sound familiar to you. Is this location too far from Yellowstone to commute daily? Having trouble finding reservations with any kind of service. I reserved this site but I could cancel it. Only money.lol I took it from the 30th of July to the 6th of August. If it's too far, I'll try to move closer but at least we have a place to park our Lil Guy. trying to get hold of the people at 7th Ranch for a few days to check out the Custer battlefield and surrounding sites. What's this I'm reading about this place being real windy? Or are they talking about the other park by the lake? Thanks in advance and I appreciate the input from this forum. Still need to figure out my stop overs on the trip up there. I should be able to get reservations at the 7th ranch for a few days. BTW, can I make it from Billings, Montana to Cody, Wyoming in one day? I'm sure if I'm a day late and I call(since I've already paid) that shouldn't be a problem. Getting a little excited about this trip. Thanks again for the input.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Keep in mind from Houston the Yellowstone NP it is a LONG 2 day drive.
Google Maps puts it at around 1500 miles. If we drive between 60 and 65mph, our average speed with a few short breaks, stoplights, traffic slowdowns, etc. is usually close to 50mph. It would take us three very long days.

We try to keep it to a maximum of 375 miles per day.

Keep in mind that most trailer tires are rated for a maximum speed of 65mph and will suffer internal damage at higher speeds.
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
I was thinking abut 1300 miles going to Montana 1st. I tow at 65 when possible. Never faster. You're probably right about the average speed. I figure 3 good days of driving coming and going. Again, If I'm a day late and have already paid for the reservations and I call, I should be alright. really looking forward to the trip. Just wish I had more time. Looking forward to retirement and a larger rig. This could be habit forming. I could spend months up there and more going west to the coast. A lot I want to see and don't want to do it in a big rush. Going to get our feet wet on this trip. Learn how to maneuver on the road. Be easier when I get my Bighorn. Thanks for the reply.
 

codycarver

Founding Wyoming Chapter Leader-retired
BTW, can I make it from Billings, Montana to Cody, Wyoming in one day?

It's 120 miles from Cody to Billings.

The scenery doesn't start and stop at the entrance and exits of Yellowstone. Teddy Roosevelt called the drive from Cody to the east gate the most scenic 50 miles in America for a reason so don't be afraid of driving around a little. The drive from Cody to the east gate through the park and leaving through the North gate at Silver gate/ Cooke city and back home over the Chief Joseph high way (RT 296) is well worth the day in our opinion. We live in Cody so if we can help please PM us.
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
Does campsite BBNF83 (pull thru w/ water and elec) at Buffalo Bill SP sound familiar to you. Is this location too far from Yellowstone to commute daily? Having trouble finding reservations with any kind of service. I reserved this site but I could cancel it. Only money.lol I took it from the 30th of July to the 6th of August. If it's too far, I'll try to move closer but at least we have a place to park our Lil Guy. trying to get hold of the people at 7th Ranch for a few days to check out the Custer battlefield and surrounding sites. What's this I'm reading about this place being real windy? Or are they talking about the other park by the lake? Thanks in advance and I appreciate the input from this forum. Still need to figure out my stop overs on the trip up there. I should be able to get reservations at the 7th ranch for a few days. BTW, can I make it from Billings, Montana to Cody, Wyoming in one day? I'm sure if I'm a day late and I call(since I've already paid) that shouldn't be a problem. Getting a little excited about this trip. Thanks again for the input.
Distance from NF83 to Yellowstone Park entrance is 39 miles. Speed limit on that stretch is 65 MPH except thru Pahaska near the entrance. Another 25 miles to Yellowstone Lake inside the park. Max speed inside the park is 45 MPH. We have guests who use Buffalo Bill State Park as their starting point, but that's your preference as once inside Yellowstone, there are around 200 miles of roads to explore. As far as wind, yes it can be windy here but the Northshore campground has more as it's right on the reservoir.
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Thanks for the info. Wanted to know how long of a drive from 7th Ranch RV to Buffalo Bill SP. Easy drive. Arriving on the 28th in Montana, a day at the battle sites and on to Wyoming. Check in on the 30th. Gives me 6 days to look around and check out the scenery form Cody. Wish I had more time. Looking forward to comparing this part of the states to northern N. Mex. and Colo.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
It's obvious that I prefer to stay in the West Yellowstone area, maybe because I come in from the West Coast. But also the commute into the main park loop road is only 14 miles of pretty much level road following the Madison River. The 39 mile (? - Seemed longer) road in from Cody is marvelously scenic, but goes over a mountain pass getting into the park.

BTW, although the park is expansive, there is a 45 mph speed limit throughout the park.
 
Last edited:

MTPockets

Well-known member
Thanks for the info. Wanted to know how long of a drive from 7th Ranch RV to Buffalo Bill SP. Easy drive. Arriving on the 28th in Montana, a day at the battle sites and on to Wyoming. Check in on the 30th. Gives me 6 days to look around and check out the scenery form Cody. Wish I had more time. Looking forward to comparing this part of the states to northern N. Mex. and Colo.
As an added note, Cody, WY us the site of the Hells Angels Naional Convention July 29 thru Aug 2. We're not aware of any staying at Buffalo Bill SP, but Cody should be interesting those days. FYI
 

codycarver

Founding Wyoming Chapter Leader-retired
As an added note, Cody, WY us the site of the Hells Angels Naional Convention July 29 thru Aug 2. We're not aware of any staying at Buffalo Bill SP, but Cody should be interesting those days. FYI

They have visited before and it's not been much a problem. Seem very happy to pose for photos too.
 

TXTiger

Well-known member
If you have the time and want to visit Mount Rushmore there are many RV parks in the area. I am currently work camping at Custer State Park. We do fill up and I highly recommend a reservation but we do get cancelations from time to time. Mid week is best if you don't have a reservation. Hookup is electric only.
 
Top