Jackson hole, Tetons and Yellowstone

Loganwayne

Loganwayne

#BTL
Joined
Feb 15, 2013
Location
Clyde, North Carolina
Finally asked the girl, and she’s wanting to go out west and has said Jackson hole twice. I’ve been out west three times to ski but never in the summer. Is there some where else we should look at going to? Anyone been out there around June? I’m wanting to get a 4wd rental and explore some of the national forest roads. Figure a day in the Tetons, day in Yellowstone. We are looking at 6-8 days.
 
Been years since I have been there but it is awesome. Going to Vegas Sat picking up a jeep off Turo,Turo | The world's largest car sharing marketplace hoping to do the same, fire roads. Slightly built rental is cheaper than car plus a 1 to 2 day offroad jeep rental. Which they only offered Insurance for tires or a window.
 
Been to yellowstone twice and Jackson hole/tetons once. You're going to need more than a day for each if you actually want to see anything and hike. @rockcity probably has the most up to date experience report.

If time permits, take a long ride north up to glacier national park. You're going at the right time for "going to the sun road" to be open. When we went in early October it was already snowed in.
 
awheelterd said:
Been to yellowstone twice and Jackson hole/tetons once. You're going to need more than a day for each if you actually want to see anything and hike. @rockcity probably has the most up to date experience report.

If time permits, take a long ride north up to glacier national park. You're going at the right time for "going to the sun road" to be open. When we went in early October it was already snowed in.
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X2. A day in Yellowstone is quick even for a Griswald visit
 
Do glacier. We did two weeks this past summer - Teddy Roosevelt, Louis & Clark, two nights in Glacier, Beaverhead/Deer Lodge, 3 nights at Bridge Bay in yellowstone, 2 nights at grant village in yellowstone, devil's tower, Mt Rushmore, crazy horse, badlands np, etc. Glacier was the best.

We drove 550 miles just inside Yellowstone. It's a lot bigger than you're thinking. IIRC, it's four or five hours from Yellowstone lake to the Tetons.

Our friends did Tetons after we split up in Yellowstone. We planned on a day trip, but spent too much time in yellowstone.

There are some suggested itineraries that have you fly into SLC, do Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, fly home from Missoula or Billings, etc. Those might be worth investigating.
 
I figured we would have to take 2 days at each park. She’s convinced we won’t :shaking:.

@shawn your the second person to suggest doing it that way and I’d prefer that and explore as we go but not having a set in stone plane makes Miranda crazy
 
Yeah if you can more days in Yellowstone, also west side has a lot more things closer. We went across from west Yellowstone to Cody Wyoming, planning to check out the East side and decided the drive in was wayy to long to go back in. Not sure about the other entrances.
 
Yellowstone is huge and you have to plan travel from points of interest within the park in hours, not minutes. We stayed in west Yellowstone for 5 days and with it being the most popular entrance, was still a heck of a drive to everything, especially the east side. Even with 5 days in YS, we still missed out on a lot. But, we didn’t expect to do everything, just hit the highlights and saved some for the next trip.

I really enjoyed the Tetons but the wife and kids were bored with them. YS was cool because you can drive up to nearly everything but with Tetons, not so much. When driving towards Jackson, be sure to venture off on some of the side roads in the valley; you will find some nice hidden hikes on streams and ponds.

I wish we did Glacier on our trip but it was a little north for our route. Next time.


if you ski and are decent and out around YS in the summer, check out Beartooth Basin. ;)
 
I'm jealous. Took the family for a week in Yellowstone 2 summers ago. Had a full schedule of things to do each day with only one day out of the park (saddle & paddle). Still could have used more time to see some of the more "off the beaten path" stuff.
Was there in July and the weather was perfect. Still saw some snow on the ground at the top of our hike on Mount Washburn.
My advice for the park - stay on east coast time and get as early a start as possible. The traffic and parking gets nuts as the day goes on.
If you can plan your travels to pass through Beartooth Pass it's a nice drive.
Car rental - was cheaper to rent a 4Runner from the local Toyota dealer than the 4wd options from the airport rental chains (flew into Bozeman). May be worth looking in to off airport rentals.
 
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Jackson Hole was nice, except for all the rich buttholes, but Cody was my favorite.

That was where I planned on being a Peace Officer after college, but ended up enlisting/getting married/finding awesome job/etc instead.

It's been a long time since I went, but we alternated camping/hotel every other night to save on expenses. Not sure if your lady friend is up for that, but it was fun.
 
awheelterd said:
I feel like I could take a week every summer out there and never run out of things to see and do. I can't wait til my boys are old enough for a long vacation out west.
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It's not that far off... Ours were 5, 7, and 9 this past August. We camped 10 nights in a row and hiked 5+ miles several times.
 
trailhugger said:
It's not that far off... Ours were 5, 7, and 9 this past August. We camped 10 nights in a row and hiked 5+ miles several times.
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And were on the move for 42 hours straight at one point.
 
Atla said:
Jackson Hole was nice, except for all the rich buttholes, but Cody was my favorite.

That was where I planned on being a Peace Officer after college, but ended up enlisting/getting married/finding awesome job/etc instead.

It's been a long time since I went, but we alternated camping/hotel every other night to save on expenses. Not sure if your lady friend is up for that, but it was fun.
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we camp alot but shes not wanting to camp this trip, plus flying there would be a pain taking camping gear or buying it out there.
 
this is kinda what im pushing for now.

1. fly in to jackson sunday morning, spend day there and the night
2. next day tetons, probably some mild hikes, either go back to jackson or find a place on near teton or yellowstone.
3. next day in yellowstone on the south end. head to a lodge near cody
4. next day in yellowstone again or stay at the lodge and do a day of horse back riding (her request)
5. next day do which ever we didnt do the previous day
6. next day see cody/travel day to glacier (this is in the air because she didnt realize it was a min. of 8 hrs from cody to there)
7. next day glacier
8. next day fly home

if we dont go to glacier we may do another day in yellowstone.
 
It's a haul to glacier but it's a nice drive except for going through the reservation, it's a dirty shit hole. My wife was not a big fan of the 70mph speed limit through the mountains though :lol: There is are little town along the way through the mountains and one of them had a big sign leading into it that said "Our town is like Heaven on Earth to us, please don't drive like Hell through it". That tickled me pretty good for some reason. I would orient my trip so that the last night you're in yellowstone you end up on the north side so it's not such a drive to Glacier. I don't remember how long it took us to get from one to the other but I don't feel like it was 8hrs. Also, when going across Montana, fill up with gas every chance you get. We were on a suburban and I got to sweating one time because we passed up a station on a half tank and those hills and 80-85mph sucked that half down in record time.
 
Cody is nice but it’s a haul to most parts of YS. Unless you camp, there is nowhere to stay between Jackson and Cody and West Yellowstone. You could stay at the Old Faithful lodge in the park. Expensive but you are right in the middle of everything and saves a few hours of driving between points of interest.
I don’t think horseback riding tours are allowed in the park, so you’ll have to do that outside of the park.

I’d say go ahead and get your annual park entry pass. Going in and out everyday will likely eat up a lot of cash and will likely cost more than the pass itself.
 
rockcity said:
Cody is nice but it’s a haul to most parts of YS. Unless you camp, there is nowhere to stay between Jackson and Cody and West Yellowstone. You could stay at the Old Faithful lodge in the park. Expensive but you are right in the middle of everything and saves a few hours of driving between points of interest.
I don’t think horseback riding tours are allowed in the park, so you’ll have to do that outside of the park.

I’d say go ahead and get your annual park entry pass. Going in and out everyday will likely eat up a lot of cash and will likely cost more than the pass itself.
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Don't forget about the time spent in line. We were lucky, but hour and multi hour waits aren't uncommon.
 
rockcity said:
Cody is nice but it’s a haul to most parts of YS. Unless you camp, there is nowhere to stay between Jackson and Cody and West Yellowstone. You could stay at the Old Faithful lodge in the park. Expensive but you are right in the middle of everything and saves a few hours of driving between points of interest.
I don’t think horseback riding tours are allowed in the park, so you’ll have to do that outside of the park.

I’d say go ahead and get your annual park entry pass. Going in and out everyday will likely eat up a lot of cash and will likely cost more than the pass itself.
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Yeah,
for the time spent do NOT stay in Cody, I think it was at least 2hrs or more to anything, and another hour, beautiful drive around the lake but it take FOORRREVVEERR!

West Yellowstone is the place to stay for one or two days in Yellowstone.
 
No fries said:
don't rent a BMW

www.foxnews.com

Dashcam captures deer herd galloping into BMW

Dashcam footage captured the moment a herd of deer galloped across a Polish highway into the path of a BMW, with one landing on the trunk before hopping away.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
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I think if the first car would have stayed in the throttle or maybe just let it coast on past, there would have been a lot less damage.
 
Loganwayne said:
we camp alot but shes not wanting to camp this trip, plus flying there would be a pain taking camping gear or buying it out there.
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There are several lodges in the park and places in West Yellowstone, as well. I found this blog post when we were planning our trip, should have good lodging info and some ideas to help you plan out your itinerary... Like was said, it'll be a haul from the east gate to Cody and back. If you're going to Glacier, honestly, you're probably not going anywhere near Cody. If you leave from West Yellowstone, head up through Missoula and then Kalispell and Whitefish to West Glacier. If you leave from Mammoth Hot Springs/Gardiner, head up through Bozeman and then up 89 and into Glacier from the east side. We went in from the east side but had to drive across the park on US 2 to get to West Glacier, since that was the only gate open last summer.

Loganwayne said:
this is kinda what im pushing for now.

1. fly in to jackson sunday morning, spend day there and the night
2. next day tetons, probably some mild hikes, either go back to jackson or find a place on near teton or yellowstone.
3. next day in yellowstone on the south end. head to a lodge near cody
4. next day in yellowstone again or stay at the lodge and do a day of horse back riding (her request)
5. next day do which ever we didnt do the previous day
6. next day see cody/travel day to glacier (this is in the air because she didnt realize it was a min. of 8 hrs from cody to there)
7. next day glacier
8. next day fly home

if we dont go to glacier we may do another day in yellowstone.
Click to expand...

We spent 5 VERY full days in YS and still didn't see everything, only partly because the road from Canyon Village to Tower-Roosevelt was closed. My favorite sites were: Upper Geyser Basin/ Grand Geyser (definitely the best one, can be reached from Old Faithful area); picnic at Great Fountain Geyser (second favorite); hiking the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from the lower parking lot up and back (you can drive to the top, though); Mammoth Hot Springs (elk wander town and the springs are pretty cool); Hayden and Lamont Valleys for bison (and bears/wolves, depending on time of year); West Thumb Basin...

I definitely remember seeing people on horseback near Fishing Bridge.

Pack or plan to buy a good shade hat, a sun shirt, and sunscreen. No trees grow where the dirt is boiling hot. :lol:
 
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