The park is huge . . . Stay in two or three places. If you can get ressie's inside the park great! We stayed in Old Faithful area, Lake and Mammoth. Do you driving sightseeing on move days and do your walks/hikes on the "stay" days.
What do you mean by move days and stay days?
tent camp at the tetons at the lake jenny (i think thats what it is called) tent only site! we did that a few years ago. drove to yellowstone each day. it was amazing. my DD said it was better than disney. the wildlife was unreal
Yellowstone
Recommendations on places to stay?
Going for one week. Would you stay in more than one location?
Anything advice recommendations in general?
thanks
It freaked me out a few years back on a visit to the area because they didn't universally have bear boxes. When I was looking into camping or tent cabins, I was told it was perfectly acceptable to store food in the trunk of a car. I'm used to visiting parts of the Sierra Nevada where bears are notorious for breaking into cars. Heck - I remember visiting the PNW in areas with bears, and was told that it was perfectly acceptable to just store stuff locked in the car. Apparently they had no worries about bears - just squirrels or birds. At one campground our neighbor didn't feel like packing everything back in the car and left it on their site's picnic table. In the morning that table was surrounded by birds looking for a way into their cooler and other containers.You've gotten some great advice.
On our last trip we flew into Bozeman, stayed at Mammoth, then at Canyon, and then at Old Faithful Inn.
I usually like to stay in one place the whole time on vacation, but Yellowstone is so vast and huge, I make an exception for that. One stay I stayed in West Yellowstone and it was just soo much driving. This time even with no back tracking and staying at three locations, it was much better, but still quite a bit of driving. Stay multiple places to spend more time out vs. in your car.
At Canyon we camped. It was a lot of work. Due to not wanting bears to ever smell anything and associate people with food, unless you are preparing meals you need to keep all food in your car or in a bear box (extra work on top of everything you already have to do.) // It gets cold at night. We were there in August. It was in the mid to upper 70s during the day, but burr got into the low 30s at night. (Cold for me in a tent. Fine for me in a lodge.) // The roads and short tourist boardwalks, etc. are really busy in the summer. Although just go on a hike and you won't see many people at all. I would have liked lighter crowds, but am tied to the school schedule. Ranger programs are great and well worth doing if they fit in with your schedule and where you are going to be. And they are free -- or should I say paid for by our tax dollars.
http://www.backpacker.com/ask-a-bear-destroy-can/survival/15498
Q: While in Lake Tahoe, I woke up at 5:30 or so to my minivan's hazard lights flashing. After rallying the troops out the door, we were greeted with one big black bear crawling out the driver side window with two little ones in tow. There were two other vehicles explored in the drive way, but their doors were unlocked and therefore not pawed open Why in the hell did you have to destroy my minivan?? Eryka Thorley, via email
A: Let's take a look at the damage:
Eep. Sorry about that, Eryka. The fact is, in certain places (California, especially) I've learned to associate minivans with food. While it's true that if you left your car unlocked, I probably would've left without causing more damage, that's not really an practical solution, for obvious reasons.
If you plan to park your car overnight in places that have a history of vehicular bear break-ins, the only real preventative measure is to leave your car in civilization and get a ride to the trailhead. That's often not an option, so unless you've got a clunker with nothing to steal, you'll just be taking a chance. Try and find alternate trailheads with less bear activity, and never, ever leave food out in the car. (If you've got too much food to pack, store it in the trunk.)
Even after taking these preventative measures, it's still possible I could go grand theft auto on your minivan. What can I say? I'm smarter (and stronger) than your average thief.
BEAR