Grand Teton/Yellowstone

I would love some advice on driving from Denver to the Teton/Yellowstone area and camping there. We are allowing about 5-6 days. How long will it take to drive there, and what is a good central camping (tent) park for both parks? Or is it better to see the Tetons first and then move to another park for Yellowstone? We will be going on to Glacier next and coming back through Idaho and Utah, so no second view on the way back. Thanks in advance, everyone! I don%26#39;t go anywhere without trip advisor first!!

Grand Teton/Yellowstone

Greetings,

You certainly can have a nice trip in your time frame, but be warned you will likely want to come back and spend more time on your next Trip. First, how many days total including drive days to/from Denver, and how do you plan to sleep (hotels or camping)?

I would drive from Denver through Lander, WY and arrive in Jackson about 8-10 hours later (depending on stops) and split my trip between the 2 parks. If you have 2 nights in Grand Teton and 4 nights to explore Yellowstone would be about the minimum I could recommend. An itinerary womight look something like this:

Day 1 - Drive from Denver to Jackson.

Day 2 - Explore GTNP (Moose Visitor Center, Jenny Lake, Signal Mt, Colter Visitor Center, maybe Cascade Canyon hike).

Day 3 - Explore Jackson (am), and drive to YNP 1/2 lower loop (West Thumb, Lake) in the pm.

Day 4 - drive upper loop (Fishing Bridge, Hayden Valley, Mt Washburn, Tower Falls, Lamar VAlley, Mammoth)

Day 5 - Drive lower loop (Norris, Firehole Falls, Upper %26amp; Lower Geyser Basin, Old Faithful)

Day 6 - Leave YNP for Denver(10hrs)

I know this is a very loose plan, but without knowing your lodging needs and what you are most interested in seeing/doing while here I wanted to just give you a quick overview of what you might think about for days and mileage within your 5-6 days. If you have more details, there are many other suggestions I can make to fit your schedule.

Let us know how I can help,

- Kery

Day 5

Grand Teton/Yellowstone

very nice plan! sounds about right from here. i hope you enjoy your trip!

Thank you for the great advice and daily plan. That will help a lot. Does anyone have a recommendation for a camping (tent) place outside the parks? Will we need to do two different places for the Tetons and then Yellowstone, or is there one ';in the middle??'; Two adults, no kids involved. Thanks everyone.

Previous posters had good suggestions. I%26#39;m confused about just how much time you have in total. If 5 - 6 days for YNP and GRNP, fine, but I assume you are not including Glacier in that time frame.

If you are going to camp, I would recommend Jenny Lake CG, but I don%26#39;t think that your later arrival on the first day will have any available (usually 1st to fill every day), but I can recommend Gros Ventr5e as a nice second choice CG. It is nicely situated between the town of Jackson and the Moose entrance to GTNP. It is a very quiet area off the hwy a nice bit but in a great location. They also offer an evening ranger program that is always enjoyable.

As for Yellowstone you have 4 choices; the first is reserve all nights at the larger CG%26#39;s, the 2nd would be to go to the first come first serve CG%26#39;s, 3rd would be a combination of fist the 2, and the 4th would be to base everything out of Canyon.

I would make my first reservation at Canyon (res), my second night at Pebble Creek (No res), and the 3rd at Madison (res). This will give you great coverage of the park and a different camp experience each night.

Canyon is reservation CG is located in a thick forest of Lodge Pole Pine and is the most centrally located of the group, it offers restrooms with running cold water, flush toilets, and showers and laundry at the check-in office. Pebbel Creek (usually the last to fil but worth it) is a small CG is in the NE corner of the park through the Lamar Valley and is very quiet. It has a nice mountain get away feel to it and in the far back of the camp is a couple of nice walkin sites that are perfect for tenters. Madison CG is another large camp that is centrally located on the western side of the park closest to Old Faithful. It offers mostly the same ammenities as Canyon but without showers and is within 30 minutes of W. Yellowstone if you want to go into town.

These are good places to start considering and if these look good then I recommend that you quickly make reservatiosn as the longer you wait the more difficult it can be to secure reservations for the summer. Be assured though, if you can%26#39;t make a desired reservation that for a tent site there is much flexability to obtain single night sites almost every morning as a back up.

Let me know if you have any more questions,

- Kery

An important question might be what time of year is your trip? The entrance to Yellowstone that is near Teton is closed part of the year, and the drive to the other entrance is a long one.

Other than that, sounds like a great trip.

kari

South entrance to YNP, from GTNP opens May 9 this year.