Stay in Jackson Hole Wy the entire time or move around

We have never been to YNP before and are planning on going in September 2008.

We already have reservations at Cowboy Village. The reviews look promising!

We plan on seeing all of Yellowstone and th GT. Will we be able to do this by staying in Jackson Hole the entire time?

We are staying a week?

Any info is greatly appreciated!

Stay in Jackson Hole Wy the entire time or move around

Realistically no. You%26#39;re looking at something like a 2 hour drive to get to the loop road in the park. You%26#39;ll lose too much time to and from. Stay in Jackson if you want for the Tetons. Consider West Yellowstone or something in the park for seeing Yellowstone.

Here%26#39;s a link to our pictures and trip reports. There%26#39;s a link to a Yellowstone Interractive Map that I created. By this evening, I may have added estimated driving times between the points. The park is huge.

www.alandsuejohnson.com/yellowstone_home.htm

If you look at the map, click on the Grand Tetons link on the bottom link to see mileages from Jackson to the park.

Stay in Jackson Hole Wy the entire time or move around

Your time frame of a week is good, but as AKJ said, you really can%26#39;t tour Yellowstone well by making Jackson your base. It%26#39;s 60 miles one way from Jackson to the South entrance of Yellowstone, and you have to factor in wildlife jams throughout the park and just getting to some of the major areas. With a week, you can move around between Jackson and another location inside Yellowstone or possibly in West Yellowstone or Gardiner, MT. I would allocate 2 nights in Jackson and use the balance for touring Yellowstone.

We made West Yellowstone our base and found it pretty convenient. It is close to the geyser basins. It is about 50 miles to Mammoth Hot Springs, but we really didn%26#39;t mind the drive. Getting there is half the fun in Yellowstone. As you have probably seen, the road in Yellowstone is designed like a figure 8, and we broke the major sightseeing areas of the 8 into days. West Yellowstone is a small town with many privately owned motels and restaurants. It has a nice small western town feel and it is only a few minutes to enter the west entrance of the park.

September is a great time to visit! The crowds are gone, the weather is pretty good, and some of the hotel rates even go down.

Enjoy your trip.

September is a great time to go to GT and Yellowstone. We went this past september and had a wonderful time. It was our first trip there. We stayed at a ranch for 3 nights outside of GT and then in West Yellowstone for 3 nights and the last night in Jackson. I am not much on shopping so 1 night in Jackson was enough. Staying at the ranch was nice. It was a working ranch but not in September and the rates were cheaper. West Yellowstone was nice also. There are several hotels to choose from there. September is a great month to go in my opinion. The traffic wasn%26#39;t bad at all. glad to help if I can.

Sept. in GTNP is wonderful. I spent two seasons working in the park and it was always my favorite time.

As for staying in Jackson and daytripping to Yellowstone, I would not recommend it. Remember, in the park driving is always unpredictable and it always take longer than you think it will. In Yellowstone it%26#39;s mostly 25 mph and there are places where the raod is not the best condition. Also in Sept, especially late Sept, there%26#39;s the possibility of bad weather. It%26#39;s better to be close that way you can break up the park and give yourself a chance to get out of the car.

i would reccomend flipping your travel plans to stay inside YNP and visiting jackson hole and the tetons from a base there. it%26#39;s not so much the 60 miles separating the parks as it is the immense size of the yellowstone park. our last visit we stayed inside the park at three different lodges, visited the tetons, and put an astounding 1000 miles on the rental car. most of that was just inside YNP too. if you are planning to stay 7 days i would plan on two days in the tetons adn the rest at YNP. we were not prepared for the distances inside the park between attractions. i%26#39;ll never forget when we first entered the park from w. yellowstone getting dirrections to our hotel as we entered. the instructiosn were to go 16 miles and turn left to get to the lake. after driving the 16 miles and making the left turn, we were quite surprised to see yet another sign informing us that it was another 22 miles to the lodge. all of this was just in the northwest quadrant of the park. enjoy your vist!

Thank you for all the wonderful information! VERY Helpful for a newbee! AKJ your website is wonderful!

OK so I am taking the info and have started pricing and looking at the lodging in Yellowstone!

I was thinking of trying the Fountain Inn/lodge, but am a little scared due to the reviews that I have seen.

We are by no means picky people and I really think that we will be really tired at night since we plan on getting up a sunrise each morning to take pictures!

Do you miss having the bathroom in the room?? I would love some feed back on how sharing a bathroom went.

There are only 4 places open when we will be in YNP in September so my choices are slim.

I am now thinking that we will fly into Jackson and stay the night there, b/c the only flights we are finding put us arriving at 5pm or later, and getting up the next day and move into the park to stay and then coming back out to Jackson at the end of the week.

Does that sound like a better plan?

Sorry that there are so many questions but we have never been to this part of the country and are starting with no previous knowledge in the planning of this trip! VERY excited about going though!

It%26#39;s an excellent plan to stay the first night in Jackson and leave for Yellowstone in the morning. We did the exact same thing when we visited, and we got in earlier than you will.

Sorry I can%26#39;t help out in your question about sharing a bathroom, as I have never done this. I guess I%26#39;m the kind of person who likes having her own private bath. I think it%26#39;s a great idea that you are looking to stay inside the park since you are wanting to check out the wildlife early. Staying inside will save drive time. From what I have read, keep checking for cancellations in lodging, as they seem pretty typical. The nice thing is you are planning well in advance. Don%26#39;t know what your budget is, but the Old Faithful Lodge was beautiful---classic national park lodge architecture.

Our favorite place to stay in Yellowstone during September is the Lake Hotel. We love getting up in the morning and watching the sun rise over the mountains in the east and also spending an afternoon in the sun porch (or on the pier) watching the sun set.

We vacationed at Jackson Hole last Sept.. it was a wonderful vacation.. I tell people it compares to alaska and Hawaii as you see just as beautiful waterfalls as you do in Hawaii and just as much wildlife as alaska. I think having a week should be fine. We were there five days and did about everything we wanted. We could have had another day in Yellowstone but did allow a day for relaxing. Be sure to do the Jenny Lake hike. You take a boat across I think it was about 8 dollars a piece. It hikes up the mountain and is beautiful. You can take it at your own pace, we are in our late 50%26#39;s so slowing down. Jackson is a great place to stay close to yellowstone, however plan on the whole day to go there. We were so close to wildlife and in Sept. they are down from the mountains for rut. The elk would bugle and defend their herd. we would go out to watch them about 4;30 or 5 until dark. I saw the cabins you are going to stay in and they look nice. We stayed in a condo. If you would like to see some of my pics write me back and I will share an addy to see them..

Enjoy your vacation.. Linda

You didn%26#39;t mention the specific time of the month you are going to be in Yellowstone. The year we went in late Sept. it snowed like crazy and the road from Jackson to Yellowstone was closed for several days. Fortunately we had gotten to West Yellowstone before then so we were able to go into the park from there.