Camping at Yellowstone

[Jim Oaks]

Man, you're not living until you wake up at night to the sound of a bear outside your tent.

 

[DILLARD000]

Been to Yellowstone several times, mid-summer is about the worse time:
extremely crowded roads+camps+hotels, traffic jams, hotter than you may expect, etc.
I'd choose to try for a Federal\State\Private campsite outside of Yellowstone\Teton national parks,
then just make day trips into the parks to see those sites.
Worth it if you've never seen OldFaithful & the various Geysers\HotSprings;
not so much if you've already been there, done that,
many other options for less crowded, less expensive, just as scenic areas in WY\MT\ID.

 

[Curious Hound]

I’ve heard that you should tie little bells to your clothing to keep the bears away.

One way to know if there are bears nearby is that there will be little shiny bells in their poop.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Been to Yellowstone several times, mid-summer is about the worse time:
extremely crowded roads+camps+hotels, traffic jams, hotter than you may expect, etc.
I'd choose to try for a Federal\State\Private campsite outside of Yellowstone\Teton national parks,
then just make day trips into the parks to see those sites.
Worth it if you've never seen OldFaithful & the various Geysers\HotSprings;
not so much if you've already been there, done that,
many other options for less crowded, less expensive, just as scenic areas in WY\MT\ID.

Grand Teton is nice too.

 

[bilbo]

Stupid tourists too.

When we camped there in the 90's Japanese tourists were sprinkling M&M's around because they wanted to see a bear.

They ended up getting booted from the campground after they got a bear in their campsite and the ranger people figured out what was going on.

Nothing to do with bears, but when we visited the Black Hills a few years back there were tons of tourists trying to get photos of Bison. There are warnings literally everywhere not to approach them. The worst was in one of the badlands areas I saw a couple sitting in the grass on the wrong side of the fence with their big SLR camera photographing maybe 15 yards from a big bull. Each time he moved away, they followed. I watched waiting for them to learn a hard lesson but it never happened.

 

[RobbieD]

I would prefer to spend the least amount of money possible on food and make food before I leave. All of my camping stuff is back home, so I won't have any cooking equipment unless I buy some. I was wondering if anybody had any tips, or suggestions on what to do

Easy.

step 1- Gather bear poop.

step 2- Break into cars, smash the coolers, and eat all the good stuff out of the coolers.

step 3- Scatter bear poop amongst the wreckage.

Cost is zero, the bears get the blame, and some of the humans will clear out, which will greatly enhance your wilderness experience.

 

[01WHTRNGR]

Man, I should've been able to think of that

 

[Curious Hound]

Easy.

step 1- Gather bear poop.

step 2- Break into cars, smash the coolers, and eat all the good stuff out of the coolers.

step 3- Scatter bear poop amongst the wreckage.

Cost is zero, the bears get the blame, and some of the humans will clear out, which will greatly enhance your wilderness experience.

Note; bear poop is the stuff with little shiny bells in it. Very easy to identify. Not pleasant to gather.

 

[01WHTRNGR]

Been to Yellowstone several times, mid-summer is about the worse time:
extremely crowded roads+camps+hotels, traffic jams, hotter than you may expect, etc.
I'd choose to try for a Federal\State\Private campsite outside of Yellowstone\Teton national parks,
then just make day trips into the parks to see those sites.
Worth it if you've never seen OldFaithful & the various Geysers\HotSprings;
not so much if you've already been there, done that,
many other options for less crowded, less expensive, just as scenic areas in WY\MT\ID.

Any ideas for places to go? I've lived in both Dakotas and Iowa so I'm mainly interested in visiting some mountains. I'd prefer some decent trails and a place to kayak. The campsite I was going book got reserved before I had a chance so now my plan is to camp on national forest land

 

[2011Supercab]

I'm tentatively planning a trip to Yellowstone this upcoming week due to have 9 days off of work.

With that being a holiday week, every campsite is probably already taken.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Any ideas for places to go? I've lived in both Dakotas and Iowa so I'm mainly interested in visiting some mountains. I'd prefer some decent trails and a place to kayak. The campsite I was going book got reserved before I had a chance so now my plan is to camp on national forest land

If they do it this year, the fireworks over Mount Rushmore are insane. I know they canceled it for a few years there.

 

[CrabGuy]

I assume you have a camper shell on the truck? Unless rules have changed in the last few years no soft side campers (pop-up) or tents are allowed in a majority of the Yellowstone campgrounds. We had several bear issues there as well as bison herds just roaming through our campground. Sequoia NP has by far the worst bear problem we've ever encountered.

 

[Josh B]

We saw Yellowstone in one day, bears included and that was 50 years ago. We came through Cody Wyoming, maybe stayed a night around there, not certain. We went in from the east side and it was the final day of the season, We went south to the Tetons and went back through checking out old faithful and some geysers, hot springs and such. Some bears on side of the road were trying to mooch some goodies. I think they must be near sighted cause as we pulled closer they went into the brush and as we drove on by they were coming back out.
We were in a Kharman Ghia convertible and didn't want too close. We got to the north west gate just as the sun was setting. I think the park ended at the state line and outside the park was a town named Yellowstone Montana who wanted to sell us $15 hamburgers, in 1971

 

[DILLARD000]

...places to go? ...mountains ...trails and a place to kayak ...national forest land

My last trip to YellowStone area 20+years,
there were private+NF camps along the YSRiver north in Montana,
& of course lots of spots along the SnakeRiver in Idaho.
Wife & I made several trips to the Themopolis HotSprings in central WY.
Again this has been many years ago, & things always change with time.
We always avoided mid-summer travel, just too crowded, high priced.
Sep+Oct was our preferred time,
though you can get caught in a WY snow storm anytime before or after July4th !