Description
This article is from the Outdoor
Activities for Young Children FAQ, by Gloria Logan
glogan@atk.com with numerous contributions by others.
36 GENERAL CAMPING: Yellowstone
:My son will be ten this summer and wants to see Yellowstone. I'd like
:to take him there but I don't care to drive the whole way myself from
:the Chicago area. Does anyone know if it is possible to "do
:Yellowstone" without driving there? I realize this may sound silly
:but the only times I've been there we camped, and this was back in the
:'60s and '70s and I detested it.
:
:I DID like the hikes and the hot springs and all the other wonders
:of nature (but a bed indoors, please) and I know Chris would too. I'm
:wondering if there isn't some kind of arrangement in Cheyenne where
:you fly and rent a car and stay in a lodge or some other plan they've
:devised for us sort-of-back-to-nature buffs? :-) I'll check with a
:travel agent but if someone's been there and done the Yellowstone
:curcuit without camping out, I'd appreciate reading your experiences
:(and advice!!!)
We did something similar to what you're suggesting last spring, even
though we drove to yellowstone from home (Denver). We went before
memorial day in May, and I'd recommend this if you can make it work.
Yellowstone is full of HUGE parking lots that fill up with tour buses
during the summer, and they were all nearly empty when we were there.
No lines anywhere, and we saw LOTS of wildlife. Christopher (3 yo at
the time) didn't stop talking about the herds of buffalo & elk we saw
on the road (I mean LITERALLY - we had to drive around them & wait for
them to move) for a couple of weeks afterward.
We stayed one night in West Yellowstone (little tourist trap of a town,
but the motel was nice) and one night in Jackson (another tourist town
where stuff seemed really expensive). West Yellowstone is on the
northwest border of the park and is fairly convenient to Mammoth and
Old Faithful; Jackson is about an hour south of the southern entrance.
Also, Jackson is right next to Teton Nat'l Park, which is worth a visit
in itself.
Something that struck us while we were there is the sheer size of the
park. We spent 2 days in the park, and felt like we had just scratched
the surface. Make sure you schedule plenty of time there, especially
if you go in the summer (we heard lots of horror stories about traffic
jams).
I'd suggest flying into Jackson & renting a car there, and spending one
night at the Old Faithful or Mammoth lodge (if you can afford them &
reserve ahead of time) or in West Yellowstone, and then driving back to
Jackson & spending the rest of your trip there.
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children, child, kid, Outdoor Activities, backpacking, ski, canoeing, biking, camping, trailer
