Help plan my weekend tour of Yellowstone + Grand Tetons NP

April 28, 2024 10:54 PM

What's the best way to drive from western Montana to visit Yellowstone and/or Grand Tetons NP, *and back* -- in a long weekend?

We're starting and ending in Missoula, MT, where we live, so after Glacier these are the next two closest national parks. I'm planning a long weekend type getaway in mid-May. We like scenic hiking and long drives without much need for rest stops. A lot of internet itineraries, understandably, assume that one is flying in/out of Jackson or Bozeman, and/or doing a one-way trip.

I know we definitely can't see everything that's great about either of these parks in 3-4 days, but if we just want to see *some* interesting things (we can always repeat this drive and visit different sights another time), is it crazy to do both parks or should we pick one at a time?

Thanks in advance to the national park gurus out there, I'll repay the karma if anyone has questions about visiting Glacier NP!

posted by serelliya to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

If you are just planning this now, you are going to have a hard time finding anyplace to stay. And depends on what you want to see in the park. I used to go through every year. Missoula is about 4 hours to West Yellowstone. I would go from Spokane->Big Sky->Yellowstone->parts east.

In the park I would head up to the Norris Geyser Basin, check to see if Steamboat was erupting, (never was, missed it by like 2 days a few years back, so disappointed), then hit Old Faithful and walk that area, and then drive out the east side of the park.

If you want to see Mammoth, or the falls, that changes things, as those are north.

It's just the coolest place on earth, but the whole world knows it, and there just aren't any rooms available, unlikely there will be any in the park. Jackson certainly has more rooms, but a bit of a haul to go from there back to Yellowstone every day. And Grand Teton is a beautiful park, but it isn't full of geysers.
posted by Windopaene at 7:49 AM on April 29

For my money, having done the opposite from the other side a couple of years back, you can do the south loop of Yellowstone in one day, but it's a hustle. I think the western entrance (from West Yellowstone) was a little less of a haul than the eastern entrance from Cody, so that might help? Or maybe it's less of a distance thing than a mountain pass thing coming from the east with switchbacks and game over drops to one side that slows you down.

Staying in the park is, as Windopaene said, probably unlikely without significant preplanning. But we managed to rock up to Cody without any serious plans and ended up in a nice hotel room, and we stayed in a nice cabin about a half hour out of West Yellowstone last year with only minimal planning. We were travelling in the shoulder season, so that probably helped, and the month between September 6th and October 6th was the difference between feeling like we basically had the park to ourselves in October and random hour long backups because someone saw a squirrel on the exit road in September.

I will say that coming up from the south from Jackson Hole to West Yellowstone, we managed to sneak in a hike at Jenny Lake on the way, but it was a long day. The southern entrance to Yellowstone from the Tetons is very pretty but also _very long_. I don't think we stopped to see anything on the way through Yellowstone and still showed up at our cabin around 8pm.

I know people love the Tetons, but I suspect it's a destination that needs to be planned out with alternatives and contingencies, because it's not really apparent from the road in the way that Yellowstone is. Yellowstone is _constantly_ like "HEY MUD VOLCANOS HERE COME LOOK" and "HEY WE GOT A WATERFALL HERE, PULL OVER!" The Tetons were less so, only a few signs and a couple of hints about where you might want to go. It's pretty to drive along, sure, and I hear there's a lot of fantastic hiking to be done, but you need to sit down with AllTrails and figure out what you want to see and where it is, because the park doesn't really hold your hand for trail heads.

I can't speak to the season - we figured the week after school started would have been better, but I think it just meant a lot of adults took the week after Labor Day off to go to the park. October was nice, but the days were pretty short, so you didn't have the benefit of an extra couple of hours in the evening.

...dangit, now I want to go back out again.
posted by Kyol at 8:20 AM on April 29 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Surprisingly, there seem to be rooms available at both Lake Yellowstone Cabins and Old Faithful Inn (east side w/ partial geyser view, but correspondingly more expensive) for my dates. Must be from cancellations... any thoughts on which is a better place to stay for 2 nights? It's the shoulder season, the road to Tower Falls won't even be open yet.
posted by serelliya at 9:09 AM on April 29 [1 favorite]

The best trip of my life was in August - September 2021 after Covid to see Glacier, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.

We drove from Glacier to Gardiner, Montana. Close enough to wake up early and get to Lamar Valley in an hour or so to see wildlife at sunrise. Highly recommend.

We stayed in Yellowstone at Old Faithful Inn after Gardiner! I loved it. Note that the rooms still available might utilize shared bathrooms, but who cares? The place is incredible.

We left from there to the Tetons to stay in Curry Village the first night. If you are open to tent cabins, that could be an option. From there, we stayed in Jackson at the Ranch Inn Motel. Loved that spot.

I’d highly recommend this audio tour guide you can purchase and download ahead of the trip. Will be a great way to understand where you are, the history, geography and more. It’s GPS based. Here’s the link: https://guidealong.com/
posted by glaucon at 10:52 AM on April 29

I'd go for the Old Faithful Inn. Would love to stay there!

It's a zoo, but...
posted by Windopaene at 12:42 PM on April 29 [1 favorite]