made it to yellowstone

[renodesertfox]

Great read Scot and thanks for sharing your experiences!

[Loucinda]

We lOVED Yellowstone and Glacier. Reading your posts sure makes us want to go back again soon.

[Bigdog57]

Scott, you have definitely given me some 'must see' places for whenever I can get out west!

[scott37300]

Well I didn't disappear but have been really busy since I got back. I just read threw this whole thread and thought I would summerize some things and add a couple details here and there.

Yellowstone was amazing and I am positive I will be back there within the next 2-3 years for sure. Seems like we went at the right time. The week after we left a bear attacked a campsite by yellowstone, not positive but from what I have read it was fairly close to mammoth where we stayed. Then the fugitives that they think went threw there. Woman was already a little scared to go and this doesn't help much.

As far as the sites go, we just drove around and stopped wherever the markers on the roads sad was a point of interest. Everything is pretty well marked and easy to find. Yellowstone basically just has one big loop for a road with a cross road, picture a figure 8. Lots of things to see including rivers and waterfalls, wildlife, hot springs. We camped at mammoth hot springs, I would highly recommend this site to others. The rason why is that it is only about a 2 minute drive and a ten minute hike from the mammoth hot spring that dumps into the yellowstone river and is a great hot tub and so relaxing. We went there almost every evening after a long day of exploring. Spent about 20-30 minutes in the hot part and then would walk out towards the middle and it was really cold and refreshing. Then went back and cooked supper.

My favorite sites were the grand canyon of yellowstone and the waterfalls. Artist's point, lower falls, uncle tom's trail, tower falls, bunch of trails all around this area that will take you to amazing views. Just be ready to kike and climb, hard workout but well worth it for the views. They have maps for free and what we did was just drive and explore everywhere we could, see a sign and follow it. Old faithfull was neat, yellowstone lake was nice and clear. Lots of hotsprings and other geo thermal features to see, just have to explore.

The campsites, if you don't have a reservation at one of the five that takes reservations you will need to get there early in the morning. We got ther around 7 and everything was full from the night before. How the first come first serve works is you just pull into the campsite you wish to stay at and park in the line and at 8 AM a "host" will open up the shack and start getting campsites. The down side is that checkout isn't till 11 so you might be there for a while waiting for a site to open up but you don't want to leave because then you might not get a site depending on how full they are. All the sites at mammoth had a picnic table and a fire pit with a pretty nice grill setup. You can raise and lower it for different heat temps. Also had a 10x10 tent pad with gravel. No bear boxes on the sites besides a couple sites for bicycles and hikers. Everything had to be kept in the car at all time.

The fire wood was barely adequite and expensive. I'm used to nice hardwood for fires but this was all thin pine and hard to get any good coals for cooking. And 7 bucks a box which lasted maybe 1 1/2 meals. Also make sure you bring enough food! A loaf of bread was almost 5 bucks. A 12 pack of beer was 16 bucks, and this was just bud light and not some special import! We were really limited on space so only brought what we could and needed to get a few things but for the most part we did alright. We got ice everyday which wasn't to expesive. There are some gas stations and the prices wasn't to bad, compared to the food. We filled up a couple of times while there. They are only in certain towns so just make sure you watch you fuel gauge, we almost had a close call!

Wildlife is amazing. Bison and elk are everywhere, was in aw when I first saw them but they were common sites and by the time we left they were like the neighborhood dog. Saw 5 bears and that was really neat. Most of what you see is just driving along and end up in a traffic jam and get out and look at what everyone else is looking at.

Well I think this pretty much summerizes this amazing trip. I was really glad we went and extremly happy that the woman and her kids enjoyed their first camping experience. Was a little worried they wouldn't like the camping life, especially yellowstone for their first one.

I am going to work on getting pics up in the next week, going on ur next camping trip this weekend so might not be till next week.

Thanks again to everyone for this very informative site and the advice you gave to help us threw.

Scott

[Smokey Mtn. Camper]

Scot, big thanks for your information. I will be there from July 19th through the 26th of 2011. I already have reservations for Canyon campground. We plan on using it for base camp since it is centrally located. Also, big bummer on the firewood. I plan to buy some before we enter the park because camping without a campfire is not near as fun IMHO, especially if you use it to cook, which we dont.

I camp mostly in the Great Smokey Mountains and my last trip, the rangers said that bringing in your own firewood will soon be forbidden. They already forbid firewood from several states around TN due to bug infestations but I live in the same county as Cades Cove campground. If that truely happens, we will cut down on the number of camping trips to my favorite place on earth. :(

I already have a couple of nice binos and was planning on buying a spotting scope. However, after searching around, I can rent a very, very nice scope when I get there for the entire week for like $90-100 bucks. You reccomended getting a scope as have others but I am not sure I will actually use it enough to buy.

I am building a Teardrop to take with us. It will actually be more of a "haulin" Teardrop instead of a travel trailer. We like to tent camp but hauling all our gear across country would be difficult without a cargo trailer. My wife is calling it our cupboard on wheels cause that is what it will be used for...Storage...Camp kitchen...and haulin. I have high hopes that it will enable us to bear proof much easier than it is now. We will see. Since the back will swing open to a outdoor kitchen, we will never be able to sleep in it due to the food smells that will inevitably permeate throughout the rest of the trailer.

Look forward to the pics and I will make sure everyone sees my blog when the time for our camping trip of a lifetime begins next year. Until then...post those pics and let me know some things you would do/not do on your next trip to yellowstone. I am referring to both campsite and the park itself.

[scott37300]

Smokey, the wood issue was a real bummer for me. We cooked over a fire each nite, they had a really nice grill setup built right into the fire pit and I am a grilling guy. We went threw a box of wood a day for our supper and nitely fire, at 7.50 a box. They also charge 3 or 3.50 for this little bundle of kindling, which is just the other wood split into 1-2 inch thick slivers. I brought an axe so I just took a peice of the fire wood and taught the girls how to split wood. They really liked that. The part of this wood issue that really stinks is everywhere you look there are trees on the ground from past forest fires and what not. Someone said that since it's a national park the wood is protected, I was going to ask a ranger but I didn't see anyone gathering wood so just figured that was a no go and bought the boxes.

I didn't know they rented scopes there. I very much dislike renting most things, something about paying money to "borrow" something and in the end you don't get anything. I do a lot of construction work and if I need a special tool for a job I will almost always buy one instead of renting one. I needed a pressure washer to wash my deck about 5 years ago and called about renting one and it was 50 bucks a day and I knew it would be at least two days. I ended up just buying a 400 dollar one, have used it many times since and it's payed for itself. Sometimes renting is the better option if you are sure that you will only use it once, but I would think a scope would be something that gets used often if you camp a lot. Not sure what a nice one costs but personally I would buy one if they are 400-500 bucks if you have the money. You use it 4-5 times and it pays for itself. If you don't think you will ever use one again then renting one would be best.

Canyon is centrally located and is a nice "town". It had the best shops with the most things from food and also shirts and what not. The also have a nice little restuarant and a pretty nice museum. It is also located where we saw a lot of the wildlife. Elk and bison by hayden valley and other locations. And we had a couple bear sitings between canyon and tower falls. It's also close to the falls and the grand canyon which are really nice, one of my favorite parts. I'm not sure how the showers work at canyon since it's run by xanterra but at mammoth we had to go up to the hotel and pay 3.75 per shower. So that is something to look into since it adds up quick for a family. We roughed it and just went to the mammoth springs "hot tube" as our showers.

Not sure if you have to bear proof in the smokies but it was my first time dealing with that and it wasn't as bad as what I thought. Just have to keep the camp clean and put everything away, your trailer should make this really easy. There were plenty of water spouts close to the sites and when we washed dishes you have to dump the water in the toilets at the bathroom. We only had a little plastic case we used for storing things and double duty as our sink. A nice couple across the road from us was leaving and gave use a 3 gallon or so ice cream bucket to dump our water in and it made things easier to carry to the bathroom.

The tent pads at mammoth were only 10x10 or so. We have a 10x13 tent so it hung over on the sides. The pads are some landscaping timbers filled with gravel so they are 2-3 inches higher than the surronding area. Wasn't the best setup for a bigger tent. We had a tarp under the tent but still could feel the gravel when walking. The soil is gravel so pounding the stakes in was a challenge for a couple of them. Would hit a rock and have to move the stake over a little, bent a couple of the nice 10" stakes we bought.

There wasn't any misquitos which was really nice. The speed limit is 45 unless otherwise posted. Some of the roads look really curvy and hilly but they aren't really bad besides the mountains on the way in. You can do 45 on most of them but have to watch out for the bison that like to use them also. Cell phones only work in the towns and not when you are driving around. And no radio stations. Make sure you have a nice pair of hiking boots. We didn't have a lot of money to spend after buying all the neccesities but we did splurge and bought the whole family hiking shoes. Lots of walking up and down to get to the nice views. The kids had some troubles with the altitude. You get short of breathe within just a few minutes of hiking, and we are in fairly good shape. Canyon has a gas station and so do about 4 other towns. Just make sure you watch the gas, we didn't pay to much attention one day and cut it pretty close driving about 50 miles to the next gas station. Try and take plenty of food, will get expensive real fast if you need to buy stuff to eat. Ice isn't to expensive. Make sure you bring a water jug to take for the day trips. Get really thirsty hiking all day.

The best advice for getting to the sites is just to drive. We got a map of the major sites and the roads but there are a lot of little sites worth seeing. To find these we just drove down the road and most of the sites have a sign so we just stopped at each one and checked it out. Saw a lot of neat things by just stopping at all these signs. You also get admission to the tettons with your 25 dollar admision to yellowstone. We didn't get down there but something to check out if you get the time.

I think that is all I can think of for advice right now. If you have any specific questions I will do my best to answer them. Your trailer will also be nice because you can leave it at camp with all your stuff in during the day, we had to pack everything back in the car and take it with us.

[scott37300]

First pic is the bison on the road.

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The elk taking over the town, mammoth.

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This is the mammoth hot springs, a nice hot tube.

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Lots of firewood!

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One of the bears we saw.

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[scott37300]

Our view from the camp site.

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A hot water pool.

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Some pics of the lower falls and the grand canyon.

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[Smokey Mtn. Camper]

Yup, we have to bear proof in the Smokies so we are use to it. I just get tired of lugging our coolers to and from the vehicle so that was the "force" that pushed me to a Teardrop Cupboard..LOL

As far as the Field Scope goes, I use mainly binos when camping in the Smokies. The Smokies are very dense...tropical forest dense, so the need for a field scope is really not there. My Binos give me a field of vision that usually is more than good. Dont get me wrong, I would like to own a field scope but they are not cheap and I cant see me having a need more than maybe once a year. They are at the top of my wish list however.

The tent pads sound very similar to what we get in the Smokies except the ones we use are 13 X 13. I have a 10 X 10 Big Agnes w/ a 6 foot vestibule so as long as my tent fits the vestible will be fine off the pad.

I have a question...Do they frown on using trees to tie guy lines to? I usually install a 20 X 14 tarp over my tent and vestibule and I like to use trees to tie it off. I dont need to drive nails into the tree or damage the bark but I know some CG wont allow your gear to even touch a limb. I also have a couple of hammocks that I use straps to hang them by, is that an issue?

I have really enjoyed your indepth thread regarding Yellowstone. Some that I have talked to that have been a few times sorta forget what its like to go the first time so your point of view has been very valuable. I am suppose to do a blog about my trip and your insight has been a big help.

I plan on doing a thread of my Teardrop build so make sure and follow along. I already have my frame and will start the build sometime in late October...hopefully. I have some personal obligations that will keep me from starting but trust me, I have built it a 100 times in my head...:D

We are all making a list of things we each want to try to do and see while in Yellowstone and we also are planning a day trip to the Tetons. My biggest obstacle is the 2200 mile trip just to get there with a 10 year old and a 3 year old. I will worry about the trip back at a later time. I am entertaining the idea of going back through Little Big Horn but that will add a extra half day to a day to our return trip. Not sure the kids will be up to it after spending 7 nights in Yellowstone.

Anyway, thanks for sharing and keeping this thread alive with good info. So many people come on full of pizz and vinegar about their trip then disappear without a trace and we never know how things turned out. :eek:

By the way...nice pics!

[scott37300]

Will look forward to the teardrop build, will be perfect for yellowstone. Might be something I will have to look into.

As for the tree issue, we had one tree and a bush/shrub on our campsite. Not sure about canyon but mammoth didn't have many trees at the sites. I tied a cloths line to the tree and across to the shrub to hang towels on and no one said anything.

I like this site, might not check in everyday but will be around. I still have a lot to learn and come read the posts every couple days to learn from others questions and experiences.