Tips and Tricks for Visiting Yellowstone

Want to visit the most famous National Park in the US and don’t know where to start? We can help!

Visiting Yellowstone National Park is a dream trip – especially for a family. But, planning it can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to begin. We’ve combined our top tips to help you plan a successful trip to Yellowstone National Park!

Plan, Plan, Plan!

Yellowstone is not a trip where you can just wing it. The park is enormous, lodging books up early, and you need to know where you are going each day if you don’t have cell phone coverage. Some of these tips will be covered in more detail … but – the big message here is: you have to plan in advance when taking this trip!

We researched this trip for probably 9-12 months ahead of time. With a park this big, you’ll want to understand what your top priorities are. Once we booked lodging, we continued to research and refine our plan for months after.

I’d recommend start watching some videos, reading some blogs and picking the things you really want to see and plotting them on a map. This will help you understand where you want to prioritize your time based off of your trip length. You’ll also want to check the official websites to understand if any parts of the parks are closed while you will be there. This happens pretty regularly as areas need road repairs, or have closures due to weather etc.

You’ll need at LEAST 3 full days in the park if you want to see most of the highlights. Anything less than that, you’ll need to focus on just one area of the park.

Lodging

When going to Yellowstone, you’ll want to book your lodging early. There are a few places you can stay in the parks, and in different areas. The lodging inside of the park books up really early. This is why planning your itinerary is so important – because you’ll want to know where it makes sense to stay before you book. You’ll likely be moving hotels to be more efficient with your driving if you’re staying more than 2-3 days.

There are a few options:

• Stay outside of the park: There are hotels in West Yellowstone (we stayed here) that are cheaper than inside the park, and are just a few minute drive to the entrance and in a really great location to visit Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Spring. Similarly, Gardiner is a town just to the North of the park entrance and has hotels as well
• Stay inside the park: book at the official park website: and there are many options. We stayed at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel (amazing) and the Lake Yellowstone Cabins (wonderful). There are other options but some, like the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and the Old Faithful Inn are pretty pricey.

I’d recommend: 2 nights in West Yellowstone area, 2 nights in Mammoth Hot Springs and 1 night at Lake Yellowstone.

This view is from our window in Mammoth! Just watching herds of elk walking outside your hotel is so awesome.

National Parks Pass

Most National Parks charge entrance fees, and Yellowstone has a fee of $35/vehicle for the week. You’ll want to determine which pass is best for you and your family. If you’re planning on staying longer than a week in Yellowstone, or even if not – you may want to consider the America the Beautiful Pass. This pass costs $80 and gets you into all National Parks and monuments for a full year. The pass is also good for your whole family – as long as you all fit into one car! This is a great option if you’re also visiting Grand Teton during this trip – which you probably are, or should certainly consider if not already. It also makes entering the gates easier in the mornings because you already have your pass. Order ahead so you have time for it to arrive in the mail.

Rise and Shine!

Do you love to sleep in and relax on vacation!? Then don’t come to Yellowstone National Park! This is NOT a trip for people who hate mornings. 🙂 Getting up early is so important during this trip for a few reasons:

• Beat the crowds! – The lines to enter Yellowstone are kind of ridiculous. We got in line to enter the park every morning before 7:30 and still had 30 or so cars ahead of us. Later in the morning, the lines are really crazy. Also – if you get in fast, you can hit up some of the most busy attractions early in the morning before it’s so crowded you can’t move, and before parking fills up!
• Better animal experiences! – The animals are often much more active in the morning, so getting out early on days when you hope to see animals is key. They are active in the evenings as well, but you don’t want to be driving on the roads after dark.
• So much to do! The days in Yellowstone will be jam packed with stuff to do. If you don’t get an early start, it will be really hard to get done everything you want to do.

So, pickup some breakfast to go and eat it by the river once you enter the park, or in the parking lot of your first stop.

Pick one region per day

As mentioned, Yellowstone is huge. My map below shows how we spent each day (each color being a different day). Here were our driving times (not including any traffic)

• Day 1 (purple): 1hr 55 min
• Day 2 (green): 1hr 40 min
• Day 3 (red): 2hrs 16 min
• Day 4 (yellow): 2hrs 31 min

The way we broke it out allowed for the least amount of backtracking each day. It also helped us prioritize things to do in that particular region. If you have a good plan of what you want to see, you may organize a bit differently, but just be aware of how large the park is. Additionally, you may get caught in a lot of traffic, circling for parking spots, or (more fun) a bison traffic jam. So be prepared that the 2 hour drive may take a lot longer!

Get off the beaten path

Of course you’ll want to see things like Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Spring, but also make an attempt to see a few things that are a bit more unique. Most of the main geyser basin board walk trails are right off the main road (seen in my map above), so they get lots of crowds. There are tons of other hiking trails or less popular attractions that you can visit and feel like you have them to yourself! Use something like AllTrails to search for hikes in the area. A few of our favorite stops that had almost no other people:

• Storm Point Trail near Lake Yellowstone – this is an easy hike with lake views and lots of beautiful forests to walk through. It’s a favorite hike of our family

• Trout Lake Trail near Lamar Valley – we didn’t see anyone else on this trail – and it has a gorgeous lake view!

• Mud Volcano near Lake Yellowstone – still some crowds but way less crowded compared to other boardwalks

• West Thumb Geyser Basin near Lake Yellowstone – another boardwalk hike with less crowds and – also has lake views!

• Picnic Areas – or just pick a beautiful picnic area to rest with hardly any crowds

Maps and Cell Phones

We lost cell phone coverage a lot while we were in the park. While most activities you’ll do are pretty much right on the main drives around the park, it’s still smart to have some ways to know where you’re going if you can’t access the internet. I’d recommend 3 things –

• download the NPS app for Yellowstone which has offline maps, and other info about the park
• print paper maps – I know this sounds a little old school, but it helps!
• write down the distance between stops we were making so we knew when to lookout for the turnoffs. Some of the smaller attractions have tiny parking lots that jump out at you, so you’ll want to be ready!

Have a picnic

There are a ton of good reasons to plan ahead and pack a picnic!

• There are amazing picnic areas all around Yellowstone – with minimal crowds, beautiful views and a peaceful place for lunch – what more could you ask for!
• It will save a ton of money – plus – the food in the park is expensive and not even that great!
• Saves time – being able to stop at a picnic stop vs wait in a long line for food or drive out of your way to find something to eat – is a great time savings

Just make sure you clean up all of your mess and don’t leave trash anywhere in the park!

Weather

The weather can change rapidly in Yellowstone. We were there in July and it was chilly in the morning (50’s or so) and we had jackets, but by the afternoon when it was in the 70’s it was boiling! Some of the boardwalks where they are very exposed to the sun were so incredibly hot, even for being under 80 degrees outside. Bring lots of layers of clothes. It can also rain unexpectedly, so we brought rain jackets too!

Don’t be that person…

We’ve all seen videos of people walking right up to the bison and being chased away, or, even worse, killed. They are wild animals – and shouldn’t be messed with. You need to stay far away, even if they look nice, they will charge you. Bison, specifically, are the largest mammal in North America and weigh up to 2,000 pounds! There are also wolves, bears and elk in the area – all of which can and will charge at you.

When you’re in a place like Lamar Valley, you will get to see hundreds, or even thousands of bison. Just stay in your car though – you’ll see plenty 🙂 They will even walk right up next to you!

If you’re lucky enough to see a bear like we did, just make sure to maintain a safe distance if you’re out of your car watching. In some cases, if they are spotted, a ranger will be there making sure people are far enough away and respecting their space.

On that topic – we did purchase bear spray while we were in the area, but never needed it. It’s not a bad thing to have if you plan to get on any hiking trails away from crowds. You likely don’t need it if you’re just on the boardwalks, but since we spent over a week in the area, we did have some. It’s expensive though – and you can’t bring it home on the plane, but you can donate it back to the park.

Hope this helps!

If you’re planning a trip to Yellowstone and need help, reach out! We’d be happy to share our itinerary or help you plan a trip. Check out our video for more details about what we did while in the area.