Yellowstone & Glacier National Park

[GeorgeBullet]

In July We will be going up North to Yellowstone & Glacier National park From Los Angeles. We will be going north through Utah , We are very excited can't wait
and with two kids.... its going to be some exercise lol.

we will be staying at Madison & Grant Campground in Yellowstone & Fish Creek In Glacier.

Anyone else going to YS / Glacier in July?

[notanlines]

Both places will be packed, urchins of all ages everywhere, all of them having the time of their life. Take all the pictures your camera will stand. And I don't mean smart-phone pictures; real pictures. You will treasure them for many years.

[GeorgeBullet]

Thank Jim Taking a Sony Camcorder, smartphones are good but nothing beats SLR quality cameras..

[Canonman]

Don't forget Teton NP near Jackson Hole WY. Personally I think just as much to see and enjoy as Glacier. Highly recommend Gros-Ventre campground:
http://gtlc.com/rv/gros-ventre-campground
You can PM us for more specific info any time.

[Tinner12002]

Both places will be packed, urchins of all ages everywhere, all of them having the time of their life. Take all the pictures your camera will stand. And I don't mean smart-phone pictures; real pictures. You will treasure them for many years.


You mean a real camera...didn't know anyone owned those anymore, Lol!
I have an Olympus camera that I haven't seen in a few years, been tucked away in a drawer. It was great for taking underwater pics when we were in Cancun!

[JRTJH]

We've got a Fuji waterproof digital camera. It's easy to carry and fits in my pocket when not in use. It's "high quality" compared to a cell phone, but might fall short of a $1500 Canon digital with all the lenses available. It's good enough for us, and with 16 GB SD cards, we can get hundreds/thousands of pictures on a single card. Note to self: Buy more SD cards next time we're at Sam's. They cost 5 times as much at the souvenir shop at Yellowstone.....

[camperbrian]

I'll be in Yellowstone at Fishing Bridge July 4-9. Then a little south to the Tetons for a couple of days. Also on the way, staying at Custer State park a couple of nights. Taking 2 weeks. Looking forward to it!

[GeorgeBullet]

Teton is on our bucket list, might go there after Grant campground Thanks for the link I will look into it.
I have a Sony Alpha 6000 its as good as my Nikon D700 SLR & more compact, I highly recommend!
Ill be In Madison July 5-7 and Grant 7-10th

[ChuckS]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180209/4fe3577813a29034adbdcfe2e38fe64c.jpg

Always keep a camera at your side. You never know what will step out. Also pick a spot and pull over and wait a while. Many people just drive and drive not realizing what they missed. We go to YNP twice a year.. enjoy. Your adventure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hornet28]

Teton is on our bucket list, might go there after Grant campground Thanks for the link I will look into it.
I have a Sony Alpha 6000 its as good as my Nikon D700 SLR & more compact, I highly recommend!
Ill be In Madison July 5-7 and Grant 7-10th

Instead of going to West Yellowstone by way of Pocatello and Idaho Falls just north of Ogden take U.S. 89 and go through Jackson Hole and do the Tetons on the way to Yellowstone

[GeorgeBullet]

Instead of going to West Yellowstone by way of Pocatello and Idaho Falls just north of Ogden take U.S. 89 and go through Jackson Hole and do the Tetons on the way to Yellowstone


Taking the 89 to 191 is it easy drive pulling the travel trailer,

From Teton to Yellowstone Grant Campground hows the drive?

[ChuckS]

Take a look see at this link... it will shed some additional light on the drive to Tetons and YNP....

http://www.rvtechmag.com/travel/4_yellowstonebyrv.php?pg=all

[sourdough]

You mean a real camera...didn't know anyone owned those anymore, Lol!
I have an Olympus camera that I haven't seen in a few years, been tucked away in a drawer. It was great for taking underwater pics when we were in Cancun!


Thank goodness for the "modern" age and "real" cameras. Our 1st trip to Yellowstone I had a Minolta X-700 35mm camera; it was a nice camera. Spent 10 days going and doing with the kids. So many memorable occurrences traipsing through the woods that I caught on camera. Something like 15 rolls. Got home so excited to get them processed......nothing....NOTHING! ALL the rolls were black. I was sick and livid. Took the camera in and although everything sounded like it was working correctly the shutter was not opening. Put the camera and lenses on a shelf with my other photography stuff with a permanent note on the front of it...$h$t. It's still there today some 40? years later.

I now have very nice Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras with lots of lenses/filters/tripods etc. Where do they sit? In the closet with the other photography stuff while I carry point and shoots and a smart phone. One thing about the digital cameras; at least you can review what you shot and KNOW that you have a picture.

And, IMO make an effort to see the Grand Tetons - they are spectacular to us.

[GeorgeBullet]

Thank goodness for the "modern" age and "real" cameras. Our 1st trip to Yellowstone I had a Minolta X-700 35mm camera; it was a nice camera. Spent 10 days going and doing with the kids. So many memorable occurrences traipsing through the woods that I caught on camera. Something like 15 rolls. Got home so excited to get them processed......nothing....NOTHING! ALL the rolls were black. I was sick and livid. Took the camera in and although everything sounded like it was working correctly the shutter was not opening. Put the camera and lenses on a shelf with my other photography stuff with a permanent note on the front of it...$h$t. It's still there today some 40? years later.

I now have very nice Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras with lots of lenses/filters/tripods etc. Where do they sit? In the closet with the other photography stuff while I carry point and shoots and a smart phone. One thing about the digital cameras; at least you can review what you shot and KNOW that you have a picture.

And, IMO make an effort to see the Grand Tetons - they are spectacular to us.




You couldnt be more right with modern technology, my SLR and sony 4k camcorder spends most of its time in the shelf picking up dust And some 50k pictures on my cell

One thing i like
About the Sony camcorder i have you can view and uplod to your cell with wifi if you have signal like the gopros

Hopefully i have time for Teton

[TheGriz]

A little story when my DW and I had our two sons at YNP 2002, ages 9 and 12 the time. We were in Yellowstone for four days, and as we drove through the park, we regularly saw crowds of people and accompanying vehicles parked all over the road, gazing into a prairie or off the side of a mountain. So in the beginning we would always pull over and join the crowd and observe the wildlife somewhere out there!

So on the fourth day, the punchy side of me took over!:jester: I approached a pull-over along the side of road with absolutely nobody around, and parked my rented sedan. Kids and DW said "what are you doing?" I said "just follow me and do what I do." We got out of car and stood there gazing out in a large meadow, nothing was out there except grass, scrub brush, and a lone tree. Kids said "what's going on?" I said "Just stare at that lone tree out there." Car load after car load, the crowd grew around us as several dozen of us just stood there looking at absolute nothing. Everyone around us kept asking "what's out there?" Nobody saw anything, but kept standing there looking. My family turned around, said nothing, got back into our car, and dozens of folks kept staring "out there" at an empty meadow!!! And the crown kept growing as we drove away chuckling. :D::angel:

Strongly recommend Tetons National Part as long as you are there, just an hour or so out the south gate of YNP. Jenny Lake offers some of the best views of the Grand Teton.

And be sure to have the camera. I took literally over a thousand pics in four days at Yellowstone and one day at the Tetons! Was one of the first digital cams back then, an Olympus with a whopping 2MP, wahoo, was state of art at the time.

Have a great time. Will be a vacation to remember!!!

Regards,
Mike

[CrazyCain]

Instead of going to West Yellowstone by way of Pocatello and Idaho Falls just north of Ogden take U.S. 89 and go through Jackson Hole and do the Tetons on the way to Yellowstone


Done that route, fantastic

[hornet28]

Done that route, fantastic

I thought so also but maybe a flatlander wouldn't. Many people are leery of mountain driving

[Buckhorn]

I live 1/2 between Yellowstone & Glacier. Starting in early May thru September will be bumper to bumper RV's. You should come in on US93..if you come thru Darby, MT stop @ the Old West Antique & Candy store. Wife & kids will love it!!

[Javi]

I live 1/2 between Yellowstone & Glacier. Starting in early May thru September will be bumper to bumper RV's. You should come in on US93..if you come thru Darby, MT stop @ the Old West Antique & Candy store. Wife & kids will love it!!Sure glad I got to see both of those Parks before all of that became the norm.

Javi

[Don N.]

We did Glacier last year. Make all travel reservations NOW! DO NOT miss driving the highway-to-the-sun at Glacier. Take advantage of all pullouts to appreciate the grandeur of the views, especially for whoever drives because you must concentrate on navigating the narrow road and can't do much looking while driving.

[Hodgy]

We did Glacier last year. Make all travel reservations NOW! DO NOT miss driving the highway-to-the-sun at Glacier. Take advantage of all pullouts to appreciate the grandeur of the views, especially for whoever drives because you must concentrate on navigating the narrow road and can't do much looking while driving.


If you can do the Road to the Sun from East to West. That puts you on the mountain side lane most of the way. Rather than the ½ mile drop-off just over the 18" curb made of broken rocks with concrete chinking !

And West of Logan Pass there are always construction delays with single lane traffic.

.

[hornet28]

Another thing is drive The Road To The Sun all the way through in both directions

[Bolo4u]

The DW, son and I did a trip last summer, and spent a good amount of time in Montana, including Glacier and then West Yellowstone. We stayed in local, mom/pop RV parks throughout our trip. Glacier is beautiful and we spent some time at Lake McDonald, and also did the Going to the Sun Road (quite a challenge in a dually), and a few days after our trip, someone lost their life when they slipped and fell while hiking? on Haystack falls. We drove through the park and came out on the east entrance then returned to Kalispell through Browning. There were a couple of big fires in Glacier late last summer, including around Lake McDonald, so some of the beautiful areas may be fire-scarred. I know some of the original cabins and other historic areas burned.

While you're in West Yellowstone, be sure to visit the Grizzly and Wolf discovery center, its pretty cool. This is the facility that does the bear resistant certification rating and testing on various products. One of the days we visited, the bears were product testing a Grizzly brand cooler (like a Yeti) and it was fun to watch.

We drove through the park and did the Old Faithful thing, it was ok... We saw very little wildlife (one buffalo and a handful of elk) in the area of the park we were in, but it may have been to warm for them to be in the valley. I hunt big-game so I wasn't too disappointed in not seeing animals, plus it made to better driving, not having to worry about the tourists stopping to take pictures or rescue an "abandoned" bison calf...

This trip we didn't do the Tetons, but I have don't them in the past, coming in from the Jackson Hole side. Its all a very gorgeous area. We just returned from a 7 day vacation in the Kalispell area, and enjoyed it as well. Glacier Park was open but its very limited as far as things to do and amenities.

side note: If you like to BBQ, in Columbia Falls (just north of Kalispell, on the way to Glacier) there is a local owned butcher shop, Perfect Cuts, which is immediately next door to one of the parks we stayed in. They have great meats, marinades and various other rubs and seasonings. Try their taco sausage for really good tacos, and their baconators (bacon and breakfast sausage ground together) and they have an good variety of house cured sausages and brats, its really worth a stop. We stocked up before we headed south on our trip.

[Tinner12002]

I'm I correct in thinking that most of the drive throughs everyone is talking about is done after parking the RV in a campground somewhere and then just driving through in their truck or car? Narrow and winding roads doesn't sound too friendly to RVs.

[Canonman]

I'm I correct in thinking that most of the drive throughs everyone is talking about is done after parking the RV in a campground somewhere and then just driving through in their truck or car? Narrow and winding roads doesn't sound too friendly to RVs.

Absolutely NOT RV Friendly at all!! Very scenic beautiful views but not something you'd want to do with any towable or with a motorhome over 24'
Just MHO.

[Hodgy]

I'm I correct in thinking that most of the drive throughs everyone is talking about is done after parking the RV in a campground somewhere and then just driving through in their truck or car? Narrow and winding roads doesn't sound too friendly to RVs.


You are correct and there are length and height restrictions in place. I would not take anything but a vehicle up there even if you managed to get below 21' with a TV & TT.

Vehicle Size Restrictions
Vehicles, and vehicle combinations, longer than 21 feet (including bumpers) or wider than 8 feet (including mirrors), are prohibited between Avalanche Campground and the Rising Sun picnic area parking. Vehicle and vehicle combinations over 10 feet in height may have difficulty driving west from Logan Pass to the Loop, due to rock overhangs. Stock trucks and trailers are able to access Packers Roost on the west, and Siyeh Bend on the east.


http://www.keystoneforums.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=922&pictureid=5263


Going to the Sun Road normally does not open until late June or early July. The last time we did it on the Goldwing it did not open until July 15. This is account of the vast amounts of snow across the summit. I think it is two months of clearing with dozers, hoes and blowers.

Here is the link for the road including road status that they start updating in May.

https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/goingtothesunroad.htm


Here is some of the action clearing snow up there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-9l1PojA6Q


Here is what it looks like when you actually get to drive on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yex8TS8v-xw

.

[GeorgeBullet]

The DW, son and I did a trip last summer, and spent a good amount of time in Montana, including Glacier and then West Yellowstone. We stayed in local, mom/pop RV parks throughout our trip. Glacier is beautiful and we spent some time at Lake McDonald, and also did the Going to the Sun Road (quite a challenge in a dually), and a few days after our trip, someone lost their life when they slipped and fell while hiking? on Haystack falls. We drove through the park and came out on the east entrance then returned to Kalispell through Browning. There were a couple of big fires in Glacier late last summer, including around Lake McDonald, so some of the beautiful areas may be fire-scarred. I know some of the original cabins and other historic areas burned.

While you're in West Yellowstone, be sure to visit the Grizzly and Wolf discovery center, its pretty cool. This is the facility that does the bear resistant certification rating and testing on various products. One of the days we visited, the bears were product testing a Grizzly brand cooler (like a Yeti) and it was fun to watch.

We drove through the park and did the Old Faithful thing, it was ok... We saw very little wildlife (one buffalo and a handful of elk) in the area of the park we were in, but it may have been to warm for them to be in the valley. I hunt big-game so I wasn't too disappointed in not seeing animals, plus it made to better driving, not having to worry about the tourists stopping to take pictures or rescue an "abandoned" bison calf...

This trip we didn't do the Tetons, but I have don't them in the past, coming in from the Jackson Hole side. Its all a very gorgeous area. We just returned from a 7 day vacation in the Kalispell area, and enjoyed it as well. Glacier Park was open but its very limited as far as things to do and amenities.

side note: If you like to BBQ, in Columbia Falls (just north of Kalispell, on the way to Glacier) there is a local owned butcher shop, Perfect Cuts, which is immediately next door to one of the parks we stayed in. They have great meats, marinades and various other rubs and seasonings. Try their taco sausage for really good tacos, and their baconators (bacon and breakfast sausage ground together) and they have an good variety of house cured sausages and brats, its really worth a stop. We stocked up before we headed south on our trip.


Thanks for the info and recommendation ,

[GeorgeBullet]

its crazy all the work they have to do to clear the road

[Msmith2054]

Yellowstone on our Bucket List this summer. Our first road trip with our “new to us” RV.
Will be traveling from SC coast. Any recommendations before we leave, or on the way?

[JRTJH]

If you plan on camping inside Yellowstone, make sure you have reservations before you leave home. If you're planning to stay outside Yellowstone, make sure you have reservations and an extra credit card before you leave home. If you're over 62, be sure to get the National Parks "Senior Pass" before you leave home. It isn't valid for contract services inside the parks but will save you admission fees and provide half price camping in all NP sponsored camping.