I have always wanted to see Yellowstone since I was a kid. Seeing pictures in history books with a page full of text describing the Yellowstone Act and movements to create parks to preserve land in the US and around the world. Yellowstone National Park is a huge, vast amount of land for nature and away from big business and settlement. It is the first of its kind as a park and set an example for countries around the world The park sits up in the northwestern corner of Wyoming overlapping a little into Montana and Idaho. To the south, lies it’s neighboring younger park, Grand Teton National Park.
Both parks cannot be done in one day unless you hire a tour guide you’ll end up realizing how much more both parks have to offer other than the well known spots. IE: Old Faithful, Yellowstone falls. Car rental is necessary if you are staying for a few days or longer and with a good map, you can cover quite a bit. As far a lodging goes, you can find location convenient lodging in both parks. But if you prefer budget and don’t mind the drive, there are a few towns that do not sit on federal land on the outskirts. For my itinerary, I stayed several days in west Yellowstone. A small quaint and laid back town right outside of Yellowstones’ western entrance in the southwestern tip of Montana.
Here you have the proximity to the park, but can make a straight drive into both Idaho and Bozeman to the north. For two extra days, I stayed in the amazing western pure town of Jackson, Wyoming which sits a good 30 to 45 minute drive to most scenic overlooks of the beautiful Teton mountain range.
Fortunately traveling early may leaves you with a fresh new season to both parks with low amounts of traffic and lots of open road. In most hot spot places in both parks you will not find a large crowd as you would let’s say mid June or July. In others, you will most likely enjoy for yourself. Its certainly an amazing time to travel for someone who wants away from crowds. However, this all does come with downsides. Traveling the second to third week after the parks opened is early enough to still see the leftovers of winter. Not to forget the unpredictable weather,
you will find in certain areas of the park still white. For safety reasons, many roads, scenic routes, and hiking trails are closed. After traveling a long distance with high anticipation, this left me quite frustrated several times. Attractions such as Jackson lake ferries and the Jackson hole tram had to be crossed off the itinerary due to closures around this time.
Did these downsides do some hurting to my park desires, sure. Did they ruin my trip? Of course not. In reality I saw these as sacrifices to the positives of being there after a fresh park opening. All in all, the experiences to the park were far better than I had anticipated. Shared memories with great people that will last a lifetime. Hopefully one day, when I am ready for a cross country trip across the USA, I can revisit these beautiful places and create even more memories. May is a fresh timespan for a re opened park but do not let this deter you, this is probably one of the best times to go.
