Yellowstone suggestions
 

Going to Yellowstone soon for a week stay. Two couples, four days in Jackson Hole and three days outside of West Yellowstone in Big Sky Montana. I have searched the previous threads on the subject.

This is our first trip to Yellowstone and would like it to be memorable with the least amount of drama...

Any suggestions or updates?

Leave the wifes at home :D:D

Can't... They are footing the bill...;)

The southern part of the park is cool, but after a short while it all looks the same.
lodge pole pines as thick and as far as you can see. The lake looks .... like a lake.
The geysers are kinda cool, the grand canyon of jellystone is a must see. Waterfalls, sheer cliffs, absolutely must see at least once.

But for my money head north. the northern loop of the park is awesome. the scenery changes every 5 miles and you never know what's around the next bend.
I could spend a month in the north part of the park.

I strongly suggest you call ahead and check road conditions and plan your visit around it.
Last two times I was there they were doing road construction. I doan care how good the scenery is, it gets old when you've only driven 100 feet in a half hour.

Just there a couple weeks ago, how active do you want to be? Construction on the park road headed down to Gardiner, have it down to one way - it was about a half hour wait. There's a very nice hike up to beehive basin that's good for a day hike, did that while we were up in Big Sky. Bring a lunch and lots of water. There's a good trail around the back of Grand Prismatic, you can get up the ridge for a much better view that out on the boardwalk.

Hate to say it, but Old faithful was really anti-climactic. Your staying in some good places.

PM me if you want.

get off the trails to avoid tourista

since you want to avoid drama, my idea of making memorable by smearing bacon grease on the women is out I guess,,, sigh

Go for a swim in the firehole river.

Pack a cooler in car with lunches, big place not always easy or fun to go find food.

Get off the boardwalks and hike in somewhere, half day whatever. Find a short waterfall hike ect., if you are not big hikers. I'm amazed at how many people just "drive through" (get out take pics, get back in car...)

Ask Rangers for suggestions.

We were just there in February. We had a great time. We did all winter stuff: Dog Sledding, Snow shoeing, etc. We will do this vacation again. My 13 year old son says Jackson was his favorite vacation and he is well traveled. The food was excellent. You need reservations for dinner. Even in February if you do not have reservations, you will not get in these places. Here were our favorites for dinner listed in order of must eat places:

Couloir-Beautiful. You ride the gondola up to the restaurant. The wine pairing dinner was great. Portions were not huge but that allowed us to eat all the courses. The wine chosen by the restaurant was perfect with each dish. The view from the restaurant was fantastic.
http://www.jacksonhole.com/couloir-restaurant.html

Wild Sage at the Rusty Parrot- Very small. Only 5 or 6 tables. The Elk was the best here.
Dining at the Wild Sage | Rusty Parrot Lodge | Jackson Hole Hotel and Resort

Snake River Grill-Excellent Drinks. Very Busy and mostly locals.
Snake River Grill

We also ate at the Silver Dollar Grill. It was good and the Smores dessert was my son's favorite thing.
Silver Dollar Grill - Jackson Hole Restaurants & Dining - The Wort Hotel Jackson, WY


Breakfast:
The Bunnery is quite good.
Jackson Hole Restaurants & Dining | All Natural Granola | The Bunnery

For Lunch:
Dolce- They have coffee and ice cream and sweets but the grilled cheese sandwiches are excellent.
dolce - jackson hole frozen yogurt, coffee and desserts

You will have a great time.

Depends on how active you want to be. We were there in Oct 2011 and it was only us, a few Asian tourists, and the animals. We brought our own food for lunch and did a 5 mi easy hike every day. Getting off the roads and away from the shops is the way to see it IMO. You can see most of the park in 5 days. The best time for animal sightings is late afternoon to sunset. We got to watch a pack of wolves return to a kill one evening and that was pretty cool.

If you plan to hike, carry bear spray. The grizz mean business if you come upon one in the wilderness. Several attacks over the last few years. We saw very fresh tracks but no bear.

not as many bears up there as there used to be, but the pepper spray reminded me of this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1376343833.jpg

Haha, I love that sign.

One of my friends worked for the forest service doing tree and snow depth surveys in Idaho and Montana for 20 yrs. He saw 10-12 bears every summer while deep in the forest. He was also charged by a grizz more than once. In his words: "Bear spray fookin works, carry it and use it!"

Message received!

Bears?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1376352813.gif



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1376352865.jpg

I just spent a week in Jackson Hole about a month or two ago. My only advice would be to rent a car, and drive around. Yellowstone was cool, we went fly fishing down the Snake River, took a lot of pictures of wild life, picnicked, etc. The private boats that float you down the river while you fish, were pretty cool.
We took a picture of a bear actually ****ting in the woods! It was so funny.

Don't forget binoculars! Good ones! They are very important out there to see things.

We were 20' away from this nice fella a few days ago. Had him all to ourselves. This was just north of Lewis Lake in the southern part of the park. Bring bear spray and hiking bells. They can be anywhere.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1376354971.jpg

Thanks guys and PorscheGal for the suggestions and tips. We are excited and looking forward to this adventure. The only activity we have arranged is a 2 hour horseback ride to an evening barbeque at the ranch in Montana. ( not exactly the kind of horsepower I'm used to...)

Sammy, we will definitely do that north loop and will call ahead for road construction advice...

Dip, thanks, I would have probably forgot the binoculars...

Any other ideas will be appreciated...

I have lots of ideas since I used to do research in the park, but need to know more about your specific interests.

Here is one tidbit tho - one of the hot springs in the park is worth about 1 trillion dollars. A bacterium there yielded the key to doing PCR ("genetic engineering"). Modern molecular genetics almost literally flowed out of that hot springs and the scum in it. Something to think about.

When I was 18 my buddy and me took a road trip and ended up in jellystone, shacked up for a couple weeks with some college girls working there for the summer.

They took us to some hot springs that they used as personal jaccuzi.
So maybe I have something to do with genetic engineering?
Don't remember getting a check for that, damn slow mail. ;)

Do you fish? Some good fishing off the beaten trails.

To avoid crowds, try to wait a few weeks till school back in session. Nights will be cold in the park, snow is possible any month of year.

For lunch in a quirky little place just north of West Yellowstone, the USS Happy Hour Bar on Hebgen Lake.

Montana - W. C. McRae, Judy Jewell - Google Books

That's a local favorite Topless pictures of the wives if you wish:D Worth the stop.
The Campfire Lodge below Hebgen dam is the best breakfast in the area.

Great Yellowstone area towns the Wives will like.
Jackson Wy
Bozeman MT
Livingston MT
Cody Wy

The back country is where it's at. Not every one visiting is set up for that.