Originally Posted by
StantonHyde
I hear you on the wifi, pool etc. Just know that you won't need AC in Yellowstone or Jackson really. It gets very cool at night. When I backpack in the mountains in the summer, I often wear long underwear to sleep. But you want locations outside the park, so let's look at that:
West Yellowstone is a great base for the Southern part of the Yellowstone figure 8. There isn't much in West itself. I do recommend that 3 bears inn or whatever the hotel was where we stayed. You can drive down to the Herriman Ranch and do some uber flat hiking there and see some cool stuff. But I would just stay in West and focus on Yellowstone. You could do that southern part in 2 days easily. Just focus on the eastern part--so the drive up to Old Faithful. The Firehole River Drive, the geyser basins, Old Faithful, and the walk around OF are not to be missed. Truly amazing. And that's all just gentle walking. You could do that all in a day if you push it.
Then drive up the western part to Mammoth Hot Springs/Gardner. Stop along the way at various geyser type things. You could take a day to do this or just half a day.
Stay in Gardner and see Mammoth and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. 1-2 days. Mammoth is a quick look--like maybe an hour. Grand Canyon takes more time. But you can do this all in one day if you want.
I guess you could just do Mammoth and Canyon in a day and then stay in Cook City. I dunno. Cook City is small. See if you can get a hotel there. On the plus side, you would be driving to/from Cook City in the evening and early morning which gives you a better chance to see the wolves in the Lamar Valley.
Then drive along that Eastern part of the north figure 8 and see the Lake and West Thumb Areas and continue on to Jackson. That will take a whole day.
Stay in Jackson--I have travel accounts of kids in Jackson as well so you can look at those. I would stay at the Virginian or at the cabins at Dornans. You can see GTNP in 2 days. Add another day for Jackson.
I don't recommend tours in Yellowstone--you can drive yourself around and do the same things. Have you looked at the park newsletter at the nps.gov website? It will have all the info on road closures, Ranger programs, hikes, where you can eat in the parks etc. That is the biggest help for planning.
For last minute trips, I just tell myself that this may not be the ideal trip, but it will still be a good trip and you will see what you see.