Montana/Yellowstone for a newb.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

I would love to visit Yellowstone sometime. Since I have Worldmark and they have a place near the entrance in Montana, I've assumed that I would stay there. I tried to find another Worldmark, not too far from that one, thinking I could do a couple days at each location. I didn't find anything that wouldn't be close to an entire day's drive.

I don't like long vacations. 4 nights is about my limit (except if I am in Hawaii ). I wouldn't want to spend half of that time traveling. So, I am open to suggestions/ideas of what to look at. I don't plan on going in the near future, but we need more active discussions right now.

I have always wanted to go to a dude ranch. Is there anything like that around there that isn't cheesy?

[stan2u Member Find all posts View Profile Close stan2u]

There is a dude ranch near Grand Teton NP, but that is on the other (south) side of Yellowstone. I would suggest you go out to the Yellowstone NP web site and look at their list of things to do. I know they used to offer horseback tours in the northern part of the park. One thing I will tell you though, this is a HUGE park, There is a ton of stuff to see and do, and unless your idea of experiencing a national park is a quick drive-through, no way can you do it justice in four days. We never go there for less than a week.

[Thirsty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Thirsty]

I have not stayed in the WM resort in West Yellowstone but it looks like a nice resort and is located less than a 1/2 from the entrance to YNP. We stayed at Island Park Village which is about a 45 min drive to the park. I would suggest someplace closer, however we did see a grizzle eating a dead animal along side the road driving from the park back to your unit.

There are things to do outside of the park. We did a rafting trip, a trail ride on horseback, and went to a moms and pops rodeo just outside of West Yellowstone.

[vkrn Member Find all posts View Profile Close vkrn]

We just returned from a stay at the Worldmark in West Yellowstone. It is a great place with a great location for exploring the park. We split the park up into sections to explore on each day we were there. There was a lot more we could have done if we had more time. The drives, especially to the Mammoth area, take a long time, even though it is a few miles.

I have also stayed at Island Park. It is a nice enough place but does not compare to the Worldmark. We did enjoy our stay there the year we stayed.

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

Quickly, just passing through

You may get some idea of what can be seen quickly, just passing through.

This basically only covers half of a 13000 mile drive, taking 63 days. I grew lazy and stopped writing.

I suggest you only read Week 2, to cover our Yellowstone tour. Start photos with Aug 27, 2006, to cover our roam of Wyoming.

Trip West@ www.freewebs.com/tripwest/
Photos@ www.picasaweb.google.com/RESORT2ME

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Thanks for sharing those. Gorgeous areas.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

In 4 days, you can easily do all the major sites and ranger talks--we did our major site/ranger talks in 2 (long) days by covering the east half starting at the lake very early in the morning, having driven in from Cody. We stayed that night in the north and had "done," with ranger talks the east side. The next morning, we got up early and did the west side with ranger talks and spent the night at Old Faithful. On the first day, we did one ranger-led hike "back into" the area around the mud volcano, but other than walking to the major sites, that was our only hike. Nevertheless, we were pleased with the overview of the major spots. Obviously, to explore any area, you'll need more, but 4 days can give you a nice introduction.