After our trip, I put together my top 10 Tips for Visiting Yellowstone National Park. I hope you’ll find some useful information to help you plan your trip and have the best time possible. Be sure and leave me a comment below if you have any questions. I’d be glad to try and help!
Yellowstone National Park is thought to be the very first National Park in the world, and it’s also the home of the biggest super volcano on this continent! The whole area is a true wonderland from 10,000′ peaks to erupting geysers, and everything in between!
There’s a little something for everyone in Yellowstone, and it’s the most diverse in terms of scenery that I’ve ever seen. We did a fair bit of research before our trip, but we still ran into some knowledge gaps once we were there, so I thought I’d write to tell you about our experience in the hopes that you’ll have the best visit possible when you come!
10 Tips for the best visit to Yellowstone:
1. Start your day early. Whatever your top priority is that day, be sure to get an early start to see it! Some of the main attractions like the Grand Prismatic Geyser (photo below) have very small parking lots. So it can be difficult to get a spot by mid-morning. This will definitely depend on when you’re there. But if you happen to go during the prime summer season on a weekend, it’s going to be busy!
2. One of the best tips we found in our pre-research stage was this: start at Old Faithful and work your way clockwise up through the park. This turned out to be pure gold because Old Faithful was all but deserted first thing in the morning. And by mid-afternoon it was wall to wall packed with people.
You may just find yourself a bit annoyed as people shove in front of your video camera just to get their selfie in. Never mind the fact they just ruined the footage you spent so much time setting up for!
This actually happened to us while we were filming the geyser’s eruption. And the unapologetic couple fills up the whole frame for a full minute of our video feed! All in all if you enjoy a bit of space and don’t like to be pushed and shoved around – go early!!!
3. Reserve your campsites/lodging ahead of time! We worked out our itinerary and booked our campsites according to which areas of the park we were going to be in before we ever left home!
The park is rather large, and you don’t want to have to drive a few hours to get back to your campsite! It isn’t always possible with every National Park to book ahead. But Yellowstone has a great online booking system, and we found it invaluable especially on a busy weekend.
We saw many people get turned away because the campsites were booked, only to have to drive for hours to try and get lodging outside of the park. The campsite in the Mammoth Springs area would be my last choice for camping. It’s located in a hot, dry part of the park with a strong smell of sulfur.
The campground (Canyon Campground) near the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone offers a complimentary shower with the price of your campsite. This may change with time, but it’s an especially nice perk when you’ve spent all day hiking the humid trails through the geysers. We also spent 1 night at the Madison Campground which is situated nicely for touring the main geyser attractions.
4. Plan to visit the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This one is often overlooked in favor of geyser sight seeing. But it’s truly spectacular as well as adding a little variety to your trip. If you stay at the Canyon Campground you’ll be well positioned for a morning visit to the canyon.
There’s wonderful phenomena that happens in the morning here. When the sun is at just the right angle to create a rainbow in the mist. This happens between 9:00 – 10:00 am, and Artist’s Point is probably the best place to see it.
Although Uncle Tom’s trail gives you an up close view that’s pretty spectacular as well. For a preview of the rainbow as seen from Uncle Tom’s trail you can see it below.
5. Be sure to fuel up your vehicle before entering the park, and this really goes for any National Park. As it might be expected, gas and especially diesel costs a small fortune within any park we’ve ever been to!
6. Pack food and or snacks for your journey, (especially if you have allergies). Even if it’s just a few meals this will really save on time. Sometimes it’s more convenient to have your own food than have to drive the distance for it!
There are restaurants and you should easily be able to get by. But we find it best to pack some of our own food for a couple of reasons. For one, it saves on time not to have to wait to get into a restaurant. And time is usually limited when you’re traveling.
We also find it nice to relax at our campsite and cook dinner there for a full camping experience. And finally it saves you a good deal of money to pack your own food. (Also we like to save for city traveling where interesting restaurants abound)!
7. Try to carve out a bit of time to do at least 1 hike that’s not a geyser trail. As amazing as the geysers are, there are some beautiful hikes in Yellowstone as well. Mount Washburn takes you up over 10,000′ in elevation for amazing views across the park.
(As a side note elevation can affect some people starting at 8,000′. And you’ll want to have warm layers or a coat with you). The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is also quite stunning. It also offers a smaller amount of elevation gain in the hiking department.
8. Bring some kind of sun protection. Some days can be really hot in Yellowstone. And you will get crispy fried while touring the geyser trails if you don’t take some precautions!
Not that I speak from experience or anything, but we totally spaced bringing anything because the weather had been so cold up until our visit. While we were there the temperature was in the 90ºs F. I burned the back of my calves bad enough that I still have a weird tan line 9 months later. We ended up having to stop and buy some stuff from the General Store in Mammoth. But it was already too late to avoid the initial burn.
9. Try not to over-schedule your days – this is definitely difficult because there’s so much to see! I would recommend a week if you have it. But 3 days is enough to see a few of the main attractions.
10. Bring your patience with you!!! Yellowstone is a very busy National Park, especially in the peak summer season. So you can expect traffic jams and long lines. Also sometimes the parking lots to the sites you want to see will be full.
We came fully expecting all of these things and brought our ‘just go with it’ state of mind along with. And you know what, it was invaluable! We noticed so many people coming absolutely undone when things didn’t go as they had expected. So try to come relaxed and ready to enjoy as much as you can!
I’m going to leave you with a list of all the places we visited while in Yellowstone.
1) Old Faithful
2) Old Faithful Geyser trails in the Upper Basin and Biscuit Basin
4) Grand Prismatic and Excelsior Geysers located in the Midway Geyser Basin
I’m going to be in Beaver Creek, Montana, that claims to be thirty minutes away from Yellowstone. Do I just drive my car to different lots to see different parts of the park? Is there one lot where we can park for the day and just walk around and see what we need?
It’s going to depend on what is on your list to see and do. I would recommend looking up each one of the things you want to see and plot them out on Google maps so you can see where they are in relation to each other. Some areas in the park are very spread out and you will spend hours driving between the different areas. Also in 2020 they had the pass shut down so everyone was routed around causing even more travel time between. I would check the park website to see what the up to date closures are when you’re about to leave. The area around Old Faithful has a lot to do besides seeing Old Faithful. The Old Faithful Geyser Loop Trail is a good one to see quite a bit after you see old faithful go off. This area is extremely busy, so going early is a good idea. The famous Grand Prismatic is a few minutes down the road in the Excelsior Geyser Basin and it’s a great one to do if you can get a parking spot. What we did was to see something really popular first thing in the morning, then go somewhere quieter for the afternoons like the Norris Geyser Basin which is shares a trailhead with Porcelain Geyser Basin, (these are all on the west side and they’re all within 10 minutes or so of each other). Another short but great one to do in this area is Fountain Paint Pots. Then if you head towards Yellowstone lake you should be able to find a spot to hang out during the afternoon after visiting something more popular. Also the famous West Thumb Geyser Basin (one of the most popular things to do) is on the lake and you could visit that either early or late since it’s very busy. So without rambling too much, there’s a lot to see fairly close together on that west side, but from what we saw the rest of it is fairly spread out. I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions let me know and I’d be happy to try and help. Also I have blog posts for almost everything I mentioned here that you can check out and see if you might want to add it to your itinerary.
I just got back from Yellowstone (I went on July 4th weekend) and was searching for websites that would be filled with information that I felt like I was missing before my trip. Your site does a great job! The only thing I would add is to also bring bug spray, these were some of the most aggressive mosquitoes I have ever encountered!
So crazy, we were there on July 4th, but just for the day as we were passing through on the way to Teton National Park. And yes the bugs were insane, I’ve never seen anything like it. We visited last time in July and didn’t have any mosquitoes at all, so this time was a bit of a shock!
Hi Kari, I just stumbled onto your site and it’s filled with so much great information! We will be travelling next summer to Yellowstone; entering from the northeast entrance. We plan to stay 3 nights before heading down to the Grand Teton NP. My question: do you recommend staying in more than one place in Yellowstone (for convenience and sightseeing purposes) or is one “centrally located” option okay? We want to make the best of the time we have but I’m also wondering if packing up and changing lodging (we will be staying at their lodge(s) is worth it. Thank you.
Packing up and changing lodging might not be worth it, we have a really mobile camping system so it makes good sense for us to be closer to where ever we’re photographing. But you should still be able to see quite a bit even basing from one area, just be aware that things get really busy between 9-5-ish!
Can you recommend any “Must See” places between Yellowstone & Glacier National Parks? We will be travelling that route early in the season around June 10th.
Thank you
It’s hard to say what might appeal to you as a must see, but I really enjoyed the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic, the hiking loop that starts at Old Faithful, and the Porcelain Geyser and Norris Geyser hiking trails (which were a little less traveled. The Fountain Paint Pots trail was beautiful and neat to see the one geyser that erupts constantly, but it was very crowded when we were there. Mammoth Hot Springs area was really cool as well, but also crowded. I really enjoyed hiking up Mount Washburn because it was so much quieter and I love hiking mountains. That might not be for everyone though because it’s over 10,000′ feet elevation at the top, so if you’re not used to being at a high elevation, it might not be that fun.
Thanks so much for this blog site! Would love your tips for our trip in late May. We have a friend’s house in Victor, ID and are planning on seeing Yellowstone, Tetons, and possibly Jackson Hole. If you were planning a trip from a Monday-Sunday, how would you plan it? Seems like we should find lodging for a night or 2 in Yellowstone. None of us have been, so we really don’t know where to start or what is best to do. Would you go earlier in the week to YS and do others later in week? Thanks in advance for any help!!
I personally would try and do Yellowstone earlier in the week, and maybe try for the Tetons by the weekend to avoid traffic. There’s definitely a lot to see in Yellowstone, so I would start by figuring out about how much you can do in a day, then figure out which regions the things you want to do the most are in, and start from there. It’s easiest if you stay in one general area of Yellowstone so you don’t have to fight the traffic so much. Although hopefully it will be quieter in May. We camped on the west side while we visited the geysers, and then we camped on the east side by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone when we visited the Canyon and hiked Mount Washburn. We missed seeing Yellowstone Lake on that side however due to a traffic accident, but managed to swing down to Old Faithful after that.
I really appreciated your tip to reserve lodgings ahead of time for a Yellowstone visit. With the crowds of people that come to visit all the time, it would definitely be tricky to try and find something last-minute. This is probably true for popular attractions like snowmobiling as well.
I would guess so, since reservations seem to book up rather quickly! I’ve always wanted to go snowmobiling in Yellowstone, but I haven’t made it there in the winter yet! 🙂