Yellowstone 2019

[Bill]

Just tried to make reservations for a family outing in Yellowstone in the summer of 2019. News is not so good.

This is May 1, the first day that reservations open for 2019. It is also the last day, for all practical purposes, since most everything is booked up by 10AM. It was very hard to even get through to the Xterra phone number.

Fishing Bridge campground (the only one with hookups) is filled for all of 2018, and will be closed for the entire 2019 season for upgrades. Long term, this is a good thing, but for folks like us who planned to camp there in 2019, not so great.

Tried for cabins at the Lake Lodge. We barely got what we need, and a few minutes later they were all reserved.

I don't know about some of the other campgrounds, but none in the park has hookups. If you want one of these, get on the phone now. There are campgrounds outside the park, of course, which may be worth investigating. But it can be a long drive into the park.

Bill

[Larryjb]

Do you have to be on Yellostone Lake?

Park Advisor app shows other sites elsewhere in the park with hookups.

[Kidkraz]

Madison does not have hook ups. Was there last Sept.

[Larryjb]

I see there's Flagg Ranch, Green Creek, Teton Village, Jackson Hole, The Virginian, Lazy J Coral, and I'm sure a few others appear to have full hook ups.

[Bill]

Thanks, Larry. I should have clarified that our "family outing" includes 6 adults and 4 kids ranging from 2 to 8 years old. We would take our TM. Our son wants to rent a Class C motor home for himself, his wife, and two kids. Our daughter prefers a hotel room for herself, her husband, and 2 kids. The TM and the Class C would need hookups, and the only campground in Yellowstone that has them is Fishing Bridge. We could go outside the park as you suggest, but that makes for a long drive to the parts of the park we want to see, and the 2- and 4-year-olds can't be expected to ride for too long a time. That's why we were looking within the park.

My wife and I have TM'ed in Jackson Hole, and really enjoyed it. Perhaps when the kids are older ...

If Park Advisor shows campgrounds within the park that have hookups, I can't see them, and the NPS website says "Fishing Bridge RV Park is the only campground offering water, sewer, and electrical hookups".

Gonna be a busy summer.

Bill

[Larryjb]

Interesting, the app showed the entire area in green which made me believe all those campgrounds I mentioned were in the park. Now that I look at it and compare it to the Yellowstone park map, I see that it is surrounded by other parks.

Sive looks beautiful there. Lots of varied landscapes!

[B_and_D]

I'm glad to hear that you found somewhere else to stay.

I feel really lucky; tried to make reservations where we usually go for the summer and got skunked, so we decided to go to Yellowstone instead. It's been on the bucket list for a long time.

We managed to get a spot in Fishing Bridge for 8 nights right before they will be shutting down for construction in early September. I didn't know that they were going to be closed in 2019, too.

Really looking forward to it!

[scrubjaysnest]

One of the reasons I don't like the reservation system, folks book over a year in advance at many places during the same time frame then don't bother to cancle the one they decide not to use. NPS as a general rule won't release the site when no one shows up.

Enjoy the trip Bill

[B_and_D]

If anyone is interested, when I checked yesterday, there are still 30' and under sites available in Fishing Bridge late August/September 2018.

[B_and_D]

We had to cancel the Yellowstone reservations, but want to go see it while we still can, and have the kids stay with us within a week (they live in CO now, we are sadly stuck in CA). I'm debating taking the trailer (about $80 for the whole camping fees vs driving the Prius and just getting a room for like $120 a night. I'm thinking that the gas and stress of taking the trailer so far away (tires are 4 years old with about less than 2000 miles on them) would make the cabin the best option, but we need to buy new tires anyways. The main reason that I'm afraid to take the TM is that they have campsites that we could fit into, but they mandate that you have to be under 40' combined truck and trailer fully expanded. I measured the TM and truck and combined they are is like 44' fully expanded, but the combination is 39' towing. If anyone has to been to Yellowstone and camped there in your TM, I would like to hear from you about how strict they are on this policy if you've ever stayed there. We could bring a couple of tents and leave the TM down, but I just don't want to stress out about going there. I would be much more comfortable staying in the TM vs the room.