Yellowstone was an amazing 7 days and 6 nights. It was excellent and vast, scenery like I had never seen before. Not quite ready to move on out there yet, but it was definitely wild and I can see the appeal to moving out west. We didn’t camp, but were glad we did not with how bad the weather was.
In the next couple of posts, I’ll post photos from the trip, and with details of the various routes we took and the wildlife we saw. I did weeks of research before this trip, and still felt like we forgot a few things, or could of planned it differently.
Here’s our approximate loop in green, with where we stayed each night labeled in blue, I’ve also included prices to help anyone else plan their trip, until I had really researched, it was hard to tell how much the entire trip would cost.
Flights: $668 total into Bozeman
Bonus: Free first class on United Premier auto upgrade all flights, lucky us
Airport Parking Park N Fly: $63 (30% off parking coupon applied)
Car: $42 – 3600 Enterprise points
Bonus: Free upgrade to giant SUV 4×4 with nice tires, so that was helpful in the sleet
Food: $300 or so, we packed a foam cooler in Bozeman and that saved us a ton of money.
We were happy to get away from the crowds and picnic all over the park for lunch and breakfast. A nice bottle of wine made picnics more fun. We could also get on the road long before all the other tourists and stay in the wilderness longer with picnic foods.
Average nice dinner in park restaurant is $60, sometimes we could find a restaurant somewhat cheaper. But by the time you are done hiking all day, you’ll want some warm food. Sometimes it was great food, other times it was not. I suggest reading reviews and making reservations at Old Faithful Inn, it had the best food.
- Bozeman, MT – Free Hilton Stay – 30k points
- Mammoth Springs – $90
- Canyon Lodge – $228
- Cody, WY – $120 HomeAway Homes
- Old Faithful Lodge – $162
- Big Sky, MT – $172 HomeAway Homes
It snowed, hailed, rained, sleeted, and got down to 18 degrees when we were there. Everyday was different, I felt like we were constantly shedding layers, adding layers, and putting chap-stick on every 10 minutes due to the wind and dry air in the basin regions. A solid water resistant jacket, and shoes are a must.
Some of my favorite photos I took on the trip:
Hickory Haven Fawn Rescue 