For many, a trip to Yellowstone National Park is a once in a lifetime, bucket list type of trip. We have spent more than 90 nights in the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem over years, including more than a dozen trips to the park itself. Below are some of our Yellowstone trip planning tips that we have learned over all those trips.

1: Plan Ahead

No matter if you are planning on staying in one of the lodges, in a campground or in a backcountry site, it is necessary to plan for your stay far in advance. For the lodges and campgrounds that are run by Xanterra, the parks lodging concessionaire, reservations are typically available up to a year in advance, and some of the more popular areas book up fast. The campgrounds that are run by the National Parks Service have bookings available starting six months in advance. The reservation process for backcountry sites is base on an early lottery (month of march) and then sites are available on Recreation.gov.

2: Pick Your Yellowstone Dates Carefully

Holidays are very popular times to visit the park, so the population swells over these weekends even more than other times in the summer. Yellowstone is an international destination, so groups from family size to busloads of visitors from abroad are scattered through the park over the summer. Late spring is a great time to visit as the crowds are far less, but the weather can be cooler and trails can still be covered with snow. Early fall is also a great time to visit, but again, weather can be cooler. In both shoulder seasons the availability of lodging is also less.

3: Plan Your Meals in the Park

There are great options available for dining at the main park hub areas (Old Faithful, Canyon, Mammoth, Lake, and Grant), but these can be expensive. If you are staying in the lodges, this may be your only option for breakfast and dinner. But for those that elect to stay in a campground, your options open. Our advice is to take advantage of the food options near the lodges for breakfast.  Breakfast is cheap and fast here and gets you started on your day.

Lunch for us is almost always out of our car. We bring a cooler and ice is available throughout the park. This lets us be flexible with our location. For dinner, we split this between eating in camp (since we almost always camp in the park) and a splurge for a dinner out. Our favorite restaurant in the park is at the Lake Hotel, but make sure you show up early so you can spend some time in the lobby and soak in some live music with your views and a drink from the bar.

4: Driving is a Must

Unfortunately, you will soon discover that it is necessary to have a car in the park. With 3.9 million visits to the park in 2022 in spite of the historic spring flooding, all those people need to get to their destination somehow and there is no shuttle system. The roads have lower speed limits (maximum of 45 mph) but you will rarely reach those maximums because of wildlife. Traffic jams are common for bear, elk and even bison (though you will see plenty). Know as well that if you decide to stop, all of your tires must be off the road, so many areas do not support roadside parking.

5: Brace for Yellowstone Crowds

Did you take note of that 3.9 million number? Since much of the park is closed to on-road travel in the winter, that concentrates most of those visitors into the summer. Roads, lodges, campgrounds, trailheads, roadside stops… all of these are crowded in the summer. Make sure to pack your patience.

6: Tip: Plan Your Days to Avoid Crowds

Yes! You can avoid the crowds if you plan your day accordingly. One of my favorite Yellowstone trip planning tips is to avoid the times when tour busses deposit their passengers to flood areas. That mostly means visiting these sites during the morning and evening. This can mean getting an early breakfast or planning for a later dinner of course, but the upside is that these hours are great for photography. Hit Old Faithful and the roadside stops at Canyon early. If you see an area has a large parking lot, this is a good sign that you want to be there in the morning or evening.

7: Bring a Guidebook and Maps

Cellular service has improved in the park over the years and continues to get even better. But all these areas that have service are typically crowded and the service is not great. So, having a printed guidebook and maps can save your trip.

8: Bring Binoculars for Yellowstone Wildlife

For wildlife viewing, a decent set of binoculars is a must. For some, a spotting scope is even better. We bring both, as well as our camp chairs for when we want to view wildlife. The best times of the day are morning and evening. Seeing a pattern here? The best areas we have found are Lamar Valley in the northeast of the park, and Hayden Valley in the middle of the park.

Depending on the time of year, bear sightings are not uncommon. Look near Tower Falls and between Norris and Mammoth in the west. Be patient. If you are stopping for a wildlife jam, you are almost certainly going to see something. But you may not know what until you are close. Discovering that the traffic jam is for a bison can be disappointing. There are good websites that have some information about recent sightings, but these are subscription based.

9: Venture Past the Front Country on Your Trip

A prime tip in our Yellowstone trip planning tips is to get even a mile off the road on a trail. This will yield moments of solitude and beauty that you cannot experience from the road. One spring, when the show and mud were just about to push us back, we had an amazing moment. As we scanned one last time, my wife spotted something in the distance that turned out to be a grizzly bear. He was more than 300 yards off so we were safe, and the wind was at our faces so he couldn’t smell us. As we watched him digging in the ground, we noticed a pair of wolves coming into view. These wolves took note of the bear as well and went to see what he was after. They flanked the bear and were eventually pushed away by the bear, and they wandered into the nearby woods.

We were the only people around to see this. There were no other people in sight.

Other times we have even ventured off trail to visit seldom seen geyser basins. Use you maps to find some of these areas, but tread carefully: Off-trail hiking isn’t a beginner skill. Planning a back country Yellowstone visit is an entire article.

Conclusion

This is a starting list of Yellowstone Trip Planning Tips. Above all, please do not forget to check your brain at the gate! Every year there are videos of people doing incredibly stupid things in the park. Getting too close to wildlife is first among them. These are wild animals, not creatures in a petting zoo. Stay at least 25 yards from all wildlife and at least 100 yards from bear and wolves. Trying to get that selfie of a bison on the side of the road is likely to get you a horn in the backside, a visit to the emergency room and a fat ticket from the National Park Service.

Be sure to check out the rest of our blog for other trip info!