Yellowstone: 6 Tips for Visiting This Iconic Park

This article follows our post on our top 6 favorites in Yellowstone National Park, one of the most beautiful national parks in the USA. Here, you will find the section on >!

We are sharing our experience to make your stay in Yellowstone unforgettable!

After these 5 tips, I'll share our travel experience with a baby. A little recap of our approach, our routines, and what worked for us during this family trip.

Yellowstone is vast. Really vast. Approximately the size of Corsica. I think no one would imagine visiting all of Corsica in two days. The same goes for this park. Guides generally recommend four days to get a little taste of the park's large regions.

We spent 5 full days in Yellowstone, and it was nearly perfect!

I believe one could stay there for a week or even a month without ever having seen it all. That's the magic of this richly diverse park... and it's also inevitable in a natural setting. The light changes throughout the day and from day to day, providing a completely different experience. Not to mention the seasons. Or the animals! The park's furry stars don't follow any schedule or itinerary. They are unpredictable, and that's what makes the encounters so magical. Nevertheless, some regions of the park and certain times are better than others for increasing your chances of spotting the most elusive animals.

During the peak season, there are many people, and it gets very hot. Two good reasons to start your day early. If you have the courage, I recommend getting up before sunrise to enjoy the first rays of light in the park; it's absolutely magical!

And if you need another reason to convince you: it's the best time to observe the animals! By waking up early and prioritizing areas known for their wildlife, we were fortunate enough to see wolves, coyotes, bears, bison, and elk (some with antlers; those we saw near the fort were all without them) as well as many birds.

I dreamed of sleeping inside the park. We planned to camp. Some campgrounds require reservations, and spots are often taken well in advance. Others operate on a first-come, first-served basis... and those were the ones we were aiming for.

But after checking the weather, we realized that the nighttime temperatures were quite cold (between 5 and 8 degrees). For our baby's comfort, we first looked for accommodation inside the park... but the prices quickly discouraged us!

We stayed 4 nights in Gardiner, near the park's northwest entrance. On the 5th night, before heading to Grand Teton Park, we stayed at the southern border of the park.

The gateway towns near the park offer accommodations at all levels and are generally quite expensive compared to local standards. The law of supply and demand! We booked our accommodations practically the day before arriving in the area, comparing prices online.

Here is specific information about the main entrances to Yellowstone National Park.

The Northwest Entrance, with its small town of Gardiner, has gas stations, supermarkets, Subway, restaurants... and even a small playground. In short, it's an excellent base if you can't afford hotel prices inside Yellowstone and camping isn't part of your plans because bears at night can be scary. Gardiner on Booking and on Agoda.

The other entrance with a nearby town for lodging is the West Entrance, in a small town we didn't see, which by quite an improbable coincidence is called West Yellowstone, and you can also find it on Booking and on Agoda. The town of West Yellowstone is known to be able to accommodate more tourists than Gardiner, which is very quiet.

The South Entrance goes directly into Grand Teton Park, so we will talk about our 5th night in the article dedicated to Grand Teton (those who followed our -misadventures on Instagram know that we have a lot to share about this epic episode of our trip!).

Yellowstone is gigantic, and by 10 AM during tourist season, it gets crowded. Don't set overly ambitious travel plans; be patient on the roads. When we were there, there were quite a few roadworks that drastically slowed traffic. Be flexible. If you see that there's a crazy amount of people at one of the sites, why not try the next, less popular one, for a different experience?

Before even starting your first day visiting the park, relieve yourself of the pressure: it is impossible to see everything! Whether it be geological phenomena or wildlife, you won't be able to cover it all. Once you accept this idea, make the most of everything the park has to offer to leave you in awe.

It may sound silly to write this here, black on white. But every year, dozens of tourists are injured because they break the rules, which are basic after all. Not to mention the damage they cause to wildlife and flora.

Respect speed limits. And drive even more slowly at dusk and incredibly slowly in the dark.

Maintain safe distances from animals. While we were in the park, a group of tourists approached bison. These big animals with gentle eyes tolerated the presence of bipeds for a while, but one of the bison lost patience and charged... injuring the slowest in the group, namely a little girl. This is so avoidable!

Do not leave food outside. A bear that snatches human food will tend to want to do it again. This is dangerous for humans (a tent was attacked during our stay). And it is absolutely tragic for the bear. Because a bear that changes its behavior and becomes accustomed to human food poses a threat... and is therefore killed. Yes, you read that right. To ensure the safety of visitors, the bear is killed; even if it is caught and relocated, it will retain the same behavior. It's absolutely tragic, and this drama repeats every year! So, think of them, be vigilant with your food.

I was delighted during our stay in Yellowstone to see that all the rest areas (those with restaurants/stores...) had a section dedicated to refilling water bottles. The park is trying to promote this ecological gesture: a very good thing!

It is too young; he won't remember anything and doesn't even realize that what he sees is special.

From the first day visiting Yellowstone, I was treated to this cliché-filled comment that would require an entire article to address (which might come eventually!). A few minutes later, we stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs... and Manoa arches in the baby carrier, turning his head in all directions and opening his mouth wide while making >... just seconds before he was about to fall asleep.

If that isn't proof that he is curious to explore the world and is well aware that the natural spectacle before his eyes is not common... I don't know what else is needed!

The most delicate balance to manage, I think, is the balance between play/movement and time spent in the car. Because moving from one site to another in the park requires a lot of time sitting in his car seat.

Our daily schedule was roughly as follows.

This park, we waited for with such great anticipation, and we loved our stay there. Our dream is to return to these distant lands, perhaps in a few years when Manoa is older, to discover Yellowstone once again, in a new way.

If you have other tips or unanswered questions following this article, feel free to leave us a comment!