Future trip help

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3 hours ago, tjm said:

Schedule the trip to take at least a whole month. Less time than that and will have to skip 80% of the fishing and most of the interesting sights.

That won’t happen unless we quit our jobs.  And that won’t happen.  

[tjm]

I've been there twice and both were too rushed, 2 days in the park the first time was just a drive by basically and the week only allowed a few hours of fishing. Priority of seeing the park or fishing would be the alternative of extended time. But maybe you can look faster than we did.

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

I've been there twice and both were too rushed, 2 days in the park the first time was just a drive by basically and the week only allowed a few hours of fishing. Priority of seeing the park or fishing would be the alternative of extended time. But maybe you can look faster than we did.

Two weeks is what I got.  When I retire I'll have more time. 

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17 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

At the risk of bringing more people to my part of Montana, I'd suggest planning on spending some time near the north entrance to the park at Gardiner.  I would highly recommend Anglers West in Emigrant MT for guided trips.  Those guys are good.  Emigrant is right on the Yellowstone, but if somewhere else is fishing better they'll take you there.  The reason I say the north entrance is that puts you kinda centrally located for fishing both the Lamar and Slough Creek and tribs over on the northeast side of the park, or Madison and tribs on the west side; if you stay at West Yellowstone you're a lot farther away from the northeastern streams.  Fishing within the park is wonderful but there is a lot of water, some of it not heavily fished, outside the park on all sides.

I've never stayed inside the park except camping a long time ago and on a horseback trip to the back country a few years ago.  There are decent hotels in Gardiner, and a bunch of vacation rental by owner places in Paradise Valley north of the park.  My Missouri fly fishing buddies stayed in a VRBO place right on the river near Emigrant a couple years ago and really enjoyed it.

If you're driving and coming through South Dakota (definitely the only way to go to get to the north entrance to the park), a visit to the Badlands is a must, and roaming through the Black Hills is pretty sweet.  Take U.S. 212 near the SD border instead of staying on I-90--less traveled, more interesting, and an hour shorter.  It comes back to I-90 right at Custer's last stand on the Little Bighorn, an interesting place for a short stop.  If you're staying around Gardiner, take a day to drive through the Lamar Valley in the park, out the northeast entrance at Cooke City, and take the Beartooth Highway, one of if not THE most scenic stretch of highway in the West.  It'll eventually take you back out to I-90 and you can complete a big loop back to Gardiner.  Great day of driving.  You can also do another great day of driving going through the park to the west entrance at West Yellowstone, then down the Madison River valley, with a must stop at the visotor's center at Earthquake Lake, eventually to Bozeman and back around to Gardiner.  You could definitely make that a two day trip, stay the night in Ennis, and fish the Madison.

Plan on spending a full day driving through north side of the park and stopping at all the thermal features.  Old Faithful is interesting but in my opinion lots of other thermal features are much more interesting.  If you're really into wildlife viewing, the north side of the park is by far the best for that, too.  As far as I'm concerned, from Fishing Bridge south, you just drive through to get to the Grand Tetons, not as much of interest on the south side of Yellowstone.  If traveling to Jackson WY and the Tetons, take the time to drive the Teton Park Road, but also the main highway south of Moran Junction, where you'll see some of the best views of the Snake River and the Tetons.  And take the road up the Gros Ventre River for your best chance to see moose.  Jackson is an expensive place to stay but has some nice hotels.

Late August is a good time to be there, but if you're willing to take a chance of running into not so good weather, I'd recommend sometime in the first two or three weeks of September.  By that time the fall colors will be happening and it's both the most beautiful time of year and the time when the animals have about gotten their prime winter coats.  Most the time the first two weeks of September are beautiful weather, but you can also encounter snow one day and 60 degree weather a couple days later.  Of course, the later you go the fewer people, but Yellowstone can be pretty crowded even into September these days, mostly with foreign tourists--every other tourist seems to be Chinese these days.

PM me if you have questions...since I live nearly half the year an hour from the park, I know the area pretty well by now.

 

Thx @Al Agnew.  I've been out there a few times just fishing and I've stayed in Jackson, West Yellowstone, Big Sky and Cody.  I've seen all of the attractions but my wife has never been there.

Although I will fish, we want to see all the "main attractions" in the park and do a float trip for fishing.  They have a package deal that stays in Old Faithful Lodge and Lake Yellowstone Lodge.  Is that far enough north for what you recommended?

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23 hours ago, Gavin said:

Cabin with a wood stove, no water in cabin.

I read this to my wife and she laughed and walked away.  She's done camping. 

[Al Agnew]

On 11/18/2019 at 1:44 PM, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Thx @Al Agnew.  I've been out there a few times just fishing and I've stayed in Jackson, West Yellowstone, Big Sky and Cody.  I've seen all of the attractions but my wife has never been there.

Although I will fish, we want to see all the "main attractions" in the park and do a float trip for fishing.  They have a package deal that stays in Old Faithful Lodge and Lake Yellowstone Lodge.  Is that far enough north for what you recommended?

It's on the south edge of all the good stuff.  Most of the thermal features are to the north of Yellowstone Lake and Old Faithful.  So is most of the good fishing.  But staying at Old Faithful Lodge is quite an experience.

 

[Terrierman]

I wouldn't miss a float trip with a guide on the Snake River.

[Gavin]

Buddy of mine manages a fly shop on the Snake, he has guided it for years and fishes it often. Can send you his contact info.

[snagged in outlet 3]

@Al Agnew we decided to go in 2021.  We are going to do the Badlands on the way up.  How long should we allot for that?  Then we are going to stay in Emigrent or Gardiner for fishing a few days.  Followed by a 5 day stay Old Faithful Lodge with guided tours and meals included.  The tours are concentrated in the north end of the park.  Any other recommendations?   We will have 14 days to work with.

[Al Agnew]

10 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

@Al Agnew we decided to go in 2021.  We are going to do the Badlands on the way up.  How long should we allot for that?  Then we are going to stay in Emigrent or Gardiner for fishing a few days.  Followed by a 5 day stay Old Faithful Lodge with guided tours and meals included.  The tours are concentrated in the north end of the park.  Any other recommendations?   We will have 14 days to work with.

You can drive through the Badlands in a couple hours just sightseeing, or plan on a little more time if you want to do a lot of photography (some wildlife, including bison).  Or spend a full day driving the Badlands and parts of the Black Hills.  Cool landscape.

Emigrant gives you more options on the Yellowstone than Gardiner as far as floating and fishing.  The fishing is a little different between the two places.  Gardiner to Yankee Jim Canyon provides lots of cutthroats along with a decent population of rainbows and some browns, and is basically two days of floating.  From below Yankee Jim through Emigrant and on downstream there are a lot fewer cutthroat and more rainbows and browns.  If it doesn't matter which kind of trout you catch, the cutthroat in the Gardiner area are a little easier to catch, but for other things, including more spectacular scenery, Emigrant is great.  Parks Fly Shop in Gardiner is the place for info, flies, and guides up there,  but Anglers West in Emigrant are VERY good for guided trips.  If small, wild, native cutthroat on a small creek is your thing, it's a quick drive up the Mill Creek valley as far as you can go, where you'll find closed in brushy rock strewn upper Mill Creek, with a lot of easily caught little cuts that eat Stimulators with abandon.  But take your bear spray!

At some point you might allow yourself a (long) day to drive the Beartooth Highway.  One of the most scenic drives in America.  Go through the park to the Northeast entrance at Cooke City, take the Beartooth through the mountains and down into Red Lodge, and then to I-90 back all the way to Bozeman, then up the Gallatin River valley and to West Yellowstone and hence to Old Faithful if that happens to be where you're staying at that point.  Like I said, a LONG day, but if you start out at daylight you'll see a lot of wildlife and not much traffic through the park getting to Cooke City...park traffic usually doesn't crank up until 8 AM.   Might be too long a day if you want to do much stopping.  Living in Livingston, we usually do it from our house and back around to our house, which is somewhat shorter, and we don't always stop in Red Lodge.  If the womenfolk like cool little shops, Red Lodge has them aplenty.  Or if staying somewhere else at that point, just drive up the Beartooth through the mountains and turn around and come back...but it's well worth seeing no matter what.

The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman is well worth a half day if you have time.  Great dinosaur exhibits and lots of other very interesting stuff.