RV Camping Outside Yellowstone

With boundaries in three states, and millions of acres of forest land surrounding the Yellowstone National Park, there's no shortage of scenic RV campgrounds outside Yellowstone. West Yellowstone, Montana, for example, boasts more than a dozen RV campgrounds.

Towns like Jackson and Cody, Wyoming also offer campgrounds close enough to use as your base camp. Many offer bus tours to the Park, so why not plan to spend at least one day getting familiar with Yellowstone with an experienced guide?

Use this link to choose the state and town you'd like to camp in and make your reservations early! The National Parks Service site also has a wealth of fascinating information to make planning your trip to Yellowstone easier.

RV Camping Inside Yellowstone National Park

With numerous campgrounds operated within the Park itself, and a wide variety of private RV campgrounds nearby, finding a place to park your RV rental isn't difficult. Here are some basic guidelines for finding an RV campsite within the Park:

• The twelve campgrounds within Yellowstone are operated by a private firm, and several are on a first-come-first-served basis for campsites.
• RV campers not planning to stay another night must check out by 10 a.m. at these campgrounds. Arm yourself with a plan for which campgrounds interest you and be there to claim your site.
• Here is a wonderful website with comprehensive information about all Yellowstone campgrounds, as well as many RV campgrounds outside the Park. You can also use this site to find how to reserve campsites in campgrounds that take reservations.
• Camping along roadways or in undeveloped areas isn't allowed at Yellowstone. One more important rule to plan for: generators aren't allowed after 8 p.m. at most campgrounds.
• Yellowstone is a wild and wooly place! Bears, wolves, bison and coyotes are only a few of the species roaming the park. Food, cooking utensils, coolers and anything that might attract animals must be stored inside your RV unless being used.
• Yellowstone is enormous! More than two million acres, spread across Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, make this Park the perfect place to camp for a week, or two. It also makes drive times outside the norm. It's common for campgrounds to be twenty or thirty miles beyond the closest entrance, so plan your arrival times accordingly.
• Your RV is a comfortable way to view the remarkable beauty of Yellowstone. Grand Loop Road takes you around the Park to most of the major attractions. Plan several hours to traverse this one hundred forty two mile series of figure eights, designed way back in 1883!

Buffalo, Rainbows, and Dragons Breath

I recently led an RV Rental caravan from Las Vegas through Salt Lake City, Jackson Hole Wyoming, and into Yellowstone.

The trip itself was a blast and I hope to be able to post details about each major tour area here.

There was one day that made the whole adventure come together for me. We had just left Artists Point in Yellowstone

headed back to camp and a brief rainstorm came and went. My wife and baby were seated in the back of the motorhome and she was still talking about the waterfall we had just seen.

Suddenly we saw coming toward the side of the motorhome what looked like a small wooly mammoth. Snorting and stomping as he came, the buffalo didn't seem to mind cars, trucks, or motorhomes as he pushed across the road and stopped traffic.

The big fellow joined a herd on the other side of the street. The sun came out of the clouds and above the herd a rainbow grew.

We later came to one of the many geological features of yellowstone, a hot springs area with a particular feature called Dragons Breath.

This feature actually puffed steam and made noise that made it seem like a dragon might really live at the bottom of this cave and be puffing steam up to warn us to stay away.

I suppose there are many memories I could keep in my head to remember this trip. I remember early mornings and coffee with friends, and the late nights with campfires and smores and songs and jokes. However, I suppose the lifetime memory I'll take with me from this trip is sitting in a motorhome with my family after a rainstorm with buffalos, rainbows, and dragons breath.

If you want to go to Yellowstone or another national park and see these things for yourself check out the El Monte RV Rentals National Parks page.