Hopped on that cheap fares on southwest and booked a flight to Bozeman for just my wife and I in mod October. I think we are interested in renting a cabin or something similar. There are some in airbnb but anyone have any recs or a line on something kind of secluded?

Any tips on what to do? I would like to take 1 or 2 days to see some of yellowstone and I am hoping it isn't too crowded. Almost all of the lodging in the park is closed so I am thinking it may not be packed. What are cant miss spots in yellowstone? Maybe a day hike. I'm pretty sure I have to go see old faithful.

Any other recs on must see or do things within a couple hour drove from Bozeman area?

Really appreciate any and all insight and we are really looking forward to some time together with no kids. Thanks in advance.

Where are you flying out of ? sW said no fares available (pretty much everywhere out west like Spokane or Bozeman ) out of corpus.

Houston. Cost us 30k points round trip total. Just rented a jeep for $730.

It's a hike from Bozeman to old faithful I would say 2 1/2 hours at least going through West Yellowstone. Any weather, traffic, animal delays and it's at least 3 hours. The best things we saw were Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic Spring, then Old Faithful. Don't have any cabin leads but the Big Sky area south of Bozeman is upscale and should have them.

Crowds shouldn't be an issue as that is when everything is closing. Roads will still be open until November, but a lot of services will be closing.

Trying to do Yellowstone in 1-2 days is tough. Doable, but exhausting.

From Bozeman, it's 2.5 hours to Old Faithful via West Yellowstone. Maybe come that way first. I'd go around the geysers starting from Madison. Go by Grand Prismatic (take the fairy falls trail), then down to Old Faithful. Go to West Thumb, run around the boardwalk, then north to canyon. You'll go through Hayden valley. Keep an eye open for wildlife. At canyon, stay on the south side. Go to artist point. Then drive down the north side to inspiration point. Make your way to Mammoth and see those features. 1.5 hours back to Bozeman.

This should be doable in one day. As long as there is no traffic, you don't stop for gas or food, or do anything more than just a quick snapchat at each site, I have it down to about 12 hours.


Around Bozeman, I like fairy lake then up to sacagewea

I dont mind doing that in 2 or 3 days as it sounds insanely jam packed. We have 5 days so was thinking there would be more to do outside of the park but not married to anything yet. Will almost certainly be back with my kids too at some point so don't mind missing stuff this go round. We haven't sorted out where we are staying yet either. Will look at air bnb.

Don't try to rush Yellowstone, take some time to also see the geyser basins and waterfalls. If I were you I would fly into Bozeman but look for a cabin around West Yellowstone. Much easier to see more of the park and a lot less driving than day tripping from Bozeman.

Agreed, it was an awful day!

Spend a day doing geysers. I usually spend hours at Old Faithful itself. Lots of others. Old Faithful is in upper geyser basin, but there is also midway and lower that are worth exploring.

West Thumb is neat. Different types of features. Has mudpots.

Lamar valley I could spend all day in. Did spend 3 days backpacking it, but even from the car, could spend a full day watching animals.

Canyon can be a full half day. Hiking the full North rim is worth it. But also do the south rim for artist point.

Mammoth is cooling. Allegedly a sign of the pending eruption. But also makes it less colorful. Still cool looking.

We saw a cabin that was really secluded around Livingston that we really liked. How would that be for drive time to a lot of the places you are talking about? Still seems pretty far unfortunately. I willnstsrt looking around west yellowstone.

Yeah, still 2.5+ hours to Old Faithful. I like US 89 into the park over US 191 though, so you have that.

This house is only an hour to old faithful and those views oh man. Wasnt planning on spending this much but might have to spring for it.

To see Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, I wouldn't stay in Bozeman. It's fine to fly into, but for the parks I'd stay in West Yellowstone or Gardiner or even Jackson.
The Buffalo Bill museum in Cody is cool, but if you only have 2 days, I'm not sure I'd spend the time in Cody.

In two days you can see plenty of the park.

we stayed in Cooke City at the NE entrance, although Im not sure about road closures. very secluded area and it was close to lamar valley which we loved the most in yellowstone.

First thing I'll say is that October is a great time to be in Yellowstone.

I would highly recommend looking at options in Paradise Valley. This is the valley through which the Yellowstone River flows north out of the park into Montana (between the park and Livingston). You will find options for Airbnb/VRBO type cabins, as well as small lodge/inn type accommodations. You could look into Chico Hot Springs…it is an iconic old hot spring hotel with places to stay and activities. I think Paradise Valley is a much better home base than West Yellowstone. It's less touristy and more scenic.

You'll find that Yellowstone itself isn't actually as scenically beautiful as some of the surrounding areas. The mountains to the north (Gallatin Range and Absaroka-Beartooths) are prettier than what you'll see in the park, and have great stuff to do.

If it's your first time to Yellowstone you'll definitely want to see the sights…geysers, springs, canyon/waterfall etc. As others have mentioned Yellowstone can be very driving intensive if you're trying to see a lot. Be strategic about your days (like covering the west half one day with old faithful, grand prismatic, mammoth and doing the eastern half the other day with the canyon, Lamar Valley, etc). It's definitely possible to try and do too much and wear yourself out.

Wildlife sightings are most frequent at dawn and dusk, and Lamar Valley will be your best bet. Get up early one day and make your way over to the Lamar, or plan your day so that you're in the area before sunset. One fun thing to do is grab dinner at Roosevelt Lodge and drive around after dinner to look for animals. Take some binoculars with you.

I could write a lot. I have family in the Livingston area and am there frequently so I know the area well. Feel free to reply with any other questions and I'll offer whatever advice I can.

ETA: The Beartooth Hwy is a world class scenic drive. It is outside the NE entrance to the park. The pass closes in mid October but if it is open when you're there I would highly recommend it.

Had a grand idea to rent an RV and stay close to the park and save some scratch but all of the RV Parks close the first if October. Guess that is out.

Thanks for this. I dont mind driving at all, I feel like we will see more of the countryside that way. I really do enjoy road trips and seeing new things. One cabin we really liked was up by Chico but I will look in that area a little more.

I like your plan of seeing the different sections parts of the park on different days.

I want to have a good hike so if I need to break it in to 3 days that is fine. I will 100% want to have a peaceful picnic with a great view at least once. What I didn't mention is that this is our 10 year anniversary trip, so I dont want to rush and I want to be able to just enjoy being with my wife sans others in the great outdoors.

If there were a list of 3 things in the area that I just couldn't miss, besides the standard old faithful/mammoth part, what would you say those are?

And please, feel free to post specific trails and places of interest that you recommend. I have no problem being completely overloaded with info and sorting through it to make the best possible itinerary. I really appreciate it.

My 3. These are ones I've done, so I know there are better ones too.

1. Canyon. Hike north rim from inspiration point through the upper falls. Be sure to go to the brinks.


hiking

grand view

brink of lower

2. Lamar river valley. Spend hours looking at wildlife. Hike, I've done the Lamar River Trail. Bunch of buffalo on the hike.


buffalo while hiking the trail



animals while driving

3. Swimming in the firehole river. Was going to put boiling river, but it is closed.


Agreed on Beartooth highway!

Split the grand loop up in two days. North loop one day then the South loop the next. So many cool thermal features in addition to the big attractions.

My first recommendation, if you haven't already done so, is to see what availability there might be for any park lodging for a night or two. You probably won't get anything this late, but staying on the park saves you a lot of time when exploring, so it's worth checking if you haven't.

Since there is so much area to cover, splitting your week into 2 home bases can also be very helpful and save driving time. Even if you don't mind driving a lot, just getting from one thing to the next can be very time consuming because the area is so vast.

Since you're open to driving a lot, have you considered making your way all the way down to the Tetons/Jackson? With it being your first time in the area, it might be worth doing. The Tetons are definitely an American bucket list type of place, and not that far if you don't mind driving. Lots of options for day hikes and beautiful picnic spots around the Tetons and surrounding lakes.

For hikes, there are of course many options. As I mentioned previously, there's cool and unique stuff to see in Yellowstone, but if your goal on hikes is stunning scenery/vistas, your best options are probably outside the park, including the Tetons if you made it down there.

For specific trails/areas, I will rattle off a few. Closest to Bozeman, the Hyalite Canyon trail is cool. It follows a stream with a number of waterfalls.

In Paradise Valley just south of Livingston is Pine Creek Lake. This is a popular short overnight trip or a strenuous day hike depending on your level of fitness. The payoff at the top is spectacular. Glacial lake set up high in the mountains.

There are some short hike options off of the Beartooth Hwy which are beautiful, as well as great spots to plan for a picnic. I think the pass closes around 10/15. If your dates accommodate it, I highly recommend planning a day for this. Depending on where you're coming from, you can either make loop through the north part of park, out the NE entrance at Cooke City, over the pass to Red Lodge (neat little town), and back via the interstate, or you can just drive out and back to the top of the pass on whatever day you're planning to hit the Lamar Valley area and come back down into the park.

Of course are lots of hikes of various lengths, difficulty, and type in Yellowstone. It might be helpful to know more what your ability level and interests are.

If you go down to the Tetons, the ferry over Jenny Lake is a real highlight with some good options from the trailhead across the lake.

This was kind of a stream of consciousness post. Sorry if it was rambly. Hit me back with more thoughts/questions and I'll help however I can.

I haven't been hiking in a long time but we are both in decent shape, although we could definitely work in cardio, which i have discussed with my wife. There was some lodging available in the park as of a couple days ago, but only 2 different spots are open.

It is very hard for me to grasp the scale of everything having not been there before, and I definitely don't mind driving but don't want to drive necessarily every day. Jenny lake visitor center is only 2.5 hours from west yellowstone so I dont think that is outside the realm of possibility. Leave at 0500 or 0600 spend 8-10 hours hiking and sightseeing until sunset and head back. Would make for a perfectly reasonable day with sunset being around 1830. I'm going to look at a lot of those things you mentioned. I really appreciate it. The vast number of things to see and do can be kind of overwhelming ha.

This may be helpful. Maybe not.

We did a big trip in 2019 that included Tetons and Yellowstone. Link to the day we arrived at the Tetons. Continues for a few days there and a few days in Yellowstone.

https://alookatthelife.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-arrival.html?m=1

We did split homebase in Jellystone. Old Faithful then Canyon. Saves a lot of time being in the park.

Both parks are amazing places that deserves weeks of exploration

Ok so I tbibk bight one we may stay in red lodge and make the trip through beartooth pass to lamar Valley on our first full day in the park. Maybe stay 2 nights. Then instead of having to make a loop we head over to west yellowstone and stay in that area for the rest of the time, taking one day to see old faithful and mammoth and another yet to be determined. The tetons sound awesome and Jenny lake is definitely something I'm interested in.

I saw a waterfall that seemed like an amazing view, I think it was called tower falls or something. I'm just scratching the surface and as long as I can book stays now, I can sort out details later.

Completely agree on weeks of exploration. My dream vacations or life for weeks in an RV just seeing the country. Now that my kids are a little older I think I'm going to really start to try and do that more. I have half of the year off so it is very very doable. There is SO MUCH of this country I want to see. My dream is to find a dinosaur fossil in the badlands of South Dakota.

I think your plan is great. We want to RV in retirement. 10 more years until the kids are out of the house and we'll be one step closer.

Dinosaur bone in the badlands. Awesome dream.

I think that's a good plan! If you're staying in Red Lodge you might also check out areas to explore for hiking on the eastern side of the Beartooth Range. The scenery in the Beartooths is incredible…some of the prettiest stuff in Montana outside Glacier NP. East Rosebud is a major starting point for a lot of hikes. The road to East Rosebud was wiped out in the major flooding last year but they might have it open again by October. Just something else to check out.

Is hiking around mammoth and seeing old faithful possible in one day? Especially shorter fall days?? I assume those are basically the most crowded spots in the park.

Probably, unless you're talking about a long hike. You'll also want to stop and see Grand Prismatic (both the boardwalk over the spring and the short overlook trail) in between the two, unless you're planning on doing that another day.

ETA: I actually haven't done it but I know the Bunsen Peak / Osprey Falls hike is a popular one around Mammoth if it's in your wheelhouse for length and difficulty. Gives you a nice panorama and waterfall on one hike if you do the whole thing. You'll also want to walk around the boardwalks over the terraces at Mammoth.

The boardwalks and terraces over mammoth and seeing old faithful are the only must do in my mind, I dont know enough about the rest to say what we want to fill the day with, but an easy day wouldn't be bad. I will look in to the grand prismatic as you mentioned for that day. Thank you.

Also I guess we don't need to see old faithful in daylight so that could be something we look to push past sunset to extend the day in other parts of the park. How is old faithful at night?

I would think a Yellowstone sightseeing highlight list would include:

-Old Faithful
-Terraces at Mammoth
-Grand Prismatic (you've seen a thousand photos of this whether or not you knew what it was)
-Canyon and falls
-Lamar Valley, partly for the scenery but mostly to see the bison and hopefully other animals

Just looked up grand prismatic and yes that is 100% on the must see list. We get in on the 12th and the only thing I'm worried about if we stay up in red lodge is making it through beartooth pass because last year it closed on oct 11th. I would hate to have a major part of our trip messed up because the road was closed when we were planning on going through.

Ah yes that would be a real concern given those dates. Might be another reason to spend those nights somewhere on the north or west sides of the park, or in the park if there's still availability.

We would only stay maybe one night over in red lodge, may be worth the risk to get a good shot through beartooth and lamar Valley.

Yea you're basically just risking an extra 3-4 hrs of driving if the pass is already closed.