Quote:
Originally Posted by bsinc1962
Campgrounds as IN Yellowstone or in the surrounding area?
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Good question.
Camping in Yellowstone is great location for seeing the park. Since entering from any gate is quite a drive to the center of the park where you can expand out to other park roads to see other sites. (Review a NPS map of Yellowstone.)
As for outside the park, it is great if you have pets you want to hike with.
I have a lot of experience camping, outside Yellowstone, from Island Park ID, to Cody WY, to Red Lodge MT and along the Beartooth parkway. There are numerous Forest service campground (Shoshone NF and Custer NF).
Some actually have electrical hookups, most do not.)
My favorite is probably Wapiti Campground, Hwy 14, about 20 miles from the East Entrance to Yellowstone (but once inside the park it is about 20 miles to get to the center of the park). East side of the campground has electrical hookups, west side does not. But great trail/road to walk back into those cliffs in the background.
On the Beartooth hwy, MT, just west of Red Lodge, is the Greenough campground, no hookups, but plenty of hiking trails, but not practical for visiting Yellowstone, but great for the Beartooth Hwy, and Chief Joseph Pkwy.
There are trails (roads) to hike and no problem with pets. (NPS is not a lover of pets.)
The Shoshone NF east of Yellowstone does have one of the highest populations of Grizzles and a fair population of black bears so need to be careful when hiking or camping. However, other than a grizzly turd outside my trailer one morning, never had a problem in the campground; however, did use bear spray on a grizzly one day while hiking. SO BE CAREFUL.
In Custer NF in MT. did have a black bear come in to the Greenough campground one morning, but some guy was actually frying bacon on the grill (I was getting hungry smelling the bacon, can only imagine what the bear was thinking). Not sure who moved faster, the bear or the guy into the trailer.
But his scream scared the heck out of me.
It really depends on what you want to do. If just see Yellowstone, try and camp in Yellowstone, if see the area, camp outside. Personally, I will never camp inside a NP.