Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in July

[rharjo]

Hello All

Looking to travel from Boise, ID to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons the week of July 6th for 6 days. Wanting to find a place or places to stay that would allow me to visit both parks. Only 2 of us are going and we will not be camping at all. Would it be better to try and stay in each of the parks or a central location and travel to and from the parks?

Let me know what suggestions you all have. Thanks and happy road tripping!

[Mark Sedenquist]

I was curious if you did the trip you discussed in 2012?

Is six days the total elapsed time for this trip? Return to Boise included?

Mark

[rharjo]

For this trip it would be 6 or 7 days including travel to and from Boise.

I did do the trip back in 2012 and it was fantastic.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Why are you starting in Boise? Have you moved there from Wichita?

In any case, there is no "central location" that works well for visiting both parks. On the other hand, finding lodging accommodation at the height of summer for both parks -- in the parks -- is challenging. But if it were me, since you can take roads that sort of form a loop throughout the area -- I wouldn't seek reservations at this point -- unless you can get reservations at one of the park lodges -- and just plan to find lodging as you go -- keeping as many options open as you can for places to stop overnight.

Certainly plan on taking the drive through Lamar Valley!

[glc]

No matter what you decide on, lodging anywhere near either park is going to be costly, and anything relatively inexpensive books out early. My favorite West Yellowstone motel is already sold out for that week, if they did have any rooms left they would be in the $120 a night range.

[Midwest Michael]

Flagg Ranch would probably be the best option if you really had your heart set on staying at one place. It's on the very north end of the Grand Teton NP, but even there, you're looking at about an hour drive south to the main attractions of the Tetons, and about 2 hours to get to the sites on the North Edge of Yellowstone.

I'd recommend trying to find different places in each park.

[rharjo]

Thank you all for the suggestions. Thankfully the days are not set so I can modify them as needed. I am departing out of Boise since the person I am going with lives there. I want to visit all of the National Parks and it seems that delay in planning may mean this would not be the best trip.

Any suggestions for a great outdoor activities based road trip that would take about 6-7 days out of Boise?

[Southwest Dave]

I'm not sure why you have come to this conclusion ? Yellowstone and the Tetons would make for a great weeks vacation from Boise, it's just a case of doing a little homework to find available lodgings. Even within Yellowstone I would advise looking for lodgings in different areas of, or surrounding the park just because of it's size. You could head to Yellowstone via West Yellowstone, perhaps including a quick visit to Craters of the Moon NP and exit via the Tetons and travel back via Twin Falls.

If you scroll through these pages you can see some of the highlights we visited in 4 days in the parks. You can search the RTA reservations link to the right of the page to see if there are available lodgings and check the Yellowstone nps site for any availability in the park.

[Lifemagician]

Any suggestions for a great outdoor activities based road trip that would take about 6-7 days out of Boise?

Surely your friend in Boise should be able to answer that question.

My favourite area in ID is around the Sawtooth Recreation Area. If you are into hiking, there is no end of opportunities there. If fishing is your thing, Stanley Lake, Redfish Lake and the Salmon River. If ghost towns is what you are looking for, Bonanza is just one of the several to be found there. NPs and other natural attractions include Craters of the Moon, View Canyon, Shoshone Falls and the Snake River.

And I have not even mentioned the canyon up near Lewistone, nor Bruneau Canyon and Dunes near Mountain Home.

Heck, I could go on. You could spend weeks in central ID and still not see it all.

Lifey