mev

I am planning a trip back from a family reunion in West Glacier, MT back to Colorado, around the first week of July. I'm expecting to do a fairly aggressive ride, meaning I'll ride for quite a few hours each day and then camp wherever I end up that day.

One of my routing choices brings me through a corner of Yellowstone National Park and hence reason for this query... It has been some years since I've been through Yellowstone and I remember occasionally campgrounds will fill up and hence people queue up early in the mid-morning or do other pre-planning to make sure they have a campground site. That wouldn't be as easy to do with my touring approach.

Hence, I'm asking here of folks that have recently cycled through Yellowstone during mid-summer period. How much did you need to determine your lodging ahead of time and how crowded did you find things vs. just being able to decide at end of the day where you ended up?

I'm using those answers to help figure whether I go through the park or just bypass it this time. For this particular trip, I'm not necessarily trying to see Yellowstone, it is just that one of the more direct routing choices cuts across the park.

staehpj1

The places we stayed in Yellowstone guaranteed hiker/biker site availability. So if you arrive by bike it should be a non issue unless something has changed since 2007.

Even if you aren't "trying to see Yellowstone" this trip, take at least a few short hikes while you are there.

jamawani 

Corner?

I'm not sure what you mean by a corner of Yellowstone. Most bike route - for ex. the TransAm - have you in more than a corner. Also, do remember that Yellowstone has considerable tourist traffic and narrow roads.

As for camping, all of the larger campgrounds have hiker/biker campsites that are held until about 8:00p. Since there will most likely be other cyclists, it will be rare when they give over the campsite to a car camper - so you shold bbe able to get a hiker/biker spot - even after 8:00p.

Campgrounds with hiker/biker that I have used include - Madison, Norris, Canyon, Bridge Bay, Grant Village, and Lewis Lake. Long ago I used a hiker/biker site at Indian Creek and I also believe there is one at Mammoth.

mev

Thanks for info about the Hiker Biker sites at selected campgrounds.

Yellowstone is a large place, so by "corner" I meant coming in from West Yellowstone and going out the South Gate. Probably a little over a hundred miles but that is what I meant by corner.

billydonn

That should be a nice route... there are good shoulders along most of the road that way.