Yellowstone National Park

Our Route

From northern suburbs of Illinois:

– Drive to Sioux Falls 

* Camp at Palisades State Park

– Drive to Badlands National Park (explore + scenic loop)

* Camp at Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort

– Drive to Cody (take more time for the drive, it’s hilly and takes longer)

* Camp at Cody KOA

– Drive to Grant Campground

Explore Yellowstone National Park!

Our camping accommodations

It might not be obvious, but people make camping reservations WAY in advance.

It was very new an unfamiliar fact for new camping enthusiasts (us). We did not despair about the lack of camping reservation availability, instead we checked for cancellations frequently.

Did you know that you can sign up to be notified about cancellations using campnab.com? We used their service. They do charge a small fee, but if you are trying to get reservations for sold-out campgrounds, it’s a godsend!

We were not able to snag consecutive day reservations, so we had few days in different campgrounds. After we got to the campgrounds, we were advised to keep checking with staff about availability to extend our stay in the same campground and we were able to do so. No tent teardown! YAY!

We stayed at the Grant Village Campground (RV site). We did put our tent over the asphalt driveway and that really helped with the rain. 

Sustenance

In the park every visitor center has a store where you can get some produce. We had a cooler loaded with food (we stocked up in Cody before heading to the park), so we cooked our food. We would recommend getting enough snacks with you before you head into the park, because selection is more limited.