Yellowstone National Park is huge. It can take at least three hours to drive from one side to the other, so location is important to not feeling like you are spending the whole time in the car. Staying inside the park is ideal, but the park lodges can fill up a year in advance. If you are open to camping, there are great campsites, some of which are first-come, first-served. We preferred to stay in a hotel on this trip. We also liked staying in a local town for restaurants that it provides.
You need to choose which Yellowstone entrance to stay near. We recommend staying in West Yellowstone right outside the West Entrance. This is an ideal location for seeing most of the park, and the town itself has many restaurants to choose from. There is not a town right outside the South Entrance. The East Entrance, while beautiful, is best if you’d prefer a cabin; the city of Cody is a long drive. The Northeast Entrance is too far from the park’s most popular attractions. Gardiner, at the North Entrance, is a decent backup plan, especially if you are looking to photograph the Lamar Valley wildlife in the very early morning.
West Yellowstone is the best entrance for accessing Old Faithful and Norris Geysers. We also found it relatively easy to access Yellowstone Canyon and Yellowstone Lake. Our itineraries will have more details. Mammoth Springs is closer to Gardiner, but it still is the West side.
West Yellowstone is a small town and basically exists to serve tourists. That means huckleberry ice cream and espresso on every corner. There are multiple groceries. We found many local restaurants that were serving quality food, that were a nice way to end each day.
There were also grab-n-go coffee shacks everywhere! Locals know that the best planners want to get into the parks early, so there are quick coffee options available as early as 5am.
These are some of our favorite restaurants in West Yellowstone:
Buffalo Bar. Plenty of seating and something for everyone. Try the salmon tacos, the huckleberry margarita, and the huckleberry lemonade.
Taqueria Malverde. This is an unassuming Mexican restaurant, operating out of a bus, with outside picnic tables. The dishes, served on paper plates, are flavorful and delicious. We had a gordita and the spicy Camaron a la Diabla.
Firehole Bar-B-Que. The long lines move quickly, as the staff expects you to know what you want to order when you get to the counter. The barbecue was good and it seemed like you couldn’t go wrong.
Three Bear Lounge. This place is cabin-cozy and featured great cocktails with local ingredients. We didn’t get to try the attached family restaurant.
Ernie’s. This French bistro/breakfast place is great. You can order boxed lunches the day before, to pick up in the morning, on your way into the park. We ended up eating here several times.
Book Peddler. Great coffee and beautiful, big pastries and breakfast options. As the name suggests, half of the space is a cute book and gift shop.
Serenity Bistro. This is one of the fancier restaurants and offers a diverse and creative menu. We appreciated having this option, as opposed to a typical steakhouse. Make reservations.
Running Bear Pancake House. This is a classic dinner that does a good job. We got the cinnamon roll pancakes. It was a nice treat for a day that we didn’t have to leave quite so early.
As for lodging, we recommend the place where we stayed — Yellowstone Inn. These are individual cabins. We stayed in the smallest one, and it was fine for two people. We were out hiking all day. But it included a small kitchen with a full-size fridge in order to keep groceries and pack picnics. The WiFi was spotty, but there is cellular service and we brought a hotspot. The owner lives on the property, and was wonderful with questions. We even were able to borrow bear spray, so we didn’t have to buy or rent it.
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