Camping in Yellowstone with The Stoke Family

You have your Wandervans campervan all set. Now, the next question is where to? We think Yellowstone National Park is an excellent destination to visit in your Wandervans rental!  

If you aren't sure where you are headed or have plans to visit somewhere other than Yellowstone, this guide on How to Find the Best Unique Campsites will help you plan the perfect trip. But, if you've decided on Yellowstone in Wyoming as your destination, read on!

We recommend giving yourself a week or more to explore Yellowstone National Park if you have the time. However, if you have at least 3-5 days, it is still possible! From Boise, the west entrance is the closest entrance at 393 miles and approximately 5.5 hours. However, our recommendation is to enter through the south entrance with a pit stop in the Grand Tetons. We were able to do Yellowstone with a day stop in Grand Tetons in 6 days total. The detour will add approximately 40 miles (and around 2 hours) to your trip, but, in our opinion, the scenery alone makes it worth it!

When choosing where to camp along the way, you have a ton of options! Being in a campervan gives you so much versatility. Did you know that you often can park overnight at rest areas, in dispersed camping areas, or even some Wal-Mart's? For free! Be sure to double-check, but these are great options if you are getting tired and need to sleep when there is no campground in site! And, with all the essentials in your Wandervan, you'll be good to go. 

On our trip, we spent two separate nights at Clark Hill Rest Area in Ririe, ID...once on the way to Yellowstone and once on the way back. It saved us a little money on a site for the rest of our trip and we were perfectly comfortable in our van. In addition, the bathrooms at the rest area were clean, and we were shocked to see beautiful views of the Snake River the next morning when we woke up! 

Once you arrive in Yellowstone National Park, there are 12 different campground options. Unlike outside the park, you can not utilize parking areas or dispersed camping. Camping anywhere outside of designated camping spots is prohibited within Yellowstone National Park. Therefore, before you head out, decide if you would prefer to have a reserved site or attempt to grab a first-come, first-served site. 

As far as reservable campgrounds, you have a total of five options: Bridge Bay, Canyon, Fishing Bridge RV Park (closed for 2019), Grant Village, and Madison. If you plan to book your site, it is essential to consider what time of year you are visiting. During summer, you will find the park bustling with visitors, and should plan to book your site several months in advance. Outside of summer, there is more flexibility. However, the sooner you book, the more choices you will have! We visited after Labor Day in September and were able to book through Yellowstone National Park Lodges within a few weeks of our trip. During that time frame, we had options at 2-3 campgrounds for weekdays. On weekends, however, we were limited to one choice. If we had booked further out, we would have had more options to choose from. Ultimately, we ended up spending one night at Grant Village Campground and two nights at Canyon Campground. Both were easy to navigate and had everything we needed, including showers! Canyon and Grant Village are two of the only three campgrounds in the park with showers. The showers were clean and hot, there were plenty of stalls, and there was no time limit. Although you can easily stop by and pay for a shower if you end up at a different campground, it was much more convenient to have them right there!

If you plan to chance your luck at first-come, first-serve sites, expect to rise early to grab a site. During peak times, campgrounds at Yellowstone often fill before 6-7 am! You will need to be there before they fill to secure a campsite and sometimes it can require patience to wait until prior campers have left. Download the Yellowstone National Park App before you go to help you decide which campgrounds will be your best bet. Current availability, as well as open dates for the year, is available within the app as well as on the National Park Service Website. 

Overall, camping in Yellowstone is a spectacular experience that is even better in a Wandervan! It doesn't get much better than waking up from a comfy bed to climb right into the driver's seat for a day filled with adventure and animal sightings.