MT & WY National Parks Trip

For #4, I am curious as to why you think it makes sense. The airport at Jackson is fine and major airlines (Delta) fly there. It's right there by the Tetons. It's a 4-5 hour drive.

Because: (1) it saves about $1,800 (between the flights and the rental car being more expensive to drop off at JAC rather than SLC); and (2) it's either a four hour drive to SLC with a nonstop back to Boston, or flying from Jackson with a layover somewhere, which likely negates most of those four hours.

For Glacier Park, Whitefish is a fun city, and it’s about 30 minutes from the park entrance.

Also, if your kids are interested, there’s a waterpark at Columbia Falls:
http://www.bigskywp.com/

My in-laws retired to Bigfork, Montana which is a tiny town on the north end of the Flathead Lake. It has several art galleries, great golf, etc. and is 45 minutes to the park entrance.

Lake MacDonald will be your first lake inside the park. Stop at the lodge and check out activities for your kids. I remember boat rentals, etc. there.

Also from Jackson to SLC is a very scenic and interesting drive that will expose you to some different landscape and topography.

Whitefish is a good base for Glacier, but it will take awhile to get from there even to the park's west entrance, not to mention the east side. You could spend a day mainly driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road with a few stops for short hikes (especially at the pass). Flathead Lake is also nice. But if you want the kind of experience at Glacier that you had at Zion, you'll be better off in one of the lodges within the park.

If you can get into one of the lodges at Yellowstone, that would be much better than outside. We haven't stayed at Mammoth, but we liked the cabins at Yellowstone Lake, pretty central for exploring in different directions. You'll find Yellowstone very crowded in August, another reason to stay centrally and minimize sitting in traffic. We've given up on the place after our last visit, but we'd been several times and your kids deserve to experience it.

You will need reservations to drive a vehicle into Glacier this summer (unless you have lodging or activity reservations inside the park) starting May 25 from the west side.

https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/vehicle-reservations.htm

They are released 120 days in advance on a rolling basis. So once you get your lodging reservations at Whitefish, mare your calendar for the date and be ready to pounce when the “window” opens at 8 am Mountain time. If you are not already registered with Recreation.gov do that now.

Hopefully Pam sees your post! She goes to Yellowstone multiple times each year.

After spending a couple of nights in Jackson in 2016, I totally understand why so many kazillionaires choose to live there.

We stayed at the Ranch Inn. It was one of the least expensive places we could find, and the location turned out to be perfect.

https://ranchinn.com/rooms/

We did a great National Parks tour with Gate 1 Travel last Summer. It included Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons/Jackson, WY.
We stayed in a hotel just outside the west gate of Yellowstone and had no problem with that at all. Our tour did visit the old lakeside park hotel that seemed fine, but it was away from most of the park sites and frankly a bit worn. Still, check prices before you book.

I think Mammoth Hotel was near the north entrance. That might actually be more travel to the key sites like old faithful than the West entrance.

We've always stayed in Gardiner, just outside the north (Mammoth) entrance, and never had any problems with traffic congestion getting thru the gate, but then we're early risers and are typically way ahead of the tourist crush.
If you can manage an early start you'll beat the morning traffic, have the place all to yourselves for an hour or two, and have a much higher chance of seeing animals.
We found that being in the park at dusk avoided most of the mid- day traffic congestion as well.
If you can get into the Mammoth Lodge that might indeed be your best bet.

If possible stay in the national parks. Probably too late now.

On the way to Salt Lake City, try stopping at the Golden Spike National Historical Park and the ATK Rocket Garden where they have all the big solid rockets they have made over the past 70+ years, including the space shuttle booster

I'm here! Thanks, Jean for the heads up. Yes, I go to Yellowstone every June for 2 weeks and sometimes manage to fit in a long weekend over there at other times.

Yes, to staying in the park if you find something in your budget. I've stayed at every lodging location (although not every accommodation) in the park as well as Gardiner, West Yellowstone and out the NE entrance in both Cooke City and Silvergate. I prefer in park lodging because I like to be near the various areas before the day visitors get there. I have stayed in the Mammoth Hotel and Mammoth Cabins. I prefer the cabins because it's easier for me to do "cooler maintenance" and haul my cooler in to the cabin rather than wrestling it upstairs. There are cabins with ensuite bathrooms (although the bathrooms are very tiny and there is only a shower). I'd recommend at least 2 nights here and then 2 nights elsewhere. I like to split with Old Faithful because I like to be out in the geyser basin early (coffee kiosk in OF Lodge building opens at 630A, hahaha!). I've currently got 7 nights booked in the Mammoth cabins in June and 7 nights at OF Lodge.

Book in park lodging ONLY thru the official concessioner, Xanterra, at www.yellowstonenationalparllodges.com When you are looking at their not-very-user friendly website choose the option for flexible dates as that takes you to a calendar of every lodging choice for a whole month.

Plenty of people fly out of SLC and sometimes it really is advantageous due to cost. You'll need to spend part of your day before your flight departure getting yourself positioned for your flight, overnighting in Park City or if you have an afternoon flight, Pocatello or Idaho Falls. All of these have good roads to the airport instead of 2-lane roads with little option of there is come kind of closure due to an accident.

How many nights do you have? I'm happy to give you a suggested itinerary for your nights. Basically I'd go for 4 Glacier (2 on each side), 4 Yellowstone (2 nights in 2 different locations) and 2-3 nights in Grand Tetons. Plus 1 night to drive from Jackson back to SLC.

The 2nd half of August is actually good for Yellowstone in that there is a dip in visitation between about Aug 15 and Labor Day weekend.

One negative this time of year can be the potential for smoke drift from wildland fires. Even if fires are not in Glacier, Yellowstone or Grand Tetons, there can be smoke drift from as far away as California or British Columbia. It's impossible to tell what a summer may bring but this El Nino year is very dry in the West. We could also get a ton of spring snow which could help conditions.

editing to add: I'm not sure if you were just thinking your plan for hiking might be what you'd want to do for Glacier or if you were including Yellowstone in that. I'd say the issue is if you take the car then your wife is stuck at lodging until you get back as there is not the kind of shuttle transit in Yellowstone or Grand Tetons that there is in Zion. You can hike Beaver Ponds Loop out of Mammoth and if you are staying in OF I usually put about 5-8 miles a day on the boardwalks there but I'd not call it intense hiking. Your wife could certainly drop you off at a trailhead but there may not be any cell service for you to call and let her know your arrival time.

We had a big family reunion outside Glacier about 7-8 years ago (with many kids) and they loved it there! We stayed near Bigfork (the place Jean mentioned upthread) and it was very convenient to everything, but Whitefish would be also.

There is a stretch of the Swan River where you can go tubing (float using inner tubes), and the kids especially loved that. For that matter, so did the adults--it was a lot of fun. Ask one of the locals where to access it as it is not heavily publicized.

Tom_MN’s suggestion of East Glacier is well worth consideration. It is indeed spectacular, and it may be less expensive in terms of flights and car rental. I haven’t looked at the prices recently, but when we were going to Glacier 10+ years ago, flights into Kalispell and rental cars were pricier than elsewhere, and the cars had limits on free mileage and high fees for dropping elsewhere (like SLC). So you might want to check on that before you commit to booking at Whitefish.

The classic railroad hotel on the East Side is the Glacier Park Lodge. It often has rooms available when all other lodges inside the park are booked. Even one night there would be nice.

https://www.glacierparkcollection.com/lodging/glacier-park-lodge/

There more lodges just outside the park, and even teepees for overnights. This is a place you can explore the culture of the Blackfeet Nation.

https://glaciermt.com/east-glacier-corridor

The Many Glacier hotel inside the park is in a spectacular location, but it books up early. This is the take-off point for boat rides to trails at the other end of the lake.

https://www.glaciernationalparklodges.com/lodging/many-glacier-hotel/

There are also two motels with cabins inside the park on the east side, Rising Sun and Swiftcurrent, both operated by Xanterra:

https://secure.glaciernationalparklodges.com/booking/lodging-search?dateFrom=01-27-2024&adults=1&children=0&nights=1&destination=ALL

We did a 10-night trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in 2018. We spent our nights as follows:

1 night in Gardiner just north of the park entrance, after arriving in Bozeman, to see the Mammoth Hot Springs area
3 nights at the Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone
3 nights at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge in Yellowstone
3 nights at Signal Mountain Lodge in the Grand Tetons

All were overpriced, but fine, and made it easy to get out into each part of the park. We did go to West Yellowstone one day for a drive and meal, and I agree that you will save a lot of time staying right in the park. The parks were wonderful. I especially enjoyed the Old Faithful area and the Grand Tetons.

We found that flying into Bozeman and home from Idaho Falls gave us the best flight options and prices from the SF Bay Area.

Glacier is next on our list! We hope to spend about 8 nights there some year soon.

Our daughter's family visit a lot of national parks, and this year it's Glacier. She has the Red Bus tour booked, as well as a boat tour. She booked her lodging within Glacier for this summer over eight months ago. Her children are 4, 7 and 10.

I really enjoy the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. When we stay there, we spend time in the evening playing cards in the Map Room. We've done that Snow Lodge's balcony area, also. For you I would suggest the Bunsen Peak hike fairly close to Mammoth Hot Springs.

In the Tetons, both us and our daughter's family have stayed in cabins at Colter Bay. The kids like the swim beach there.

Once in awhile I can't get any in-park lodging for a night or two, and have to spend it outside of the park, but I prefer being in the park.