Jackson Hole / Yellowstone

How many nights?

When is trip planned for?

Mid to late June of next year. for about 5 or 6 days.

49er Inn and suites in Jackson Hole is nice. Get Moose Drool at the Million Dollar Cowboy bar.
Breakfasts at the Virginian.

Easy drive into Yellowstone. I went one May for my 50th and had the place to myself. They’d just opened the West gates into the park. Been a long winter.

Stunned to see a moose in a field next to the roadside. Obeyed rules and stayed in my car to photograph it.

Honestly only 1 other person at Old Faithful.

There are easy geyser trails to follow. You’ll get a map from the ranger at the entrance.

If you're going to Yellowstone National Park, try to stay in the park. It's a big park with lots to see. It's too far to drive from Jackson for a day trip. And you really need several days in YNP. Staying around Old Faithful would be my first choice.

Yellowstone National Park Lodges

For Grand Teton National Park you can stay in the park or in Jackson.

To me if you are going to do both Grand Tetons and Yellowstone 5 nights is a little short. That would leave you 2 nights for Jackson/Grand Tetons and 3 for Yellowstone. Normally I would recommend a minimum of 4 nights in Yellowstone split into 2 lodging areas so you can cut down on driving. This would be without any hiking. But you'd want to do at least 2 nights for Grand Tetons.

BTW, Jackson Hole is the valley where the town of Jackson and Grand Teton National Park are located.

To me June is a perfect time to travel to this area. All the roads open in Yellowstone on Memorial Day weekend (except a dirt/gravel road and some small scenic side roads). There are babies galore including grizzly and black bear cubs, bison babies, elk and pronghorn babies. They are generally close enough to the road that you can see them easily if you are able to give yourselves enough time to spend a full day between Mammoth area and Lamar Valley out the NE entrance road.

Have you decided what airports you will fly into/out of? Many use Jackson or Bozeman and with the short amount of time you have I'd go with one of them.

For Yellowstone lodging, Jean has given you the ONLY website you should use for booking. There are some "sounds official" websites that are 3rd party and will charge you a 10% booking fee for your reservation. Unfortunately they come up first or near the top on a google search. Use Jean's website! BTW, the reservations for next June are already open for both Yellowstone and Grand Tetons.

I'm happy to suggest an itinerary once we know where you will fly in to. That will be key as to how you will arrange your nights.

Jeanm is absolutely correct. Stay in the Park if you can. There is a start date of 26 reservations acceptance. Call to find the date. Then you get on the phone and keep dialing till you get through. Yellowstone is pretty flat so walking is not a problem.

“There is a start date of 26 reservations acceptance.”

For Yellowstone, Reservations open the 5th of each month for the same month for the next year. So, reservations for June 2026 opened June 5, 2025.

If you go to Book Reservation on the website Jean gave you, click Flexible Date even if your dates are not flexible. That will give you a calendar for the whole month in question showing every lodging option and every room availability. The only rooms that don’t show are some of the handicapped accessible rooms and a couple of larger rooms that are one of a kind situations.

If you are unable to find lodging in the park at Yellowstone, then take a look at Arrowhead Lodge which is in West Yellowstone. https://www.arrowhead-properties.com/ Well appointed condos with everything you need. We were able to eat breakfast in our condo, as well as pack a lunch for our day in the park. We enjoyed Firehole BBQ for dinner. You can also rent bear spray from one of the kiosks in town. Lamar Valley is the location where traffic stopped, & we were in the midst of 100+ bison trotting down the road. (very cool experience) Grand Prismatic and Turquoise Springs are stunning; We also found the Norris Geyser Basin of the park to be worthwhile.

In Jackson Hole, I can recommend "Gather" for dinner; excellent food and service. We had a small, soft-sided cooler for our trip, so in the mornings we would stop at Creekside Market to pick up provisions for lunch in the park. https://creeksidejacksonhole.com/
"Schwabacher Landing" is a beautiful, easy walk in the park. The Chapel of the Transfiguration is worth a stop. We enjoyed the ferry across Jenny Lake, but the hike to the top of Inspiration Point was very steep at times. I can't recommend our B&B; room was beautiful, but we felt it was overpriced, and noise traveled too much from room to room.

Pam, We are going to fly in to Jackson Hole. We are looking at June 20th-27. Decided to stay a week. We are flexible on those dates just as long as its in June. Would love to see a suggested itinerary. Thanks everyone

Great! That is a perfect time frame!

Here is one suggestion out of many ways to split your nights:

June 20: Arrive Jackson. Pick up a cooler, bear spray (can rent it) and some supplies. Overnight Jackson or Grand Tetons

June 21: Overnight at one of the accommodations at Old Faithful. There are 3 separate hotel/cabin facilities - Old Faithful Inn (the iconic log lodge built over the winter of 1903-4), The Snow Lodge and cabins ( hotel opened in 1999, cabins are older) and the Old Faithful Lodge (no hotel rooms, all cabins - some with ensuite baths, some with shared baths). I'm not in my room much so I go with the OF Lodge cabins. A friend who also visits yearly usually stays at the Snow Lodge cabins as they have a bit more room than the OF Lodge cabins. She is there now and says they are renovating the cabins one by one and that they are pretty nice.

June 22: Overnight same. Spend today seeing the Upper Geyser Basin, particularly the predictable geysers. My favorites are Grand (goes about every 8 hours) and Riverside (goes about every 6 hours) along with Daisy (goes about every 3). I use the app from GeyserTimes to track the predicted eruption times. You may also want to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. Do this late afternoon either yesterday or today. The traffic in the area of the trailhead out to the aerial view or the boardwalk view at Midway Geyser basin is dreadful. Really, really horrendous. It's better to wait until late afternoon when day visitors have headed back to the West Gate and traffic has abated. You'll have PLENTY of light.

June 23: Overnight either at Mammoth Hotel and Cabins, Canyon Village OR if you want a gateway town, Gardiner is just as convenient. Roosevelt is also a possibility but very hard to get in. They are mostly shared bath cabins but the location is stellar at the Tower Junction intersection. I'm suggesting these areas as this time of year there is a LOT of bear activity (Grizzly and Black) on the road between Mammoth and Tower Junction and south to just past the Tower Fall area. The sows with cubs of the year (COY) are generally very visible from the road so it's good to be able to drive this section back and forth. All these areas are also convenient for driving to Lamar Valley which is out the NE Entrance road.

June 24: Overnight same

June 25: Return to Grand Tetons and overnight there. In the last few years I've stayed at Signal Mountain Lodge in the Lakeside Retreat rooms but seriously the prices here have just skyrocketed. IF you budget extends to them they are awesome - with balconies facing the lake and mountains.

June 26: Overnight same. If you are interested in a scenic float trip I'd do it today.

June 27: Depart for home and start planning your next trip, hahaha!

IF you have extra days to add here are some worthwhile things:

-Beartooth Highway - the scenic highway out the NE entrance. IF you had an extra night to add to Mammoth/Canyon/Gardiner you could do a day trip over the pass to Red Lodge. This drive is spectacular and gets you to Alpine terrain with mountains as far as you can see. This is weather dependent. IF there is a storm up there with snow (yes, this can happen in June) then the road might be closed overnight until they get it plowed.
-Cody - They have an excellent 5-museum complex called the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The museums are the Whitney Museum of Western Art, a firearms museum, a Northern Plains Indian museum, a museum of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and a huge museum on the Greater Yellowstone eco-system. The tickets are good for 2 days so you can go one afternoon and return the next AM. They also have a very good rodeo if you are in to that. I'd want to spend one night here if you decide to include it.

Are you a Costco member? Some people find good car rental rates with them. I don't have any advice on car rental because I drive over from North Idaho.

Of course I ran out of space, lol.

I'll add that it's not recommended to drive much after dark as there are lots of big animals moving on the roads at dusk and after dark. Bison fur has some sort of quality where it seems to absorb headlights and you can't see them until you are on them. This would be a reason to stay overnight in Cody, particularly if you are going to do the rodeo. Too late to drive back to Yellowstone then!

If you decide to stay in Gardiner, let me know and I'll give you an economy hotel recommendation. I used to stay in West Yellowstone but honestly, the gate traffic to enter is just awful and besides, I'd rather roll our of bed in the park!

Prices inside the Parks are high. Your paying for convenience. I think it's definitely worth it for Yellowstone.

For GTNP an advantage of staying in the town of Jackson is that you can walk to many restaurants for dinner. Like Pam said, you do not want to be driving around YNP or GTNP/Jackson when it's dark. You'll also be closer to the airport.

FYI, book your YNP rooms ASAP. Availability is constantly changing. You can then keep checking for other rooms to become available.

I took my parents, both in their 70s, to Jackson and Yellowstone a couple of years ago. We stayed at a lodge just outside the park, did the wildlife loop drive, and they absolutely loved spotting bison and elk right from the car. In Jackson, they enjoyed the shops and a river float trip, relaxing but still adventurous

Pam,
I think I want to travel with you when I grow up!!! Ha, ha. I see your name on here a lot with very helpful info and now I am so happy to see your responses regarding Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. Those parks are very near and dear to me as I worked in two different gift shops in the Old Faithful area the past three summers. It was one of my retirement dreams and it did not disappoint. Living in a dorm, working with folks of all ages and hiking and generally exploring this wonderland was all I had hoped for and so much more.
That being said you have a great itinerary planned for the person asking. I especially enjoyed the comment about going home after the trip and start planning the next one! That's the spirit! Regina

@Regina: You are so kind! Thank you! I wish I had known you were at OF! I go every year, although I did not make it over this year as I did month in Scotland in July so my Yellowstone June trip just didn't work. Let me know if you are going to go next year! I would love to meet up with you AND/OR would bring you any supplies you might need from a bigger city than West, lol. I always divide my stay between Rosie/Mammoth/Gardiner and OF. I am a geyser gal as well as a birder, lol.

I would only add spending time at the Canyon area. The views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are spectacular and should not be missed. We also like the lake area and the mud pots are always worth a stop. This drive could be taken on your drive back to the Tetons. I would stay in Jackson the first night and stay inside Grand Teton at the end of the trip.

We may have to change our dates to first week of Sept. Is this a good time.

Yes, that is fine. September is the Elk Rut so I do suggest staying some nights at Mammoth. I like the cabins there and if you have your windows cracked at night you can hear the elk bulls bugle in the surrounding area.

It may still be pretty warm in the afternoons. Overnight temps will be near freezing. You’ll probably see fewer bears than in June as they may still be up at higher elevations to escape the heat and look for specific food sources up there.

Visitation does not drop off in early September as it used to years ago.

Reservations on the Xanterra website for next Sept have opened so you can see what’s available.

Thank you. It sounds like mid to Late June is better than Early Sept for weather and seeing more in yellow stone and Jackson Hole. Is that right.

I feel like early summer often has better wildlife although a few years ago the best bear viewing I’ve ever had was in September!

This YouTube video is quite graphic but the boar on the carcass was easily seen for several days!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzo2Ie7B7CI

Ok the plan is to fly in to Jackson Hole stay two nights. then 4 nights in Yellowstone. where do you recommend flying out of ?

Bozeman Montana is probably the closest, especially if you end your stay at Yellowstone in Mammoth.

Just have to do a search for what works best to get you back to wherever home is.

This past summer we stayed in West Yellowstone while visiting the park. It has many hotels and good restaurants. It is very convenient to the park for driving tours.