Doing the loops and making the itinerary
Okay, planning to spend two nights at Old Faithful Inn and wondering the best way to drive, appreciate, and view Yellowstone while we’re there and considering our driving directions.
We’ll be coming end of July from Grand Teton, so entering from the South Entrance, presumably mid-day. Which direction would you take the loop and what to see before getting to the Inn?
Then we have a full day and need to figure out how to make the most of it. I should mention we will have two families in two different minivans with four kids total, aged 7, 7, 9, and 10. We can hike some and definitely just want to teach these kids to love national parks.
The last day we will have some time before we head toward Bozeman ultimately for our hotel there (before an early morning flight the day after that). Is this when we should head to Lamar Valley to try to see wildlife and then loop back to Bozeman? Or should we try to spend some time on our way out in Gardiner? Or something else?
I think I’m just wondering if there’s something I should be booking right now or just an itinerary we should nail down ahead of time. I know we’ll want to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic, West Thumb, and others. Just feel a little lost on if I need to have an itinerary for it now or just go with the flow once we get there.
Also, while we’re talking itinerary…would it be a bad idea to leave our proximity of Old Faithful Inn and go to West Yellowstone for the rodeo one night? (Not booking a place to stay, just driving out and back at night to get a rodeo experience for the kids.)