Tag: I need to practice backing this up

Posted in: Campground Review, Exploring Montana, Exploring Wyoming

Yellowstone RV Park Campground: Campground Review

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Yellowstone RV Park Campground: Campground Review

For our time near Yellowstone National Park, we stayed in Gardiner, Montana at the Yellowstone RV Park. It offers spots anywhere from tent camping to large Class A’s. Most of the spots are back-ins, although they do have some pull-throughs.

Pros: Near the river, close to town, close to north entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The campground also has laundry facilities, showers, a playground, and a grass area with waste bags for furry friends. They do take a AAA or Good Sam discount (at the time of our booking).

Cons: Tighter spots, steeper hill down into the campground.

Laundry is $1.50/load for the washer and dryer. Washer is on the smaller capacity size, but the driers are normal/larger sized. Two loads of wash fit in one drier. There are 2 laundry facilities and bath showers, one at either end of the campground.

Each campsite has a picnic table. There are no fires/fire rings allowed, however you can bring a propane fire pit. They allow mats/rugs outside, but do ask you to move them off the grass since they water it each day.

They do work hard at maintaining the park. They were watering the grass everyday and mowed/trimmed. It seemed nicely kept. It was very convenient to go into the park or into town.

I have a video of the drive into the campground, and a video of the boys’ walking tour of the campground up on YouTube.

SUMMARY OF CAMPGROUND:

Our rating: 3-3.5 out of 5 hitches

Cell Phone Reception: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile

Laundry: Yes

Bathrooms/Showers: Yes

RV Sites: Back-in, some pull-throughs

Pop Up Tents/Gazebos/Outdoor Rugs On Site: No tents, rugs ok but have to be moved for watering each day

Amenities: Picnic Tables, Free Cable, playground

Cabins: No

Tent Camping: Yes

Full Hook-ups: Yes. Most 30 amp sites, limited 50 amp sites.

Pool: No

WiFi: Yes

Food On-Site: No, but close to town/restaurants

Camp Store: No

Fishing: No

Posted in: Exploring Montana, Exploring Wyoming

July 18 and 19th

Written by tepetravels

Saturday, Nick made pancakes for breakfast. He had to make them on the stove in the cast iron skillet instead of on the griddle we used to have at home, but he did pretty well!

We cleaned up, did laundry, and started to get ready to move Sunday morning. We had a 9.5+ drive ahead of us. I had bought the kids Radical Road Trip* before we left Ohio, so I pulled that out for them to play on Sunday.

Once we got a lot of things situated and the sky got darker, Ben and I went out to the field to watch the stars. They were certainly pretty. There was still a lot of ambient light from the other RV’s and campground, so no Milky Way sighting yet. I’m hoping to see it at least once on this trip.

Sunday was move day. We woke really early and had a gorgeous pink sunrise. We missed most of the rain, although we did get a little bit. The drive was pretty uneventful, even with the scenery. More wide open spaces (It’s amazing how much nothingness is in the middle of the country. So much wide open land), mixed with cows, farms, and train tracks. Wyoming had a few oil derricks and Montana came in with oil processing and lots of train tracks.

As we got closer to Yellowstone, Montana started changing from an industrial type of look to the wide open skies and landscape I was expecting. There are so many creeks and rivers winding through the land here, it makes for some really nice viewing.

Montana is requiring face masks be worn by everyone (over the age of 5, I think). It makes it so much less stressful going out. Although, the rule seems to be for indoor use, so outside it is still hit and miss, but much more people are wearing them here even outside.

We got to our campground and had a challenging time parking. The spots are a little tight and you have to backup into them weirdly. It caused a bunch of stress. Ben finally took over and got it parked. We were not happy with each other when we were done. Still need some work on backing this RV up. I would love to only have pull through spots, but sometimes they are not available. We do have an amazing view out our back window though of the Yellowstone River. We’ve seen mule deer, a hawk, and several groups of rafters floating down the river. The campground is about 1 mile from the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park, so really convenient to both the local town for shopping and for exploring.

We drove around town and saw our first animal sighting. Elk, I think. They were just hanging out near town on the school sports field! Ben actually got to finally see a group of animals. The boys and I see them and when we go back out later with Ben, he only sees 1 or 2 (total, not even groups)!

~Sarah

*Affiliate link.

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