Visiting Cody & Grand Teton

[Aszerigan]

My wife booked us a trip to Bozeman, MT for ten days and plans to bring me to Cody WY, Grand Teton and the extended area.

Looking for ideas of things to see. I don't want to go to Yellowstone (this trip) but the obvious bases (Cody Firearms museum) are covered. Anyone with experience in the area have suggestions to places we should visit? She's basically letting me plan the itinerary around places I'd like to see.

Suggestions?

 

[firecadet613]

My wife booked us a trip to Bozeman, MT for ten days and plans to bring me to Cody WY, Grand Teton and the extended area.

Looking for ideas of things to see. I don't want to go to Yellowstone (this trip) but the obvious bases (Cody Firearms museum) are covered. Anyone with experience in the area have suggestions to places we should visit? She's basically letting me plan the itinerary around places I'd like to see.

Suggestions?

AZ, I'll shoot you a PM of our itinerary, we were just out there for 9 days (flew into Bozeman as well).

A few other INGOers have been out there recently, I'm sure they'll chime in.

While you're in Cody, hit the Rodeo and The Irma.

Enjoy your time out there!

 

[Ballstater98]

Devil's Tower in WY was my favorite park on our RV trip out west. Kid's was Yellowstone. Wife's was a tie between Glacier and Yellowstone.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Cut and paste of posts I've previously made, so ignore the Yellowstone bits as you will:

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I think I've mentioned it, but if you rent from Budget and don't sign up for Fast Break you are wasting so much time. Bozeman didn't have a fast break area, but you got your own line. I waited for 1 person to finish as opposed to probably 50+ people. Small, but busy, airport. Very nice, though. Quietest airport I've ever been in.

We had a *very* fun trip to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Craters of the Moon, Caribou-Targhee, (National parks/monuments/forests) as well as Jackson and Cody WY. Stopped by CostCo in Bozeman first thing, which took care of most of our meals for the 9 days. We ate breakfast out twice (split an order of pancakes on the first morning and then I ate at the airport on the last day, wife just wanted coffee), lunch once (burgers in Yellowstone), and light dinner once (potato pizza in Idaho because HTF do you not try potato pizza in Idaho?) Lodging, as expected, was the major expense.
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Yellowstone is *BIG* and it takes a long time to drive from one end to the other with the distance, speed limits, animals in the road, and gawkers gawking at animals near the road. And construction near Lamar Valley. We stayed at several different places so as to avoid the constant looping.

West Yellowstone Montana - Westwood Motel
Silver Gate Montana - Silver Gate Lodging
In the park- Lake Lodge

Then went to Jackson, WY and stayed a few nights to see Grand Tetons, then Idaho.

Sept was an excellent time to visit. Somewhat lighter crowds, animals more active, good weather. Popular sites are busy but if you hike 15 minutes or hit some of the trails in Lamar Valley you won't meet many other people. It was a lot of seniors and tour bus riders on a week day during school, so they aren't getting much past the main tourist attractions.

We ignored the advice to go early to bypass crowds. We slept in and went late. Saw the last Old Faithful eruption before sunset, for example and the viewing area was very lightly attended, maybe 50 people tops. We *tended* to be going the opposite direction of traffic except in Lamar Valley where traffic is always clogged due to bison in the road, construction, etc as mentioned above.

 

[WanderingSol07]

Upper Mesa Falls in ID, just south of West Yellowstone. Potato museum southwest of Idaho Falls, Blackfoot I think. Spent a week at a dude ranch in WY, just south of Dubois, Lazy L & B, wife, three sons, and I had an excellent time, none of us had ever been around horses before. I've been out to ID a couple dozen times since July 16th, 1969, was a memorable day!

 

[42769vette]

Yellowstone is less than an hour from the north gate of teton.

 

[Andyccw]

They call it “Big Sky Country” for a good reason…

If you can, plan on getting away from town at least one clear night and look at the stars.
Find a good place with little light pollution; it is truly amazing to see the difference in the night sky versus what you see at home.

 

[joe138]

In Dubois WY, which is about as far from the Tetons as Jackson is, only it is east of Jackson across the mountains, is the National Museum of Military Vehicles. It is a privately owned collection/museum and is amazing if you're into that sort of the thing. Plus Dubois is a smaller less touristy town than Jackson. We travelled to Dubois just for the museum and we were not disappointed.

The museum also contains a rather extensive firearm collections from several periods of history, not as extensive as Cody, but still impressive.

 

[Titanium_Frost]

We just saw Lookout Point at the Tetons and if I could go back and plan my own itinerary I would like for days in the mountains trails around there. Hidden Waterfalls are awesome. We swam in the lake too.

 

[two70]

While you're in Cody, hit the Rodeo and The Irma.

Enjoy your time out there!

I'll second the Irma. When we went to Yellowstone a few years back most of the food was lackluster at best but the Irma was pretty good.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art is located in Jackson and well worth a visit. If you like watching wildlife, be sure to bring some good glass and spend time glassing from observation points throughout the Tetons. Depending on exactly when in September you plan on visiting, the elk will either be rutting or if there are some early snows, possibly starting to filter into the refuge in Jackson.

 

[Tradesylver]

Devil's Tower in WY was my favorite park on our RV trip out west. Kid's was Yellowstone. Wife's was a tie between Glacier and Yellowstone.

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Been there and it's pretty awesome sight to see and I liked the town of Sundance.