US Mountain West
Yellowstone
A first Yellowstone trip for UK travellers: which gateway airport to fly to, how the five park entrances work, real drive times between the geysers and the canyon, and why you book lodging a year out.
In short
Yellowstone at a glance
Yellowstone is a fly-drive, not a city break: there's no nearby UK gateway, so you connect through a US hub (Denver, Salt Lake City or Chicago) to a small gateway airport — Jackson Hole, Bozeman, Cody or West Yellowstone — then hire a car and loop the park's figure-eight Grand Loop Road. The park is enormous (about the size of Wales) and the road links its two halves in a 142-mile loop, so you plan in driving hours between the headline sights: Old Faithful and the geyser basins in the south-west, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in the centre, Mammoth Hot Springs in the north and the Lamar Valley wildlife in the north-east. Allow at least three full days inside, and pair it with Grand Teton just to the south, which is only an hour from the South Entrance and shares the same trip. The single biggest planning fact: in-park lodges sell out close to a year ahead, so book those before your flights.
Yellowstone is the trip British visitors most often underestimate, because it doesn’t behave like the handful of postcards in your head. The geysers, the canyon and the wolves aren’t a half-day attraction you tack onto Vegas or Salt Lake — they’re spread across a park the size of Wales, joined by a 142-mile loop road with a 45 mph limit and bison that stop traffic dead. People arrive expecting to “do” it in a day off a coach and leave having seen Old Faithful, the car park and not much else. Give it three full days inside, treat every distance as hours rather than miles, and the place opens up.
The mistake that actually ruins trips, though, is leaving the booking too late. There’s no direct flight from the UK, so you connect through Denver, Salt Lake City or Chicago to a small gateway airport and hire a car from there — that part is straightforward. What isn’t is the lodging: the historic in-park inns release rooms roughly a year ahead and sell out almost immediately, so you book those before your flights, not after. Get that order right, pair the park with Grand Teton an hour to the south, and aim for September if you can, when the crowds thin, the elk are rutting and the cottonwoods turn gold.
The route
A loop that strings the geyser basins, the canyon and the wildlife valleys together without backtracking, built around the figure-eight Grand Loop Road and finished in Grand Teton just to the south. Times are real driving estimates on park roads, where the 45 mph limit, roadworks and bison jams mean you should budget far more than the mileage suggests. Fly into Jackson Hole and you can run it one way and out through the South.
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Days 1–2
Geyser basins & Old Faithful
Enter from the West Entrance (West Yellowstone) and base near Old Faithful. Walk the Upper Geyser Basin boardwalks, catch an Old Faithful eruption (predicted to roughly every 90 minutes on boards at the visitor centre) and drive the Firehole and Midway basins for Grand Prismatic Spring. Stay at the Old Faithful Inn if you booked a year out, or in West Yellowstone otherwise — about 30 min from the basin.
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Day 3
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Drive the lower loop east to the canyon (about an hour from Old Faithful) for Artist Point and the Lower Falls — at 308 feet, nearly twice the height of Niagara. Continue to Hayden Valley, one of the best spots for bison and the occasional grizzly at dawn or dusk. Lake Yellowstone Hotel makes a grand overnight if you planned ahead.
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Day 4
Mammoth & the Lamar Valley
Head north on the upper loop to Mammoth Hot Springs and its travertine terraces (about 1h30 from the canyon), then push out to the Lamar Valley in the north-east — 'America's Serengeti' and the place to see wolves and big herds, best at first light with binoculars. It's a long out-and-back, so start early and pack food; services thin out up here.
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Days 5–6
Grand Teton
Exit south through the John D. Rockefeller Jr Parkway into Grand Teton (the South Entrance to Jackson is about 1h30). Do the Jenny Lake shuttle and hike to Hidden Falls, drive the Teton Park Road for the jagged peak views, and finish in Jackson with its boardwalks and the elk-antler arches. Fly home from Jackson Hole (JAC) just outside town.
Where to base yourself
Pick one or two bases rather than moving every night.
Inside the park (Old Faithful / Lake / Canyon)
£££ premiumStaying in one of the historic in-park lodges puts you on the boardwalks at dawn before the day-trippers arrive and saves hours of gateway-town driving. The catch is they're basic for the price, have no TVs or air-con and sell out roughly a year ahead — book the moment the reservation window opens.
Best for: Sunrise on the geysers, minimal driving, the classic experience
West Yellowstone (Montana)
££ mid-rangeThe busiest gateway town, right at the West Entrance with the most hotels, restaurants and tour operators — the practical fallback when the in-park lodges are full. It's about 30 minutes from the Old Faithful basins, so you trade a daily drive for far more choice and better value.
Best for: First-timers, families, booking late
Jackson (Wyoming)
£££ premiumThe smart-but-pricey base to the south, walkable and lively with the Grand Tetons on the doorstep and Jackson Hole airport just out of town. It's about an hour from Yellowstone's South Entrance, so it works best as your Grand Teton base and the bookend to a one-way loop rather than a daily Yellowstone commute.
Best for: Pairing Grand Teton, flying open-jaw, après-park dining
Getting around Yellowstone
Yellowstone is a self-drive park with no public transport and almost no mobile signal inside, so a hire car is essential — pick it up at your gateway airport and download offline maps before you arrive. The figure-eight Grand Loop Road is the spine, with a 45 mph limit, frequent roadworks and 'bison jams' that can hold you for half an hour, so plan in hours rather than miles and fill the tank in a gateway town because in-park fuel is limited and expensive. You drive on the right, distances show in miles, and many petrol pumps demand a US ZIP code your UK card won't have, so pay inside at the kiosk. The $35-per-vehicle entry pass covers seven days and both Yellowstone and the road through to Grand Teton; if you're touring several parks, the $80 America the Beautiful annual pass pays for itself. Keep at least 25 yards from bison and elk and 100 yards from bears and wolves — the park enforces this, and the wildlife is genuinely dangerous.
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