Yellowstone is the nation's first national park, established in 1872 by an act of Congress signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. Encompassing more than two million acres of pristine northern wilderness, the park is part of one of the most active geothermal areas in the world. How you get to Yellowstone and into the park depends on whether you plan to fly in or drive yourself, what kind of amenities you require and what time of year you plan to go.
Decide whether you want to fly into one of the communities that ring the park or drive from your home. If you choose to fly, the closest airports are in Bozeman, Mont.; Billings, Mont.; Cody, Wyo.; and Jackson, Wyo. If you choose to drive, you may have to travel through Grand Teton National Park to reach Yellowstone, but a single U.S. Park Service pass will get you into both parks.
Visitors can enter Yellowstone from the north entrance at Gardiner, Mont.; the northeast entrance at Cooke City, Mont.; the east entrance, 50 miles west of Cody, Wyo., the south entrance, just north of Grand Teton National Park; or the west entrance at West Yellowstone, Idaho.
Pick the entrance you plan to use based on what sort of amenities you need. The towns of West Yellowstone, Gardiner, and Cooke City are quite small, and though each has several hotels and restaurants, they tend to book up completely at the height of the tourist season. Cody has more and better accommodations to offer. It also is home to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, one of the most important museums of American West history in the country. Theodore Roosevelt called the drive into the park from Cody the most 50 beautiful miles in the country. Still, the drive takes you over Sylvan Pass, a route not for the faint of heart or those who fear heights.
During spring and summer, when all the entrances are open, you have the choice of entering the park on a tour bus or in your own vehicle. Several tour operators take buses into the park on a regular basis. If you don't want to be subject to their schedules and planned stops, you'll have to drive yourself.
Within the park, once snow starts to fall, the U.S. Park Service may close any or all of the roads without warning. Thus, you need to keep up-to-date on the latest information about road closings to make sure you can reach your destination in the park safely. The U.S. National Park Service website posts updates on road closures year-round, so avail yourself of that information before you start off.
The road from Gardiner, Mont., through the park to Cooke City stays open to regular vehicular traffic year-round, but all other roads into and within the park close during the winter. Again, the specific date depends on the weather. Once you reach a park entrance, you can enter the park via snowcoach or snowmobile, or if you are a particularly hardy sort, you can go snowshoeing.
