Yellowstone suggestions please?

I've got 3 weeks leave in July 2018 and our destination is Yellowstone/Grand Teton (from California).  My parents are in their 80's (-amazingly- fit), I'll be 7 months pregnant, and we'll have a 2 year old.  Oh, and a dog.  This will be our second multi-week trip in our 23' motorhome (we've taken other long trips, I mean second with my parents).

- I don't think I can tow a vehicle and it seems there's no shuttle/taxi/uber within the park.  If we want to park the RV in one spot and visit around the park, is our only option to rent a car somewhere outside the park and drive both vehicles in?  Does anyone have a recommendation or experience with this?  In my ideal world, a rental car would be delivered to the RV campground inside Yellowstone for us   Is this a service anyone has heard of?  (I think I can't tow based on the GVW of my rig and average car + trailer, if someone knows more about this please enlighten me!)
- I'm not afraid to drive the RV each day, but I'm concerned about finding parking near the visitor centers.  Can anyone comment on the relative sanity of hoping to find RV parking at Old Faithful, etc.?  Despite our best efforts and especially with a 2 year old involved, we will not be able to "get out there super early".
- We're happy to mix staying in a cabin/lodge, dry camping, and FHU instead of parking the RV in once place and trying to get out to places from there.  Does anyone advise for/against one scheme or another?
- I've read several threads about tours but can't find any specific info or links.  Is it possible to get on a tour starting at any given RV camp site or do we still have to find our way somewhere (eg drive from campground)?
- I saw one thread mentioning a Yellowstone Taxi.  Does this operate within the park or is it transportation from towns outside the park to internal locations?
- Are the northern passes/roads disadvised for an RV?  Last year (August) I drove Tioga Pass and wasn't in the least white-knuckled.
- Our goals are more just to relax and enjoy ourselves rather than check off famous sites.  My father likes to do Tai Chi in the cool mornings and nap outside after a swim in the afternoon, that kind of thing.  Recommendations on RV campgrounds which are shady, peaceful, maybe have a small creek/river (our toddler likes splashing around) would be highly appreciated. 
- I was thinking we'd probably spend something like part of a week getting there, a week+ there, and part of a week getting back (I will need a couple days before going back to work!)  I am guessing I will have to work around the dates that I can get reservations within the parks.  Thoughts on this plan?  I'm in Northern California, my parents are in Southern California; we'll probably drive Hwy 15 in at least one direction. Flights are possible, so we don't have to start/end from the same place. 

I welcome any other advice and thoughts.  Thanks everyone!

The "official" tours at Yellowstone are the Yellow Bus Tours which you can read about here: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/take-a-bus-tour

FWIW, the yellow buses are related to the red bus tours at Glacier NP and they aren't buses at all.

Personally, I don't see how you can see much of Yellowstone without a car of your own.  It's an enormous park and there are innumerable sight-seeing stops within it. Parking even a modest sized MH at many of the stops would be challenging.

The terrain is mountainous and the roads are narrow so I wouldn't attempt it by bike either, although I'm sure that some do. Furthermore, what we enjoy most of all is driving around looking for wildlife.  That's a rather random process and one can drive for hours before finding a bear close enough to photograph (and far away enough to be safe!  ;D)  But that's just my opinion. 

There are several rental car agencies in West Yellowstone and that's what I would do.  Depending on when you expect to be there it might still be possible to reserve a car for this summer.

Just to add a bit to what was said already, there is a tour bus that makes the loop of the park that picks up in / at the camp grounds inside the park https://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/adventure/land-adventures/circle-of-fire/  I can't tell you more about it as we only had 1 night at each of 3 campgrounds when we were there last summer just before the big solar eclipse.  We booked 4 or 5 months out and that was the best we could do on our limited dates.  Of course with the pick up / return / check in-out times doing the tour requires 2 nights in a row at a given campground.

As to driving in the park, there is plenty of parking at the visitors centers, the parking lots are enormous and there is a fair number of RV length parking spaces for large RV, shorter ones often park in 2 standard spaces end to end.  (our coach is 29'5" bumper to bumper), away from the visitors centers may be a different matter, we had to skip a few RV accessible pull outs, due to no available parking spaces, and some parking lots we had to circle 3 or 4 times to get a spot, they were overflowing on car parking spots too with many people making their own spots, parking on the side of the road, etc.  The big problem with the smaller sites are the commercial tour buses, they use the RV parking spots, and blockade them, blocking the spot until the next tour bus is in line ready to pull in, sometimes even straddling the line to save 2 spaces for the next tour bus.  Something I think the rangers should ticket them for.

We did the majority of the loop road with no real issues in our coach, excluding the northwest section of the loop which was under heavy construction last summer.  The section I was the most nervous on was the north east section of the loop, as it is narrower than the already narrow lanes on the southern and central part of the loops, with few guard rails and way too many cruise america rental RV's going the other way whose drivers don't know where their side of the double yellow line is.

You should also be aware that the only RV park in Yellowstone with full hookups is Fishing Bridge, which I have read is closed this year for renovations.  The other two we stayed at were Canyon and Grant, these are huge campgrounds, maybe 5 minute drive from our camping loops midway to 3/4 of way to the back of the campgrounds to the check in building.  The camping loops are also very tight in places, we had trouble getting into both our 30 ft assigned spaces, due to lots of trees  (saplings grown up at the rear of the pavement, not allowing any rear overhang), tight turns, etc.  At one point pulling out of a camping loop we had well under a foot of clearance between the corner of a camping trailer and a tree on the other side.  (bring orange cones to mark the corner of your RV if you get stuck in a half moon, pull over, pull through site)  The campgrounds do allow limit hours for running generators, and have dump stations and water stations by the entrances.  Generally air conditioning is not needed in Yellowstone with daytime highs rarely getting into of the 70's and night time lows in the 30's and 40's even in August.

Greetings,

Not wanting to discourage anyone but I think you have to make reservations well in advanced in order to stay at the campgrounds. Of course people cancel and might get lucky to get a spot. I agree it is a very big park and requires driving around to see all of the spots, plus multipal days in order to enjoy it well.

I would advise you to stay in West Yellowstone, that is the closest entrance and there are rental cars available there... maybe.... if not all reserved.

Also can rent a car at Jackson Hole Airport and Cody, Wyoming but they are a distance from the park. But lots to do in Cody...

As for Yellowstone camping. It is booked, but you can always call and call the reservation office and find a campground open. Madison Campground does have a creek that runs behind campground that little one might like to get her feet wet. 
West is the closes entrance... and lots to do there too.. The grizzly center, good food, lots of camp sites...

Have fun and enjoy the park, they have been having huge bear/buffalo jams with cars being stuck in traffic for hours! Lots of camping all around park, but always best to try and stay in park for a few nights for less driving!

If you are having trouble finding a camping site, you could try recreation.gov for Rainbow Point campground at Hebgen Lake.  It's just a few miles from West Yellowstone.

Great must have book: 100 Miles Around Yellowstone. Lots of info on campgrounds, restaurants, stuff to see and do. Available from Amazon et al.

BruceinFL said:

Great must have book: 100 Miles Around Yellowstone. Lots of info on campgrounds, restaurants, stuff to see and do. Available from Amazon et al.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that book is nearly 20 years old.  Although the primary natural features haven't changed all that much it would be out of date with respect to lots of other stuff.

If you stay in West Yellowstone, The rental car will be delivered right to your campground.

You do not want to explore in your RV.

Reserve your sites now.....if you can.