RV trip from Florida to Yellowstone

Hi everyone.  I am new to this forum.  This will be our first big family trip leaving in June from Tampa FL and heading towards yellowstone.  We will be traveling with our three daughters (8,6,3) so family related activities would be appreciated.  Any tips on what route to drive to get there and stops on the way as well as where to stay and what to do while we are there.  We are open to the length of our trip so any and all tips and tricks would be wonderful!!  Thank you so much

Hi and welcome to the forum. If you use the Search function in tabs above and type in Yellowstone you will get lots of ideas to start you off.

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If you can tell us what type of RV you have, your interests, timetable, etc. we may be able to be of more help.

Some general information about YNP (some general items apply to GTNP also)

YNP is BIG!, about 45 miles E/W and about 65 miles N/S (2.2 mil. Acres total). The ?figure 8 grand loop? road inside the park is about 140 miles around. The lower loop is 96 miles and the upper loop is 70 miles around and yes, it is bigger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Whatever time that you think you will need to see YNP you better double it, or to say it another way is that you will see one half as much as you planned on in the allotted time. The Bison think that they own the road (they do!) and will slow down the traffic to walking speed or stop all traffic for 1/4 mile or more blocking both directions of travel, the thermal attractions also tie up traffic and with a 5 month long summer tourist season that coincides with a 5 month long road construction season and a 45 MPH radar controlled speed limit it will take about a full day to see each loop and then you will only see the main attractions. In addition to the occasional construction delays they will also sometimes close whole sections of road (for uninterrupted night construction) between 10 PM and 8 AM in the morning, if you are running late and get caught at night in the wrong area it CAN be a LONG way around to your CG! (The entrance stations will have current construction information or go on line to check it out)

Then there is the elevation- YNP ranges from a low at Mammoth- 6239 ft to 7784 ft at Fishing Bridge or higher if you go hiking and there are passes on the grand loop road that are close to 8000 ft or so! Drink plenty of liquids and pace yourself when walking.

I recommend that you get up EARLY, leave the CG and be back by 4 or 6 PM have dinner and be sitting in your recliner drinking a cool one when your neighbor drags himself back to the CG at 8-10 PM. Remember that from mid May to mid July in YNP the sun doesn't set until about 9:30- 9:45 PM then there is a long twilight.

Cell Phone Service- Only at the major visitor centers, otherwise non-existent!

Clothing- Especially in the early or late season it is not unusual to have a 30 or even the occasional 40 degree temperature change throughout the day. Dress with easily shed layers of clothing. Also dress in bright easily seen clothing. I am sure that we all have been to a sporting event, parade or Disney World etc. and we blink our eyes and our partner/child has disappeared. My DIL was born and raised in HI, you guessed it, every Xmas, b-day or Father's Day I receive a Hawaiian shirt. One of them is  shiny black with 4-5 inch dia. bright flowers. Not many of them in Wyoming and in YSNP, that is what I wear. If your partner has on a Violet blouse and a Orange scarf with a Pink hat I guarantee that she will be the only one within the boundaries of either NP. It can save you a few anxious moments.

Water- Now I will have to contradict myself, at the altitude of YNP yes, drink lots of water!    HOWEVER, be aware that the flush toilet restrooms are are in the major tourist areas- Mammoth, Canyon, Fishing Bridge, Lake Hotel, Bridge Bay, Grant Village, Old Faithful, Madison Junction etc. The geyser basins and other thermal attractions areas only have pit toilets. I have seen the pit toilet line at the lower Geyser Basin (2 R/Rs) 25 or more feet long (bless the tour buses) So be smart about drinking your water and use the major tourist area R/Rs before leaving the area! I.e. ?Never pass up a flush toilet!?

Sun- At YSNP altitude the Sun is intense (uv)have and apply sunscreen, wear that old floppy wide brim sun hat, wear Sunglasses!

If your luck is like mine Old Faithful will have just erupted when you get there and you will have up to a hour and 10 to 15 minutes wait for the next one. Tour tour the O/F Geyser basin while waiting. O/F INN is a must see, reportedly the largest LOG building in the U.S. (Meals in the O/F Inn dinning room are ?A OK? also.

We have lived about 110 miles from West Yellowstone, MT since 1964, go to YSNP 3-4 times a summer (normally before Memorial Day and after Labor Day) and haven't seen it all yet! So don?t be discouraged that you didn?t have the time to see all of it. Just plan on coming back another time!

I honestly don?t mean to scare or discourage you but to give you a heads up as to what to expect! After all there was 4.1 million visitors in 2015! As far as I know we didn?t lose one of them. Except those who by their own stupidity step off the board walks into BOILING HOT water and ignoring the warnings about the WILD ANIMALS! That is called purifying the gene pool!

Note I have seen on this blog and others about folks ?day tripping? from YSNP to GTNP, it is done all the time (myself included) however remember this is BIG country and with the speed limits, animals and thermal attractions you will be doing a LOT of driving. From Grant Village Visitor Center (extreme S/E corner of the lower loop road) to Jackson, WY is about 80 miles with Coulter Bay being about 1/2 way then from Grant Village you have to add the distance to your CG it will be a Long days trip!

A point of CoulterBay (GTNP) clarification- there are two (2) CG?s at Coulter Bay, One the ?Coulter Bay RV Park? a full service ?RV Park? with FHU?S that takes reservations. The other is the ?Coulter Bay Campground ? has no hookups and doesn?t take reservations. Both have about 300 sites and are basically across the road from each other.

When in the Jackson area I highly recommend seeing the Bar J Chuckwagon dinner show! If you go, MAKE RESERVATIONS and BE THERE EARLY TO PICK UP YOUR MEAL TICKETS/ TABLE SEATING ASSIGNMENTS! They seat you by when you show up to get your tickets NOT by your reservation number. Tim, their fiddle player has won the "Idaho state old time fiddle contest 7 times and the US open fiddle championship twice".  If you decide to go you will sit at picnic type of bench seats/table, they get pretty hard, I recommend that you take along a blanket/pads to sit on. We day trip it there 2-4 times every summer just to see them! Disclaimer- We have no financial or other interest in the Bar J only that it will be the best $$ value for your money for your trip! Check out their website. 

http://www.barjchuckwagon.com

Also in Jackson check out the ?COWBOY? bar, the bar stools are saddles and the # of Silver Dollars in the bar. The Wort Hotel Bar (just around the corner from the Cowboy Bar) also has Silver Dollars imbedded in the Bar

My wife and I will be leaving Cape Coral on June 1st and heading to Yellowstone via Moscow, IA, Deadwood, SD and Grand Tetons before making it to W. Yellowstone and staying two weeks. Hope to see you on the road.

While you wrote you are "open to the length of your trip", does that mean 3 or 4 weeks or up to 2-3 months?  Makes quite a difference on suggestions. 

Computer mapping program shows about 2350 miles from Tampa to Yellowstone.  With very young children, I would suggest you plan on two to three 10 hour travel days to cover significant miles then stop for two nights or more then repeat.  The 2 night stop gives a full day w/o travel for everyone to chill out.  Yes the 10 hour days are tiring but you have a lot of ground to cover. 

What you don't want to do with small children is drive, visit something such as museum or scenic/historic location then drive, park for the night and repeat the next day and the day after and the day after.  It is best to spend a few hard days to get somewhere, set up camp and then visit what there is to do there for part of the day. Plan on 3-5 days to enjoy the place you stop at.  Be sure to get back to camp by 3-4pm to relax and play at the campground.  Adults may enjoy driving, sightseeing, driving, camping for then night and repeat.  We did sometimes before we had kids.  Kids want a place to relax and play or they get cranky. 

Plan on at least a week at Yellowstone, 10 days to 2 weeks is better.

AStravelers said:

Computer mapping program shows about 2350 miles from Tampa to Yellowstone.  With very young children, I would suggest you plan on two to three 10 hour travel days to cover significant miles then stop for two nights or more then repeat.  The 2 night stop gives a full day w/o travel for everyone to chill out.  Yes the 10 hour days are tiring but you have a lot of ground to cover. 

What you don't want to do with small children is drive, visit something such as museum or scenic/historic location then drive, park for the night and repeat the next day and the day after and the day after.  It is best to spend a few hard days to get somewhere, set up camp and then visit what there is to do there for part of the day. Plan on 3-5 days to enjoy the place you stop at.  Be sure to get back to camp by 3-4pm to relax and play at the campground.  Adults may enjoy driving, sightseeing, driving, camping for then night and repeat.  We did sometimes before we had kids.  Kids want a place to relax and play or they get cranky. 

Plan on at least a week at Yellowstone, 10 days to 2 weeks is better.

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I second most of everything that AStravelers said in the above post. We do not travel with kids, but have three dogs with us, so the slowdowns are similar, but for different reasons. I learned the hard way the first time we drove cross country that it is very difficult on the body, the mind and the attitude when driving long distances without a break. I drove from Cape Coral to Gold Canyon, AZ, taking six days to get there and driving an average of 400 miles per day. By the time we arrived, I was wasted and needed a full three days of doing very little to recover.

When we take our trip this year to the Northwest, we will break it up and spend no more than four days on the road without taking a day off and relaxing. This trip will find us spending three days in Iowa to get repairs to the coach made and visit the Winnebago factory, getting us off the road for two full days. We will then spend a week in Deadwood, SD and take four more days just to get to the Grand Tetons. A week there and two weeks in Yellowstone gives me confidence that we'll see much of what we want to between those two very large and impressive parks. Two more weeks in Glacier and a week in Canada traveling the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Parks will peak our trip before heading back home.

The one thing I question, but cannot disagree with that AStravelers stated was having 10 hour travel days. If he is talking about 10 hours total, this will equate to driving 7-8 hours per day and is not too bad. But if he is talking about driving 10 hours per day, this will equate to 14-15 hours per day. Since I do not drive with young children, I cannot say this is wrong, but this will make for very long days and I'm afraid anyone of any age may experience cranky attitudes. Most experienced travelers will tell you about the 3/300 rule. You stop driving after 300 miles or at 3:00PM every day you're on the road. While this is geared more to the older RV'ers and can be modified somewhat depending on your driving ability, this is actually a pretty rule of thumb to go by. My wife and I have found that driving 300-325 miles per day fits our style very well and the one thing we have learned about RV'ing is to never, ever be in a hurry. You're supposed to enjoy your vacation, not endure it. We believe the vacation begins when you pull out of your driveway, not when you get to your first destination. Since you stated that you're flexible regarding the length of your trip, you may wish to plan on taking more time to get to Yellowstone rather than hurrying to get there. But AStravelers idea of long driving days broken up with two days off the road every now and then is a good one if the entire family can handle the long days on the road. We will leave Cape Coral on June 1st and not make it to Yellowstone until June 25th.

Regarding the route from Tampa to Yellowstone: I strongly recommend staying away from I-10 through Louisiana and if you search the forum for driver's experiences on this stretch of road, you'll find I'm not the only one. Most of Louisiana's roads are in bad shape; they simply don't spend the money to keep them up. Since you have to head north sooner or later, I recommend doing it sooner to stay away from these roads. Now, the best way for you take is going to depend on what you want to see and do on your way there. If you want to see New Mexico and Arizona before heading north to Wyoming and Montana, you can take I-40 across the country for as far as you want, picking it up in Tennessee and then taking I-15 from Las Vegas north. If you want the fastest route, most maps will tell you to make your way to Kansas City and then take I-29 to I-90 and take it the rest of the way. This is a pretty good route because it allows you to see the Badlands, Black Hills and Big Horns before you get there, giving you plenty of places to stop and stay for a few days on your way to your final destination. If I didn't have to drive to Moscow, IA as my first destination to have coach repairs made, this is probably the route I would have taken. But there are variations of this also, if you want to take I-70 as far cross country as you can, or I-80. That's the nice thing about the cross country interstate roads; there are plenty to choose from and plenty of things to see on each of them, depending on your interests.

Since you didn't denote how you are traveling; i.e. what kind of RV, it's difficult to provide tips to you on what you should count on, what to do or what to bring with you besides the obvious. As someone else stated, you may wish to utilize the Search function on this forum for various topics. There is a wealth of knowledge on this board.

My best advice or tip I can give you - have fun!

We went to the grand canyon last year from orlando.  We drove about six hours per day and had a few stops where we took a whole day to just rest.  I think it took us seven or eight days to get there doing that.  But we enjoyed the stops along the way. 

In the summer of 2017 I / we  (my wife flew up to join me for the Wyoming part of the trip in Laramie) did a month long 4200 mile loop from SW Louisiana to Yellowstone and back.  1250 miles to Laramie, did it in 5 days, this had a built in cushion, could have done it in 4 as the last 2 days were short travel days.  Longest single day on that trip was just under 400 miles.  2 Days in Laramie, then on to Dubois the day after my wife arrived, which was right at another 300 miles, stopping mid day grocery provisioning.

As a general rule I try to plan stops every 300-350 miles on long distance travel days, though I have been known to push this to 400, every time I do over 400 miles in a single day I regret it, the MOST I have ever done in my current coach is 499 miles in 11 1/2 hours, 400 of which was on I-10 in west Texas in one day.  Looking back I really probably should have stopped around at the 400 mile mark, but I wanted to get through San Antonio on a Sunday evening, instead of on a Monday morning.

That’s quite a major undertaking for your “first family trip”, so the most important advice I can offer is to be flexible and expect to have your assumptions, all challenged: Assumptions about how far you can drive in a day, how many days in a row you can drive without taking a “stay-in-place” break, and what life on the road with three little ones will be like.
Everyone has different thresholds in those matters to begin with, so what works for some won’t necessarily be your cup of tea.
For someone of your experience level I’d recommend modifying your expectations by a factor of 2 in  the conservative direction. (And that may not be enough for some things). For example, if you think you can handle 300 miles a day for 4 straight days, start out at 150 miles a day and take a break after two days. Then adjust up or down as you gain familiarity. If you think you can experience enough of Yellowstone in 3 days there, either halve the points of interest you want to see on this trip or make reservations for 6 days. My experience suggests that still wouldn’t be long enough, but you can always go back.
My key to keeping my sanity and serenity is to always keep in mind that this will NOT be my last trip, so anything missed now I WILL experience on my next one.
Embrace throwing the plan out the window. The best memories we have of our travels are of things that were unexpected.

Just my opinion but do you really want to take a 3 year old?  They will not remember the trip and will likely be the first to
get crabby or fall asleep even when at an attraction.

But it's your life and your choice - I hope it works out the way you envision the trip.
Good Luck.

To clarify, the 10 hour travel day is total hours on the road. 

Long, long time ago when we were in our 30's and traveled with our kids aged 7 & 5 and more times when they were aged older and younger we would put in a day or two of 12 hours on the road.  One time we put in a 14 hour day.  We did this to get the travel out of the way.  I can't say those were easy travel days.  We did switch off the driving and watching and entertaining our 2 kids.  However it did get the travel out of the way and now we could just relax and enjoy our destination.

Once we were at our destination we pretty much stayed put.  Any travel days after that were to move 50-150 miles, i.e. a half day travel or less.   

Peggyy said:

We went to the grand canyon last year from orlando.  We drove about six hours per day and had a few stops where we took a whole day to just rest.  I think it took us seven or eight days to get there doing that.  But we enjoyed the stops along the way.

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We did a canyon trip a few years ago, with a similar approach.  I had a limited time off work (approx 3 weeks) so we really tried to push some miles every day.
but we also tried to stop for some sort of activity at least almost every day.  A museum, a hike, a park, shopping, a point of interest...

My advice is to be flexible.
My loose plan was to have the primary activity (the canyon) be in the middle of the trip, with one "secondary" activity roughly mid way in each direction...where we'd stop and have a zero day or two...otherwise pushing out big miles.
that fell apart in a hurry in favor of something everyday.

.... this was for the kids, but also for me.  I was doing all the driving since my DW won't drive the RV.  I found that I could only comfortably do 2-3 nights boondocking in parking lots or similar, before I had to find a campground so that I could sleep better and relax a bit.  We made some miles almost every day

Also about being flexible.  I had done a lot of research along the route (roadtrippers.com is useful) as well as alternative routes....so I had a good idea of many of the options.  Some were must do priorities and some things just didn't work out..such as being closed when we passed by and it wasn't a big enough interest to our 'mood' to stop and wait till the next day.  Also, we occasionally ended up in places we just discovered along the way....and stayed extra days at a few places

for example, or pace on the way out...
our first stop was early afternoon to spend a few hours at the naval aviation museum in Pensacola, followed by a nice dinner on the beach and an overnight (cracker barrel I think).  the next day we stopped for a few hours at the riverfront in Baton Rouge where we played in the park and toured a museum ship...then continued driving to Shreveport where we stopped for some shopping and dinner...another parking lot overnight...  then on to Dallas where we spent several hours in the Parrot Museum, which was very good for the whole family... then drove a few more hours to a quick stop campground... then after a museum in Amarillo TX, and a nice day hike in palo duro canyon, we did another parking lot overnight.  Would have stayed in the canyon had there been room.  That place was a total discovery we learned about at the visitor center in Amarilo.  Then it was on to ABQ, where we liked it so much and I was so tired we ended up staying two nights...several museums and activities...  the next day was several hours in the Petrified Forest followed by a parking lot overnight, that landed us at the canyon the next day.

On the way home it was even more discovery...ended up at lots of great but unplanned places that I'd never even heard of, or otherwise had no plans to do.

We ended up doing the trip in 19 days....too short really, but it was a good trip.
I hope yours is as good.

Having spent the last 10 summers and the last 7 winters living inside the park, at Old Faithful, I agree with all of Coxid writing.  Except it is a bout 90 minutes between eruptions of Old Faithful.  Having spent all that time there, I have still not seen everything.  This summer we will be in West Yellowstone, I'll be work camping in the hardware store in town.  Specific questions fire away.  Oh, and highly recommend getting the girls involved in the Junior Rangers,  easy to complete programs with a cool patch to collect.  All NP's have these.