Outside the Park

Where to Stay Outside Yellowstone

If you choose to stay outside the Park (or find all the in-Park accommodation is fully booked) you will have some choices to make on where best to base yourself. There are several gateway communities close to the boundaries of the Park. In the past, we have stayed at Jackson, West Yellowstone and Gardiner in a single trip and found this gave us the best access to the places we most wanted to spend time inside the Park. All of these communities also have a good range of tourist amenity.

To help you decide where to stay outside Yellowstone, the following table shows approximate mileage and drive times between the nearest gateway communities and the main attractions in Yellowstone.

	Mammoth Hot Springs	Norris	Tower Junction	Canyon Village	Fishing Bridge	West Thumb	Old Faithful	Madison Junction
Gardiner	6 miles11 mins	27 miles46 mins	24 miles56 mins	39 miles1 hr 7 mins	54 miles1 hr 35 mins	66 miles1 hr 56 mins	58 miles1 hr 35 mins	40 miles1 hr 7 mins
Cooke City	51 miles 1 hr 34 mins	63 miles 1 hr 41 mins	32 miles 44 mins	51 miles 1 hr 20 mins	67 miles 1 hr 48 mins	78 miles2 hrs 10 mins	93 miles2 hrs 30 mins	75 miles2 hrs
Cody	126 miles2 hrs 50 mins	105 miles2 hrs 16 mins	109 miles 2hr 30 mins	94 miles 1 hr 54 mins	77 miles 1 hr 30 mins	90 miles 1 hr 50 mins	118 miles 2 hrs 36 mins	118 miles2 hrs 26 mins
Jackson	146 miles3 hrs 25 mins	126 miles 2 hrs 53 mins	133 miles 3hrs 23 mins	115 miles2 hrs 40 mins	100 miles2 hrs 21 mins	87 miles 2 hrs	98 miles 2 hrs 10 mins	112 miles2 hrs 32 mins
West Yellowstone	49 miles 1hr 20 mins	28 miles47 mins	55 miles1 hr 30 mins	40 miles1 hr 5 mins	56 miles1 hr 33 mins	48 miles1 hr 15 mins	32 miles 52 mins	15 miles25 mins