Lamar valley, Yellowstone

We are planning a trip to Yellowstone, possibly next Spring. I would like to see (%26amp; photograph) as much wildlife as possible and I have read that the Lamar Valley (NE corner) is a good area to visit, especially for Wolves. Looking on the map I have of Yellowstone it shows the northeast entrance road in from Silver Gate but I don%26#39;t see any road (even minor roads) along the Lamar river.

Perhaps my map isn%26#39;t detailed enough. Is there any kind of vehicle access in the Lamar Valley?

What is the road distance from the south entrance to the north entrance?

Any suggestions about visiting Yellowstone would be very much appreciated.

Lamar valley, Yellowstone

The Lamar Valley begins at a point approxemately 15 to 20 miles after you enter the park from the northeast gate. There are no signs coming in that way, but it will be obvious as you leave the heavily forested areas and enter the open valley. The cinder cone known as ';Soda Butte'; will be on your left, and that generally marks the entrance into Lamar. When you get to the ';Buffalo Ranch';, the small cluster of log buildings on your right, you will be about in the center of the valley. Coming in from the opposite direction, you might see a small sign on the right as you enter the valley after coming up through a samll, very rocky canyon with the Lamar river down on your right, probably about the same distance in from the Roosevelt intersection. Naturally by entering from the west, everything else is reversed as well. Expect to see wolf and bear activity anyplace along the valley floor, but especially down near the river or on the benches(raised wooded areas) above it. Good binoculars at the very least are highly recommended, and a quality spotting scope will even be more valueable. For your photography, a MINIMUM of 400MM telephoto lens will be needed for shooting most wolf and bear activities.

While I%26#39;ve never measured the distance from the south gate to the north, it is quite a haul, and staying anywhere to the south of Yellowstone, such as Jackson, is not recommended, since it is over an hour from Jackson up to Old Faithful, on clear, dry roads without stopping. If your interests lie primarily in the northern range, you would be well advised to stay in the Canyon area of the park, or either Gardiner, or the Silver Gate/Cooke City areas outside the park. Just as a point of information, Cooke City is about 25 minutes from Lamar Valley.

As your plans take shape, feel free to return to the forum, and you will find plenty of suggestions to help you make the most of your trip.

Lamar valley, Yellowstone

If you select the park map, where it says ';View Map';, a little hard to see, on the park%26#39;s homepage, you can blow it up as needed. The road mentioned by Hawkeye is quite prominent and cuts through the Valley and along, more or less, the Lamar R.

I presume you have read the National Park website which is loaded with a lot of very good information. http://www.nps.gov/yell/

An Inside Page, following, several of us created should help:

For wildlife viewing and photography:

tripadvisor.com/Travel-g60999-c96653/Yellows…

A thought about the Spring, it arrives late in Yellowstone....many areas of the park do not open until close to the end of May-even if the roads are open the facilities are not.

According to the website this year the first day for vehicles in the west side of the park was April 17 and some not till 22 May.

The north road from Cooke City to Gardiner is open all year, if you come too early you may not be able to drive anywhere else.

Hawkeyell - Thankyou very much for this information, I ';assumed'; there would be one or two minor side roads off the main road in from the NE entrance, and Lamar Valley would be one of them. This site is so good, from knowing very little about Yellowstone, little by little I am getting to know it. I am a keen %26amp; accomplished photographer with a decent SLR, my telephoto lens is a 70-200VR, but I do realise a longer one would be better . . . I have time to save up!

We plan to fly into Jackson Hole from the UK and visit the Grand Titons %26amp; Yellowstone. I did wonder about trying to see Glacier NP too but it might be too much to do all that in three weeks.

voyaging - Thankyou for the links, I have looked at the NP site but not the other.

Kbecjeans - We will ';probably'; go for the middle 3 weeks of June.

Hi Teesside,

We will be camping in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone the first two weeks of June. You could probably squeeze in Glacier too. It is about 465 miles from Yellowstone to Glacier.

Depending on how you travel, how long you hike, and how long your days are, you could see Tetons in 3 days, Yellowstone in 4-5 days and Glacier in another 3-4 days. Now by Glacier, you mean the entire Waterton/Glacier area too, then it could take a few days more. As you can see, you would still have several more days to see more of each park or rest up!!!

We spent about 7 days in Glacier and much of that was on Going to the Sun Road, and the Canadian side of the park.

As said earlier, go to the NPS sites for each park and there is lots of good maps and info on each.

On our last trip to Yellowstone and Tetons, we were there about 10 days, but they were 12 hour days driving, wildlife viewing and photography.

Hope you have a great trip.

John

We have visited YNP twice - the first time in 2005 we only had 3 days there and it wasn%26#39;t long enough. Last June we spent 10 days there and it still wasn%26#39;t long enough - I can%26#39;t wait to go back again.

The wildlife is incredible and we actually got close up shots of wolves in Lamar, 3 or 4 different viewings of bears (can%26#39;t remember the locations), m, coyotes with pups and without, moose in Grand Tetons the Jackson fox feeding her young and of course the bison, elk and deer. The secret is to be out as early morning as possible (dawn) and dusk, but many of our sightings were during the day.

I have an American friend who loves Glacier and visits every year - she doesn%26#39;t like Yellowstone because it is too crowded. She keeps trying to get us to go to Glacier, but to me Yellowstone appeals more due to the wildlife.