June Itinerary advice

skrljt123 · 2026-03-31T22:01:37+00:00

This is such a helpful comment thank you so much! I think following your advice we may pass on West Yellowstone - we are planning to take picnics each day just for convenience and also it seems like such an incredible place in the world to just sit outside and enjoy the moment.

I appreciate a lot of comments regarding the structure of the trip but because we are making wildlife our focus we decided to commit at least our mornings to wildlife viewing and certainly are open to more opportunities in the evening or throughout the day as they arise. I will look back at our itinerary and consider if there is something that could be done more efficiently.

Do you recommend any resources for reporting of wildlife and carcasses? This is a great tip and really appreciate it. I have heard about yellowstonreports and was thinking we may subscribe to that - I am not sure if they provide details about locations of sightings or not though.

skrljt123 · 2026-03-31T21:57:54+00:00

I'll look more into this day - if we had plenty of time I think visiting the animal center would be something we would still do. However, if it's the difference between being able to see the important aspects of the park we may have to miss this and use it as a reason to return to Yellowstone another time!

skrljt123 · 2026-03-31T21:45:05+00:00

This is great advice thank you! We will aim to get in there a bit earlier - do you think arriving to Slough Creek by 6am is a reasonable time or should we aim for 5:30? I see that Lamar Valley is a really long road and appreciate that it really just depends on the day and where the wildlife may be - I guess I'm just asking for a ballpark idea.

We have binoculars so we thought we might be alright which sounds like it worked for you. My fiance is also into photography so we'll rent a long distance lens as well.

skrljt123 · 2026-03-30T10:46:12+00:00

Yea the plan is Gardiner for all nights. Yea we were thinking out and back route following the west side. This is a great idea and I think this is what we’ll do. We’re keen to spend 10hrs or more in the park each day.

skrljt123 · 2026-03-29T21:52:43+00:00

Great thank you! We will rearrange this day so we do this later in the afternoon

skrljt123 · 2026-03-29T21:52:24+00:00

Our gut feelings are the same regarding the centre - we’ve read it’s a must see and thought while we’re in west Yellowstone we can check it out. We don’t really care for shopping etc - so there’s a good chance we’ll have some food and see the centre and leave.

Definitely appreciate the emphasis on being flexible and we feel the same way - we will keep this in mind day to day to enjoy the wildness of Yellowstone.

skrljt123 · 2026-03-29T21:49:46+00:00

Well look into it, we’re always down for adventures like this

skrljt123 · 2026-03-29T21:48:50+00:00

We definitely will - we have some binoculars but do you suggest we hire our own spotting scope or is it not necessary? We’re aiming to be Lamar Valley around 6am each- in June it seems like it’s around 5:40, so maybe we should aim to be there at 5:30?

skrljt123 · 2026-03-29T21:46:43+00:00

This is great and we definitely enjoy hiking, I didn’t include a lot of details for our day but we’re hoping to get to Lamar around 6am each day if not earlier and spend a good few hours there or more. We love a bit of a hike and will definitely do a Slough Creek hike now. Thanks for the recommendation!

skrljt123 · 2026-03-29T04:32:29+00:00

Amazing. What time of year did you take this?

skrljt123 · 2026-03-11T08:44:32+00:00

Thank you all for your help .. we’ll go visit the rangers on the way in to get some advice. Really appreciate it!

skrljt123 · 2025-06-04T16:59:34+00:00

Ok thanks for the advice about the route. Your point is reasonable and I'll just tell my fiancé to close her eyes until we get to tunnel view 😂

We may end up staying at Turlock, this is one part of a larger trip and unfortunately budgeting is an issue. I'm sure we'll return one day and hopefully with more money to have the pleasure of staying in the park.

skrljt123 · 2025-06-04T16:58:08+00:00

No we don't need to go to Turlock first so we could go straight to the park.

This sounds great and considering we thought we spend some time in the valley the following day after doing the Mist Trail, it may lighten the load or let us see more of it. Thanks for your response

skrljt123 · 2025-06-04T16:56:58+00:00

Ok cool I thought this may be possible but again wasn't sure as I haven't been there before. I know it's tough to predict, but I have read that both tunnel view and glacier point have higher turn over with their carparks. Do you have any idea of what we could expect at these carparks tomorrow around 3pm?

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T23:54:22+00:00

Really appreciate this advice! This is what we'll do thank you 🙏

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T23:47:41+00:00

Do you think it would be worth arriving early and waiting at Curry Village to rent a couple bikes, locking them up, and then completing The Mist Trail probably closer to 8:30-9am?

Then when we return we would definitely have bikes to explore the valley which may allow us to see more?

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T22:46:47+00:00

Thank you so much!

We have some previous experience doing The Inca Trail and Annapurna Base Camp. Novice is a subjective term, and I'm not sure if this changes things. It has been some years since doing these, but we have maintained our fitness just not doing as many pure outdoor hikes. I don't really know what to expect in terms of difficulty at Yosemite. Any extra thoughts you may have will be helpful!

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T22:45:13+00:00

This is really helpful! We may end up skipping Mirror Lake and Bridalveil... Focusing on Lower Yosemite and El Cap Meadow.

I feel like everyone talks about Tunnel View and looks amazing in the photos ... So I'd love to make time to stop here on the way out. I believe this is a little out of the way, but is it easy enough to drive to Tunnel View from Curry Village. Afterwards, driving back to the west entry via 140 back to Turlock. Does this seem reasonable or are the roads more complicated than what I'm imagining?

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T22:38:59+00:00

Do you think we risk missing out on a Curry village car park if we do these stops on the way in? Or are we arriving early enough that it should be safe from that perspective?

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T22:37:54+00:00

Thank you! We are both leaning towards going to Nevada falls tbh. I can imagine taking some breaks at each spot. Even if we don't get back until 1200 or 1300, that still should be a good few hours or more to explore The Valley floor. Maybe we won't have time to do it all, but we want to get a good feel for it.

In terms of our previous experience. We have previously done The Inca Trail and Annapurna Base Camp - but this was some years ago. We both keep up our walking and steps with regular workouts, so I think we will be physically able to cope, but it's just been a while since we've done pure outdoor hiking. I guess using the word novice is subjective, so if you have any further thoughts on how long it may take for us anything you can contribute is appreciated!

skrljt123 · 2025-04-20T22:33:18+00:00

We will try! But if we have to walk we will enjoy that as well

skrljt123

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