A Guide to Biking in Yellowstone: 11 Days of Mountains, Hot Springs and Wildlife
I’ll be honest, biking in Yellowstone wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I didn’t always vibe with the crew I traveled with. I was laughably unprepared for the weather and the roads. And, though I’m not new to bicycle touring, I didn’t properly train for 11 days of living on a bicycle in the mountains.
I even used my phone-a-friend option every time I had a sliver of service. I was kind of hoping they’d tell me to come home. But mostly, they tried to talk me into NOT quitting.
And I didn’t quit.
And I am beyond happy that I didn’t because biking in Yellowstone is madness. A good sort of madness.
Doing a bicycle tour through Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and the areas surrounding them means signing up for constantly awe-inspiring views. You’ll get to sleep under the stars in that big famous Montana sky and feel like you are pedaling through the pages of one of those Old West Americana calendars.
You know the ones I’m talking about – those calendars full of big red barns, rows of wooden fences and portraits of weathered farmers.
You’ll most certainly encounter wildlife and you’ll get to enjoy America’s First National Park. Bison, bears, snow-capped mountains, empty dirt roads, and stopping for water at small, hometown bars will become the status quo when you are biking in Yellowstone.
And doing all this on a bicycle means moving slower. Which seems completely appropriate for the pace of living in the area. Plus, it lets you get off the beaten trail where cars and RVs can’t go, giving you a 3-state glimpse of the US interior that few will ever experience.
That’s not even mentioning those off-bike moments, like the pure bliss of slipping your sore muscles into a natural hot spring after an 86-mile day, the chance to raft down the Yellowstone River, eating Oreos for breakfast in a snow-drift and swapping stories over canned red wine one night with the only other bicycle tourist that you met along the road.
I want all those awesome moments for you.
So, as I was digging through hundreds of photos and thinking about what it takes to go biking in Yellowstone, I decided that I’d share the tips that I didn’t know before setting out.
Before you set out biking in Yellowstone (try to) make sure the snow has melted
Bicycle touring can be done any time of year, yes. But I tend to think that biking in Yellowstone – or anywhere, for that matter – can be a lot more enjoyable when you aren’t unnecessarily fighting with the weather.
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho are home to the Rocky Mountains, which can be covered in snow year round. In fact, there are over 70 mountain peaks in Yellowstone with an elevation of more than 8,000 feet.
And some of these, you’ll be pedaling over.
You’ll want to try to plan your bicycle tour after the snow has melted – or has melted enough – so that all the roads are clear. But also before it has a chance to snow again. This is a bit tricky because, at that elevation, no one really knows what the weather will be and when the snow will melt.
The Parks system does a great job of keeping routes within the parks as clear as possible. However, some of the gravel routes and lesser-used passes outside the park may not be open.
So, if you have to plan your bicycle tour of Yellowstone months in advance (like we did), I’d recommend going after the first week of June or later.
If you have more flexibility with your schedule, you can play it by ear as summer gets closer. And, while you are biking in Greater Yellowstone, you can call ahead a day or two to the local ranger stations to check road closures.
Or, ask a local.
They will usually know what the mountain passes look like and could even recommend an alternate route if needed. That’s what we did.
Because of my work schedule, I had to pick a date I wanted to be biking in Yellowstone and stick with it well in advance. The option we settled on was to use the long Memorial Day weekend and going for the last week of May, returning June 2.
We only had one day of pushing our loaded bikes through snow and slush, but it did make for some tired arms and soggy toes. We were just outside the park and on a few of the dirt roads that intersect with the Great Divide.
Happily, all the paved passes within the park were clear for us.
Know the terrain – and commit to whether you want gravel, pavement or a combo
One of the things that you adventure travelers and cyclists will love about cycling in Yellowstone is that the terrain is a sliding scale of adventure.
What I mean is that you can decide to bring your road bike and stick to riding pavement, or you can go full-on adventure and get lost on gravel for a good bulk of the tour.
We did a combination of the two.
We took packed-gravel rail trails through Teton Valley and Island Park, Idaho. If you are familiar with the Gravel Pursuit Ride, the beginning of our tour followed some of that route.
Then, we linked up with some pavement outside of West Yellowstone. Everyone was happy to discover that there was a pretty good shoulder from West Yellowstone to Norris.
We spent the night at the Norris Hot Springs and campground. There were talks of splitting up in the morning so that half of the group could explore a gravel road that takes you off the highway between Norris and Bozeman, but we opted to ride together.
From Bozeman to Chico Hot Springs, there is also another chance to pick between gravel or pavement.
After that, you’ll be on pavement while biking in Yellowstone National Park itself and onward to Teton National Park.
With all these options, the thing to take into consideration is your bike. Or perhaps, more importantly, the tires that you’ll be biking in Yellowstone and the surrounding areas on.
In our group, we had a Salsa Fargo, a Salsa Powderkeg tandem and a Surly Disc Trucker. I was on the Surly with 1.75” touring tires and felt the least equipped. I definitely sunk into the gravel and got really jarred by those washboards.
A wider tire with more tread would have given me a much better ride.
It would have slowed me down on the paved roads, sure, but all around would have averaged out and not left me walking as much as I had to.
Even if you have the perfect set-up, you still may have to hike-a-bike a few times. We encountered washed-out muddy roads, snow drifts, pouring rain that created deep puddles, a road closed because of a past rock slide and a creek crossing with a completely absent bridge.
Bicycle touring is an adventure, after all!
Plan to pack 3-4 days worth of meals at a time
My life revolves around food. But, even if yours doesn’t it’s always something to plan out in advance for a bicycle tour.
The park itself will have plenty of stops with picnic areas and convenience stores, but they’re going to be flooded with microwave meals and hordes of people on tour buses. The small towns in the surrounding have a bit more to offer, but you can’t be choosy. There was usually a bar and grill and a gas station with the basics – hard boiled eggs, bread, boxed mac and cheese.
Five-star? Nope. But they are used to catering to RVs and picnicking families, so you definitely won’t starve.
When preparing, I researched a few blog posts of both people who decided to pack only snacks and those who carried all their meals while biking in Yellowstone.
I knew it was going to be slim pickings when it came to finding vegetarian food – especially when I was looking for high-protein options that would help me power over those mountain passes. Plus we were planning on hitting gravel as much as possible (gravel = fewer food and water stops) and wanted to pull off biking in Yellowstone on a budget.
Enter: Meal prep.
My group and I opted to pack enough food for 4 days at a time, considering small convenience store stops “bonus meals” and opportunities to pick up granola bars.
I personally dehydrated my own meals to save space and cut back on those high-sodium backpacker meals.
I made sure I had about 2,000 calories and 50 grams of protein per day, split between a breakfast, second breakfast (it’s a thing) lunch, and dinner. Extra protein powder, electrolytes and granola bars were also stowed in my packs, in case I ever needed a boost. I’m not a fan of goo, but you can throw some of those in there as well.
There’s really nothing worse than suddenly being struck with hunger pains and knowing you are still 20 miles from town. And is it just me, or do you go from zero to starving in .2 seconds when you’re on a bike?
Anyway, I digress…
Having so much food with felt a little weird because we were constantly going through towns. But it definitely helps you stick to that budget while biking in Yellowstone and stay healthy while traveling.
If you are going the DIY food-packing route, you’ll have two major re-stock options (both also have a bicycle shop) before you start to bike in Yellowstone:
- West Yellowstone
- Bozeman
West Yellowstone is the entry point to the National Park and was filled with tourists and high prices. If you are doing a budget bicycle tour of Yellowstone, be wary.
Meanwhile, Bozeman has several grocery stores and an REI. It was a little less than half-way on our 11-day loop around the area and is the last town you go through before hitting the North entrance of the park. By some sort of happy accident, we rolled through town during REI’s garage sale event. Needless to say, I may or may not have gone a tad overboard on re-stocking (spoiler alert: I definitely did), but I was a happy camper for the rest of the trip.
We also found a Warm Showers host there so that we could wash our clothes and get a good night’s rest before finishing our tour biking in Yellowstone.
Mark your water stops on your map or GPS
Carrying all our food gave us the freedom to stop and eat whenever we felt like it, but there isn’t as much water as you’d think considering you are biking in Yellowstone – a major National Park with several rest stops along the road.
So, here’s the situation: Every town around the park has water that you can at least buy, but there can be long stretches between towns.
We did have one run-in with a rude convenience store owner that refused to let us fill up in the bathroom sink and proceeded to yell at us about being “rich, entitled bicycle tourists who can afford to take a month off and ride expensive bikes, but expect free handouts.”
He rubbed my friends the wrong way and they decided that they’d rather not buy water or snacks at that particular stop.
Other than that, once we were biking in Yellowstone National Park itself, we just had to be a bit strategic. If you want to seek out those lakes, vistas and picnic areas that have million dollar views and no noisy tourists (and I highly recommend that you do), you’ll probably have to still fill up at rest stops, then keep pedaling until you find an ideal place to picnic.
Should you bring a water filter?
I did, but I only had to use it once. And even then, I didn’t really need it.
We camped next to a lake just outside Chico Hot Springs. Since we knew we were next to a reliable water source, we used up more water than usual for dinner, breakfast and an extra cup of coffee the next morning. And we found it easier to filter than ride back the ~7 miles to the hot springs.
If you are low on space I wouldn’t worry about bringing it along.
Pro tip: Just take a blue sharpie and mark your map where there’s potable water. I tend to drink a lot, so I always made sure to top off whenever I got the chance, too.
Call ahead 2-3 months for campsites and Warm Showers hosts
Unfortunately, a Yellowstone bicycle tour isn’t one of those fly-by-the-seat-of-your-shammies trips.
While you probably won’t run into too many other people biking in Yellowstone, I 100% guarantee you’ll see plenty of cars, RVs and tour buses. National Parks are notoriously busy year-round. Plus, snow dictates tourism for much of the year in the Rockies and Tetons. So most of those people will want to see Old Faithful at the same time you want to plan your bicycle tour.
You do have a few more sleeping options as a bicycle tourist, though:
- In-park hotels/resorts
- RV sites/full-size campsites (12 in Yellowstone, 6 in Grand Teton National Park)
- Bike-in campsites (all campgrounds in the park, except Fishing Bridge RV Park and Slough Creek)
- Backcountry sites (backcountry pass/reservation required)
- Warm Showers hosts (only in surrounding areas)
- Hot springs with accommodations (surrounding areas)
Campsites need to accommodate the majority of visitors, bike-friendly backcountry sites are few and far between (there are exactly 2 in the park), and hot springs fill up fast.
A note on backcountry camping: There are a ton of backcountry options in both National Parks. But not all of them are accessible by bike. We stayed at one just outside Old Faithful that had a bear box and a compost toilet.
Just make sure you call in advance and pick up your backcountry pass at one of the ranger stations.
While us adventure lovers relish the idea that any open parcel of land can become home for the evening, dispersed and/or stealth camping was only an option when we were in West Yellowstone. Overall, I’d advise against it. There is a lot of unmarked private property in the area and it is bear country, after all.
As soon as you start mapping out the route you’ll be cycling in Yellowstone and the Tetons, start calling and reserving your spot.
Be aware that seasonal closures do occur and factor in here (see point #1).
And don’t forget to price compare when booking campsites! For example, we reserved a hike-or-bike site at Canyon Village, assuming that would be the cheapest option. But when we got there, we realized it cost $8-10/person and that showers were an additional $5 (no towel included).
Campsites were about $35 and included 2 showers.
Since there were 4 of us, we saved $20 by “upgrading” to the bigger site. And friendly stranger gave us their leftover shower passes that they didn’t use.
Shoutout to that lady, because we had just finished an 8,800+ foot descent down Dunraven Pass in the hail and pouring rain. That, and we hadn’t showered in almost 5 days, so it was a luxury.
Anyway, $20 isn’t a fortune, but it did cover our backcountry site the following night. When you think about it like that, it was worth the 5-minute conversation we had at the check-in desk.
Give yourself PLENTY of time for attractions while cycling in Yellowstone National Park
I think this was actually our biggest struggle when planning our bicycle tour in Yellowstone.
For one, you don’t really know how long you are going to want to stare at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Or, after handling your first ascent into the park, whether your legs will feel like walking along the boardwalks at Mammoth Hot Springs.
And you don’t know if the fog will even lift enough for you to see the Grand Prismatic.
It sure didn’t for us.
Two, if you are biking in Yellowstone and want to stay on some semblance of a budget, you don’t have complete control of where you are going to end up each night and start each day. Not all the attractions are right next to a campground. And there are those unexpected stops (hello, bears!) and photo opps that take up more time than you anticipated.
Finally, there’s just being realistic about your pace and cadence.
Pedaling 13-15 mph feels achievable when you are in the comfort of your living room looking at online maps. But when your ankle hurts, it’s 85 degrees outside, you didn’t sleep well (thanks, bison), and you’re nearing mile 400 of your bicycle tour, your body may have different plans.
There were more than a few times where we thought we’d get somewhere by noon, only to pedal by it around 5 p.m.
It would be super convenient to wake up in the resort right outside Old Faithful and walk down to the boardwalk just in time to see it erupt. But, if you prefer sleeping al fresco, the nearest campsite is about 20 miles to the North.
We had to set our alarms, check eruption times for the geyser and make sure we maintained a steady pace so that we got there at just the right time.
Here’s a general bicycle touring tip that is especially relevant when biking in Yellowstone: Plan your mileage with buffer time.
Your timing is key to having an enjoyable tour.
Campsites dictate how far you have to pedal each day. So, look at a map of Yellowstone attractions you want to see. Then, when planning out each day, overlay the campsites with the attractions. Pick your starting point and ending point for each day. Then see what stops might come up in the next 50-70 miles. Add an hour or two of time for each attraction that is between your start and end each day.
Our highlight stops (the ones with stars have campgrounds):
- Norris Hot Springs**
- Bozeman (we stayed with some fantastic Warm Showers hosts!)**
- Chico Hot Springs**
- Dailey Lake**
- The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone**
- Artists’ Paintpots
- Lower Geyser Basin
- Grand Prismatic (it was too foggy for us to justify stopping)
- Old Faithful
- Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park**
- Teton Pass
Give yourself that rest day – but don’t plan it in advance
I don’t know about you, but when I’m traveling, rest days get a little over-looked. Why rest when you could be getting a daily dose of adrenaline?!? I always want to cover as much ground as possible. The mission (in my mind) is to see all the sites and return home feeling like I truly conquered a place.
Slow down there, bucko.
It is completely possible to see everything you want to see when you are biking in Yellowstone. But it’s going to take longer than you think.
I pinky promise.
So, make sure you plan at least one rest day for every 6-7 days you spend cycling. This is a general rule of thumb. I like to add my own experience to this advice and encourage you to add an additional half day buffer. Plus, I’d encourage you not to pick which day you’ll rest until you actually start biking in Yellowstone.
This will give you the flexibility to spend some extra time in a place if you really love it. It will also let you take a guilt-free break if there is bad weather or an old injury acting up.
Both of these things happened to me twice.
The first time was while on a bicycle tour of the Pacific Coast Highway. We had to stop because of flash flooding and had to use an allocated rest day that was meant for waterfall chasing holed up in a cheap motel waiting out the storm. Then, later in the tour, we unexpectedly ended up at a host’s house and they offered to take us on a winery tour. We decided to take them up on the offer and just ride extra for the next two days.
The next time this happened, was while we were biking in Yellowstone. We had to shift daily milage multiple times because of unexpected weather. We couldn’t stop completely because we only had one rest day planned. But being able to cut miles while riding through a hailstorm with 20-something degree weather was really a lifesaver.
And then, we unexpectedly stopped a few days earlier than planned again. This time for fun – we got an impromptu invitation to raft down the river in Gardner.
The point is, find those things that you really want to do while on a bicycle tour of Yellowstone, and tentatively plan rest days around them. If you want a full day to enjoy the boardwalks around Old Faithful then, by all means, pencil it in! This is your tour after all.
But always be open to discovering a gem of a camping spot or a fun new activity that you may want to try out for a day.
Over the span of 11 days spent biking in and around Yellowstone theses were the stats: We pedaled over 500 miles, saw 7 bears and countless bison. Plus, we experienced rain, snow, ice and entirely too much hail (isn’t any amount of hail too much when on a bike?).
That doesn’t even include one run-in with law enforcement about a map mix-up. Or the struggles that arise when you throw four strangers from three different states – all with their own habits, routines and riding styles – into these elements.
There was literally never a dull moment while we were cycling in Yellowstone.
Do I have some epic memories? Yes.
But I had prepared just a teensy, tiny bit more (okay, A LOT more), I wouldn’t have needed to blame my occasional tears on the pouring rain and would have probably been a bit less soggy. I probably would have slept warmer (and dryer) and not needed as much athletic tape to hold my body together. And I definitely would have been able to worry a lot less about those day-to-day details that we didn’t plan out when the idea to go on a cycling trip in Yellowstone surfaced.
I have yet to pull off a flawless bicycle tour. And that’s really OK with me. After all, I think the nature of a bicycle tour calls for a bit of adventure.
But these tips should help when it comes to planning for what your Yellowstone bicycle tour may have in store.
Let me know what you think! If you have tips of your own for biking in Yellowstone and this area, please share them. I’m used to the consistent Southern California weather, so it was a new experience for me.
And if you have a question that wasn’t covered here, just reach out. These were just my main lessons learned. But I have exactly 11 days’ worth of tips I could share if you’ve got the time!
Hi there! I was curious what your route was. I am working on a bikepacking trip to see Yellowstone and the Tetons in the fall and I am trying to put together a fun route! thanks so much 🙂
Cheers
Andrew
Hey Andrew! Let me dig it up….I know I have at least a loose copy of it. We followed the old train track trails around Teton Valley and a mix of The Great Divide and park roads once in Yellowstone and Teton National Park. I got your email and will send it your way 🙂