Yellowstone vs Smoky Mountains

Two other notes:
1. "Jackson" is actually the name of the town, not "Jackson Hole,"
which refers more or less to the general region (the valley in the
mountains). There is an airport just outside of Jackson, albeit a small
one. On various occasions I've flown into Billings and Helena, both of
which are about 2 hours or so to the park. From Billings you can drive
the absolutely beautiful Bear Tooth Highway (Rt. 212, I believe) from
Red Lodge to the NE entrance station of Yellowstone. Most flights to
Montana connect through either Salt Lake City or Denver.
I usually suggest folks fly into Bozeman. It's a lot closer to Yellowstone
than either Billings or Helena.

What about West Yellowstone/KWYS, Montana or Cody/KCOD Wyoming?

I agree with your response.

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 23:52:50 -0800, "ParkLover"
wrote:

It's true that both parks are crowded in the summer, but Great Smokey is
much more so. Because it is much closer to larger cities than Yellowstone,
the Smokey Mtns. receive the most visitors of any national park in the
United States -- and it's a much smaller park too.



It is the most visited (though they're all crowded in summer) but the
beauty is that (for the most part) when you travel a quarter mile or
so from the trailhead, suddenly you'll find yourself pretty much by
yourself. Especially on the trails that don't get all the notoriety.
My wife and I have hiked a large number of the trails in various
sectors of the Smokies and the ones that we had to share with a number
of people were the exception rather than the rule. (The diversity of
hiking and outdoor activity is the reason why we moved to the
mountains of western NC two years ago.)

That said, I love Wyoming and all of its wilderness areas and National
Parks. It shouldn't be missed. (Learned to technical climb out their
in the Wind Rivers in the early 70's)


Blues

Live Free Or Die

ParkLover wrote:
snipped
That said, I love Wyoming and all of its wilderness areas and National
Parks. It shouldn't be missed. (Learned to technical climb out their
in the Wind Rivers in the early 70's)

I much prefer the Wind Rivers to Yellowstone, nice scenery, good
fishing and few tourists. The bad thing is that there is hardly any
access by road.

George

george wrote:
ParkLover wrote:
snipped
That said, I love Wyoming and all of its wilderness areas and National
Parks. It shouldn't be missed. (Learned to technical climb out their
in the Wind Rivers in the early 70's)

I much prefer the Wind Rivers to Yellowstone, nice scenery, good
fishing and few tourists. The bad thing is that there is hardly any
access by road.



Yellowstone and the Wind River Range are two entirely
different things. The Wind Rivers are more comparable to
the Tetons: they are both mountain ranges!

Yellowstone is for the thermal features, primarily. The
mountain ranges are for mountains!

Doug Mcdonald

Doug McDonald wrote:

Yellowstone and the Wind River Range are two entirely
different things. The Wind Rivers are more comparable to
the Tetons: they are both mountain ranges!

Yellowstone is for the thermal features, primarily. The
mountain ranges are for mountains!

I go to Yellowstone not only for the thermal features, but also for its
wildlife. I think it's the best National Park for wildlife viewing in
the lower 48 states.

- Peter