#011 - Yellowstone, Part 3: Where to Stay | The Old Faithful Inn, Lamar Lodges & Camping

Yellowstone has nine in-park lodges, more than two thousand rooms, and twelve campgrounds — and it still runs out of beds in July. This closes out the Wildlands Yellowstone trilogy with where to sleep and eat across a park bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Host Shawn Spainhour, a former Army officer, walks through every option lodge by lodge: the Old Faithful Inn — a seven-story log masterpiece built in the winter of 1903 and one of the great pieces of American architecture — the modern Snow Lodge and why it's the move for a winter visit, rustic Roosevelt Lodge at the door of Lamar Valley for wildlife, the elegant 1891 Lake Yellowstone Hotel with the park's best dining, and central Canyon Lodge for families. Then the camping: how the concessioner and NPS campgrounds book differently, why Slough Creek may be the best wildlife campsite in the park system, the right base at Madison, and which campgrounds are closed in 2026. Plus the gateway towns of Gardiner and West Yellowstone with real restaurant callouts, Jackson Hole as a Grand Teton pairing, and how to pack for a park where a July night drops below freezing.

This is Part 3 of the Wildlands Yellowstone series. Part 1 covers the deep history; Part 2 covers planning your visit.

Wildlands — know the land before you reach it.