Yellowstone for Labor Day

Years ago Susan and I took a trip with family and friends to Glacier National Park and stayed a couple nights in the Many Glacier Hotel which sits on Swiftcurrent Lake within the park. The Hotel was built in 1915 and is rich in history and the natural beauty of the location. While we were visiting we purchased a coffee book in the hotel gift shop; “Great Lodges Of The National Parks”.

Introduction: Yellowstone for Labor Day
Review: Delta Regional Short-haul Coach Salt Lake City to West Yellow Stone
Review: Old Faithful Inn Suite
Review: Delta Regional Short-haul Coach West Yellow Stone to Salt Lake City
Additional Thoughts: Yellowstone National Park

Susan and I have had this book for years

Susan and I love this book and have continued to reference and read it over the years. If you know an avid traveler or national park enthusiast, it’s a great gift. We had committed, again years ago, that we would visit and stay at all the lodges in the book, and with the exception of Many Glacier Hotel never got around to any of them. This year we finally started checking of the list with the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming

Getting to Yellowstone National Park takes some effort. You can fly into several surrounding airports year-round including Cody and Jackson, Wyoming; Idaho Falls, Idaho; and Bozeman and Billings, Montana. All these locations include an additional 45 minutes or longer drive to get into the park. The West Yellowstone, Montana airport has seasonal service in the summer and boarders directly, as the name implies, on the west side of the park. It was this last option that we ultimately chose.

The different airports around Yellowstone

There is only one airline that flies into West Yellowstone airport, Delta, and being a Delta elite made choosing this airport easy. Delta runs their service from May 1st to September 30th. The service between West Yellowstone and Salt Lake City fly’s 2 or 3 times a day, and is a quick 50 minutes in the air. Delta runs Canadair CRJ200 regional jets on all the times.

Delta is the only carrier that flies into WYS Airport

Airfare was $554.00 per person round trip for coach service. I looked into using miles for this destination, but rates were an expensive 65,000 miles/person – and I value Delta SkyMiles at more than $0.0085 per mile. We also used one of our “buy one get one” coupons that is a part of the Delta Reserve AMEX credit card, and saved the $554.00 for that ticket. Note that these tickets run in the ~$250.00 range if not booked on holiday weekends, and should be considered by those of you with a more flexible schedule (read retired).

Our flight times worked out pretty well for the labor day weekend

Three of us were going to be staying at the lodge, and so I booked the Old Faithful Inn Suite with 2 queen beds at $572.00 per night. This was a separate one-bedroom suite which also included a pull out sleeper in the living room.   There was not a lot of detailed information on line in regards to what the room would be like, but we really wanted to enjoy this stay and took a chance that the suite would be worth the $572.00 per night. It was.

Online description of Old Faithful Inn Suite

Room costs

The trip took place over labor day weekend which seemed like a perfect time to go. We rented a car from Avis at Yellowstone airport, which was a very smooth experience. None of us had visited Yellowstone before, and we were all excited to experience this icon of North America’s natural beauty.