From the Yellowstone Trail the Park may be reached from Billings via Cody to the eastern entrance (175 miles); Livingston to Gardiner, northern entrance (55 miles); Bozeman to Yellowstone, western entrance (93 miles); Butte to Yellowstone, western entrance (170 miles).
Automobiles entering the Park are required to pay $7.50 for a single trip or $10.00 for a season permit. Speed limits range from 8 to 20 miles per hour.
The Yellowstone Park Hotel Company operates hotels at Mammoth Hot Springs (Mammoth Hotel), Upper Geyser Basin (Old Faithful Inn), Yellowstone Lake (Lake Hotel), and Grand Cañon (Grand Cañon Hotel). It also maintains a lunch-station at Pahaska on the road to Cody. The rates at the hotels are $6.00 per day for rooms without bath. The Fountain Hotel at Lower Geyser Basin is not open.
The Yellowstone Park Camping Company operates permanent camps at Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Lake, Grand Cañon, and Tower Falls. The rate at the camps for the regular 5-day trip through the Park is $18.00. Rates per day range from $3.25 to $4.00, according to the class of tents.
The familiar Concord coaches that were for so many years a feature of travel in the Yellowstone have been discontinued and transportation is now by means of automobile stages. All the transportation is furnished by one corporation, the camping companies no longer operating coaches as was the practice before the consolidation. The automobiles will make the circular tour in 2 days, but this allows no time for seeing anything at the hotels or camps. Coupon tickets covering hotel and transportation within the Park are not sold for less than a 5-day trip.
The regular tour of the Park by the automobile stages costs $25.00. Surreys may be obtained for drives at the important points, but it is far more satisfactory to walk, as the distances are not great.
The hotels will furnish guides for $5.00 per day and saddle horses for $3.50 per day. The camps will supply saddle-horses for $3.00 per day, and guides for $4.50.
[Illustration: TRAVEL-GUIDE MAP OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK WYOMING-MONTANA-IDAHO
_By permission of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior_]
The places generally visited are Mammoth Hot Springs, the Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Cañon of Yellowstone River, and Mount Washburn. All these points lie on the main road system that is traversed by the automobile coaches. The distances along this route are as follows:--