Yellowstone National Park
Packing List

Planning Your Trip

Yellowstone is a huge park with more things to do than you'll have time for. Think about what you want to do ahead of time so you'll have the proper gear with you. Popular activities include hiking, camping, bicycling, boating, fishing, horseback riding, picnicking, viewing wildlife, natural and historical points of interest.

Because Yellowstone is at high altitude (7000+ ft), tempratures are cooler. Nights can get into the 30s year round. Bringing the right outwear and gear can make the difference between a fun vacation and a battle for survival.

Our Experience at Yellowstone

A vacation in Yellowstone National Park will include a lot of hiking and driving. The park is huge: 63 miles north to south and 54 miles west to east covering over 3,472 square miles. Yellowstone has over 1,000 miles of backcountry trails. You'll need a good pair of hiking boots and a couple of water bottles and maybe a backpack to carry a fleece jacket for the chilly evenings.

During late summer and early autumn it gets cold quickly after the sun sets. The park is very dark at night with the clearest view of the milky way you will see in your lifetime. Bring a headlamp to get around your campsite at night and so your hands are free to make s'mores.

The park is so big that there are very few radio stations that come in. For your scenic drives from one landmark to another within the park, you'll want an MP3 player full of your favorite music.

Depending on where you stay overnight in the park, there might be noise from neighboring campsites or early morning tour buses. We found ear plugs to be an absolute necessity.

Map of Yellowstone National Park

Must-Pack Items

Universal Packing List

This packing list contains stuff we bring on just about every trip.

A carry-on shoulder bag contains:

• passport
• hotel reservations
• car reservations
• flight itinerary
• photocopies of important documents, license and credit cards
• top 10 travel guide or print outs about where we are headed
• Moleskine notebook
• 4 color Pen
• wicked tiny flashlight
• chapstick
• hand sanitizer
• tissues (toilet paper)
• inflatable neck pillow
• handkerchief
• face cloth
• couple of protein bars or trail mix

Toiletry bag from LL Bean contains:

• electric razor and charger
• toothbrush
• toothpaste (trial size)
• floss
• earplugs
• glasses
• spare contacts
• shampoo
• soap
• contact solution (trial size)
• contact case
• vitamins
• extra large condoms
• sunscreen (trial size)
• nail clippers
• tweezers
• small plastic mirror
• Q tips

Electronic Gear (all in a gallon ziplock)

• compact camera
• 2 spare batteries for compact camera
• compact camera charger
• 4 4gb memory cards
• backup (old) compact camera
• backup camera spare battery
• backup camera charger
• wind-up solar am fm weather radio flashlight cellphone charger
• travel alarm clock
• iPod
• headphones
• iPod charger
• Gorillapod
• headphone adapter for old airplanes

First Aid & Miscellaneous Items (all in a gallon ziplock)

• small first aid kit (bandaids, moleskin, neosporin, aspirin, pepto, laxatives, space blankets, water purification tablets)
• binder clips – handy for keeping curtains closed, holding papers and tickets together
• compass – Are we heading in the right direction? how do we get back?
• clothesline and a tiny bottle of detergent – if you have a sink you can do some laundry
• extra shoelaces
• extra velcro straps
• small s-biners
• my old swiss army knife and or leatherman (if we check our bags)
• good luck charm (optional)