"Great Basecamp for Exploring Yellowstone" Gardiner by kgreaves

Gardiner is the perfect place to use as your "basecamp" for exploring Yellowstone. We spent five nights in Gardiner in late June. The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm, but not too hot during the day, cool at night. Watched a thunderstorm one evening. What a lightshow as it passed over Electic Peak!

Breakfast was usually in town. Good food at Town Cafe. The Best Western has a great breakfast buffet. For lunch, we stopped at the Food Farm (the local fullservice grocery) and loaded up on picnic items. Then, off we'd go to explore Yellowstone for the day. Plenty of picnic areas in the park. Dinner at local places. See my restaurant reviews.

Did a two-hour whitewater rafting trip down the Yellowstone River. Used the Flying Pig Raft Co. Our guide, Achmed, was awesome. Kids had an absolute blast. Were able to get out of the raft and float along at one point. The CD of your trip is expensive ($40 for ten shots), but worth it!

• Pros:Less than five minutes from north gate Yellowstone
• Cons:Couldn't stay longer!
• In a nutshell:Very pleased with our time here!