A Little Planning Ahead Makes Your Parks Trip Enjoyable Yellowstone And Grand Tetons National Parks Are Feeling The Pressure From Millions Of Eager Visitors

It’s almost the end of another summer tourist season, and Yellowstone National Park has been loved to death yet again.

By the time the first bell of the school year rings, more than 3 million visitors will have trekked to the nation’s oldest national park.

Minivans and station wagons have been bumper-to-bumper along the Grand Loop Road. Tempers have boiled over as drivers jostle for spots at the Old Faithful parking lot. There’s been grocery-store gridlock at Fishing Bridge, with Cheetos-wielding shoppers queuing seven deep at the checkout stands.

Park critics can rattle off a menu of reasons to avoid Yellowstone. Millions of cars. Potholed roads. Worn-out trails. Pollution in the North Fork of the Yellowstone River. One-third of the park’s 2.2 million acres still recovering from the wildfires of 1988. Urban-style crimes such as assaults, burglaries and petty thefts in campgrounds.

But the lure of Yellowstone remains overpowering, a childhood rite-of-passage that many baby boomers are re-experiencing with their own children.

The cascading waterfalls. Technicolor limestone formations. Boiling sulfur springs and bubbling mud pots. Two hundred geysers. Lush pine forests. Elk, moose, bears - and beginning this year, wolves - roaming the valleys and mountainsides. The wood-beam expanse of the lobby at the Old Faithful Inn.

Enjoying your trip to Yellowstone is easy with a little planning before hitting the park entrance.

“You’d be surprised how many people just head on up here on a whim, driving into Yellowstone at dusk, and are shocked to find traffic and crowds and no place to stay for miles around,” said Bill Swift, a National Park Service spokesman in Wyoming, Colo.

Here are 10 tips on how to make a trip to Yellowstone a happy memory instead of a trip from hell:

Watch the calendar and the clock. Winter comes early and stays late in Yellowstone. Most of the park’s roads don’t open until April 30, and they close Nov. 1. From Memorial Day to Labor Day the park is constantly packed.

To get the most out of the park but beat the crowds, visit in May, September or October, when most facilities are open but the summer crush is yet to come or already gone.

During peak season, you’ll run into smaller crowds by visiting Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, the least-busy days in the park. When in the park, tour popular sites early in the morning or late in the afternoon, before and after the peak crowds.

Book hotels early. Yellowstone’s nine hotels and motels are nearly always booked solid in summer. Rooms at the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s famous hotel built in 1902, sell out up to a year in advance. Rooms also are scarce at Lake Yellowstone Hotel, the park’s other grand lodge.

The early bird gets the campsite. Ten of Yellowstone’s 12 campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis. During the summer, all usually are full by noon. Sleeping in your car in unauthorized areas will earn you a fine and an order to move on. The best bet is to stay overnight outside the park, then hustle in first thing in the morning and get a campsite. Reservations are accepted up to eight weeks in advance at the Bridge Bay campground and Fishing Bridge RV Park.

Stay at Grand Teton park. Just a half-hour south of Yellowstone is one of the most dramatic natural landscapes in the United States. The Grand Teton National Park’s soaring 13,700-foot peaks and icy lakes would make the park a popular destination even if they weren’t in Yellowstone’s back yard.

Accommodations range from the plush Jenny Lake Lodge to the rustic bungalows at Colter Bay Village. The best rooms are second-floor mountain-view rooms at the Jackson Lake Lodge. Grosvent Campground, at the far southern end of the park, is a good bet for late arrivals - it’s the last of the spots in the two national parks to fill up.

Skip West Yellowstone. The tourist crush in Yellowstone is centered around the tourist town of West Yellowstone and the Grand Central Station atmosphere of Old Faithful Geyser.

West Yellowstone embodies just about everything that is wrong with the national park experience today. Just outside the park’s west gate, it’s a collection of motels, bars, restaurants, condominiums and tourist-tacky shops and attractions. Big crowds fill the Grizzly Discovery Center and the IMAX theater to see captive bears and huge motion pictures of what the park used to be like. Skip it and go in search of the real thing.

Stay off the loop. If Yellowstone has 2.2 million acres, why does it seem that the park is constantly in the throes of gridlock? Because most tourists spend the bulk of their trip to Yellowstone driving the 142-mile Grand Loop Road. It’s hard to completely avoid, since the loop features Old Faithful, Inspiration Point, Grand Canyon and many other must-sees. But get off the road by midday or resign yourself to a wilderness traffic jam.

Head east: To break away from the pack, aim east to Yellowstone’s less-visited spots. While the crowds elbow each other at the Fountain Paint Pot or jostle for parking spaces at West Thumb, you can enjoy the relative emptiness of Steamboat Point, Slough Creek and Eleanor Lake. Try staying at Roosevelt Lodge, the least packed of the park’s motels. Picnic under Avalanche Peak or Pebble Creek.

Go even farther afield and enjoy a few nights at the Shoshone Lodge, seven miles east of the east park entrance on Highway 20. The lodge is a family-friendly, Western-style fantasyland of log cabins, wandering moose and even an occasional brown bear rummaging around the trash bins.

Take in two cities. Make Yellowstone or Grand Teton your target for day trips and stay instead in one of two wonderful Western towns just outside the parks’ boundaries.

Jackson Hole, Wyo., has been transformed over the past 20 years from sleepy village to summer playground of the Forbes 400. Just outside Grand Teton’s boundary and only 45 minutes from Yellowstone, its motor inns and chalet-style hotels are a comfortable alternative to the jam-packed park lodgings. The tiny downtown is still a fun place to stroll, with the city square rimmed with old deer antlers and shops featuring tasseled leather Western wear and cowhide-covered furniture. Head for the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, where drinkers sit on stools with horse saddles at knotty-pine bars inlaid with hundreds of silver dollars.

Cody, Wyo., has even more Western flavor, centered around the Irma Hotel built in 1902 by Buffalo Bill Cody. Stop in for a big slab of prime rib and a shot of whiskey in the turn-of-the-century dining room. From June through August there are rodeos almost every night. Cody is also a great jumping-off point for white-water rafting, dude ranches and hikes in the Shoshone National Forest. It’s 85 miles through beautiful forests to the east entrance of Yellowstone.

Watch out for wildlife. Until 1969, bears accounted for an average of 48 injuries in the parks each year. By the mid-1970s, the roadside-beggar bears were herded to more remote areas and feeding bears from automobiles was banned. But wildlife still can be dangerous - never approach wildlife, especially animals in the presence of their young. Getting between a bear, moose or 2,000-pound bison and its baby is a sure bet to upset momma.

Pack your patience: Realize before you come to Yellowstone that it’s among the most popular places to visit in the world. There are going to be crowds and lines and frustrations. Give yourself plenty of time and don’t try to see the park all at once.

“Give yourself three days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton,” said Swift, the National Parks spokesman. “Plan a little, go slow, and you will have a wonderful time.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Entry fees A joint entry pass for Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks costs $10 per automobile. Those entering on foot or in other transportation pay $4 per person.

Hang your hat Reservations for hotels and limited campsite reservations at Yellowstone are handled by TW Recreational Services Inc., (800) 365-2267. The number often is busy. Recommended accommodations: Old Faithful Inn and Roosevelt Lodge. Reservations for hotels at Grand Teton are through Grand Teton Lodge Co., (307) 543-2855. Recommended lodgings: Jenny Lake Lodge, Jackson Lake Lodge and Colter Bay Cabins. Hotel prices range from $27 to $522 for two people, per night. The fee for campsite reservations is $10. Shoshone Lodge, 349 Yellowstone Highway, seven miles east of the east entrance of Yellowstone, (307) 587-4044. Cabins for two people begin at $65. Horseback riding, meals, wilderness treks and fishing available for extra charge.

Just ask them Yellowstone National Park information: (307) 344-7381. Grand Teton National Park information: (307) 739-3600. Wyoming Division of Tourism: (800) 225-5996.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Gary A. Warner Orange County Register