Pros: Close to the entrance of the park, views of the mountains, indoor pool

Cons: A bit pricey, poor customer service

Overview

Yellowstone KOA is located 6 miles from the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. There are close to 300 sites including primitive sites, water/electric, full hookup, deluxe sites, cabins, cottages, and a tent village. Some sites are back-ins while others are pull-through. We stayed at site #106. It was a back-in site bordering a cow pasture with a beautiful view of the mountains. This campground offers a variety of amenities. Yellowstone KOA hosts a coffee shop, restaurant, as well as a fully-stocked camp store, which included RV supplies, food, beer, and souvenirs. This was one of the bigger camp stores we have encountered. Firewood was available for $6.99. Yellowstone KOA offered propane filling. Cable is available at deluxe sites with 17 channels. Wi-Fi is available, however, like many campgrounds, they advertise Wi-Fi but it is low quality. Cell phone service (Verizon and AT&T) was ok. Texts were fine but phone calls were a challenge. Checkout is at 11:00 a.m. We received a 10% discount using our KOA card

 

Appearance

We have stayed at a variety of KOA’s in our camping experience. The Yellowstone KOA is a deluxe campground with paved roads, gravel sites, and well –manicured landscaping. The campground has a large number of staff on hand to keep up with the appearance. The sites are pretty tight. You have some room between you and your neighbor, but not a lot. At the end of June, the KOA was packed every day. The back row (#103-108 and cabins #311-321) has a nice view of the mountains and backs up to a pasture with several cows. We did not really experience any highway noise, however, I am sure those tent camping in sites #90-101 did experience highway noise as those back up to highway 20.

Rating:  (One to five lanterns with 5 being the highest)

 

Family/Pet Friendly

This deluxe campground offers families with kids a ton of things to do. There is a large playground as well as a basketball court, putt-putt, game room, and heated, indoor pool. Families can also rent bikes at the Yellowstone KOA. We were very pleased to have a fenced-in dog park. It provided shade for our dogs and very adequate space for them to run loose. The dog park was probably one of the bigger ones we have seen in comparison to other KOA campgrounds. The paved roads were nice for walking the dogs and for me to jog.

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Area Attractions

We stayed at the Yellowstone KOA primarily to visit the Yellowstone National Park. The park itself has tons of things to do. Hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, picnicking, fishing, boating, scenic drives, wildlife viewing, etc.  Click this link to learn more about the park and the various activities. https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm

I highly recommend taking a guided fishing charter out on Yellowstone Lake. The Cuttthroat Trout are fun to catch. Bay Bridge Marina is the place to go for fishing charters, to rent boats, and get fishing licenses.

As far touring the national park, we would highly recommend Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring, and taking some of the many scenic drives throughout the park.  Early morning and dusk are the best times for wildlife viewing.

In the city of West Yellowstone, there are souvenir shops, restaurants, and small grocery stores. We enjoyed a good meal at Bullwinkles Saloon and had some beers at the Slippery Otter. We purchased groceries at Food Roundup Supermarket. If you are expecting a Kroger or Walmart, think again. Many towns in this area have small “mom and pop” shops. If you require specific types of foods (gluten-free, organic, or etc.), it may be a bit challenging.

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Restrooms/Showers

The restrooms and showers were very clean and taken care of very well. There are three shower houses throughout the park, each set up differently than the others. Of the three, one seemed fairly new (or updated). One was somewhat modern and the third one looked a bit older. The shower house near our campsite provided showers with hot water but mediocre water pressure. There is a separate dressing area with 2 hooks for clothing/towels.

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Overall RATING

As you have read through our review, it may seem like the Yellowstone KOA is getting a good rating. It is true, there were many good things about this campground. There are quite a few amenities that makes this a deluxe campground. In fact, if you add up the scores of the various categories, the Yellowstone KOA should receive a 4.5.  However, this is one instance when we need to take customer service (or the lack thereof) into account. As we read through the Trip Adviser and Google Reviews, we noticed many complaints about the rude staff and poor customer service. Having camped there for 5 nights, we got to know our neighbors and others. Many shared the same disappointments we had. We had to move our campsite and we met a few other campers who had to as well. This unfortunate situation could have been avoided entirely if we had been escorted to our site. We heard many people complain about the inattentive staff. With a staff as large as this one, customer service should be premium. Some staff members were very friendly and helpful. The management, not so much. We had some concerns and asked to speak with the management who basically blew off what we had to say. I overheard the main manager using profanity on the sales floor. I know it’s 2016, but I still see this as unprofessional. Our new friends we met at this KOA had a problem with manager in particular; John. His attitude was condescending and rude. For as much as we paid for this KOA, we expected better. And for this reason we have down graded the rating from 4.5 to a 2.75 out of 5.