East Yellowstone Valley – the Best-Kept Secret Gateway to Yellowstone

The East Yellowstone Valley, known locally as the Wapiti Valley, is one of the American West’s great undiscovered treasures. Stretching 80 kilometres along the banks of the Shoshone River between the frontier town of Cody, Wyoming, and the East Gate of Yellowstone National Park, it is a landscape that seems to exist outside of ordinary time. Volcanic rock formations tower above forested canyons. Elk move through meadows at dusk. The air smells of pine and river water and open sky.

This is where the real West lives.

While millions of visitors crowd the South, West and North entrances to Yellowstone each summer, the East Gate remains the park’s quietest and least-travelled entry point, a revelation for those who know to look for it. The lodges, cabins and working guest ranches of the East Yellowstone Valley sit within the Shoshone National Forest, America’s very first national forest. Many have been welcoming travellers for over a century, their log walls and creekside campfires unchanged by the decades passing outside.

Buffalo Bill Cody, showman, frontiersman and the world’s most famous American, built the Pahaska Tepee Lodge here in 1904 as his personal hunting retreat, just 2 miles from the Yellowstone boundary. His legacy is present in every corner of the valley, from the historic town of Cody to the trail rides that still wind through the same high country he explored on horseback.

What to Experience in the East Yellowstone Valley:

• Horseback riding through Shoshone National Forest, from gentle trail rides for beginners to full-day adventures into the high country.
• Wildlife watching: Grizzly bears, bison, wolf packs, bighorn sheep, bald eagles and moose all inhabit the valley and the park beyond.
• Blue-ribbon fly fishing on the North Fork of the Shoshone River, with native cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout in crystal-clear mountain waters.
• Guided Yellowstone tours through the least-crowded entrance to the world’s first national park.
• Dude ranch stays: Immersive multi-night Western experiences complete with chuckwagon suppers, campfire evenings and sunrise rides.
• Hiking across hundreds of miles of trails, from easy riverside walks to serious backcountry routes in America’s first national forest.
• Day trips to Cody, Wyoming, including the Cody Nite Rodeo (running every evening June through August), Old Trail Town and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West
• Scenic drives along the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway, the Beartooth Highway and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, among the most spectacular roads in North America

The lodges of East Yellowstone Valley range from historic riverside cabins to all-inclusive guest ranches, each family-owned and -operated with a genuine warmth that no chain hotel can replicate. The nearest gateway airport is Yellowstone Regional Airport (COD) in Cody, Wyoming, with connections through Denver, Salt Lake City and other major U.S. hubs.

To explore lodges, check availability and begin planning your East Yellowstone adventure, visit www.yellowstone-lodging.com.

Click here to watch: Guest Ranch Vacation | Best of the Old West | East Yellowstone Lodges