When planning a summer trip to Yellowstone National Park, camping reservations are extremely helpful and less stressful than trying to jump on a first-come-first-serve campsite. We usually stay just outside the park in a National Forest campground, but some of these sites don't open until mid-June or later, so on our last trip at the end of May we started in Canyon campground with a reservation for one night. This allowed us to get our bearings and claim a non-reservable site the next morning (barely, by the way!).

We really enjoyed staying in Canyon. The sites are very private and scattered along several loops in the woods. We had plenty of space to relax and play, but do be aware that bears WILL wander through (as well as elk, bison, and other ungulates). With the rolling, forested hills around our site, we made sure our kids were always in view! In late May, the snow is still in patches on the ground, and in fact it snowed a little bit overnight the night we stayed there.

We liked how the campfire area and picnic table were a bit down from our campsite, but if you have accessibility issues, you may want to choose your site carefully. Our little guy with vision issues (5) tripped over roots and the "makeshift" steps they installed on the hillside a few times, but he was in general a good sport about it.

The welcome was a good experience. Although they were busy when we arrived, the rangers were very thorough in explaining the rules and making visitors bear-aware - every camper gets the talk! We were checked in within a matter of a few minutes. In addition, campers get to use nice showers and they have a dump station (for RV's), as well as containers for recycle and garbage. You can purchase firewood, which we did, and it was reasonably dry.

Of course staying in the park on a reserved site will cost you a little more money, but having a designated spot on your arrival day makes the few dollars more well worth the peace of mind! We would recommend Canyon to anyone who heads to Yellowstone in the summer time.