OK, so let's be clear - camping in Yellowstone is a bit of a pain in the neck if you don't plan months in advance. There's a total of 12 campgrounds throughout Yellowstone (some of which may be closed during your visit, so check the website) including 5 campgrounds with ONLY reservable sites operated by Xanterra (a company that is completely unrelated to the NPS) and 7 first-come, first-served campgrounds operated by the park service. The Xanterra campgrounds are generally the most centrally located options, but if you don't plan in advance and reserve a site, there's no way you're getting one in the summer. If you're coming to Yellowstone without reservations, your best bet is to stay at a campground as close to the park boundaries as possible and get to your preferred campground no later than 8 AM. As another reviewer noted, some people start lining up as early as 6 AM. Keep in mind that Yellowstone is enormous, and the park access roads are limited and often times blocked by tourists, the ever-present and always-obnoxious bison, and stupid tourists in the middle of the road taking pictures of stupid bison in the middle of the road. Oh, and lots of traffic. So plan accordingly and wake up extra early, unfortunately!

We stayed at Wapiti campground in the Shosone National Forest about 1/2 an hour from the east gate entrance and started packing up at 5 AM. We got to the east gate entrance at 6 AM and the ranger at the gate told us we may as well swing by Bridge Bay to see if they have any available campsites... which illustrates an interesting point about Yellowstone in that the NPS rangers at the gates and elsewhere in the park literally have no idea what the camping conditions are within the park, either at the Xanterra campgrounds OR at the NPS-operated campgrounds. Not a clue. I find this strange since it's 2017, but that's reality. We arrived at Bridge Bay at 6:45 AM and waited patiently at the park office for a Xanterra worker to open the reservation window - not a second before 7 AM mind you - to promptly laugh at me when I inquired about a campsite, stating that they were actually overbooked. Waste of time. We continued driving to Norris, which is where we had originally hoped to get a site, and arrived about an hour later at 7:40 AM.

At 7:40 AM, we were the 26th group to arrive and join the line waiting for a campsite - it was quite the eye-opener to be honest. 25 groups ahead of us already, all freezing their butts off in line! Thankfully, the campground hosts were AWESOME and did a wonderful job keeping everyone extremely informed of availability throughout the morning. There happened to be 42 sites that they were expecting to be available sometime that morning, though current campers always have the option to renew / extend their reservations through the morning that they are scheduled to leave. The crowd that morning lucked out that so many sites were becoming available, and out of everyone that joined the line, only the real late-comers (those that showed up after around 9:30 AM) were finally told that they were not going to get a site. We did end up waiting in line until approxiamtely 10:20 AM to get our site, since campers have until 11 AM to officially check out of their sites, so even if you get there early, you should plan on standing in line for quite a while. Despite the waste-of-time aspect of it (especially if you only have a few days in the park like we do), we had a great time talking to the other folks waiting in line with us and learning where they were coming from, where they were going next, etc. It was a very pleasant atmosphere and everyone was extremely nice (and also thankful for the great communication from the hosts!).

The campground itself is pretty basic, which is typical for all of the NPS-operated campgrounds in Yellowstone. The sites do not have water/electric and the campground does not have showers, but the restrooms at least have flushing toilets and running water (most NPS campgrounds do not). We stayed in site 26 in B loop. All sites seem spacious and come with a fire ring, picnic table, and bear box for storing all cooking equipment, food, and generally anything that smells like a delicious human to grizzly bears. Each loop has its own restroooms as well as the main ones near the office, and they are well maintained.

Norris is the most centrally located NPS-operated campground, and a great choice if you're primarily interested in visiting the various geyser basins within the park. There is a trail connecting Norris Campground to the very famous Norris Geyser Basin, the park's largest collection of hydrothermal formations - which is AWESOME. As a trade-off, the entire campground smells like rotten eggs (sulfurous gas) pretty much 24-7, but you get used to it. The Solfatara Creek runs right by the A loop and entrance to the campground, and offers some decent flyfishing in the meadow. It's also an excellent area to spot wildlife, and we literally had a lone coyote trot right in front of us near the bridge that crosses the creek. I would also recommend checking out the Museum of the National Park Ranger which is actually on the main entrance drive for Norris Campground - it's small and quick, but full of a lot of great information to make you appreciate the park and the NPS in general.

For us, Norris was the perfect base of operations for our visit to Yellowstone, and while it was anonying to spend essentially 1/2 a day waiting for a campsite to open up, I can definitely understand the problem considering the ridiculous demand for campsites in this incredibly beautiful park.

As few words of caution about Yellowstone:

• Bison are cool and all, but cause hours of traffic jams throughout the park. My family has quasi-jokingly switched to eating bison burgers rather than beef hamburgers because we were so sick of bison after traveling through South Dakota and Wyoming. Don't be one of the people 
• The food in Yellowstone is some of the most expensive, least satisfying food I've ever eaten in a state or national park. Pack picnic meals instead, and then swing into Fishing Bridge for the ice cream (back of the General Store).
• If you're not a big fan of crowds but still need to travel to Yellowstone during the summer due to kids being in school, plan to hit the congested areas of the park BEFORE 10 am or AFTER 4 pm to avoid the heaviest crowds. There are similar signs posted throughout the park, and I fully agree - right at 4 PM, it's like someone flips a switch and the crowds start to disappear.
• Showering in Yellowstone is a bit of an ordeal since the NPS campgrounds do not have showers. On a whim, my husband asked the front desk at the Old Faithful Inn if they have public showers and they do. I believe we paid something like $3.50 for a keycard that grants 2 hours of access to one of the bathhouses within the Old Faithful Inn 'village' of cottages. The showers were fantastic!!! The bathhouse was extremely clean, newly updated, spacious, and contained 3 shower stalls (including an ADA accessible one) that had shampoo, conditioner, and body wash pumps IN the showers so you didn't need to bring your own. I believe you can also purchase showers at: Mammoth Hotel, Roosevelt Lodge, Grant Village campground, Fishing Bridge campground, and Canyon campground - but we did not use those ones and I can't speak to their quality or availability.