When my husband first suggested that we go camping near Yellowstone Park I have to admit I cringed…a lot.  I couldn’t help it, I’m a city girl, I like my hotels to come with all the amenities, including a king size bed.  I love room service, and free Internet and cable. 

Camping is a hard sell.  But, as I looked at my little boys I realized that in this instance I was (again) out numbered, because camping, if we want to stick with generalizations, is a “guy thing”, and mine is a “guy dominated” home.  So I caved in to the idea.  But not without packing up extra sheets and pillows and insisting that we sleep on queen size air mattresses as opposed to flat, confining sleeping bags.

My husband did his research trying to find a compromise and what we found was KOA Kampgrounds, about 10 minutes outside of Yellowstone Park on the Montana border. And I guess they have several throughout the U.S.

The campsite has all the amenities for sure.  It has a 24 hour laundry room, which provides all the supplies you would need, including a change machine.  It has a store for those last minute purchases, such as milk, or toothpaste, or paper towels.  They have a coffee shop, though on the first morning, my city slicker husband asked for an Espresso and was quickly offered a no frills cup of coffee instead. They also offer hot breakfast in the morning, made to order, consisting of pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon.  The eggs were a little strange tasting, but otherwise the food was ok and not expensive. They also have free wireless service which you can access every where on the  grounds (including from your campsite), a pool, a playground, bike rentals, and a game room. The bathrooms are clean and have private showers and toilet stalls, ample room to hook up hair dryers and spread out make up.

Then there were the campsites.  They have cottages as well as what they call “tent villages”.  I convinced my husband that since we were going to go “camping” we should go for the full camping experience.  So we settled on the tent village.  I am not exactly sure what size the section they provide for your tent is.  I guesstimate it is about 30×20.  It comes with a picnic table, a fire pit (bring your own wood), and ample space for a large tent, which we had, and your car, or RV.

And it was, for all intents and purposes, a perfect site for a city girl like me.  It had all the conveniences one could need, especially with little kids, and activities galore.

It was close to the West entrance of Yellowstone Park, and we had tons of fun there, so that was really great for us. But in the end, except for the part where we slept in a tent, it didn’t much feel like “camping” at all.  I had envisioned my camping experience to be a bit more rural, more isolate.  I psyched myself up to “rough it” and in the end, it wasn’t that at all.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

It is not KOA’s fault, they have set themselves up for providing traveling families with everything they could need and want.  But personally, I felt like I cheated my kids out of a true camping experience.  Maybe, for now, this option is the best.  The two youngest are pretty small still (2.5 and 4).  And though we enjoyed our stay, I felt at times I was in a trailer park and not really camping…and I think next time, when the boys are a little older, I will aim to really appreciate more of nature and without so many of the conveniences.

Photo credit: Carol Cain