Yellowstone Backcountry Lottery 2026

[scatman]

I'm really sorry to hear that, it would have been a great intro to backpacking for your son's girlfriend. I'm sure everyone will still have fun at Ice Lake. I'll cross my fingers and hope for good weather for you guys

I'll try and put my happy face on.

 

[mtobs]

(Long time reader, first time poster)

Had a slot this morning and ended up going with a Lamar River-Miller Creek-Hoodoo Basin 4 night out and back in late August, 3L7 -> 3M5 x2 -> 3L3. I've spent a lot of time in the southern half of the park but not this area, anyone have any words of wisdom?

 

[Jackson]

So you'd think that my wife getting an April 2nd draw would lead to a successful reservation of campsites that you want, but alas that is not the case. When I went into recreation.gov at 2:00 pm this afternoon to book my sites, I was actually able to get 8R5 on Shoshone Lake for the two nights I needed, but the sites I need (OD1, OD2, OD3) were not available heading in, or heading out. Also the horse site near Shoshone was booked going in. Since I had certain criteria that I needed to follow (exact dates, 5 miles or less days), I wasn't able to pull off Shoshone Lake as a destination, so I'll be heading back to Ice, Wolf and Grebe Lakes again. That's make Ice and Wolf Lakes three times in two years, since I'll be heading back to Ice in September, which kind of sucks, but I guess the trip is for my son and his girlfriend so I should just shut up.

Do you mean OA1, 2, and 3? Assuming so, I just am always surprised how popular those ones are, and really surprised you couldn't get any of them with such an early lottery date. Were you shooting for a holiday weekend or anything?