Yellowstone National Park

We are in the process of planning our first big camping trip in our new R Pod and thinking Yellowstone National Park. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to stay? Also going to try to take in the Gran Teton National Park also.. Any suggestions welcome..

One more thing - Any suggestions on a solar panel for our 180?

If you're planning to camp in Yellowstone, you may not have much of a choice of location at this point. We made reservations a month ago, and reservations were very limited even then. There are a few non-reservation sites, but you have to get there early in the day and take your chances.

There are both private and U.S. Forest service campgrounds outside the park at every entrance.  Colter Bay in Grand Teton park is beautiful with the lake and the Tetons out front there, but for travelling into the park for day trips the south entrance has the horrific Jackson Hole traffic and traffic jams.  I would not stay there in the summer if I were going into Yellowstone.  September on I would.  The east entrance into Cody, the west entrance at the town of West Yellowstone, or the much quieter north east entrance at Cooke city Mt. all have some great places to camp just outside the park.   I live outside the east entrance but have camped at all of the areas mentioned.  Good luck deciding. 

Gros Ventre (properly pronounced "grow vont") campground is a nice big campground north of Jackson on the Gros ventre river, huge flat valley with mountains on both sides, with a big sagebrush flat out front and the Tetons about fifteen miles to the west.  Spectacular views.  Fantastic in September or mid May.  But again, later on in summer you get to deal with high volumes of traffic out of Jackson headed to Yellowstone. Jackson actually has traffic jams daily in the summer.  Like all day long.  It is a place to avoid imo.   If you are city people, I guess you can deal with it.  I am not one of those city  folks, and I thoroughly avoid anything in the Teton valley, Jackson Hole country, and the south gate of Yellowstone park in the summertime because of decades of experiences doing it.  Plus with the tour busses coming in from Salt Lake City and elsewhere it is a mess trying to drive up to the park from there.  Now you have been warned twice about it by someone who lives here.   I'm trying to help make your trip a good one.   

Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs are beautiful, but yes, they do get crowded. I haven't been down that way in a while although I've lived in Montana the last 45 years. There are lots of national forests in Wyoming and Montana with nice campgrounds that don't get as much visitation as the parks...still beautiful scenery, wildlife, etc. And they are dog-friendly...thinking about your Labrador child, Misha. I have a Lab too.