Yellowstone National Park Road/camping trip

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taking the family to Jackson

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is the best route to take to see the park?

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Head North to Memphis, then west to Yellowstone. Make sure your gas tank is full

You can't not end up in Yellowstone...just head north from GTNP.

But do your family a favor and stay in the Tetons. Yellowstone is for scientists and foreigners.

Stay in Jackson Hole and commute to Yellowstone. Lots of fun things to do in Jackson and it is close to Teton National Park. Make a couple of day trips to Yellowstone, see everything but spend lots of time in Teton. It is better than Yellowstone IMO.

Ask for recommendations before the day of your trip

Seriously, if I'm on a trip the last thing I do it wake up and think 'let me ask what to do today on a message board'.

If you don't have reservations for Yellowstone and you are there, good luck. It's busy. I honestly have never stayed in the park I've only drove multiple times during off peak times from jackson. So good luck. You really need a solid 2.5 days imo for Yellowstone to do it justice. You can't do the main roads and sights in a day, it's literally not possible I've tried.

Look for grizzlies, wolves, and bison in Yellowstone the rest of the animals are better off to be seen in the Tetons. Jenny lake is awesome boat ride and hike. The main stuff of the Yellowstone is the main stuff for a reason, don't let anyone tell you they are overrated.

Get up really early one morning and head out to Lamar Valley. Get there by daybreak and view all sorts of animals. We wine to Yellowstone 9 years ago and my kids still talk about seeing the Druid peak wolves and the other animals that morning.

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6) If you want more hiking or backpacking ideas I can share, but most people are good with Inspiration Point.

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Since you asked...

I'm headed up to Idaho later this summer and was thinking about stopping for a few nights of backpacking in the Tetons or the Winds. So far the Teton Crest Trail looks like the winner assuming I can get a walk up permit.

Are there any other trails/loops you'd recommend for a 2-4 night solo trip in case the permit doesn't work out?

You can't go wrong with the crest trail. It's everything that's perfect in life. You go up a canyon, you walk the crest, and then you go down a canyon. What's better?
I hear great things about the Wind River Range too. It's on my list. Look into the Sawtooths in Idaho as well.

This is what we did in late July of last year:
Day one: Hike up Death Canyon and camp on Death Canyon Shelf. At this point you're on the crest.This was difficult...much steeper than I imagined.

Day two: hike the crest, drop into Alaska Basin and then hike out of the other side of the basin to Sunset Lake. This was probably the best day of my life.

Day three: Sunset Lake to Jenny Lake, where we caught the ferry. That was a 14 mile day. The high point, both literally and figuratively, was Schoolroom Glacier, which encapsulated the most dramatic 360 degrees of the planet that I might ever see.

Total ~34 miles. We had plans to do a four day backpack that would have featured Lake Solitude and Painted Canyon, but we cut it short due to all the snow that remained in that area.
Also, if we had stayed another night, we would have got snowed ON. It was like July 28th too. Crazy.