West Yellowstone Rest Area Southbound

“Easy Free Overnight Stop Right outside Yellowstone NP”
Reviewed 11/17/2020

Nightly rate: FREE!
Days stayed: 1
Overall Rating
This is a large pullout on Highway 191 just a mile or so outside of West Yellowstone. It has 6 or so marked lanes for 18-wheelers as well as RVs. There’s also plenty of space for small rigs and vans to park along the edge, leaving the lanes for the bigger guys. There are no restrooms or trash disposal bins. It is bordered by the forest, so has a nice place to walk the dog (remembering that bears share that forest).

We arrived about 5 to the identical parking pullout across the street and were the first ones there. It got about half full overnight, including some 18-wheelers, but no one idled for any length of time. The road noise was not noticeable after 10pm (and I am sensitive to noise). There is an identical lot on each side of the road. Highway 191 is a small road, and it is easy to pull into whichever lot is best for you.

Both the north bound and south bound sides of this tiny pull-off/rest area have multiple “No Camping” and “Day Use Only” signs. We took that to mean no overnights, as multiple other pull offs in the West Yellowstone area also having “No Camping” signs and don’t allow even single overnights. Personally, we didn’t try sleeping here because we try to avoid knocks on the door telling us to move.

There are ‘No Camping’ & ‘Day Use Only’ signs posted but we pulled in at 10pm and parked up alongside the trees and no one bothered us. There were a couple of 18 wheelers with their generators running all night and quite a bit of traffic passing so it was noisy but it worked for us as a place to crash before leaving again at 7am. There were 3 vans parked here but we are in a 33’ RV