Yellowstone Park - West Gate KOA Holiday

The pool was nice and HUGE, the kids loved the jump pad and the playground. They have breakfast and dinner you can buy if wanted (great deal) and ice cream in the evenings. Go carts are also available to rent for fun. The lots are typical KOA and close together, but the park is VERY well maintained. Staff from all over, yet all of them were very kind and pleasant to deal with. The store is well stocked and the prices are actually better than in town. VERY close to the West gate entrance - GO EARLY to Yellowstone!! Cell service was not great - but we used our starlink with zero issues!

Great and convenient location to Yellowstone west entrance. Park is far enough off the road that you can't hear it. Showers and restrooms were great. If you have a bigger rig I would recommend the deluxe sites. Trees overhang the spots which gives you great shade but will touch or drag against the side of your rig. Indoor heated pool was empty as it was mid September. Store is nice and has lots of options.

THE GOOD
Store: One of the larger KOA stores we have experienced. Has all you will need and lots of extras/gifts.
Location: Close (about 8 miles) to Yellowstone NP, groceries, gas, and restaurants.
Food on site: Small grill and campground espresso bar on site. It serves its purpose after a long day of exploring and for a morning mocha.
Facilities: Laundry was clean with 8 washers and dryers.

COULD BE BETTER:
Price: Premium sites are WAY over-priced for what they are compared to other RV campgrounds. Just go with the basic sites. Really just paying for proximity to Yellowstone.
Sites (Premium): The premium pull-through sites are gravel with sparse grass. Sites are not too level at all. The living areas are VERY sloped. Also, some of the sites are quite tight.
Facilities: 3 of the 8 washers were posted as out of order.

WORTH NOTING (not good or bad thing)
Wifi: Could not connect, per usual at busy campgrounds.
Cell: Verizon slightly better than AT&T. Had some issues with Zoom for work but sufficient for general stuff.

We stayed in a water and electric site from June 30 to July 5th. This was soon after the park shut down from flooding and during the re-opening of the various areas. It was clear that this affected their business at this time and there were open spaces as a result. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Generally the park was in good condition. We were in an area that was very close to the highway and it was very noisy. Other areas may have been better. Had pretty good cell service but wifi was minimal. Expensive due to location next to the park.

The interior roads are narrow and thick with trees. Although our site was good sized, the actual space for the RV is a narrow area. Our water spigot, as a lot of others throughout the park, leaked profusely. The park itself is good for family vacations, lots of activities for the kids and has a nice indoor pool. They have a sorta outdoor cafe, a coffee and snacks shack, and a fudge shop inside the camp store. Janitorial staff needs to make more rounds to the bathrooms. Good base location to visit Yellowstone NP. We did have a couple nights of having to listen to neighbor campers blaring their music, and one night we were awakened to the tune of a couple of dozen gunshots from the direction of a neighboring ranch. If we were to return to the area and needed hookups for laundry & such we would consider staying here again, but the high price would be a major consideration. Wifi is barely usable...

Check-in smooth and easy, no problems, desk personnel were nice, no escort to site.
Site 70, water & electric (30A) only, no sewer. Had to dump tanks prior to getting to the site. Dump station doesn’t have secure connection, so had to hold down the tube with my foot. Also, the dump cover is placed backwards so it’s not very easy to connect.
Paved entry roads are narrow, site was dirt, with ruts from the last rain which made it difficult to level left/right. Site spacing is okay, not close but not spacious. This site was one row off the major highway, so road noise was prevalent until late at night.
Power pedestal 30 Amp connector was well worn, new 30/50 dog bone wouldn’t stay connected until I secured it with some paracord. It also showed intermittent open ground. Reported same to the maintenance, they said they would have to shut down the entire row to fix it, so if it’s working, they’d take care of it later. Water connection immediately next to the power pedestal. Water/electricity don’t mix well, so not sure what they were thinking when they set this up.
Bathhouse showing its age, is cleaned daily however, the amount of hair in the shower drain and dirt in the corners of the drying room didn’t support a very thorough effort. Laundry had 10 washers and dryers, only one out of order, $3 to wash, 50 cents per 20 minutes to dry, change machine made easy to obtain quarters.
Wi-fi was intermittent at best, sometimes good, most of the time couldn’t connect. Verizon 4G had 3 bars. OTA TV had 5 channels that were medium to poor quality.
Great BBQ place in West Yellowstone, Firehole BBQ Company. Opens at 4pm and there was a line out the door then entire time we were there. Good pulled pork and the ribs looked amazing.
Best thing about this park is its location to the West Entrance to Yellowstone NP, only about 7 miles. Be aware that Yellowstone is huge, so everything you want to visit is at least 45 to 60 minutes away from the KOA, depending on traffic.

10 months in advance of our stay we made a reservation online for a week in October 2021. In August they called us to tell us that they always close for the season at the end of September and we wouldn't be able to stay there. We asked why we were allowed to make a reservation for October. They didn't have an answer and referred us to the corporate office. The person on the phone stated that they would refund us our deposit without charging a cancelation fee. Well duh! If you cancel on us you'd better give us our money back, and don't act like you're doing us a favor for it. It was a very frustrating and unhelpful interaction. We asked if they had a suggestion on other places to stay, since this week was part of a month-long trip and so we needed to scramble and find another location. She said to maybe try a nearby KOA. We asked if she knew whether they'd also be closing for the season. She said she didn't know and that we should call them ourselves. Talk about poor customer service. If you're going to give someone the bad news that you can't meet your obligation then at least have concrete ideas on other options. So not only are we soured on the West Yellowstone KOA, but we're leery of any KOA. Luckily we found another RV Park in the area, Buffalo Crossing. They were so nice and helpful in making our reservation and totally understood our need to be guaranteed for our dates.