Yellowstone and Grand Tetons road trip: options

I like your original plan, have Yellowstone covered pretty well.

Hayden and Lamar Valley are best for wildlife spotting. Between Tower Junction and Mammoth is pretty good as well. Make sure check out the Canyon area, fantastic.
Recommend getting on the road in the park by sunrise, best time for wildlife. Most of the tourists will get out around by 10am or so. Thermos of coffee and a couple croissants work well.
It's pretty cool to find a turn off and walk a bit into nature and just sit and wait for the animals, carry a whistle or small Marine Horn, bears hate loud noise.

The Teton's are beautiful but, IMO, it's a small crowded park. Based on your interests a nice drive through will do.
Stay the first night in Victor then do an early morning drive through of Jackson, touristy busy town but interesting and then dive slowly through the Grand Tetons, bring a picnic lunch and reach Old Faithful by mid afternoon. Give you some time to check out the area, maybe rent a bike and get out of the car for a few hours, nice area.
Then finish off at the Lake-Canyon and Mammoth, some of the best parts of the park.

Agree fully with Joe - one night around Victor, then a leisurely drive-through of GTNP, then one night at Old Faithful.

BTW there is much more to the Old Faithful area than the geysers. Behind Old Faithful there are great geothermal features. In fact, that leads me to a couple of comments.

We had exactly the same budget cabin bookings that you have (2-2-2), but if I were doing it again I would have three nights at Tower (or Canyon), and three at Old Faithful.

Both Lake and Mammoth were okay in terms of the cabins, but they are a bit "out of the way" and we wound up doing more in-park driving (including back-tracking) than we really needed to.

Old Faithful is the best base for the truly wonderful geothermals that run north-south there (including the beautiful Emerald Pool), while Tower or Canyon are best located for the wildlife valleys. And of course the jewels in the crown, which are the waterfalls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

But even with your current configuration you'll have a great time. Go before sunrise each day ... you really do beat the crowds!

On your drive from Seattle to Idaho Falls there are lots of good things to see - can you add a night there? While I assume you'll head home via the northern route through Missoula.

Thanks hermosajoe and Jingili. I think you have both given me the best suggestions! I'll change my Victor reservation to a single night on Sunday and my OF reservation to a single night Monday.

And yes, Jingili, I do have a few planned stops along the way there, and I do plan to head home on I-90.

Thanks again for the great advice!

I stayed at a Super 8 in Jackson last September that wasn't too outrageously expensive.
Here is a video of a coyote hunting that I took from a turnout in Yellowstone. I didn't see him at first -- you really need to pay close attention and carefully scan around you. Note the fresh snow on the ground in late September.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MgN-GbfhP0

When I taught film students, I said these things:

• always use a tripod, always
• never ever zoom in a shot
• only pan to follow a subject - never otherwise
• do not edit the shot if the content is interesting

I'm happy to see you followed all four of these Golden Rules!

Given that Tetons is a bigger park and gets fewer visitors than Yellowstone, I wouldn't call it a crowded little park. Some people prefer the Tetons because its less known and less touristy.

Given that Tetons is a bigger park and gets fewer visitors than Yellowstone ...

Are we sure about that? My brief research suggests that Yellowstone NP is 6-7 times larger than Grand Teton NP.

Grand Teton NP was nice for a fairly relaxed drive through, so long as you leave enough time to get to your accomm at Old Faithful Lodge in daylight. It's 'only' 160 miles from Victor ID, so not too bad.

I looked up the dimensions and the attendance. The Tetons often are not thought of or forgotten, although people may be familiar with Jackson because of its association with skiing.

I looked up the dimensions and the attendance.

And ... Yellowstone NP is 6.8 times larger than GTNP ... yes?

GTNP is nice enough, although there's a good argument that it's best seen from the highway running past east of the park. But it's certainly not in the same class as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, etc, in my view.