My wife and I drove down to West Yellowstone the day before and got a hotel room.....for $350! Yikes!
But it was well worth it. We headed west on U.S. 20 aiming for Ashton, Idaho. Shortly outside of Island Park, we hit terrible traffic. With her phone, the wife found a gravel road that we turned off on, and drove for 25 miles. That in itself was pretty cool. I was glad I took the pickup and not the car.
Yes, I agree that it isn't worth bothering unless its total.
One note of interest, though. One of my friends who stayed home went fishing during the eclipse. He said the trout bit like crazy during it, he hooked 5 nice ones.