July '08 YSNP itinerary

Please make suggestions on the itinerary below. We have 2 kids, ages 9 and 11 and 2-3 adults. We plan to visit YSNP, Mt. Rushmore and nearby places in the last 2 weeks of July, %26#39;08. Our objective is to be in a lodging place by sunset to avoid driving at night.

1. Sun - Flight to Salt Lake City (SLC). Expecting arrived by 2pm SLC time. Rent a car from the airport. Drive to Jackson Hole, WY via the Bear Lake route. Stay night at Jackson.

2. Mon - Jackson to Grant Teton NP for sight seeing. Stay night inside GTNP.

3. Tue - GTNP (about half day), then to YSNP. Sight seeing in SW YSNP for Old Faithful. Stay night in West Yellowstone.

4. Wed - West Yellowstone to YSNP. Sight seeing in NW and middle part of YSNP. Stay night in Canyon Lodge %26amp;amp; Cabines (has booked.)

5. Thu - Sight seeing in YSNP Yellowstone Lake area. Stay night at Lake Lodge Cabins (has booked.)

6. Fri - Sight seeing in YSNP for anything else missed but will stay night in Cody, WY.

7. Sat - Cody, WY to New Castle, WY. Will try to visit Devils Tower on the way.

8. Sun - New Castle, WY to Custer, SD. Do you think we can visit Jewel Cave NM, Mt. Rushmore, and Crazy Horse in the same day? If we can only have time to visit one cave, which cave do you think is better? Jewel Cave NM or Wind Cave NP since they are both nearby? We have visited Calsbad Caven in New Mexico before. Stay night in Custer, SD. We don%26#39;t plan to visit Badlands NP. We have visited it dated back to %26#39;94 and we think we will bump it this time. We also visited Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse before and we would like to visit them again just for the education sakes of the kids.

9. Mon - Custer, SD to Cheyene, WY. We will probably pass Wind Cave NP but we don%26#39;t know whether we have time to stop there since from Custer to Cheyene is a long drive way. Stay night in Cheyene, WY.

10. Tue - Cheyene, WY to Vernal, UT or a small town closed to Dinosaur NM. Do you think we can have some time to go through Dinosaur NM on the way and still be in Vernal, UT or nearby town by sunset? How many hours do you think we should spend inside Dinosaur NM?

11. Wed - Vernal, UT or nearby town to SLC. Do you think we can have time to visit some parts of Flaming Gorge NRA and still arrive in SLC by sunset?

12. Thu - Sight seeing in SLC, including Great Salt Lake and Momon related stuffs. What other places we can visit in SLC for natural scenes?

12. Fri - Sight seeing in SLC some more if we can before departing for the airport.

July '08 YSNP itinerary

Sounds like a fun trip...

1. Sun You arrive at 2pm, then allow at least an hour plus to get car etc. From SLC to Jackson, plan on at least 5-6 hours of driving. That puts you into Jackson late, but not too late. Make sure you pick up a small cooler and snacks/drinks for the trip. Not many places to stop once into WY.

8. Sun - I would visit Jewel Cave, then head to Mt Rushmore. We (10 year old and his mom) liked Jewel Cave better than Wind Cave. We also have been to Carlsbad Caverns a few times and Jewel Cave and Wind Cave both are very different.

You can see Crazy Horse from the road, we did not spend the money to go there. Mt Rushmore was awesome, we hiked the trail around the base and saw the evening program.

9. Mon - Custer, SD to Cheyene, WY. This is not a bad trip, not many stops, but the prairie is beautiful.

10. Tue - Check with the park service www.nps.gov to see if the Quarry Visitor Center has opened. It has been closed for awhile, and even tho it is a beautiful place, your kids may not really enjoy it if they can not see the quarry and the bones.

July '08 YSNP itinerary

nptrip,

Keep in mind that Frontier Days will be going on in Cheyenne during that time. Keep in mind that this is a huge festival and hotels will book up fast.

Sounds like a fun trip. Have fun planning!

Hi NP and welcome to the forum.

Day 1: Long drive and Casa is right. You are not on the road by 2pm. Take the shortest drive to Jackson which is though Idaho Falls.

Day 6: Try to leave Yell be its NE entrance and see some of Beartooth Hw (212) and Chief Jospeh Hw (296) on your way to Cody.

Day 7: Although it seem close on the map visiting Devils Tower will app. adds at least 2-2.5 hours to your trip. If you skip Devils Tower maybe drive to Custer same day.

The Caves: They are different but no cave beats Carlsbad Caverns imo. Plus, you didnot mention visiting Custer SP on your trip and the drives around it. We spend most of the day just to do this.

We also saw Crazy Horse from the road a couple of times and that was fine with us.

Day 10: Why are your driving via Cheyenne instead driving via Casper and Rawlins. Maybe find yourself accomodation in Flaming Gorge NRA. Maybe check: www.redcanyonlodge.com.

Happy planning

Tet