Here is what I have planned out:
Thurs drive to Sioux Falls or farther if we can
spend the night
Fri. Drive to Badlands NP
spend the night
Sat. Drive thru Badlands NP, Custers State
Park and then onto Keystone
spend the night
at
Mt Rushmores White House resort
Sun. Explore the area
Mon Drive to Cody, see rodeo
stay the night
Tues. Drive to YNP
spend the night at Grant Village
Wed. Explore YNP
Thurs. Drive thru Grand Tetons and
onto cheyenne
spend the night
Fri. Drive to Manitou Springs
explore
Sat. Pikes Peak and???
drive to Denver for evening ballgame
stay the night
Sun. start home
Mon. get home
Does everything look do able???
Thanks
Our Trip July 08
Yes, it is possible. Is it a good plan? No! I am assuming you have never visited any of these areas.
You are planning a 12 day trip of which pretty much 4 full days will be spent driving to and from. That leaves you 8 days for site-seeing and travelling between locations. You are attempting to cover basically a 3 state area all with about an 8-hour drive to get from main location to main location. So, 2 1/2 more days spent travelling and not really enjoying your vacation. So you are going to spend fully half of your time getting to and from places.
Although I love the Colorado mountains, leave them out of this trip (you will look back on this part of the trip and wonder why you didn%26#39;t spend more time in Yellowstone). If you want to see a Rockies game, then just include a stop in Denver on your way home.
A trip to Mt. Rushmore/Badlands, etc. combined with Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons is possible in your time frame. Not even two days in Yellowstone is not really enough, and just driving through the Tetons on your way to Cheyenne, not a good choice, at least in my humble opinion!
Our Trip July 08
A good trip, but lots of driving. I would consider not doing Manitou Springs and Pikes Peak this trip. That would give you a bit more time in Yellowstone and a night at the Tetons.
Thurs: STL to Sioux Falls is about 9+ hours of driving.
Fri. Sioux Falls to Badlands NP is about 5+ hours. You would have time to drive through the Badlands, then spend the night nearby.
Sat. Drive to Keystone SD. On the way see parts of Custer State Park, maybe Wind Cave and see Mt Rushmore at night. spend the night at Rushmores White House resort
Sun. Explore the area. Maybe a tour of Jewel Cave, gold panning in Hill City, Custer State Park. Maybe drive up to Deadwood, or Devils Tower area for the night.
Mon Drive to Cody, see rodeo stay the night
Tues. Visit the Cody Museums in the morning, then drive to YNP spend the night at Grant Village
Wed. Explore YNP
Thurs. Explore YNP in morning/early afternoon then drive to Grand Tetons. Stay the night there or in Jackson.
Fri. See Tetons in the morning, then drive to Laramie/Cheyenne
Sat. Drive to Denver. Visit the Lodo area before the game. The Rockies are playing Pittsburg on July 19th at 6:05. Stay in Denver
Sun. start home
Mon. get home
We are going to Colorado for a few reasons. One our youngest wants to see where he was born, two none of our kiddos remember living there, three one of my best friends still lives there and I want to see her. And of course we love baseball and havent been to that stadium yet.
I realize we could use more days in YNP but no one else in our family wants to stay there that long. And trying to find a place to stay there is hard work this time of year. It took me three weeks of coninues calling to get our second night there.
As far as the Mt Rushmore area goes, we have no desire to see caves. We mainly want to see Mt Rushmore, gold panning and maybe Devils Tower on the way to cody. Not even sure we want to see Devils tower unless its not too far off the highway.
We are not western by any means so the only activity we will be doing in Cody is the rodeo and watching the gunfighters.
After driving thru YNP, I have read that the GTNP is not that spectacular.
Any other suggestions or ideas??? I appreciate all of them!!!
After finding a map of the Grand Tetons NP, I was wondering what are the highlites we must hit? As of now we were going to only go until the Moran Station but we could go all the way down if it would be worth it. Yes it is a lot of driving but our boys are great with traveling and that is the way we normally take vacations. The longest we ever stay in one spot is 4 days and that was at DisneyWorld.
Thanks everyone!!
Now that I know your reasons.. keep your schedule!! Tetons are worth visiting.. at least get out of the car to visit Jenny Lake and do a quick walk/hike around the area.
Mt Rushmore and gold panning at Wade%26#39;s Gold Mill in Hill City will take 1/2 a day!! Then off to Devils Tower, and Cody!
Enjoy!
Lori, you don%26#39;t say how old your children are and that would help a lot in giving you ideas of what would be appropriate for your family.
Because of your reasons to visit Colorado, why not omit Mount Rushmore and do gold panning in the Colorado mountains?
You said no one in your family is interested in Yellowstone, but I would guess that once they see what there is to do and see, that will change. You might want to look into a chuckwagen cookout either in Yellowstone or Jackson/Tetons, if gold panning would be fun for your family (maybe horseback riding as well).
Yes, getting lodging in the park is a hassle at this late date, but you might look into lodging in West Yellowstone as an alternative.
Our boys are 11,14, and 16 years old.
Is Devils Tower worht the drive off the highway? How far off the highway is it?
We all do want to see Mt Rushmore, thats another reason we are going that direction this year. If we do want to see more of YNP or GTNP, then we can plan another vacation that direction later on. We have been to Florida a zillion times and have not seen it all.
A chuckwagon dinner sounds great, but would we have time and where is the bet one?
I looked at staying in West Yellowstone but I really like the feel of staying in the park.
Thanks for everryone ideas. This forum is what makes vacations the best!!!
just a suggestion but i would definitely go to see the grand tetons. to me this area is as spectacular as yellowstone in a lot of ways. walk or take the boat ride across jenny lake %26amp; hike up to inspiration point/hidden falls. you could also go to dornans at moose junction that evening for a chuckwagon dinner. they say the one at dornans is great %26amp; it would be very close to gtnp.
http://dornans.com/dining/
There is also a chuckwagen dinner in Yellowstone from Roosevelt that is fun. I%26#39;ve been on it. Food is good, we saw some wildlife. I believe you make reservations through Xanterra. I%26#39;m sure others will pipe in.
thanks, I cant wait to read what others think
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