Review my itineray to Badlands, Black Hills, Yellowstone, Tetons?

[KrisM]

I'm finishing up hotel reservations, so am trying to nail down a few ideas of each day.

Day 1 – leave and drive to La Crosse WI or further (600 miles)
Day 2 – drive to Murdo SD (500 miles), go to Corn Palace on the way
Day 3 – Minuteman Visitor Center, Badlands, lunch at Wall Drugs, Delta 09 Missle Silo, drive to Hill City, check in and then go to Mt. Rushmore if time (180 miles total)
Day 4 – Custer Wildlife loop, Iron Mtn Road, Mt Rushmore (if not there already) or maybe Wind Cave and Mammoth dig site instead
Day 5 – Needles Hwy, Sylvan Lake, Crazy Horse
Day 6 – drive to Medora ND (260 miles), maybe Enchanted Hwy? Or something along the way
Day 7 – visit Theodore Roosevelt NP and drive to Billings MT, if time - visit Little Bighorn Battlefield site (260 miles)
Day 8 – Drive to Yellowstone via Beartooth Hwy, see NW loop, Chuck wagon dinner, stay at Roosevelt cabin (200 miles)
Day 9 – Lamar Valley AM, Grand Canyon, Lake area, stay at Canyon Lodge
Day 10 – Norris Geyser area, stay at Old Faithful Inn
Day 11 – Old Faithful AM, drive to Tetons NP, stay at Signal Mtn Lodge
Day 12 – Float Trip, Arial tram,
Day 13 – Jackson, drive to Pinedale (100 miles) or Rock Springs (180 miles)
Day 14 – Drive to Denver (400 or 320 miles), dinner with a cousin, DS2's birthday
Day 15 – drive to Topeka KS (540 miles)
Day 16 – drive to Muncie IN (600 miles)
Day 17 – drive home (260 miles)

I'd really like to be home on Day 16, but it's a ton of miles from Denver and I'm just not sure we can do it.

[wallawala]

Plan to do Custer Wildlife loop first thing in am (early!!) or at sunset. Too hot in the middle of the day to see much.

Wall Drugs can take a few hours if you want, so be careful. Look for the T-rex animatron. There are water fountains for the kids to play in so wear water friendly shoes/clothes there

You can sign kids up for a cool dig program at mammoth site. We loved it!! I would pick Mammoth over Wind Cave any day, but I've been in a lot of caves and haven't seen a lot of mammoth bones.

Spring for the extra $$ to get Thomas Jefferson Vanilla at Mt Rushmore. Sooo Good!

SKIP the evening show in Medora (can't remember the name but "EVERYBODY" does it). It's lame and you have way too much packed into your trip already. I don't see you have planned to do that, but don't get sucked in to that.


Be prepared to let a few things go. Weather can be unpredicatable and wild. We took 9 hours to do 6 hours of driving to get to Wall SD (bad storm, accident that shut down highway)

GET GAS before you leave SD to Medora ND- there are long stretches of highway with no visible living creatures for hours. It'd take a LONG time for AAA to get to you with extra gas.

[nfceagles]

Have you previously done 600 miles in a day with your kids? Not saying it's not possible, but that's a LOT and I don't know your backgrounds, Kids' ages, etc...


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[ett]

Have you previously done 600 miles in a day with your kids? Not saying it's not possible, but that's a LOT and I don't know your backgrounds, Kids' ages, etc...


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A few years ago, we drove 650 miles with our then 6 and 10 year olds to get home in one day from Prince Edward Island. So possible for us, but not pleasant! Although it was probably harder for those of us driving and not the kids in the back seat!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Most of my friends that have done a big trip through those parts fly into Denver or somewhere else out west and start from there.


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[KrisM]

We do a 750 mile drive every summer. Last sitting we did 550 to Washington DC and the kids celebrated that it was so close! We have not done multiple days in a row though. But they will be 13, 11, and nearly 9 so I think it'll be okay.

I looked into flying and it as about $3000 to the trip with the tickets, parking, car rental. We can't swing that. I'll probably continue to check though. I'd love to fly.

ETA we do the 750 straight and sleep in the car on a rest area.

[StantonHyde]

Did I previously send you my trip reports on Yellowstone, Tetons and Jackson with kids?? If not, let me know and I will--lots of details.

[belovedgandp]

No great input on most of the trip. We're looking at doing a similar one this summer; but are spending 5 nights in Custer, SD with extended family and then spring boarding farther west from there with just our family. But I'm starting in Kansas City.

We do more brutal drives trying to get home just to get to my own bed we pounded out 950 from southern New Mexico to KC on our last day of vacation last year with 6, 9 and 12 year olds for day #13 on the road. I NEEDED to get home.

For the drive home I'd crunch more miles into the Denver to Topeka day. It's a boring drive and you have the time zone changes working against you, but you will fly across I-70 until you hit Topeka/Lawrence. Pushing to Columbia, MO would be another 2 1/2 hours but get you enough miles to drop the third day of driving. Fair warning I-70 across MO is awful and you'll want to time your STL rush hour.

[KrisM]

Did I previously send you my trip reports on Yellowstone, Tetons and Jackson with kids?? If not, let me know and I will--lots of details.

No, I don't think you did. I'd love to have them!

[KrisM]

No great input on most of the trip. We're looking at doing a similar one this summer; but are spending 5 nights in Custer, SD with extended family and then spring boarding farther west from there with just our family. But I'm starting in Kansas City.

We do more brutal drives trying to get home just to get to my own bed we pounded out 950 from southern New Mexico to KC on our last day of vacation last year with 6, 9 and 12 year olds for day #13 on the road. I NEEDED to get home.

For the drive home I'd crunch more miles into the Denver to Topeka day. It's a boring drive and you have the time zone changes working against you, but you will fly across I-70 until you hit Topeka/Lawrence. Pushing to Columbia, MO would be another 2 1/2 hours but get you enough miles to drop the third day of driving. Fair warning I-70 across MO is awful and you'll want to time your STL rush hour.

For the ride home, there are enough cities that I think we'll wing it. If we can go further, we will. The weather can always affect the distance you go too. I do not plan to make any hotel reservations past Denver. I will probably also not make one for the La Crosse area. I probably will for someplace in SD though. I'm considering not having one for Billings MT either. If we can go further, we can stay somewhere else. But, I'm not sure.