Roadtrip? ROADTRIP!

[Jbek]

Hello all,

let me start by letting you know how happy I am in finding this site. LOTS of good information here.

Two of my friends and I are planning a roadtrip out to yellowstone, where we will be working all summer (Old faithful geyser grill if you're wondering). This will be our first roadtrip ever, so we don't know exactly what to expect. We have a general idea of what our itinerary might look like, but would love to hear what you Road veterans have to say!

My friend and I are leaving from toledo ohio to pick up our other friend in chicago, so lets say our actual road trip will start in Chicago.
We want to drive a maximum of five hours a day, and want to experience a different location each day. We definitely want to see devils tower and the badlands, but are not sure of what else we could visit. We need to arrive in Gardiner on June 1st, and want to take roughly a week to get there.

Also, we are poor college students, so any money saving trip tips would be splendid.

Thanks!!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

By limiting your driving time to just five hours a day, you'll need a minimum of 5 days to get from Toledo to Yellowstone. Fortunately, Chicago is just about 5 hours from Toledo, so that means 4 days is all you'll need from Chicago to Yellowstone. Just to give you an idea of what such a relaxed-paced drive might look like, here are some daily goals for an overnight location and some possible highlights of the day's drive:

Day 1 to Wilson, MN: Wisconsin Dells, Circus World Museum, Great River Bluffs State Park

Day 2 to Mitchell, SD: Spam Museum, Great Plains Zoo, Corn Palace

Day 3 to Beulah, WY: Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Deadwood

Day 4 to Billings, MT: Devils Tower, Thunder Basin National Grassland, Little Bighorn National Battlefield

Then on the next day you can arrive in Gardiner relatively early and start scoping out the park at your leisure before you "have" to arrive.

AZBuck

[Lifemagician]

A short diversion, before you get to Billings, would be the Big Horn Mountains. Turn off I-90 just north of Sheridan WY, take route 14 onto Alt 14 over the Mountains and through the Bighorn National Forest. It is a nice change from the interstates. A short walk to the medicine wheel is definitely worthwhile. There is also a lot of wildlife up there, but then, I guess you will see lots of that during your time in Yellowstone. A little further on is the Bighorn Canyon. You can then continue through Lovell to Billings or Park City.