June 2013 trip help: Region Mount Rushmore to Grand Canyon

Hi,
Trying to plan a 60th birthday present for my father and would like some opinions from people who know the area.

So I have never really gone on a sight seeing road trip. And they won't happen much - my father certainly probably won't ever do this again - I can't even get him to take half days to do things - he's a workers worker. These are my thoughts.

Fly to Las Vegas from New York State. Do a three day raft trip the leaves and returns from Las Vegas at the Grand Canyon. (or stay in the Canyon area for 3 days and fly from Flagstaff to Salt Lake, Idaho Falls, or Rapid City.)

Fly to Salt Lake stay one night/ have dinner etc. or drive directly for Yellowstone, do something with the part of the day that's left, stay 1-2 days
Make our way by car to Mount Rushmore, stop to stay near Devils Tower? then Mount Rushmore the next day. Perhaps go to Badlands. Fly home from Rapid City.

Or skip Yellowstone , Fly from Las Vegas (or Grand Canyon) to Rapid City and Just do Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, and Badlands.

8-10 days for the trip is the most I can probably get my father away for.

I am the only one working on this ( my siblings aren't much help) so I feel like I am getting so far into this I can't see the vision anymore, lol - any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Lizdax

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

With your limited time, and presuming you don't have an unlimited budget, I would do either Yellowstone or the Badlands but not both.

First of all, a one way car rental from SLC to Rapid is going to cost a small fortune. It will be vastly cheaper just to do a round trip rental. Plus, its a full day drive from SLC to Yellowstone and another full day onto Rapid, so that would chew up 2 full days just on the road. I'd also say that Yellowstone is such a huge place that only visiting for one or 2 days would make for a pretty rushed tour.