Road trip to Western National Parks..help me plan

My husband and I would like to plan a road trip to celebrate his retirement. This would start in Louisville Ky with a stop in Racine WI to visit family. Interests are in nature with very easy hikes, small towns, and photography. We would like to see the following...Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Estes Park in the Rockies, then heading down toward Taos and Sante Fe NM. Taking back roads for any scenic portions would be our preference. Toyota Camry will be our ride and we have around a month to do this trip. We would appreciate any feedback on routes to take and other attractions along the way. What time of year would afford us access to all of these places without the threat of snow covered roads or cold temps? At this point we are quite flexible since retirement will be upon us.

Thanks for any help.

Hello tealady,

If I could plan a perfect time to make the trip you're looking at, and had a month to do it, I'd be looking to start just after Labor Day, not later than about Sept 15, and would start at Yellowstone in order to enter via the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge, MT before it closes for the season. Don't dawdle but so much in getting to Estes Park/Rocky Mountain NP, as Trail Ridge Rd tops out at over 12,000' and can close on a short-term basis or for the season at most any time. I drove through RMNP on Monday of this week, and it's amazing how much snow there is above around 10,000'. The temperature at 4:30 pm up top was 60 degrees F under cloudless skies.

Foy

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I would have to agree with Foy, September is a great time to travel as the main crowds for the season have gone. You will find a whole lot of useful info just browsing the forums with the search function, or by scrolling down this page where you will find 'Similar threads', Then you can repeat the sequence as many times as you want to. 'Upstairs' in the green tool bar you will find Lot's of planning resources, including the Map centre where you can create routes and look for attractions.

Have you considered some of Southern Utah's incredible scenery and National parks ? With the time you have it is something worth considering doing between the Tetons and Colorado. Zion, Bryce canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands are all possibilities with lovely scenic drives linking them.

I also agree that after Labor Day is a great time to be in Yellowstone. The park starts closing some of the facilities in September but the major ones are still open.

I would also encourage you to take a look online of all the national parks in Utah to see if there are any that will interest you. They make for some of the best photographs! Adding Utah might take more than a month to do your trip depending on how much time you devote to each area.

Utahtea

Thanks for the replies. We did the Utah trip a couple of years ago and hit Zion, Bryce canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands along with Grand Canyon and Sedona. It was indeed a great trip and thus prompted us to do another similar trip.
The idea of doing Yellowstone first is interesting, but that would mean we would have to go right past the areas we wanted to see in SD or backtrack to pick them up. Any suggestions on how to best do this and still incorporate all the places we have on our list?
I have done some looking around on this site, but have found nothing so far to really guide me on a route or timeline.

Thanks again for the replies so far.

Wanting to hit both SD and NM makes it a bit difficult. But I would definitely hit the jewels in the crown - Yellowstone and RMNP and Trail Ridge Road - first. Though, as mentioned above, the latter can close at anytime. On my various trips, I have found it closed by blizzards in July and August, finally got to drive it on my fifth attempt one September.

Lifey

Sounds like you've done Utah!

If you could leave say a week to 10 days before the Labor Day weekend, then you would have plenty of time to get to Yellowstone after the holiday weekend and do WI and South Dakota first.

You might check to see what is available as far as lodging in Yellowstone. You might have to plan your dates around that too.

Utahtea

Thanks for all your help.

I have since been working on the routing and am considering the return route from Santa Fe to St Louis with some time on Rte 66. Has anyone done this part of Rte 66 and is there anything worth seeing along there?

Also, does 1 month time seem long enough for a trip of this kind?

Thanks again.

when you are at Mount Rushmore you aren't far from Custer Park and
Crazy Horse Memorial, they are worth seeing,of corse in SD the Badlands are beautiful
and Wall SD is interesting and at Mitchell SD is the Corn Palace,
it is interesting and kinda of corny.We saw of herds of Buffalo and other animals
in Custer Park. Google these places and see what I mean,it's all so beautiful

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tealady

Thanks for all your help.

I have since been working on the routing and am considering the return route from Santa Fe to St Louis with some time on Rte 66. Has anyone done this part of Rte 66 and is there anything worth seeing along there?

Also, does 1 month time seem long enough for a trip of this kind?

Thanks again.

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If you are doing old Route 66 you will find that it's pretty much gone in a lot of areas, but the major cities along the route usually have some of the old historic buildings. Santa Rosa, NM is one of these towns. Here are some helpful websites.


http://www.historic66.com/new-mexico/
http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2489/travel.html

I thought you were planning this trip this year but I get the feeling this is for 2011. If it's for next year, then you have plenty of time to plan and get your reservations in and I would consider leaving in mid-August to start your family visit.

Actually, one month seems kind of rushed to me with all the things you want to do. Places like Yellowstone really can use 3 - 5 days just to scratch the surface because it's such a large park with some many fascinating areas. I'd plan on a minimum of one month for the touring and then add however long you want time to spend on the family visit.

Utahtea

Thanks for the continued information. It is for 2012 and not this year. This trip seems overwhelming to plan, so I have decided to start with the South Dakota-Yellowstone portion first and then go forward.

We will plan to leave Racine in order to arrive in Yellowstone just after Labor Day. If we do it this way, will our being in the Mt Rushmore area over Labor Day weekend be a mistake or should be plan to start there after Labor Day?

I am having trouble with a timeline and routing through the South Dakota area to hit all we want to see. Does anyone have a suggestion on a route through there and then on to Yellowstone? Will Rapid City be an okay place for our base for South Dakota? How about the Yellowstone area? Would Cooke City and West Yellowstone work for this park or is it essential to be in the park itself?
Thanks for all the help so far, but please help me work out a route through here.

Everyone is going to have their recommendations for how long at each park, and the best thing to do would be study the parks and decide what areas you want to see but as a reference I'll give some ideas.

I love Yellowstone and to really scratch the surface of this park, I'd plan on 3 days minimum and any where from 5 - 7 days if you have them! Our first few visits I wouldn't go unless we had 6 or 7 days to spend in the park. We now go and spend two weeks in just Yellowstone! Five days in Yellowstone will give you enough time to really see all the geyser areas, spend a day at Mammoth Hot Springs, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Tower Jct, West Thumb, and the Lake area.

Cooke would be a nice place to spend one night after doing the Beartooth Highway and then to get a very early start for Lamar Valley to view wildlife. Cooke is way to far away from the other attractions and areas of the park to make it base camp. Same for Cody, WY.

If you decide to stay outside the park then West Yellowstone, MT is the best location to reach all the areas of the park without having to change lodging locations. If you decide to stay in the park then I'd recommend changing locations at least once, or maybe twice at the most. One location would be at Old Faithful and plan a couple nights there because there are so many geysers and geyser areas to see.

We always camp at either Badlands and/or Custer State Park so can't really be of help with lodging. Rapid City does seem like a reasonable place to do day trips to Mt. Rushmore, Badlands and Custer State Park.

Once you leave Rapid City area you might consider going to Deadwood and I wouldn't do that as a day trip because there's no need to back track but someone else will have to help you with lodging. I'm sure you can find some in Sturgis, SD.

On the way to Yellowstone I'd highly recommend making the detour to see Devils Tower National Monument.

In Sheridan, WY you have some decisions to make. Are you going to come in on the Bearthooth Highway? If so, then you have the quicker route of taking I-90 the scenic mountain route over Alt 14 and then the back roads up to I-90. If you decide against the Beartooth Highway then you have the choice of Hwy 14 or Alt 14 to reach Cody, WY. What ever you do, I'd plan on at least two days to reach the park without entering it if you want to do sightseeing along the way.

Depending on how much hiking you plan to do, I'd spend at least two nights at the Grand Tetons. More if you are into hiking.

Thank you so much. This is the exact kind of help I was looking for. I will take a close look at the map again and try and figure out just which direction we will take.

Any ideas for the best lodging inside Yellowstone if we decide on that?

I'd very much agree that finding a place inside of Yellowstone would be the best bet - and it seems like all of the accomidations within the park are quite nice. The locations will probably be the most important factor.

Yellowstone is a very big place and it takes a long time to get around. Cooke City is a good 1.5-2 hours away from even the major locations on the North and East sides of the park like the Canyon or Mammoth Hot Springs. Cooke City to Old Faithful would take you nearly 3 hours. West Yellowstone is closer, but even there, you'd be looking at 45 minutes to an hour to get to places like Old Faithful.

BTW, if you are coming in on the Beartooth, make sure to fill up your tank in Red Lodge, which will have the cheapest fuel until you get to Jackson. On my recent trip out west, Cooke City had by far the most expensive gas of any city on my trip - it was actually 25 cents a gallon more than even the gas stations inside of Yellowstone.

I have come up with a rough outline of the trip. We decided we did not want to do long days of driving from one place to the other, so I have spaced out our stops so as to enable us to enjoy the journery as well as destinations. I also planned so as to us some of our many Hilton points whenever possible although the hotels do not have bookings available this far in advance. Here is the proposed itinerary...
1.Louisville Ky to Racine for a family visit.
2.Rochester MN (overnight)
3.Sioux Falls SD (overnight)
4.Rapid City SD (overnight) with a detour through Badlands.
5.Keystone or Hill City (overnight) with sightseeing of Custer State Pk and surrounding areas.
6.Gillette WY (overnight) with more sightseeing before leaving the Black Hills area and a stop at Devils Tower.
7.Cody MT
8. Cooke City MT (overnight) via Red Lodge and Beartooth Hwy
8.Old Faithful Snow Lodge (overnight)
9.Old Faithful Snow Lodge (overnight)
10.West Yellowstone hotel. (overnight)
11. Jackson Hole (overnight) Tetons
12.Jackson Hole (overnight) Tetons
13.Jackson Hole (overnight) Tetons
14.Rawlins WY (overnight)
15.Ft Collins Hotel CO (overnight) with some touring of RMNP
16. Estes Park CO hotel (overnight)RMNP
17. Estes Park CO hotel (overnight)RMNP
18. Gunnison CO hotel (overnight)
19. Gunninson down 550 to Durango hotel (overnight)
20.Durango (overnight) with visit to Mesa Verde
21. Alamosa CO(overnight) with visit to Great Sand Dunes St Pk
22.Taos NM (overnight)
23. Santa Fe NM (overnight)
24.Santa Fe NM (overnight)
25.Santa Fe NM (overnight)
26.Santa Fe NM (overnight)
27.Amarillo Tx some touring Rte 66
28.Oklahoma City OK (overnight) some touring Rte 66
29. Springfield MO (overnight)
30. Ofallon Il (overnight)
31. Back to square one in Louisville Ky

Any comments on the lodging inside Yellowstone? Anyone stayed at the OF Snow Lodge lately?

Please give me feedback on my plans and any tweaking that you feel might be needed. I have no reservations (other than OF Snow Lodge) since they are not yet bookable, so I am completely open to any changes in our itinerary.

And finally, thanks for the help in making this plan come together.

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I think you could certainly push a little bit harder in some areas. For example, Racine to Rochester is only 5 hours, and then Rochester to Sioux Falls can be done in 3. That's very much an area where you could simply drive from Racine to Sioux Falls in one longish day.

Similarly, you've got a few areas where you are hotel jumping but not really going anywhere. For example, Rapid City to Keystone is less than a 30 minute drive, and you could find it much more comfortable to just pick one hotel to do all of your exploring from. There are a couple other areas like that where you may want to rethink how you are breaking up your trip.

With Yellowstone, I have only camped and not stayed at any of the lodges, but I will say that it doesn't make a lot of sense to stay in West Yellowstone after Old Faithful, especially when you are planning to go to Jackson afterward since that would involve backtracking. West Yellowstone also isn't really any closer to anything than Old Faithful. If you are simply hoping to save money by staying outside of the park, then you might look at Gardiner MT, which would put you within easy reach of the Mammoth Hot Springs area. I also might look at spending more time at Yellowstone, which you could get back by combining some of those other drives.