Good luck :D

[SubmitArticles]

Wife and I will travel this summer to either using miles on AA, CO, DL or NW as our options. What would be the nearest major airport to:
Mt. Rushmore- Denver, Minneapolis or closer?
Yellowstone- Denver, Boise

Also, what would be closer for Monument Valley- Phoenix, Albuquerque or Salt Lake City. Another idea was to fly into a regional airport such as Grand Junction.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Rapid City itself is going to be the closest airport to Mt. Rushmore, it has daily air service from at least a couple airlines (Northwest/Delta via Minneapolis, and United from Denver I belive). It may be more expensive, but otherwise you're looking at basically a full day drive to get there. Denver is the closest major airport to Mt. Rushmore. Its about 400 miles compared to 600 for MSP. Omaha would be another option, although that's about 500 miles.

For Monument Valley, both Phoenix and Albuquerque are about the same distance (roughly 300 miles), Durango and Flagstaff would be better regional alternatives than Grand Jct. Salt Lake City and Las Vegas are both about 400 miles away.

Salt Lake City is by far the closet major airport to Yellowstone, although there are several small airports that would also be options in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.