Roadtrip from Denver to Mt. Rushmore/Devils Tower and back

[yoshitoshi]

Hey everybody,
I'm planning a 5 day road trip on april 5, landing in Denver from LA,
I'll be happy to get some tips and suggestions from you about attractions, best routes and more...
The plan is to stay one night in Denver, and then drive north to boulder, cross to SD: rapid city, Mt. Rushmore, badlands, and then jump to Devil's tower and back all the way,
I want to know if there's a good circular route so we can get the most out of this short trip,

*update*
after reading a little bit, I came up with this route:
Denver to Kimball to Scotts Bluff National Monument, passing Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and Oglala National Grassland
then heading to SD to black hills, mt. rushmore and badlands
passing to Wyoming for Devil's tower and then heading back all the way to Denver (maybe stop in boulder)
so my question now is Where can i plan to spend a night in...
and is a good plan??

thank you for your help!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Your general plan looks very good. I especially like your insisting on taking different routes up and back and finding the smaller venues such as Agate Fossil Beds and the Ogalala Grasslands to mix in with some of the better known attractions. As for where to stay, I'd be looking at making my first overnight somewhere around Chadron, NE if you plan to spend significant time at Agate and Ogalala. If that's the case you might want to take a look at what's available and pre-book, as the pickings are going to be a bit thin in this under-populated area. Then I'd probably try to find a centrally located site for your South Dakota exploration and just do day trips from wherever that might be. This would save you from having to pack and unpack each day. Rapid City, Sturgis, Spearfish in South Dakota would all work as would New Castle, MT.

Similarly, depending on how much time you plan to spend in Boulder and en route back, you can either just leave from your base location, or get a start on the drive back to Denver - say somewhere on I-25, or just spend a night in Boulder.

AZBuck

[glc]

I've been through Chadron - it's not that bad, there's a state college and a municipal airport there. There's a Super 8, a Best Western, a Motel 6, and a few mom and pops.

[UK]

Although we took way longer than your 5 days, if you take a look at our route on this page
http://www.uk-2-usa.com/Routes/blackhills.html you can see ideas of many of the places there are to see along the way and take your pick based on your own preferences.

As per the previous posters I would say Chadron is a good place to stop on the way up.