Anything to add to 5-week western trip?

[megan11368]

Hi all,
We have a 5-week summer trip planned from Indiana to Idaho and back with the following marked as points of interest:
- Mall of America
- Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center / Fort Mandan Historic Site
- Knife River Indian Villages NHS
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit (1 day)
- Medora Musical
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit
- Fort Union Trading Post NHS
- Glacier National Park (8 days)
- National Bison Range
- Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS
- Big Hole National Battlefield
- Craters of the Moon
- Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
- Castle Rocks State Park
- City of Rocks National Reserve
- Golden Spike NHS
- Fossil Butte National Monument
- Grand Teton National Park (2 days)
- Yellowstone National Park (8 days)
- Old Trail Town / Buffalo Bill Center of the West
- Bighorn Canyon NRA
- Medicine Mountain/Wheel
- Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
- Devil's Tower National Monument
- Deadwood SD / Adams Museum
- Jewel Cave National Monument
- Wind Cave National Park
- Custer State Park
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial
- Wall Drug
- Badlands SD (2 days)
- Corn Palace
- Pipestone National Monument
- Herbert Hoover NHS
***Hopefully this gives a good sense of our route. Is there anything really unique, noteworthy, beautiful etc. (e.g., museums, memorials, parks) en route/nearby that we should add to this list? Thank you in advance!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA forum!

You've come up with an excellent, long list of great things you could see and do. Of course, there are lots more things you could see and do - checking out RTA's Map Center will give you dozens more ideas of great things and places to consider.

But having said that, I think the biggest thing I'd tell you to look for is time to enjoy yourself and let the trip breathe. It's good to have a good idea of all the things you can do, but don't be so attached to a list that you either feel you have to hit everything on the list and your trip becomes more focused on checking things off than enjoying what you are seeing or that you are so tied to your list that you can't enjoy what you discover as you head down the road. A common phrase people say they want on the road is "hidden gems," which are great, but the true hidden gems are the places you really only can discover by being on the road, seeing a sign for something that jumps out to you, or that someone recommends as you're visiting an attraction. Make sure you're leaving time to explore those places too, even if you can't preplan them.

[NowthatIamretired]

You have a lot of places so in case you need one more and have an interest in US History during the Cold War, check out the Minute Man Visitors Center, https://www.nps.gov/mimi/index.htm. It is right by The Badlands, not far from Wall Drugs. Even if you don’t have time or get reservations to visit an actual missile site, the visitors center is very interesting, and sobering, to just learn how close we came to nuclear missiles at one time.

[DonnaR57]

Did you have some backpacking or hiking planned in Glacier National Park? Eight days is a lot. Also, what time in the summer is this planned? Reason I ask that is because Glacier's "main attraction", Going to the Sun Road, doesn't usually open for the season until the end of June or thereabouts. Sometime during the spring, when they start to plow the road, they start giving estimates about when it will open for the summer.


Donna