Summer Road Trip Advice

[ddog171]

Looking for some advice on a road trip I am planning, is this doable, suggestions? These are the places we would like to visit:
1. Mt. Rushmore
2. Badlands
3. Glacier
4. Cody
5. Arches National Park, Moab area (maybe Zion or Bryce)
6. Telluride

Are the stops long enough to enjoy the areas?


Day 1:Columbus, Ohio to Davenport, Iowa (7.5 hours/ 485 Miles)
Day 2: Davenport, Iowa to Sioux Falls (6.5 hours/432 miles)
Day 3: Sioux Falls to Mt. Rushmore/Badlands Area (5.5 Hours/370 miles)
Day 4: Mt. Rushmore/Badlands
Day 5: Mt. Rushmore/Badlands
Day 6: Mt. Rushmore/Badlands to Cody, Wyoming (6.5 Hours/370 Miles)
Day 7: Cody to Glacier National Park (7.5 hours/462 miles)
Day 8: Glacier
Day 9: Glacier
Day 10: Glacier
Day 11: Glacier
Day 12: Glacier to Idaho Falls (7.5 hours/461 miles)
Day 13: Idaho Falls to Moab/Arches National Park (6.75 hours/445 miles)
Day 14: Moab Area
Day 15: Moab area
Day 16: Moab to Telluride, CO (3 hours/132 miles)
Day 17: Telluride
Day 18: Telluride
Day 19: Telluride to Colby, KS (9 hours/ 512 miles)
Day 20: Colby, KS to Kansas City (5.5 hours/586 miles)
Day 21: Kansas City
Day 22: Kansas City to Columbus, Ohio (Home) (10 hours/663 miles)


Thank you

[Southwest Dave]

Hi and welcome back.

Did you get to Yellowstone or is this a revamped trip ?

The pace of your trip looks relaxed enough to enjoy time in your places of interest, although all your travel days are doable, expect some of the journeys to take longer than you anticipate. To fit in Zion and Bryce canyon into your itinerary you would need to shorten the amount of days in other areas, as they are some distance from Moab, but it could be done. It's a case of how getting the balance right to suit your travel style. If you didn't get to Yellowstone you could consider using any time you free up visiting there as you are going to be close by, but you really need to free up 3 days to do it justice.

I would get closer to home before your last stop, to finish a great trip with a brutal 660 mile, 12 hour journey home may take the shine off it.

[AZBuck]

Yes, that's all doable but for two days, one might be a typo, but the other is not possible. the one that's probably a typo is from Colby to Kansas City, which should be 386 rather than 586 miles. The one that's nigh onto impossible is Kansas City to Columbus. 660 miles is far more than we can recommend driving on ANY day, let alone on the last day of a RoadTrip when you'll be tired. That's especially true in your case since you'll be losing an hour to the time zone change. Otherwise your planned miles/drive-times seem reasonable and should leave you time for some short stops along the way each day.

AZBuck

[ddog171]

Hi and welcome back.

Did you get to Yellowstone or is this a revamped trip ?

The pace of your trip looks relaxed enough to enjoy time in your places of interest, although all your travel days are doable, expect some of the journeys to take longer than you anticipate. To fit in Zion and Bryce canyon into your itinerary you would need to shorten the amount of days in other areas, as they are some distance from Moab, but it could be done. It's a case of how getting the balance right to suit your travel style. If you didn't get to Yellowstone you could consider using any time you free up visiting there as you are going to be close by, but you really need to free up 3 days to do it justice.

I would get closer to home before your last stop, to finish a great trip with a brutal 660 mile, 12 hour journey home may take the shine off it.

Thank you for the reply. This is a revised roadtrip planning it for the summer of 2023. I understand what you are saying on the last day of travel, from KC to Columbus. I thought we would want to be home by then, and would just stick it out to finish it. Maybe I break up the last day by stopping in St. Louis on the way back? Thoughts?

[Southwest Dave]

I would highly recommend breaking up the homeward bound journey, it's counterproductive to have a nice relaxing trip and turn up in doors exhausted. As Buck said, it's more than we would recommend to travel in a single day, fatigue sets in silently yet brutally and is responsible for a large portion of road deaths. Keep it safe, keep it fun !

[landmariner]

In general the travel time estimates appear to be for a Google Robot driving a fusion-energy vehicle. Add 20 percent to the travel times to come up with more realism in the travel times and account for restroom, snack time, gas pump and other real-world activities. The estimates exclude waking, breakfast, loading of the vehicle and just the same for when you reach a destination.

The treks to and from Glacier NP seem to be ambitious but it appears you will be chilling out in Glacier for several days.

[glc]

What you could do on day 21 is leave Kansas City sometime in the afternoon and drive a few hours to spend the night somewhere between there and St. Louis.

[Midwest Michael]

If I'm reading this right, you're going all the way to Cody, but you're just spending the night and then heading to glacier, and not visiting Yellowstone? That feels like an odd choice?

It's also worth noting that the badlands is a lot farther from Rushmore and the black hills than most people realize. It's about 100 miles. You can certainly enjoy the scenic drive through the park as part of your drive West from Sioux Falls, but if you want to have more time you might want to spend one of those nights near the badlands to avoid backtracking.

[DonnaR57]

I'm glad that others commented on the mileages being mostly realistic but the "driving time" does not include stops for meals, fuel, or rest area/potty stops. It also doesn't leave time for traffic or road construction issues.

I'm also going to agree with staying somewhere near the Badlands one night. Medora or Wall come to mind for that - Wall has a lot to offer!

Colby to KC is about 375 miles - which will take you about 7-1/2 hours. Leave around 7 in the morning, swing into KC at about 2:30, do one of the things you want to do, overnight in KC. The next morning, do something else you wanted to do in KC, then move on and drive 2 hours into Columbia, MO, and overnight there. Columbia has a lot of hotels and restaurants to offer. From there it would be a matter of about 540 miles into Columbus the next day -- far better than the 660 or so you originally planned!

BTW, when in summer of 2023 is this trip? One thing folks don't realize is that Glacier's star attraction, Going to the Sun Road, often does not open for summer until late June or early July. It depends on the snows and how fast they can plow the road. Another thing to keep attention to, regards national parks and reservations JUST TO GO IN. To keep the parks from getting too t crowded, some parks have already started to require entrance reservations. Glacier may be on that list already, or going on it. Regardless, the day you decide to drive Going to the Sun, START EARLY. Be at the entrance station no later than 8 am. We made the mistake of getting there around 10, and the traffic was bumper-to-bumper almost the whole way, and parking lots were full.


Donna

[ddog171]

Day 1:Columbus, Ohio to Davenport, Iowa (7.5 hours/ 485 Miles)
Day 2: Davenport, Iowa to Sioux Falls (6.5 hours/432 miles)
Day 3: Sioux Falls to Badlands Area (Stay at Cedar Pass Lodge) (5.5 Hours/370 miles)
Day 4: Badlands to Mt. Rushmore/ Stay in Keystone
Day 5: Crazy Horse/Custer State Park/ Stay in Deadwood???
Day 6: Mt. Rushmore/Deadwood to Cody, Wyoming (6.5 Hours/370 Miles)/ Hit Devils Tower on way to Cody
Day 7: Cody to Glacier National Park (7.5 hours/462 miles)
Day 8: Glacier
Day 9: Glacier
Day 10: Glacier
Day 11: Glacier
Day 12: Glacier to Idaho Falls (7.5 hours/461 miles)
Day 13: Idaho Falls to Moab/Arches National Park (6.75 hours/445 miles)
Day 14: Moab Area
Day 15: Moab area
Day 16: Moab to Telluride, CO (3 hours/132 miles)
Day 17: Telluride
Day 18: Telluride
Day 19: Telluride to Colby, KS (9 hours/ 512 miles)
Day 20: Colby, KS to Kansas City (5.5 hours/386 miles)
Day 21: Kansas City To St. Louis (250 Miles)
Day 22: St. Louis to Columbus, Ohio (Home) (423 miles)

Thank you for all the great advice... A little revamp...still a work in process, this is for summer 2023. Which hopefully will allow me to grab some reservations for lodging within Glacier and then I think I do not need a reservation for the Going to the Sun Road.

Question on the Badlands area. After your suggestions, I think I will be staying art Cedar Pass Lodge so we can hike when we get there, and possibly hike in the morning before heading to Mt. Rushmore. Goal is to be at Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. I can possibly add a day to this part of the trip by taking away one day down near Moab, as we just want to see Arches National Park, and the next day would be ~3 hour drive to Telluride.

As for No Yellowstone, was saving that for another trip. Chose Cody so we could see the Night Rodeo, where gates open at 7.. Would we be able to hit Devils Tower on the way to Cody after spending a night in Deadwood? Is it worth staying in Deadwood? Would you add another day to this area, subtracting from Moab?