Denver to Mt. Rushmore, Glacier NP, Bnaff road trip

[jeanff]

We are flying into Denver the last week in August. Planning on doing a big loop, ending back in Denver, (plane tickets already purchased), for a three week trip. This is the main things we want to see: Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Cody (and surrounding), Glacier National Park, Bnaff and back to Denver. Need some help with areas not to miss. Mostly interested in natural scenery and wildlife, short walks, no long hikes. Definitely want to travel Going-to-the-Sun-Road. Please give me your thoughts.

[Mass Tim]

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

It sounds like you have a good list of areas to visit already. Keep in mind that crossing into Canada will require a passport - especially to return to the United States (not sure where you're starting from - if you're from the US or not.)

[Southwest Dave]

I would continue looking around the forums and use the RTA resources such as the Map centre, Attractions and Routes sections in the tool bars above. You can use the search function or simply scroll down this page and find 'Similar threads' and repeat as many times as you wish for ideas. You could go to Glacier on the way up, or heading South after Banff where you could 'drop in' on Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Rocky mountain NP would definitely be on my radar and is only a short distance from Denver. From the Tetons you could head down 191 to Flaming gorge Res and Dinosaur NM to US 40 through Steamboat springs and Granby and take the Trail ridge road through RMNP to Estes park, which happens to be the highest continuous paved road in the US !

[jeanff]

Thanks to both of you, we do have passports. Got those last year so we could go into Canada from Washington State. Will check out the above RTA resources, have never used them. Do you think it would be best to go the Road to Sun road going up or coming back from Bnaff? The reason I didn't mention Yellowstone or GT's, we went there a couple of years ago. Want to go back if time allows, as we had to cut that portion of our trip short because of a LOT of snow, but we did get a taste of both. Thanks a lot.

[glc]

I would run the GTSR from west to east.