Southeast Pennsylvania to Whitefish, Montana

[ZachMat123]

Hey everyone, This is my first time on the site.
I'm planning a road trip later this month from my home in SE Pennsylvania to Whitefish, Montana. This is actually a one way trip, in which I am leaving my vehicle in Whitefish and someone will return it later in the summer via a road trip of their own.

I'm allocating 7-8 nights of travel to get out there. So. Does anyone have suggestions for routes? I was really hoping to hit Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Grand Teton, & Yellowstone (I know that these will all have to be day trips, not nearly enough to soak in the areas, but it'll at least give me a taste of the regions).

My biggest problem is finding how to get out "west." Once I hit Badlands national park the route is fairly self explanatory and connected. I just don't know what route is most interesting to get from Pennsylvania to South Dakota, essentially. I'm looking for that classic road trip feel.

(Note that once I arrive in Whitefish Montana, I have allotted an extra 4 days there to visit family - so I will already be seeing Glacier and the local area there.)

If anyone has any advice, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

With the amount of time you have, and the things you want to see, I think I would just focus on getting out west as quick as is reasonably possible. You basically need 5 full days of straight driving just to get to your destination in NW Montana, so I'd use all of your couple extra days for South Dakota and Wyoming.

To get to the badlands, I'd probably take I-70 all the way to Indy, then use I-74 to Iowa, I-80/I-680 across the state and then north on I-29 to I-90 in South Dakota. This isn't quite the shortest route, but it avoids tolls across OH, IN, and IL, and avoids the potential traffic headaches of Chicago. It will still take you pretty close to 3 full days to get to the Badlands. I'm not exactly sure what you are looking for when you say "classic roadtrip feel," I suspect 2 lane roads are would best describe that, but you don't have time to do that on this trip - but really, roadtrips are much more about a state of mind than the choice of highways anyway.

[ZachMat123]

Thanks so much Midwest Michael!

I know its not a huge amount of time for such a trip, but I hope it will be a starting point for many awesome road trips to come. :) I agree highways are probably best with my time constraints, particularly when getting out to SD. I'll definitely look into the roads you mentioned. Thanks a ton!