Jacksonville, FL to Glacier National Park and Back....

[bamajmt]

My wife and I will be leaving from Jacksonville, FL, make a stop to drop off the cat with family and then hit the road. We plan to head up to St. Louis then to Jackson Hole staying overnight in North Platte, NE along the way (pretty much because it's halfway and had decent hotels). From North Platte we planned on stopping by Chimney Rock and Scottsbluff as we head to Jackson Hole. We're staying 4 days in Jackson and hiking in the Tetons and going to Yellowstone and then its on to Glacier to meet up with some friends for 4 days of hiking. After Glacier we are going to head back staying in Rapid City, SD so we can see Mt. Rushmore and take a scenic route through the Badlands and after that we're kind of just going to wing it as we head home. We start on Aug 5th and have to be back home by AUG 23rd. We really just planned on letting the GPS do the work (so pretty much interstate driving), but I don't know how many times I'll ever get to do this and just wanted to see what, if any, advice was out there as far as scenic/alternate routes, can't miss sights, etc. We do have to keep a schedule, but there are times we could afford to change it up if it's worth it. So, in short, any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

As it stands, your plan uses up every second of the time you have available. You'll need to drive around 5400 miles (ten days) just to connect the dots, and then you have eight days scheduled - four in the Tetons/Yellowstone and four in Glacier. For the record, your overnight stops westbound would need to be in, roughly, Summitville TN, Independence MO and Big Springs NE; Eastbound from Glacier, they'd be Miles City MT, Sioux Falls SD, St. Louis MO and Atlanta GA. And that leaves no time to explore the Black Hills or 'winging it' at any point.

AZBuck