1st Cross Country Trip..thoughts?

mcguirehg wrote:
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2. Blackhills & Bandlands, South Dakota, 14 hours, 895 miles, electric hookups (5 nights-reservation required) – Custer State Park
http://gfp.sd.gov/state-

3. Yellowstone National Park, 10.5 hours, 620 miles (9 nights, reservation required)


4. Grand Teton National Park (3 nights)...;

Since I live near these, I'll comment on this portion.

The Badlands, Southern Blackhills, Northern Blackhills and Wyoming Blackhills are all good, but they're pretty spread out. You might want to consider spending the first night in the Badlands rather than bypassing them, then driving back there later. It would be quite a drive from Custer SP to the Badlands and back. I've never stayed there, but I've heard the KOA at the east edge of the Badlands is good.

Likewise, you might want to spend your last Blackhills night at Devils Tower, as it's quite a long trip from Custer, and it's probably worth a visit. There's a nice NPS campground (no hookups) inside the Devils Tower Monument grounds, or if you need hookups, there's a decent KOA just outside the park gate.

The Blackhills are GREAT for family vacations! Use Google to get some ideas, but I'd highly recommend Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, Jewel Cave near Custer, and Bear Country and Reptile Gardens in Rapid City. There are dozens of other attractions. Let everyone in the family pick their favorite one or two to have a voice in your plans.

You'll be traveling over (or long trip around) the Bighorn Mountains on your way from the Blackhills to Yellowstone, so you may as well make use of one of the many NFS campgrounds in the Bighorns. This is a very nice mountain range that's often overlooked by tourists simply because they're in a hurry to get from the Blackhills to Yellowstone. It's a shame, because they have a lot to offer. We have friends and family from Oregon who spend a week in the Bighorns nearly every summer. They avoid the crowds of Yellowstone and the Blackhills and just enjoy the mountains -- fishing, hiking, sightseeing and always a big campfire at night for a bbq, burnt marshmallows and memories retold.

Whether you take Hwy 16 (Buffalo to Tensleep) or Hwy 14 (Sheridan/Ranchester to Shell/Greybull), you'll be going past more than a dozen nice, quiet campgrounds. Buffalo also has at least three nice ones right in town.

You might also want to spend a night in Cody before heading into Yellowstone. the Buffalo Bill Museum is one of the best "Old West" museums anywhere in the country. Plan on AT LEAST a half day for it.


Yellowstone and Teton NPs are basically side-by-side, so you'll be driving out of one and into the next. Unless your family is into long hikes on primitive trails, 12 days is quite a long visit for these magnificent parks, especially when you have similar visits planned for Colorado's National Parks.

(And southern Utah is hotter than hell in the summer. That's the SW desert. Daytime temps are HOT!)