Attractions between NJ and Yellowstone

My late wife was from Bergen County -- Westwood. She moved to Wyoming in 1992 and loved, loved, loved it! She had never before been west of Iowa and liked to relate how she'd moved to Wyoming because she'd heard there was a good-looking cowboy behind every tree. "Now imagine how I felt when I finally got here and there were no trees!"

She said she cried when she first saw the Missouri River crossing on I-90. She said it was the most beautiful sight she'd ever witnessed. And she marveled at our clear skies, both day and night -- clouds during the day and the stars at night. One cold winter day she came running into the house, grabbed me and tugged me outside. "What's that?!" she shrieked as she pointed to the moon. I looked at her quizzically and asked if she meant the moon. "It can't be the moon in the middle of the day! Can it?" Yes, in Wyoming it certainly can be. ;) I hope you enjoy your trip to the Mountain West.


If you have the time, try to spend at least a couple days in the SD Badlands and Black Hills. It's a great area for families and kids the ages of yours. Highlights would be Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Custer State Park Wildlife Loop (bring carrots for the wild burros), Jewel Cave (especially on a rainy day), Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, and Devils Tower in the Wyoming Black Hills.

Other privately owned attractions that my family enjoyed include Bear Country USA, Reptile Gardens, gold panning (Lead or Hill City - can't recall which) and Trout Haven (fishing for the kids). Oh, and you've gotta stop at the granddaddy of all tourist traps, Wall Drug. It's unique. It's so bad, it's good! Find it just outside the west gate of Badlands National Monument in the tiny town of Wall.

Those are just a few of the most popular spots, but there are dozens more. It's the destination for roughly half the vacationers headed across I-90 in SD. Most of the others spend a day or two seeing a few highlights in the Hills, then continue on to Yellowstone. Naturally, those like you who are coming from a long distance want to see Yellowstone, whereas visitors from nearby are more apt to head back home after a week in the Black Hills.

I suggest you let your kids Google for attractions in the Black Hills and each pick one they want to see. In fact, let them do it for the whole route. They'll start looking forward to the trip and probably study a little about what they're going to see before you ever leave the house. It'll make it more fun and a better learning experience.

BTW, CloudDriver & geotex1, which route did you take? Using googlemaps it takes me through I80 W through IN and then I94 W the rest of the way. Is this the most direct route?

Thanks everyone for your input, I will definitely look into all your suggestions. We're thinking 3 weeks but it will all depend on how much time we get off from work:(

AGC wrote:
CloudDriver, thanks for the information... Badlands was on my list, but before that where did you guys stop over on the way? Did you stay at a campground? Or did you just use the rest stops along the way? Since we've never driven this road before want to make sure it's safe traveling with 2 young kids.

We carry the KOA and Good Sam Campground Directories and call ahead in the early afternoon to get a site the distance ahead that we feel we can get to. We do not do Wal-Mart or rest area camping as we feel safer in a campground. We don't do advance reservations as we don't know how far we will get each day and don't want the stress of "have to get there". Holiday weekends can be an issue without reservations, but we had no problem leaving Yellowstone on July 1st last year and getting campsites over the 4th by calling 1-2 days ahead.

As has been mentioned, it is a very long drive from NJ to Yellowstone, about 2,300 to 2,400 miles. Hopefully you have figured for at least 3 weeks for the trip, preferably 4 weeks.

We've done three major "voyages" with our kids, the first of which was a visit to Yellowstone. For the moment, I'll concur with Dick B. If your plan/ultimate destination is Yellowstone then you need a good chunk of time. Those of us in the Northeast are prone to underestimating the size of the states West of the Mississippi and the amount of time it takes to get there with your sanity intact.

Your kids are the perfect age for this kind of experience. You DO however, need to balance a couple of days of hard driving with a day or two off the road so the kids can just be kids; hanging out in the CG pool, game room, etc. As to specific places to stop on the way out or on the way back, it would help if you gave some idea of the route you plan to take.

We were traveling on I-90 from Billings to the Little Big Horn National Memorial and stopped at Hardin, Mt for the night. I picked up a brochure on the Big Horn County Historical Museum. We decided to check it out. This is located in Hardin, Montana and is about 35 years old. In this time period they have moved 26 various historical buildings to a 35 acre complex. These buildings and a train station have been filled with many antiques which have been donated by local families. There is also a large barn filled with vintage working fire trucks and other restored tractors, automobiles, farm equipment and various farm implements. The railroad station looks like the station master has just stepped away from the counter for a break. All the station equipment is there and looks they work. The farm house and barn were built on the site in 1906 and has most of the original type furniture. They even brought in a slaughter house and meat market. All the buildings are arranged as a small town and connected by a boardwalk. They were adding a new building when we were there. This was definitely a surprise find. If you are passing this way, I recommend you also check it out.

AGC wrote:
My wife and I are first time RV'ers driving from NJ to Yellowstone with 2 kids (11 & 9) this August. What are some of the attractions not to be missed along the way? We're thinking of doing day stops and/or 1 or 2 nights at a campground in between.

Any suggestions?

Hello fellow Jersey family! Some good recommendations so far, and there's certainly more to see before getting all the way out to Badlands! Having done the trip 13 times, there's still to more to see. Let me ask the the most important question: how much time do you have for your adventure?

Be sure to check out Custer State Park in SD. It was a surprise highlight of our trip out west. Kind of like a National Park itself. And Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, and others are near by.

DW and I were both from east coast areas, we still can't track back east and not want to stop at a dozen places along the way. I can't imagine having a hard time finding interesting things.

Our big excursion for last season was from SE MI to Yellowstone. We had at least one stop everyday on the way through Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. (We have pretty beat up nothern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.) The way back was through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

A lot depends on what you want to see. Whatever, there is plenty of everything out there. The AAA route planner used to work better, but now it tells you about too much and includes many events with limited times.

Matt

I've been known as a wet blanket but I would change plans. Yellowstone is a LONG way from NJ and, unless you have the entire month, you will be seeing the US thru the windshield. Not good for kids.
Better to spend that same amount of time on the east coast working your way down from Boston to Philadelphis, Colonial Williamsburg and Hampton Roads while you are there and take a side trip to Monticello.