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jfkmk's avatar
jfkmk
Explorer
May 05, 2019

I have 1 week

My wife and I are volunteering at a camp in Montana this year. It is located about 5 hours from Yellowstone, so we figured we would take an extra week and do some site seeing. We will NOT be camping this time. Here is our thoughts.

Spend 2 days in Yellowstone then travel east to the Gillette area to see Devils Tower.
After seeing that, continue east to the Rapid City area and base the rest of the trip there to see:
Mount Rushmore
Crazy Horse
Deadwood
Badlands
Wind Cave

Then fly home from Rapid City.

It appears this is all doable, especially since I’m not towing my camper. I know it is just getting a taste of the area. We would like to spend more time in Yellowstone, for example, but will be returning at a future date with the camper. My wife has never been in the area, so we want to see as much as possible.

Am I missing anything obvious? Any pointers in seeing the area? It’s been about 30 years since I’ve been to this area of the country.

Thanks in advance!
Roads and Routes
  • Isaac-1's avatar
    Isaac-1
    Explorer
    May 05, 2019
    2 days in Yellowstone is barely enough time to see the highlights, expect it to take 2 full days just to drive the main figure 8 loop at Yellowstone, briefly stopping at the major attractions only, and skipping some of the secondary thermal features, waterfalls, visitors centers, etc. Yellowstone is BIG, and the loop road alone is 142 miles with 45 mph speed limit, which drops to 0 mph when wildlife is present. It would be easy to fill up a week in just NW Wyoming, and not come close to seeing all the major attractions that are within 100 yards of the highway. We spent 3 nights and 4.5 days in Yellowstone in the summer of 2017 just before the big solar eclipse and were barely able to hit the highlights.

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