Maine to Yellowstone

Recommend taking the southern route I90
Cool places to visit enroute

Corn Palace
Wall Drug
Badlands national Park
Mt Rushmore
Cody -Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Custer State Park

How long do you have to make the trip -- 3 to 6 months????

One can see the main points of YS in 2 days, or you can spend a life time seeing YS. I suggest you look at the route that the guide bus tours take to see the south west in a week or so to help you plan your time..

1. A day or a 1/2 day drive through the Badlands of SD

2. A week to see the 5 national parks in SW Utah.

3. A day to see Grand Teton NP

You need to make reservations soon!!!!!

TenOC wrote:
How long do you have to make the trip -- 3 to 6 months????

One can see the main points of YS in 2 days, or you can spend a life time seeing YS. I suggest you look at the route that the guide bus tours take to see the south west in a week or so to help you plan your time..

1. A day or a 1/2 day drive through the Badlands of SD

2. A week to see the 5 national parks in SW Utah.

3. A day to see Grand Teton NP

You need to make reservations soon!!!!!

Geez that's the fly bye and say you've been there plan. Better to concentrate on fewer parks and really see them.
Let us know what you like to do, hike? And what RV do you have?

Maine-iacs wrote:
It's a long darn trip from here to there. What are the things I should stop and see and enjoy along the way?

Would seem that the mission should be to get to the Mississippi River - then head to the Rockies.

Might let the group know your time frame.

What do you enjoy - hiking - driving - mountains - water - animals - skyline - National Parks - ...................

We spent the entire summer just in the Rockies last year and only saw a small portion.

Help us our,

Take a northern route west and a southern route east if you can. Keep an eye on weather as you'll be in the "ally". Sounds like a great trip and I agree w/ others, if you can, take your time. We went to Mt Rushmore in '99 via Lincoln Town Car and back in a week.

Highlights of that trip:
John Deere HQ in Moline IL
Cabela's in Sidney NB (largest store at that time)
Mt Rushmore
Crazyhorse
Badlands
Wall Drugs (tourist trap)
Arctic Cat HQ in Their River Falls MN
Macinaw Bridge (friggin' awesome!!)

Spent lot of windshield time, but had a great time. Would like to go back to re-visit places and to see ones we didn't see.

As others have said, it depends on how much time you have.

Been that way twice, took I90 both ways, both times, no issues, no stops other than to sleep overnight. Make sure you either bypass Chicago or get on I90 Express.

Wall Drug-Meh. It's a ghost of it's former self.
Badlands NP
Wind Cave NP
Custer State Park-most definitely. Bison herd is amazing.
Bear Country USA-Rapid City
Mount Rushmore
Keystone, SD-absolute tourist trip, kitschy and fun
Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center-West Yellowstone, MT

TenOC wrote:
How long do you have to make the trip -- 3 to 6 months????

One can see the main points of YS in 2 days, or you can spend a life time seeing YS. I suggest you look at the route that the guide bus tours take to see the south west in a week or so to help you plan your time..

1. A day or a 1/2 day drive through the Badlands of SD

2. A week to see the 5 national parks in SW Utah.

3. A day to see Grand Teton NP

You need to make reservations soon!!!!!

It basically depends on your available time, as TenOC said 2 days (you won't see much) or a lifetime, first trip to Yellowstone, we spent 9 days there, second trip spent 14 days, could've spent more, it all depends on personal choice.
Also timing is important, spring back here in the east, (even in Maine) is generally April, Yellowstone, may still have snow in some places late May-early June.

Crowe wrote:
As others have said, it depends on how much time you have.

Been that way twice, took I90 both ways, both times, no issues, no stops other than to sleep overnight. Make sure you either bypass Chicago or get on I90 Express.

Wall Drug-Meh. It's a ghost of it's former self.
Badlands NP
Wind Cave NP
Custer State Park-most definitely. Bison herd is amazing.
Bear Country USA-Rapid City
Mount Rushmore
Keystone, SD-absolute tourist trip, kitschy and fun
Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center-West Yellowstone, MT

Let me add for you to look into;

Emerald Cave

Needles drive

Crazy Horse

Sylvan Lake

Town of Custer

Rushmore at dark

Rushmore in the early morning

On the way to Yellowstone Wind River Canyon - drive is beautiful

RT 26 through Dubois to Tetons and then on to Yellowstone

Idaho

Flaming Gorge - Manila

Dino NM

Just a short list,

I took I90 to you great state a number of years ago & would recommend it all the way to Yellowstone.

I bypass Chicago by taking I80 west to I39 north. I39 ties back into I90 west.

In Wisconsin at the junction of I90/I94 & state Rt33 is a nice campground that could be used to see the Baraboo area. Places like: Circus World Museum, Devil's Lake SP, Mid-Contenant Railway Museum, Mirror Lake SP. If you can get reservations at ether state park that would be my first choice. Both are close to the Wisconsin Dells. The Dells is a major tourest trap. Lots of family fun for a day or two. One of those been there done that places.

Continuing west on I90 there is the Spam Museum along with the places already mentioned above by rr2254545.

From the Black Hills area on I90 west one can make a day trip to Devil’s Tower.

Hope this helps….

Lots of great suggestions, thanks! We're pulling a 35 foot TT. Most of this is going to be "windshield tourism". Combination of age, knees and hips rules out any real hiking. We made one trip about 10 years ago and we know we only saw a fraction of what's out there. At this point we're thinking 6 to 8 weeks this time around.