Michigan to Mt Rushmore, South Dakota

Like you until I/we retire we are on a time limit so if you are pressing to get to Mt Rushmore and spend Quality time with family then stick to I80/I29/I90. passing thru the south side of chicago will always be um...interesting but 94 turns into 80 so there is no looking for mergers/off ramps. Des Miones is not to bad using the belt way. passing to the north side of Omaha means you will miss the traffic to lincoln

Never thought about going up the UP then across.

We live in SE Michigan.....metro Detroit area and would be traveling first of July during shutdown to meet up with my kids and grandloves who live in Colorado. We plan on seeing all sights in the area of Mt Rushmore, planning on about 5 days to be tourists!!

With any of the suggested routes, what reasonable drive time are we looking at? I was thinking at most, 3 days??

I drove thru Chicago once in a car. At 2AM. I spent nearly 2 hours in a traffic jam. When we finally started moving again, we passed a guy that was stopped, sound asleep in the left lane. Nobody blew a horn, they just went around him. Chicago and Atlanta are off my list.

my vote is go the way of the UP. enjoy a pastie and sights.

if you go through Chicago probably go through after 7pm....and before 7am.

I assume you are going in the summer, stop at the Spam museum, yes there is one.

stickdog wrote:
When we made the trip we took I80 out to I380 in Iowa City North to US218 a four lane divided road to Charles City IA then US18 West to I29 and North to I90. We did overnights in Charles City IA and Mitchell SD to check out the "World's Only Corn Palace".

I was considering suggesting this route as well. We have used Routes 18, 218 and I380 twice coming home from the Winnebago factory in Forest City, IA. All good road. Have not used route 18 west of I35, but my experience driving similar roads west of the cities is that there is little to no traffic and a relaxing drive.

By going through the UP, You will find many more camp sites and avoid that so called Chicago mess. As we live close to Chicago (25 miles), when traveling East with our camper, we try to be on the road by 4:30 to 5 AM, thus we have clear sailing, and no traffic to worry about. We have been doing this early AM thing for over 20 years now.

Kennedy64.....my Daddy was a Shriner! Every year we always went to the Shriner's Circus, a big fund raiser in Houston! They do a lot to help children with medical needs!! Glad your daughter was able to receive treatment!

We've driven the I94/I80 exchange many times going to Colorado to see my kids, so we're very familiar with that nightmare! Lol! Interesting that I90 could be a bumpy ride in MN. Might be worth it to avoid then?

Just slightly off topic but are you planning to see more than Rushmore on the trip? I ask because it is a long ways and one can spend about two hours at the site and have enough of the monuments.
We took the bus tour of Rushmore and Crazy Horse which took much of a day and was worthwhile.
To repeat my rule; one has to spend more time at a destination than it took to get there.

When we made the trip we took I80 out to I380 in Iowa City North to US218 a four lane divided road to Charles City IA then US18 West to I29 and North to I90. We did overnights in Charles City IA and Mitchell SD to check out the "World's Only Corn Palace".

I'm not sure where you are in MI. The last 2 time we rode our motorcycles to Sturgis (we stay at the Mt Rushmore KOA), we went through the UP. It is only 150ish more miles (based on starting in the Detroit area) and a much more pleasant experience. Chicago traffic is tough and even worse on motorcycles.

BTW... I hope you are not planning on going the end of July thru the middle of August. If so, the rates get jacked during that time...

Craig