Thank you AGAIN for all these incredibly helpful posts.
After reflecting on these and some other things I've read, I think we are going to do YNP and GCNP as two separate trips. For one, it seems like GC in July would be uncomfortably hot and, for two, both parks are so big that there's just not enough time to feel like we saw enough.
So now we are leaning toward a loop that starts in VA, stops in South Dakota for a few days at the Mount Rushmore KOA resort (which looks super awesome for kids), then on to a week at YNP. Then south to Rocky Mountain NP for a few days, then (based on my back-of-the-hand estimating) that roughly saves us 7-8 days to get back.
Sound more reasonable? :)
