STL > SD > WY Route

I admire your go-big-or-go-home spirit, but I think you're goals are impossible.

Day one of your trip from Seattle, WA to Sioux Falls, SD is about a 1,500 mile day, which will take you approximately 30 hours towing. Even if you figured out a way to do it without any stops to eat or pee and you had a fuel tanker refill you without stopping, I still doubt you could get there in 24 hours.

Even if you chopped that drive into three days, they would be long days of 500 miles each.

If you want your family to enjoy the trip, you should plan lots of Dairy Queen stops and figure out how to keep your days more reasonable.

My family's distance record was just under 900 miles in one day and it was a fete of strength for all of us. We left Southern California at 04:00 and made it to Pocatello, ID around 21:00. It was grueling and we were all wiped out the next day. And that was with teenagers who were up to the challenge (it was the only way we could make it to Glacier, MT in two days).

I can't urge you strongly enough, don't do it. It's not fun and it's not safe. Your family won't enjoy it and they'll find ways to share their displeasure with you.

A comfortable pace is 300 miles a day. Your upper boundary should be 600 miles a day.

A good rule of thumb is averaging 50 miles per hour. This includes sops for fuel, food, and bathrooms. Once you get your kids trained up, you'll be lucky to combine some of those stops into one, but don't expect to be that 50 MPH average by much.

dedmiston wrote:
I admire your go-big-or-go-home spirit, but I think you're goals are impossible.

Day one of your trip from Seattle, WA to Sioux Falls, SD is about a 1,500 mile day, which will take you approximately 30 hours towing. Even if you figured out a way to do it without any stops to eat or pee and you had a fuel tanker refill you without stopping, I still doubt you could get there in 24 hours.

Even if you chopped that drive into three days, they would be long days of 500 miles each.

If you want your family to enjoy the trip, you should plan lots of Dairy Queen stops and figure out how to keep your days more reasonable.

My family's distance record was just under 900 miles in one day and it was a fete of strength for all of us. We left Southern California at 04:00 and made it to Pocatello, ID around 21:00. It was grueling and we were all wiped out the next day. And that was with teenagers who were up to the challenge (it was the only way we could make it to Glacier, MT in two days).

I can't urge you strongly enough, don't do it. It's not fun and it's not safe. Your family won't enjoy it and they'll find ways to share their displeasure with you.

A comfortable pace is 300 miles a day. Your upper boundary should be 600 miles a day.

A good rule of thumb is averaging 50 miles per hour. This includes sops for fuel, food, and bathrooms. Once you get your kids trained up, you'll be lucky to combine some of those stops into one, but don't expect to be that 50 MPH average by much.

STL is St. Louis ;)
Here is the mileage per leg

STL to Sioux Falls (The big day) 590 miles
Sioux Falls to Black Hills 381 miles
Black Hills to Wapiti 390 miles
Wapiti to Cheyenne 412 miles
Cheyenne to Lincoln 442 miles
Lincoln to STL 422 miles

ststesting wrote:
STL is St. Louis ;)

Well that changes EVERYTHING. :B

One thought about Wyoming: Don't let your guard down. Wyoming is a tough place and can really punish you.

My kids went to college there and we've had more than one misadventure.

The unexpected snow isn't too bad, because you can see it coming and it's not too hard to hunker down somewhere until it's over.

Last September we had a day with heavy winds that surprised us. At one of our fuel stops, my wife discovered that the wind had blown one of our bedroom windows out. The window wasn't cracked or broken; it was just plain gone as if we never had one. We had to stop at Walmart for plastic & duct tape to seal it up in the rain for the rest of our trip. Brrr.

The distances are deceiving too. Although I-80 and I-25 are wide and fast, the rest of the highways are smaller and slower and you really have to manage your fuel stops.

We've had more than one crazy detour because of seasonal road construction. Like the locals say, there are two seasons in WY: Winter and Road Construction. One day going from Laramie to Casper we followed our local friend on a detour to beat the construction stoppage. We took a dirt road over the hills and ended up driving through Dick Cheney's ranch. "Wave to the nice woman in the khakis and the blazer with a bulge on her hip. She's from the Secret Service."

Since you're already going to be in the Black Hills, I would try to add the Devil's Tower to your trip. We've been to the Tetons and to the Devil's Tower and we enjoyed the area around the Devil's Tower better. They're both great, but we enjoyed the drive up in the northeast better than the west.

Anyway, sorry you can't squeeze Seattle into your trip. :B

Do you have one or two drivers? How do the kids do cooped up in the truck for many hours at a time?

600 miles is probably about 12 hours of travel time. I try to avoid driving any more than ten hours in a day because I find my driving ability (and hence safety) drops precipitously not long thereafter due to fatigue, etc. With two drivers to share the work, it's safer, even if the driving isn't split 50/50. Needless to say, different people have different levels of stamina, and driving conditions greatly affect the amount of fatigue, so ten hours is not a universal rule by any stretch. Pushing your own limits is hardly wise in any case.

Many three year olds (and indeed ten year olds) wouldn't be very happy being strapped into a truck for twelve hours in a day. Doing it a couple days in a row is harder.

I would suggest scaling back the trip and maybe only doing things in the black hills area. One day is nowhere near enough time to get more than a quick glimpse of Yellowstone, and it's a fascinating and beautiful area that desreves far more if possible. I'd save that area for another trip.

Bear in mind that this is DrewE's opinion, and worth every cent you paid to get it...but maybe not much more than that.

Thanks guys.

Was already pushing it to get a taste of Yellowstone (wife-push), I won't do the Teton drive-by. Sounds like I should stop at Badlands to minimize driving there too. Makes the long day easier knowing the following day is shorter (and having it first). We are going the first week of Sept, I am hoping to beat the snow.

We were thinking of stopping by Devil's tower, will do.

Two drivers, wife would drive to give me a break, but I wont' be relaxing until she's done it a few times. (really heavy foot)
How do the kids do? 3 year old twins...they freak out no matter where they are, should be interesting!

With young kids, I'd cut those days in half. They'll appreciate you at the end of the day. And, I do not see much the for the 3 year old's to do. They need dirt and sticks to play with....not staring the back of seat for 10 hours at a time.

No one will enjoy the trip. Way to ambitious. 250 to 300 mile days will be more than enough with the little ones. Even 300 miles will turn into an 8 hour day with rest stops, eat on the roll, doggy breaks.

Holy cow I hope it doesn't take 8 hours to go every 300 miles.
I think I see my issue (one of them). How do you guys weigh extra nights vs longer drives? Perhaps my thought process is wrong/pre-RV. I've alwaybe been a power-thru, minimize stops, relax when I get there driver.

I'd have thought that a longer(400mile) day followed by two nights is better then shorter days and towing every day...but I'm not used to having my lodging with me yet...probabaly better to poke along each day?
Something like this look better?

REVISED
STL to Sioux Falls (The big day) 590 miles
Sioux Falls to Badlands 279 miles
Badlands to Black Hills 123 miles 2 nights
Black Hills to Wapiti 390 miles 2 nights
Wapiti to Douglas? 293 miles
Douglas to ?, NE ~300 miles (not so excited about Nebraska, sorry NE)
?, NE to ?
? to STL

My nights went from
1-3-2-2-1 to 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 but less miles per day

I can probably add a night to get to 10, sounds like I should.

We usually plan on an average speed of around 50mph for planning purposes...That puts your short days at 8.5hrs. Add in little ones and you could easily tack on an extra hour for bathroom breaks, lunch, just letting the run off a little steam. Add in an hour for departure prep and an hour for set up...those are 11.5hr days. By the time you feed the munchkins dinner, it's probably going to be 7-8pm and you won't have any time for touring.

If I'm following correctly, you have 9 nights and 6 long days driving. Presumably the 3 free days would be busy touring...this sounds like a painful marathon. I get with limited vacation time, doing a hard day's run at the beginning and end of a trip just to cover distance but after that, it's really much nicer to slow down.

I think of it this way...
- If you have a great time and everyone really enjoys the trip, you'll probably find a way to do another trip to see the places you couldn't get to and the whole family will be chomping at the bit to go.
- If everyone hated the trip, they will fight going the next time. Sure while they are under 12, if you say they go, they go but they will hate it double...and when they get in their teens, do you want them to try and avoid going with you at all?