Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, Cheyenne

I'd say that 3 days in Yellowstone you could hit the high spots, that is a BIG park! Traffic is slow mainly because of the buffalo. One day at Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse would probably work. If you've got time & near the Buffalo Bill Museum is in Cody & is AWESOME. If you buy the one day pass & get it stamped before you leave, you can go back the next day for free. We spent 2 days in there & still didn't see everything! There is also a "village" in Cody that has some historic buildings. We didn't make it there, but I think they have Jeremiah Johnson't cabin & something to do with Butch Cassidy there.

10 minutes for Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse each. 2-4 hours for the Spires.

Search this Forum for each of the areas of interest. Plenty of posts including mine.

Hi Mark,
We just did that trip this summer.

We spent several days in the Mount Rushmore area and stayed at the amazing Rafter J Bar Ranch. You can see my pictures and review HERE.

We spent 4 days in the Black Hills but we didn't spend all of that time keeping busy. We relaxed at the RV park a lot. For us, Mount Rushmore took 2-3 hours since we did the short trail that takes you closer to the monument. I highly recommend it.

We were a little disappointed in Crazy Horse. While we were there, they weren't doing the bus tours that took you closer, so we only got to see it from a distance. We thought a lot of the movie was more about the man/family who is building it than about the Native Americans. That being said, it was still kind of interesting. Again, this was 2-3 hours.

We spent a day exploring Custer State Park and the Needles Highway (highly recommend this!). We did a hike around the lake in Custer and did the wildlife loop drive. We probably could have lived without the drive since we saw many of the same animals in Yellowstone.

We spent 3 days exploring Yellowstone, and those were pretty long days. We didn't come close to seeing or doing it all, but we felt like we had a good amount of time to see the highlights without feeling rushed at all. I just did an interview on the RV Family Travel Atlas podcast with our trip planning recommendations and favorite sites. You can find it HERE. Just scroll to the bottom of the blog post to see the player and listen to the podcast, if you are interested.

We just drove through Cheyenne, so I have no tips for that. You are welcome to message me if you have any questions about Mount Rushmore/Yellowstone, though. Have fun trip planning!

We spent about six days in the Mt. Rushmore area, and about 7 or 8 days in Yellowstone (this was our third trip there). When going thru Custer State Park,go on the wildlife loop early in the morning or late in the evening-I think that you will see more wildlife then. We take it easy when camping, so we are a little slower in seeing various sights! No offense intended to another poster, but I can't imagine spending only 10 minutes at Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore, we went to Mt. Rushmore in the afternoon, then we back one night to see the light show!

RamTX wrote:
We spent about six days in the Mt. Rushmore area, and about 7 or 8 days in Yellowstone (this was our third trip there). When going thru Custer State Park,go on the wildlife loop early in the morning or late in the evening-I think that you will see more wildlife then. We take it easy when camping, so we are a little slower in seeing various sights! No offense intended to another poster, but I can't imagine spending only 10 minutes at Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore, we went to Mt. Rushmore in the afternoon, then we back one night to see the light show!

No offense taken. To each his own. Needles Highway, Spearfish Canyon, Custer State Park, and traveling through the area forests... ie, the natural wonders of this beautiful Country, are more our speed.

Actually, we didn't even spend 10 minutes combined, at the two locations.

Glad you enjoyed it though.

Ditto on what Nutinelse said

If it was me, I would take the time you are planning on seeing Cheyenne and spend it in Grand Teton, which you will probably pass through on your way home anyway, unless you go over Sylvan Pass, then you need to stop in Cody to see the Buffalo Bill Museum. Easier pull through Grand Teton and you could park in the Colter Bay campground while you are there, the sites are all first-come, first-served. Get there around 9:30-10:00 in the morning just before checkout time and you could get a good spot. And you are right, three days in Yellowstone will allow you to see the high spots, but it really is a big place and, unless you don't like to get out of your car, you'll only get to see the high spots. Since you have two weeks and are going to spend six of them traveling to and from the parks, I would suggest that one day is plenty to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse and then drive towards Yellowstone and have a great time. Three days in Yellowstone, after one day of travel to get you there would leave you a couple/three days to see Grand Teton and down through Dubois to Lander and Rawlins to I-80 and then home.

When I was a kid, I traveled out west from Cincinnati with my parents. My Dad had 4 weeks vacation and we headed west. I don't remember a lot of it, but vowed to spend more time there when I retired. And I did.
I spent 4 months on the road - by myself. I made a stop at Devil's Tower where I spotted a climber sitting on a ledge about half way up, eating a cheese sandwich. I couldn't tell if he used mayo or mustard. :) Then I spent a month in Yellowstone. As the roads divide it into 4 quadrants, I spent a week in each. It was spring and there were a lot of new babies. Even buffalo are cute when they're babies.
Then another week in the Tetons. They're next to each other, but completely different. YNP felt more "commercial", at least to me. Certainly busier. Then I headed north and crossed the border into Canada. A friend of mine had a summer cottage on the Kenai peninsula, so I spent about a week there (He even had electric hookups). When I moved on, I was lucky to see Mt. McKinley when the peak was free of cloud cover. The locals said that was very rare. I continued on to Fairbanks to re-stock before heading home. Paved roads only go that far.
Certainly, the trip of a lifetime, but I couldn't do it now. Too long in the tooth.

For Cheyenne, the first thing that obviously comes to mind is Cheyenne Frontier Days...but it won't be going on during the time you'll be traveling through. It's in late July. So...what else is there to see and do in Cheyenne.

Other sights that come to mind are the Wyoming State Museum, which details the history of the entire state, and the Wyoming Transportation Museum, with historical information on the importance of the railroads to the state of Wyoming.

If you're more adventurous, there's Curt Gowdy State Park (a great place to stay, by the way), between Cheyenne and Laramie, and Veedauwoo (a large group of rock outcroppings) in the same area.

Since you're planning on doing the Black Hills and Yellowstone prior, you may be overloaded on scenery...or not. If not, then a drive over to Laramie (stop by the Territorial Prison Museum) and then continuing on to Snowy Range Road and going up and over Snowy Range Pass, is highly recommended. A nice day trip, there's wonderful vistas in the Snowy Range, with a small fraction of the tourists you'll encounter elsewhere. It's sort of like Rocky Mountain National Park with about 1% of the tourists there. Some great hikes up there, and you could continue over to Saratoga WY to the hot springs, and take a soak there. Getting back on I-80 north of Saratoga, and heading back to Cheyenne, you'd make a loop around that would be a full day for sure.

H E R E is a more complete list of things to see and do in the Cheyenne WY area. It's a lot more the CFD.