Planning a trip Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, Deadwood Etc.

June and August...reservations are essential. Add the Grand Tetons.

Hi,

I'd go in early September.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

I'd go in early September.

Step Dad is an avid hunter he won't go in September he will be hunting.

mid-to-late august through end of september is best. warm days, cool nights. october *can* turn nasty at the higher elevations. seems like step dad could sacrifice one hunting season for his 85-yr old wife.

It has dawned on me I have never planned a trip like this before and I am almost 60. All our RV trips have been short with a single destination camping, Disneyland to the coast Etc. Do you use a trip planner to plan your stops? We plan to do more of this in the future so I am curious when some of you plan trips across the Country how do you plan it or do you just take off and look for a place to stay when you are tired?

we pick a destination or a direction. we drive 225-250 miles per day so i use google maps, RV Parky and RV Park Reviews to figure overnight and multi-night stops. plenty of free resources out there.

We went to Yellowstone last mid September.
80 degrees in Cody WY
Snowing on our way into Yellowstone
The Badlands were were very interesting and should be added to your itinerary.
You’ll never be closer.

The Sturgis South Dakota motorcycle rally is August 7-16. Things start getting crowded on the roads around that area 2 weeks before and about a week after the rally.
It is not just motorcycles. There are many RV's and other vehicles going there and there will be crowds around Rushmore, Deadwood, Devil's Tower, Badlands, etc.
We usually got in to that area about 7-10 days after the rally and found plenty of room at the RV parks and no big crowds at the various sights. In fact we found some great prices at the downtown Sturgis RV park(Closes the end of September), which was a good place for us to use as a parking place and use the toad to travel to Deadwood, Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Badlands, Needles, etc.

You will want to add Devil's Tower to that trip as well.
I don't recommend Yellowstone during the Summer. If you can go before or after you will have a much better experience. If you want to join the other 1,000,000 visitors who will find all the animals have retreated to the hills, make your reservations NOW!

Too much planning, Gun, cuts down on the fun for me.