1800 miles in 3 days with 3 kids in a truck. Crazy or not

michigansandzilla wrote:
In order to get anywhere out west, we've realized we'll have to travel 1800 miles one way. Next year our kids will be 14, 12, and 8. We have a TT and it's all 3 kids in the back row of the truck, so they don't have much room to stretch out.

Due to our work schedules, we'll have 16 days max for vacation. I figure 1800 miles one way is about 3 days of straight driving to get to the destination. We'd have 6 days of long days driving to have 10 days of vacation.

We very much want to get to Yellowstone, but the thought of driving for over 12 hours for 3 days straight does not appeal to any of us. Other options such as flying or renting a class C are cost prohibitive.

Is it worth it to suck it up and go or are we crazy for considering the idea.

Mine are 12 and 11 now...but well seasoned travelers. Every summer we do big national trips that last 2-3 weeks, next year a hair more. We started out in state when they were smaller and frequently drive 2-3 hours to various locations.

Electronics are big, you have to have them.

Frequent stops are big, you have to do it.

Try to get up early and drive until evening but allow the kids time to unwind at a campground each night if possible.

Try to find destination stops along your route to break up the drive and give everyone some time out of the car. It might stretch out your day, but its very worth it.

Finally, try to eat healthy, but also try not to stop at sit down to order restaurants. Once in while you have to, to get a break, but we've wasted and lost more time in this fashion than anything else.

EDIT: I forgot to comment on the number of days. For Yellowstone, we were done on day 4. Unless you do a lot of hiking, you only need 3 days of well planned out movements to cover the whole park and then some. Do sections are a time, be aware of drive times.

Sounds to me like you have time to stop t plenty of other hot spots along the way, to break up the drive to and from. Good luck!

Go with 8 days driving and 8 days in YS should be plenty. Actually during the 4 day drive if you can get someplace interesting and spend 2 nights to see something and get a break from driving that would be even better. Might cut your YS down a few more days but honestly 4 to 6 days in YS is probably enough. The trip will be far more relaxed and enjoyed by all.

Or do you really have 10 full days of activities in YS planned out?

JMHO

I think you can do it. The wife and I did 6,130 miles in 17 days on a motorcycle last year. It is all in how you plan the trip. We stopped every 100 miles for a short break. Probably not necessary when riding in a truck. One thing we did was a light snack to start at 7 AM (think pop-tart) drive until 9 AM, stop and eat a hearty breakfast. Back on the road by 10:30. Pee break and snack around noon. By 2 PM you will be ready to eat another full meal. As long as you don't try to go tank to tank on the truck everybody will be fine.

Don't forget about the badlands. They look to be about 2 days travel from you and would be a good one day stop to recharge and get a glimpse of the variety of terrain that lies ahead on your adventure.

I haven't read all the posts, but wanted to share my experience.

I have 3 girls and they are very used to traveling in the back seat of my truck. In 2012, when they were 10, 13, and 14, we went to Yellowstone from Massachusetts with 2 other families that had 2 kids each. That's 2400 miles each way. We did have 21 days total, however, but MA is much further east than MI.

We took 5 driving days to get there. Stopped in the Black Hills on the way home. Everyone loved the trip and would do it again in a heart beat.

We loved it.

And even the long boring days can hold something worth a memory. One of the things the kids'll never forget (me either), was about 8 hours into the drive to WI from the black hills, we got into the craziest, biggest storms I've seen. Was punching it to try to get ahead of the Storm and ended up getting chased out of MN with 2 tornados that dropped a half hour behind us! Changing routes based on where the storm cells were moving, radio blasting tornado warnings! Added a couple hours to the drive, but everyone was on the edge of their seats!

I'll qualify some of my comments, both the serious and tongue in cheek ones, with, NO, it's not paradise spending 12-18 hours in the car, but 16 days is a good long vacation to make a destination trip like this IMO. This year is the first time I've had the luxury of More than a 2 week vacation, but our end destination before turning back around was a week long in the same area visiting family, friends, a wedding, etc so the sightseeing part was really done within 2 weeks, with a 900 mi each way detour for the visiting portion.

To each their own, but our end goal wasn't 300 mi a day, hit the KOA, let the kids swim in a pool and repeat. It jsit works for us to grind out a drive and spend extra time at the destinations.
Would I loved to have spent another week at least or 2? He!! Yeah! But then that experience would've never happened.
Also note that most of those long days were straight up flat freeway driving with a rig that I was comfortable running a 75mph avg on those stretches.
Side note, after going to Yellowstone as a kid and just driving around for a couple days, couple banzai winter trips through the park on our sleds (before they clamped down on that) and a quick trip before kids, there is ALOT more to do than drive to the next sulphur cauldron or stop n see a bear.
The hiking and fishing wuz awesome! Getting up and pounding out the tourist route while all the tourists are getting up and eating breakfast....highly reccomended. We hiked back to a lake to fish one morning, 3 mi in, was some people camping back there said we just missed 3 wolves chasing a bull elk into the lake! Wished I'd got up an hour earlier!

Btw concerning the OP, we drove from WI to Big Sky MT, NW side of Yellowstone, this winter with my two boys. They were 4 and just turned 2 at the time. We drove straight through, IIRC 25hrs. Did have a two hour break in Billings when my bud who was traveling with us had a mechanical issue.
We gave the boys lots of video games, movies, food, and playing I spy games to keep them busy. Of course they slept about 10 hrs too which was awesome....haha

Good luck with your trip, probably be harder with older kids.

As an older adult now I look back at some of the family vacations we took. I can say I remember thinking as a kid too much car time at times and enjoying the places once we got there but looking back it was worth it for me and glad my parents did it. We saw some amazing places like YNP among many others. It exposed me to many places and cultures or subcultures of America that I otherwise would not have seen or experienced and perhaps to this day not have made it too. I believe those trips helped make me who I am today in some regards. As some have suggested if you break the trip up on the way out and back like the Black Hills and get a rest day or an out of the car day each way you/they should be fine.
In reality if you don't take them to these places who will? Their future lives may not allow it either so yes you/they may need to suck it up a bit but what great things don't come with at least a bit of sacrifice. We aren't all retired, have a lot of vacation/excess time, have excess money etc me included to do it all the best way all the time. I have done it with my kids and now the grand kids are in the vehicle when possible to help them see what is out there when the wife and I go.

I live in the Denver area and it is quite amazing how many people I have met here over the years that have never gone to the mountains here much less camping in them and they are less than an hour away. I cant even imagine being so tied to a city or my direct surroundings to not even want to see or experience what else is out there, what is around the next corner, what is down that road, what would that be like etc.

Lantley wrote:

IdaD wrote:
I think with kids that age 600 miles a day is very doable. Even with stops for fuel, potty (obviously my kids are still young...), food, etc. you should be able to knock out 600 miles in maybe 11 hours. 12 tops.

Back before we had kids we used to crack off 750 miles to visit my in-laws in 12 hours flat (granted that in a car). A couple of months ago we drove from LA to Boise with our kids (6, 3, 1) and our fifth wheel in one 15 hour stretch, and that was 900 miles. I got everybody up at 2:00 am and loaded them in the truck so they slept the first 4 or so hours before we stopped for breakfast.

Bring iPads, DVD players (stop at Redboxes along the way), books, etc.

600 miles will take 12 hours of behind the wheel time. not including, food,fuel and potty stops. ....Keep that pace for 3 days in a row!

You must cover fewer miles than we do per hour. Long distances are a fact of life out west and I've had tons of windshield time over the years so I'm pretty dialed into how long it takes to get between places (for us).

600 miles will entail about 9 or a little more hours of actual driving time without a trailer, and maybe 10 or a bit more with it. I guesstimated 11-12 hours of total time to account for stops. This is traveling with the purpose of getting somewhere, not for enjoying yourself along the way. I agree that three days in a row of that is a lot, but if you're on the road by 7:00 you'll be parking by 7:00 or a bit earlier and that will allow for a decent meal, a hoppy beverage and a bit of downtime before bed.

Grit dog wrote:

gbopp wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Can't wait for 2 years from now when my 13 year old can take the helm and I can sit in back, seat reclined, playing video games and napping!

You're going to nap while a 16 year old student driver is at the helm? :W

Yeah!
He's a decent driver already. But our kids have been driving "things" since they were old enough to grab a handful of throttle. Both have been driving their own Sno machines, in the mountains, since they were 7-8, wheelers on the trail or dragging a mower around the yard around trees, pulling me behind the boat (this year), moonlighting in the vehicles on backroads. Both can drive a stick shift already.
This is not to say I just turn them loose, they are closely supervised, but by the time they go for their drivers test they'll be able to parallel park a long bed truck downtown and back a trailer up. I believe in building their skills as soon as they have the capability, so i know they will have the skill and presence of mind once they get cut loose with a drivers license and all the teenage distractions.

Excellent!!
That's how my dad taught me, and how I will teach my boys. My 5 yr old has been on his own gas atv for 6 months. He will ride his own snowmobile this winter. Granted they are both very low hp and slow.

My dad taught me how to drive in my grandparents fields at 12 or 13 with a 3 on the tree as the first vehicle I ever drove. Good memories!