Family RV road trip- Mount Rushmore/Yellowstone/Grand Teton

Looks like a fun and do-able schedule.
Have a great time. Be sure to take the upper Falls boat tour at the Dells, and you'll get to see what why the Dell's became an attraction in the first place (before all the go-carts, water parks, and touristy stuff came along), although those are fun too!

Your revised plan sounds excellent!!

You're right. KOA's are expensive and over-rated in our opinion. There are plenty of parks along your route with a pool and that's all you'd need after a day's drive. You will be getting in late on your one-day drives and by the time you set up and have dinner there won't be much time to make use of the high fees. Use RVParksReview.com for your search along the way.

Perhaps splurge a little on the Wisconsin Dells stop when you're near home but it doesn't have to be a KOA. There's lots to do at the Dells for the kids.

kb36 wrote:
We are trying to decide if we should spend more money and stay at KOAs along the way so the kids will have more things to do or if we will just stop at the basic parking lots with hookups that are significantly cheaper. I am concerned with safety staying at places that have no attendant but I’m a little surprised by how much KOAs cost (more than basic hotels). Any experience? Is it worth it for the kids to have a pool and jumping pillow at the end of a long day on the road?

I think the combo approach works best for my kids, aged 13, 11 and 7. Stay at both expensive KOAs and cost effective state parks while traveling. They both have much to offer. They both are nice for different reasons. My kids like to swim in the pool at KOA and they like to go on nature walks at the state parks. Maybe look ahead and see if there are any really nice KOAs on the way. Stop at those specific ones and choose the cheaper ones as fillers. We seem to seek out the Yogi Bear parks. We had a spontaneous stop in Maryland last summer at a Yogi that had outdoor laser tag and free water slides. It was a HUGE hit. We were only there from 4pm until after breakfast the next day, but the kids still talk about the laser tag.
Find a couple of special places, but they don't all have to be special. Shoot, my kids could label a parking lot as special if we had popcorn and a movie night in the camper! :-)

Thank you all for your advice. In response to all the great advice and information I have completely changed our itinerary. We will now be leaving the dog home with my mom, we decided against bringing bikes or Kayaks, and we decided to avoid Chicago all together. We will be leaving the night of the 5th instead to get a jump start on our trip. We plan to head south and go the more Southern route of I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska to avoid the motorcycle get together in SD. Now we will enter from the South and stay at the Grand Tetons first before heading on the Yellowstone for 7 nights. We will leave through Cody and stay there a couple of nights before going on to Rapid City for a few nights. We will stop over is Sioux Falls SD and then on to the Wisconsin Dells for 2 nights before going through the UP to get home. We are still unsure if we will stop 1 night at the Straits State Park before we go the remainder of our trip home or if we will just push through so we can have Sunday to recoup at home.
We are trying to decide if we should spend more money and stay at KOAs along the way so the kids will have more things to do or if we will just stop at the basic parking lots with hookups that are significantly cheaper. I am concerned with safety staying at places that have no attendant but I’m a little surprised by how much KOAs cost (more than basic hotels). Any experience? Is it worth it for the kids to have a pool and jumping pillow at the end of a long day on the road?
Thanks!

Vacation Itinerary

Day 1: Aug. 5
Leave time: 5:30pm
Destination: Warren Dunes State Park
Miles: 193
Approx. travel time: 4 hours
Approx. Arrival time: 9:30-10:00pm

Day 2: Aug. 6
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Newton IA
Miles: 364
Approx. travel time: 8-10 hours
Approx. Arrival time: 5:30pm

Day 3: Aug. 7
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Kearney, NE
Miles: 353
Approx. Travel time: 8-10 hours
Approx. arrival time: 5:30pm

Day 4: Aug. 8
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Laramie, WY
Miles: 365
Approx. travel time: 8-10 hours
Approx. arrival time: 5:30pm
Day 5: Aug. 9
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Colter Bay Village, WY
Miles: 362
Approx. Travel time: 8-10 hours
Approx. arrival time: 5:30pm

Day 6-7: Aug. 10-11
Stay in Colter Bay Village & tour Grand Tetons

Day 8: Aug 12
Leave time: 10:00am
Destination: Fishing Bridge RV campground Yellowstone
Miles: 65
Approx. travel time: 2.5-3 hours (low speed limits, traffic congestion, & animals in the road)
Approx. arrival time: 12:30-1:00pm


Day 9-15: Aug 13-19

Day 15: Aug 19
Leave time: 9:00am
Destination: Cody, WY
Miles: 78
Approx. travel time: 1.5-2hours
Approx. arrival time: 11am

Day 16: Aug 20
Stay in Cody. WI

Day 17: Aug 21
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Rapid City (Going north through Billings around the Bighorns to avoid potential problems with towing)
Miles: 420
Approx. Travel time: 9.5-11.5 hrs.
Approx. arrival time: 6:30pm

Day 18 & 19: Aug 22 & 23
Stay in Rapid city & tour Custer state park & Mount Rushmore

Day 20: Aug 24
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Sioux Falls, SD
Miles: 352
Approx. travel time: 8.5-10 hours
Approx. arrival time: 5:30

Day 21: Aug 25
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Wisconsin Dells
Miles: 385
Approx. travel time: 9-10.5 hours
Approx. arrival time: 5:30pm

Day 22: Aug 26
Stay at the Dells

Day 23: Aug 27
Leave time: 7:30am
Destination: Straits State Park
Miles: 401
Approx. travel time: 9.5-11 hours
Approx. arrival time: 6:30

Day 24: Aug 28
Leave time: 8:30
Destination: Cadillac
Miles: 147
Approx. travel time: 3-4 hours
Approx. arrival time: 12:00pm

Keep in mind that your dog cannot go with you on the boardwalks or trails. You'll need to walk the boardwalks/trails to see the geysers/mud pots, etc. Study this Yellowstone information so you aren't surprised when you get there. Other national parks have similar rules for pets.

Also look under 'Things to Do' and there's a section on bicycles. To me it would be a dangerous place to ride with the animals, narrow roads, high traffic and no shoulders.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/pets.htm

Instead of stopping in Madison Wisconsin, go to the Dells and spend a day at one of the water parks. We're doing this en route to the badlands this summer and we're also from Michigan. Your kids are perfect ages for that.

You could come home through the UP and stop at Voyageurs national park. If you like to kayak that would be interesting. Maybe en route to Voyageurs, stop at Theodore Roosevelt national park in North Dakota. But that's if you're a national park junkie like me. ;-)
Have a great trip.

2011 we made that trip from Ann Arbor MI. For us we planned 7 days in yellow stone and 3 days in mt Rushmore. Entering from Cody and staying at west thumb. We have a 2000 watt gen used about every other day for a couple of hours with no problems. With all the stops and hikes it took us about 5-7 days to drive out the park. As you get near a gate go out and top off on fuel as that will save about 20-30 cents per gal. We loved YNP so much that we skipped Rushmore and stayed a extra 3 days and checked out the Tetons. Recommend a medium size ice chest to pack a lunch every day as the park is BIG.

We did the same trip, but started from Northeastern Iowa.

Somethings:

• Yes, if possible I would start right after work, the day before as it makes for a tiring first night but gains some drive time
• We decide our trip was to focus on and see Bad Lands/Black Hills(3 nights),Yellowstone(7 nights), Grand Tetons(2 night), Thermopolis(2 nights), and rest time was travel only,except for Devil's Tower for one hour
• I agree that after a long day of travel that sight seeing for us was just to tiring.
• We spent 7 nights at Fishing Bridge campground and if I had to do it over again I might spend 4 nights in Fishing Bridge and 3 nights in West Yellowstone for better access to Western side of Yellowstone as the speed limit and traffic made for long days when going that direction.

Dean

Horsedoc wrote:
You are really covering a lot of territory and as you rush thru, you are missing some great and interesting sites. It is not doing justice to the Black Hills. Custer SP, Rushmore, Crazy Horse only scratch the surface. Spearfish Canyon is a great ride and you can spend a day stopping for photos and just seeing the sites in it. Some of the back roads in CSP is where you really see the wild life, from buffalo, to elk, deer, antelope, (if you are up early you may see a mountain lion) big horn sheep and mountain goats up near Sylvan Lake.
If your heart is set on Yellowstone and spending a lot of time there, then forget the Badlands and Devil's Tower - although both are pretty spectacular by themselves.
Cody is a great place to visit and stay a few days, getting there over the Big Horns will be an interesting experience. Make sure your brakes on both truck and trailer are in good shape.
Have a great trip, wish we were following you across

Doggone, I was within a few minutes of Spearfish Canyon and didn't realize it existed! I drove through Deadwood, just to the east, instead. The canyon looks really interesting. Well, Deadwood looked interesting too, but no way was I going to stop and spend money in that town... it looked like it could drain me dry.

Some mention was made of Arches NP. I agree that the amazing sandstone structures of Arches and/or Colorado NM would make a nice visual counterpoint to the woods, water and mountains of YNP/Tetons. But it would add a considerable number of miles to the trip. Not sure if they'll feel up to it on this vacation.

One more suggestion for you and the kids - go on craigs list or search other sources (you could even borrow) over the next couple of months for a camera for each of the kids, and let them chronicle Their Trip.

They can edit and create a blog or an album of the trip, while driving from one location to the next, this will help with the hours of driving time as you go from one location to the next. With the digital camera they will all have a Great Personal Diary of the trip, something they will appreciate more as they get older.

Both my boys still chronicle their trips (38&40) today, learning from the times we traveled with the little cheap box film cameras.

Just a thought,