Planning Yellowstone/Grand Canyon trip from VA

[jcubeta]

Hi everyone,

I am planning my first ever long-haul camping trip with my new travel trailer. It would be during the summer of 18, and I'm considering taking 4 weeks off and doing a trek from Virginia to see (at least) the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone with my family.

I am sure this forum has seen many of these sorts of posts. I have little clue as to how to start planning for such a thing. Any advice as to how/where to start would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

Thanks,
James

[ken56]

Wife and I did a similar trip and I can offer the advice of ... be flexible, don't push so hard all you do is drive. Your new itinerary sounds pretty good. The 2 day stops is what we did also and it is nice to take a break from driving for a day. There is so much to see along the way that if you see something that interests any of you then take the time to see it.

I went on line and ordered travel planners of all the states that we would be going through and I found them to be very heplful. Stop at the visitor centers as you enter each state too and see what is in the racks, engage the kids to find something they might like to see and talk to the attendants for their insights. Again, be flexible and enjoy the beauty of this great country.

Stop at Wall Drug just outside the Bad Lands, go see the Crazy Horse Monument while you are in the Rushmore area too.

Splitting this trip and a Grand Canyon trip is wise because it gives you an excuse to do it all over again. Plus, there is so much to see and do in the southwest you will need just as much time for it as this trip. Go have fun.

[2gypsies1]

Your updated schedule sounds perfect! Now don't overthink this.... just GO!!

[jcubeta]

Kicking the dust off of this thread...

So, we've ruminated on our idea for a bit and have sketched out the following outline. Let me know if this seems reasonable. Again, we are beginning in northern VA near DC. Our plan also assumes we drive 6 hrs/day at an average speed of 55 mph.

• Days 1-6: drive ~1600 mi, w/one 2-night stay to break it up
• Days 7-10: camp at Palmer Gulch/Mt. Rushmore/Badlands
• Days 11-12: drive ~800 mi to Yellowstone
• Days 13-18: camp at YNP Fishing Bridge
• Day 19: drive to Grand Teton
• Day 20-21: camp at Grand Teton
• Day 22-27: drive back to VA, w/one 2-night stay to break it up
  

We've probably overestimated the drive time some, but wanted it to be a leisurely trip with 11 & 8 year-olds in tow. We also didn't want to overplan - so this plan hopefully can flex.

Any thoughts/suggestions on this?

Thanks!!!
James

[2gypsies1]

Here's the 2016 July weather history. Keep in mind that there can be a 50 deg. difference in the desert overnight. Also, there's no humidity so it doesn't feel as hot as the temp says. 🙂

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/grand-canyon-village-az/86023/month/2273683?monyr=7/01/2016

[kohldad]

I would agree Rocky Mtn would probably be a bit boring after Yellowstone plus Flaming Gorge will be crowded in July. But to stay away from the crowds, you could consider leaving Yellowstone to the north and pick up Theodore Roosevelt NP in ND the continue to northern Minnesota and Wisconson. Temps would be nicer too.

Here is a thread on North Dakota and another one on Upper Michigan.

[John_S_]

I would say you can cover 500 miles a day. It is a ten hour day avgeraging 50 mph. It is easy to do that in the summer if you start early. I would also drive 12 hours and make a stop to see something for a couple hours each day and that breaks up the trip too.

[jcubeta]

kohldad wrote:
Sounds like a much better plan. Still roughly 4300 miles. Figure on adding a day or two going like a night under the stars in Badlands, you can spend several days in the Black Hills, add in Devils Tower for either a night or day (KOA is suppose to be good), and another extra day in the Big Horns mountains, finally after Yellowstone, spend a night or two in Grand Tetons. Dang, think I used up most of the 7 or 8 extra days you had and still need to get back home. Though don't worry, once you get into Nebraska, you aren't really going to want to do much any how plus we find once we have decided we are "turning for home", we really get moving to get on back.

Take on of those extra days and get home one day early. This gives you time to relax and catch up on the home things before you have to work. Plus it gives you the "Just in case" day.

All excellent ideas. I'm also wondering if RMNP is worth it - I've been there before and, compared to something like Glacier NP in Montana, it didn't really stick with me. Maybe I could scrap RMNP for the other things you mentioned and stuff in Utah (Flaming Gorge ,Dinosaur Monument, etc).

[agesilaus]

jcubeta wrote:
Thank you AGAIN for all these incredibly helpful posts.

After reflecting on these and some other things I've read, I think we are going to do YNP and GCNP as two separate trips. For one, it seems like GC in July would be uncomfortably hot and, for two, both parks are so big that there's just not enough time to feel like we saw enough.

So now we are leaning toward a loop that starts in VA, stops in South Dakota for a few days at the Mount Rushmore KOA resort (which looks super awesome for kids), then on to a week at YNP. Then south to Rocky Mountain NP for a few days, then (based on my back-of-the-hand estimating) that roughly saves us 7-8 days to get back.

Sound more reasonable? 🙂

It does. Just an aside tho, Grand Canyon South Rim will be hot in July. Grand Canyon North Rim is several thousand feet higher and thus cooler. It also has 1/10th the number of visitors and is more kid trail friendly. It is also closer to Zion and Bryce Canyon. So a trip going to those three parks makes sense for you as a future visit. I don't want to re-ignite the North Rim vs South Rim argument. People are convinced one is much better than the other and no one will change their mind.

[kohldad]

Sounds like a much better plan. Still roughly 4300 miles. Figure on adding a day or two going like a night under the stars in Badlands, you can spend several days in the Black Hills, add in Devils Tower for either a night or day (KOA is suppose to be good), and another extra day in the Big Horns mountains, finally after Yellowstone, spend a night or two in Grand Tetons. Dang, think I used up most of the 7 or 8 extra days you had and still need to get back home. Though don't worry, once you get into Nebraska, you aren't really going to want to do much any how plus we find once we have decided we are "turning for home", we really get moving to get on back.

Take on of those extra days and get home one day early. This gives you time to relax and catch up on the home things before you have to work. Plus it gives you the "Just in case" day.

[jcubeta]

Thank you AGAIN for all these incredibly helpful posts.

After reflecting on these and some other things I've read, I think we are going to do YNP and GCNP as two separate trips. For one, it seems like GC in July would be uncomfortably hot and, for two, both parks are so big that there's just not enough time to feel like we saw enough.

So now we are leaning toward a loop that starts in VA, stops in South Dakota for a few days at the Mount Rushmore KOA resort (which looks super awesome for kids), then on to a week at YNP. Then south to Rocky Mountain NP for a few days, then (based on my back-of-the-hand estimating) that roughly saves us 7-8 days to get back.

Sound more reasonable? 🙂

[RGar974417]

We are from Pa and have been to both on separate trips.First would be to choose your route. I would suggest I-64 to Missouri then I-44 to I-40 to get to the Grand Canyon. We prefer state parks for our over nights because of the price. When we went to the Yellowstone, prices in State Parks with electric hookups ranged from $16 a night in Iowa to $26 in Ohio.We stayed at the Circle Pines KOA in Williams Arizona.They have an indoor pool and hot tubs. It's about 50 miles to the Grand Canyon or you can go into Williams and take the train.In Arizona we also headed south to Cottonwood and stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park.They have water and electric. You are very close to Jerome, an old mining town and Tuzigoot, Indian ruins from around 1300 AD. We also visited an old Calvary Post in Ft Verde.It's definately worth a day trip if you like history.From Arizona, I would head north on I-15 and go in the entrance at West Yellowstone.We stayed in Madison Campground right in the park.If you want hookups,Fishing Bridge is the only campground in the park with them.You should stay in the park because it's as big as the state of Rhode Island and you will be doing alot of driving. If you come back on I-80 through Nebraska,I would highly recommend stopping at the Harold Warp Museum in Minden Nebraska.If you like history,old cars, trucks,motorcycles or snow mobiles, you will love this place. They have a campground there and while it's not the greatest,it has full hookups and is ok for an overnight stop. Plus, they give you one free ticket to the museum with your stay.One more piece of advice. Instead of taking I-70 across Missouri, take RT 36. It's 4 lane and 65mph.We stayed at Pershing State Park which is right off Rt 36. A nice park with electric hookups.

[rexlion]

Plenty of good advice already. I will add a bit about weather. Summer can be very hot, so use a weather website like wunderground or weather.com to research average highs and lows for that month of the year at the various locations. My strategy in summer is to find higher elevations to beat the heat. At GC, for example, north rim is higher and cooler than south rim, and down in the canyon is hotter than hades during summer.

Your 32' TT will limit your campsite selections. In high-tourist areas like YNP and GC, you'll need reservations. However, as mentioned by another poster, some large CGs in Teton NP tend to not fill completely and this could serve as a home base for daily forays into YNP (although the drive times will be long, so this is an emergency fall-back strategy).

Once you decide roughly how many miles you want to drive daily (350? 400? Hopefully no more than 500), use the Woodall's online CG directory to see what CGs are in the vicinity of those approximate stopping points. Or use Allstays, or CampWhere app, or some of the other online resources. I like to have 2 or 3 alternate places in an area so I can adjust based on my progress (stopping early, running late, etc.) or if one CG happened to fill (move on to the next choice). If nothing is coming together, in a pinch you usually can park in a WalMart lot (ask inside as a courtesy)... although not sure if you'd want to put the slide out at WM.

Above all, for a great family experience, try to be always calm, relaxed, never anxious or uptight or in a huge hurry. (In other words, be the opposite of my dear old dad, LOL.) 😉 Anything short of a severe accident is no big deal, you're just out having fun, chill out. Stressing visibly in front of the family can kill the fun really fast.

There have been a couple of other threads here in the past month or so about just such a trip including both GC and Yellowstone. Do a search and read what's already been posted; they had some good ideas about things to see and do in between those destinations.

[Busskipper]

jcubeta wrote:
Hi everyone,

I am planning my first ever long-haul camping trip with my new travel trailer.

Congratulations - this will be a GREAT TRIP - Search the many trips that have been taken from East to West - ADD, many stops/drive throughs along the way - you know that there is sooooooo much more than just these two Parks out West.

It would be during the summer of 2018,

2018 is a long way out so don't over plan - as IMHO things will change more than they will firm up. The more you learn about the West and what you enjoy, the more the trip will change.

4 weeks off and doing a trek

MORE TIME MEANS MORE FUN.

As you will find out - you CAN DO IT in 4 weeks but every day you can get will just be rewarding you with more of the West you have driven so far to see. Practice this Summer with a number of trips to say - Rocky Gap SP - Ashville/Lake Toxaway - Rehoboth/Indian River Inlet - Williamsburg - just to name a few. Learn to get everything ready so you can start right after work, this 4-6 hours of driving will stretch your time buy almost a full day (this will be a big deal in 2018 in the West)

from Virginia to see (at least) the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone with my family.

My advise would be to head out to Colorado First - while it is not on your list, getting to the Rockies will allow you to at least drive through the areas that are Beautiful - and to begin to make the trip enjoyable. I have probably 20+ Trips Out from Annapolis to Colorado and the route we have found the most comfortable/enjoyable is This Bing Map It does not follow the normal routing options but is an easy drive with less traffic/curves/bumps/drama than the recommended routes - first we use I-68 to Morgantown then up to I-70 - then we drive right through the cities - go to Champagne - then to Hannibal - following RT 36 to just outside Colorado - then a diagonal back to I-70 with the trip ending in the Clear Creek Camp Ground in Golden, CO. From here the west is yours - so go to it - 1700+ miles - Good Roads - if you really push it you might average 50 mph - 34+ hours of driving 4 eight hour days plus the early start right after work, gets you there on a Tuesday evening, think that might be the more sane option as it will require three 10 hour days of really pushing it to beat that, so???

I am sure this forum has seen many of these sorts of posts.

Do a search and you will find volumes on the subject matter.

I have little clue as to how to start planning for such a thing.

Well you have started - now apply what you learn - have a little slack in the schedule to allow for problems - Practice this Summer - then Have at it.

Any advice as to how/where to start would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

Thanks,
James

Tried to address the questions - now the advice - know your limits, it's a Vacation - Learn to DRY CAMP - understand the Weather - Summer is Hot in Many locations - Summer is Crowded - weekends are not the time to move - crowded/popular, are best seen during the week - Pick your major spots, then route through to at least SEE as many other spots as possible - Relax - leave enough time to get home - learn from this - these pictures will help choose - Above all remember to Enjoy the trip and take THOUSANDS of PICTURES.

Best of Luck, remember to let us know as you progress.

Hope this helps,

[2gypsies1]

You don't have to make reservations on your trip across the Plains. There are plenty of RV parks along the way and if you stop by 4pm you'll get a site.

Since you're on a time schedule make a reservation for inside the national parks. There are also some campgrounds in the parks that don't even accept reservations. For those it would be recommended that you stay nearby the previous night and drive in early morning.

Next to Yellowstone is Grand Teton Nat'l Park so definitely don't pass it by. It's a beauty and altogether different from Yellowstone in looks and things to do. Take the gentle couple-hour float trip down the Snake River in the park and you just might see a moose in the water with you. We did!

Stay in the parks themselves for the best national park experience.

Grand Canyon - Trailer Village has full hookups and the free shuttle stops right there. There are two dry campgrounds which are very nice - Mather and Desert View.

Yellowstone - Fishing Bridge has full hookups. Madison would be good if you don't need hookups.

Grant Teton - Colter Bay RV has full hookups. The two big 300-site each dry campgrounds are Colter Bay (next to the RV park) and Gros Ventre, closer to the town of Jackson. They rarely fill.

Each national park has a great web site which gives things to do, road information, special alerts and campground information. Check them out.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm

This is a good description of all the roads coming into Yellowstone. If you go to Grand Canyon first then Grand Teton; you can continue straight north into Yellowstone from the South Entrance.:

http://www.rvtechmag.com/travel/4_yellowstonebyrv.php

https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm Grand Teton

https://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm Grand Canyon