Seattle to Butte Yellowstone Rapid City Medora.Best Route?

[Tigre10]

Heading out the end of May with 2-3 months of time to spend on the road.

The route was I-5 to Seattle,
The I-90 to 359 to 287 south into West entrance of Yellowstone.
Back up the 89 to the I-90 to Billings.
Then 212 & 85 to Rapid City.
Back up the 85 to Medora
The I-94 to 83 & 5 finally 281 into Manitoba.
Getting back home from there we know the highways & byways much better.

The sites to visit are Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, the Needles Hwy, Painted Canyon, Fort Abraham.

Any suggestions on routes, additional sights?

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Get off I-90 at Cardwell, take MT2 to Hwy 287. The drive through Ennis is pretty nice. If you want to avoid the traffic mess of I-5 from Everett south, get off around Arlington and head south on Hwy 9, east on Hwy 2 into Monroe, then pick up Hwy 203 to Fall City where it meets Hwy 202. Take 202 up to North Bend to I-90.

Doug

[Busskipper]

Tigre10 wrote:
Great Bill Thanks & for the link to the pictures.
I will look over what you have given me and yes more is good.

Have to admit the mountains make me a bit nervous. One trip, one week under the belt, Vancouver BC to Florence Oregon. More experience will lessen that nervousness I'm sure. Mountains in the car no problem!

Our intention is to set up camp within a 50 miles radius of car sightseeing then move on. Example, camp just outside Yellowstone & spend sometime driving into the park exploring.

Hiking is out now. Things like the West Coast Trail in younger years have blown hubby's knees. Have to stick to fairly smooth surfaces till the knee replacement.

Looks like you have lots of miles under your belt. What do you use to plan your routes?

Thanks for the help..

Take a look at this link on Yellowstone for RV's it might be helpful.

The biggest piece of info I can give on Yellowstone is it is BIG - No REALLY BIG, if you what to see something there is a good chance you can see it there. So take your time - do your research - and then enjoy it.

Another Great resource is this forum and there are a few posters who seem to have been to most of these places and understand what is there to see, my two favorite are " 2gypsies " and " 4runnerguy " put these two into the search box along with your destination and you will be connected to a Wealth of info - Good Info - they are for the most part spot on - might hike a bit more than most but they are a GREAT resource and when you have access to them it makes it so much easier to plan your adventure.

Another great resource will be your fellow campers, and the office of the camp ground - we have found that if we ask a detailed -specific question - we can get some pretty good local info.

As you get into the trip break it into smaller pieces and post it here, you will get info that is pretty good (Most of it) the more specific the question the better the answers.

Will wait for more,

Bill

EDIT - Posted this then thought about it - IMHO, Yellowstone is the Hope Diamond of the US Parks - You might want to do a couple of other parks first - making Yellowstone the END of your trip, sort of the culmination of a great Summer - Because I've been fortunate to have been introduced to the National Parks as a kid, the eye candy is more of a variety that I recognize as being just different and is also associated with Family and Weather/Season - It might just be me but if you see Yellowstone first then the rest of the Parks are a sort of ...... so just think about your itinerary and if it might be possible to put Yellowstone at/near the end. Just a thought.

[Tigre10]

Great Bill Thanks & for the link to the pictures.
I will look over what you have given me and yes more is good.

Have to admit the mountains make me a bit nervous. One trip, one week under the belt, Vancouver BC to Florence Oregon. More experience will lessen that nervousness I'm sure. Mountains in the car no problem!

Our intention is to set up camp within a 50 miles radius of car sightseeing then move on. Example, camp just outside Yellowstone & spend sometime driving into the park exploring.

Hiking is out now. Things like the West Coast Trail in younger years have blown hubby's knees. Have to stick to fairly smooth surfaces till the knee replacement.

Looks like you have lots of miles under your belt. What do you use to plan your routes?

Thanks for the help..

[Busskipper]

Tigre10 wrote:
Heading out the end of May with 2-3 months of time to spend on the road.

The route was I-5 to Seattle,
The I-90 to 359 to 287 south into West entrance of Yellowstone.
Back up the 89 to the I-90 to Billings.
Then 212 & 85 to Rapid City.
Back up the 85 to Medora
The I-94 to 83 & 5 finally 281 into Manitoba.
Getting back home from there we know the highways & byways much better.

The sites to visit are Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, the Needles Hwy, Painted Canyon, Fort Abraham.

Any suggestions on routes, additional sights?

Tigre10 wrote:
The roads look fine BUT...... with you time frame I think I would add a number of stops and possibly change some of the routes.

You do plan on seeing GTNP right - possibly Jackson - Wind River Canyon - Cody - Beartooth - Red Lodge - all around the Black Hills and Custer - I could go on and on but you are asking about the routes, IMHO they are fine.

BOL,

Would love to hear more if you have the time.
This is our first extended trip and first to that area. Using Google Earth with Streets & Trips to plan. Would love to know how others figure out their routes & if they can negotiate them. We are in a 32'gas Class A with a Ford Edge toad.

OK, I'll give it a try, New Coach and New Toad - Yellowstone and the Black Hills/Custer/Mt Rushmore then up to Manitoba and then home - might run into Banff.

First, with your Coach and Toad you are not going to find anything that you can not handle (JMHO) your combination is short enough and the engine should give you plenty of power so the real question is will you be comfortable in the Mountains? If so this will be a piece of cake. (I have driven all these roads in a number of different vehicles and have never had an issue) You might just drive the Beartooth Hwy in the toad but everything else will be fine with your rig.

Next thing will be time of year and the amount of time allotted to enjoy the places you will see - Summer 60-90 days - will likely use all 90!. You will be traveling in the Prime time to be in the areas chosen so you will love it. Yellowstone will be just thawing out - kids will still be in school - getting a camp site should be easy and the crowds will just be building. Remember you have a generator and are carrying water and propane so you will be able to just boondock if necessary. With the two of you 3-5 days should be easy enough, so if you need to extend or are caught without a reservation you will be fine.

The roads in Yellowstone are a figure 8 so look over and establish an itinerary, not sure if you are Hikers or just drive to the edge and walk a few hundred feet? this is the thing you will need to do on your own so you are comfortable.

Must see;
Old Faithful
The Falls
Old Faithful Lodge I suggest you get a room for a night and have dinner there - just to say you did it.
Yellowstone River
Yellowstone Lake
Mammoth Hot springs
Dozens of pull-out along the way
Lower Falls
Grand Teton NP
Jenny Lake
Jackson Lake
In the north Beartooth Hwy in the Car all day tour - possibly Red Lodge and Chief Joseph HWY
Now that I've left the Park lets just throw in Jackson the Ski Town out the south east to Shoshoni through Wind River Canyon to Cody then over to Custer/Mt Rushmore - stay in Custer or the SP as it is just BETTER.

If this is the sort of thing let me know and I'll try to continue or pull out some old posts on the areas so you will have a better feel.

Things you will need;
A good bunch of layers to keep warm and dry - shorts - hiking shoes that still are comfortable after they get wet.
Point and shoot Camera - with a zoom and three batteries and 10 times the memory you think you need. Unless you are a pro just use the small camera and a tripod as anything else gets heavy and will not be used enough.(JMHO)
Pack a lunch - cheese and wine is a lunch in many cultures and works for my wife.
A really good hat that covers your ears.
Umbrella
Bug spray
A map from Wal*Mart
....
...

OK let me know if this is a help - more detail is possible,

Stan Parker's photo album

If you want to just talk PM me and we can swap Phone number.

Hope this is of some help.

Bill

[2gypsies1]

For Yellowstone:

'Projected' Road openings (depending on the weather) is from the north entrance at Mammoth to Old Faithful is April 15 and openings are then staggered to May 27 when they're completely open.

For campgrounds in the park, Mammoth is open all year; Madison open April 29 and Fishing Bridge RV Park open May 6. Others follow.

Here is the park's official web site with all this information and more. Click on every link and refer to it often before your trip for any updates on closures/maintenance, etc.

By the way, each national park has a site like this and they are well-worth studying before a trip.

Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Also, with your small RV and time of year, don't make reservations. You'll get sites and then you can drive at leisure, stopping where you want and when you want. We rarely made reservations even with our 40' motorhome and we got into Yellowstone and other national parks.

Definitely add Grand Teton National Park since it's right next door to Yellowstone. It's completely different in looks and things to do. Think of Banff. 🙂

Grand Teton National Park

[paulj]

US2 is fine all the way to Glacier, but out of the way if headed to Yellowstone.

It's a good option across the Cascades if coming from the north. It saves you the city freeways from Everett to Issaquah; but the suburbs have crept out to Monroe and Sultan. And it's pass is higher and steeper than I90's.

East of the Columbia it's a toss up as to which is better. Last trip to Spokane and back, I flipped between the two in both directions.

Coming from Vancouver, I'd consider taking WA20 across the Cascades; that comes first and is even more scenic. But all the Cascades crossings are scenic, even I90.

[avan]

Every time I could, I'd stay off the interstates. A really fun road to take every chance you get would be US2. Also agree with Tigre10 about add'l stops including the ones Tigre10 mentioned.

[Tigre10]

The roads look fine BUT...... with you time frame I think I would add a number of stops and possibly change some of the routes.

You do plan on seeing GTNP right - possibly Jackson - Wind River Canyon - Cody - Beartooth - Red Lodge - all around the Black Hills and Custer - I could go on and on but you are asking about the routes, IMHO they are fine.

BOL,

Would love to hear more if you have the time.
This is our first extended trip and first to that area. Using Google Earth with Streets & Trips to plan. Would love to know how others figure out their routes & if they can negotiate them. We are in a 32'gas Class A with a Ford Edge toad.

[Busskipper]

Tigre10 wrote:
So we will leave end of May arrive early June.

Now the Route! Does anyone see any problems with this plan? Or have a better suggestion?

The route was I-5 to Seattle,
The I-90 to 359 to 287 south into West entrance of Yellowstone.
Back up the 89 to the I-90 to Billings.
Then 212 & 85 to Rapid City.
Back up the 85 to Medora
The I-94 to 83 & 5 finally 281 into Manitoba.

The roads look fine BUT...... with you time frame I think I would add a number of stops and possibly change some of the routes.

You do plan on seeing GTNP right - possibly Jackson - Wind River Canyon - Cody - Beartooth - Red Lodge - all around the Black Hills and Custer - I could go on and on but you are asking about the routes, IMHO they are fine.

BOL,

[Tigre10]

So we will leave end of May arrive early June.

Now the Route! Does anyone see any problems with this plan? Or have a better suggestion?

The route was I-5 to Seattle,
The I-90 to 359 to 287 south into West entrance of Yellowstone.
Back up the 89 to the I-90 to Billings.
Then 212 & 85 to Rapid City.
Back up the 85 to Medora
The I-94 to 83 & 5 finally 281 into Manitoba.

[n7bsn]

Yes
Yellowstone is "open" year around. It's just not all the roads are "open". If the roads are closed the buildings may also be closed, and so are the campgrounds.

The only road open (to vehicles) is the north entrance at Mammoth.

When the rest of the roads open depends on the year, a "low snow" year it could be April. A heavy snow year, well, I've had a snow-ball fight (from fresh fallen snow) on July 4th. I've seen years when the passes aren't opened until mid June.

On average it snows (a little) every June.

It really depends on the year, most El Nino weather patterns lead to a low snow pack (in 1977 I drove through the entire park in early April). So this -might- be a low snow year. But maybe not....

I used to live in the area and have been in the "park" every month of the year.

[Two_Hands]

Yellowstone National Park is open year round. Most, if not all, of the park's campgrounds don't open until May. Check the parks web site for the right information. Most likely what you will encounter in the park in April is snow, snow, snow. Even if you stay in West Yellowstone you might not be able to get into the park from there due to weather, spelled snow. Friends of ours went in early May. Fishing Bridge camp sites had been plowed, but not the area between them so snow was piled real high.

[TexasShadow]

Yellowstone does not open until mid May.