Summer 2017 Trip Planning (Utah, Wyoming, Montana, S Dakota)

[MPond]

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EDIT 12-27-2016: I'm reviving this thread to continue my 2017 planning, so please jump to my new questions on Page 3: Clicky
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I'm looking ahead to our 2017 Summer Trip, and considering a loop through Utah, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and even a small touch into Colorado.

Something like this:


1. Yellowstone
2. Big Sky, MT
3. Red Lodge (Bear Tooth Hwy / Chief Joseph Hwy)
4. Rapid City, SD
- Mt. Rushmore
- Minuteman Missle Silo
- Badlands NP
5. Devil's Tower
6. Flaming Gorge
7. Dinosaur National Monument
8. Zion - Hiking the Narrows

I'm still early in the planning, but have a few questions I'd like to throw out to the community.

1. Anything spectacular that I've overlooked on this loop?
2. Any good Jeep trails along this loop?
3. Looking for suggestions around Flaming Gorge - not that familiar with the area
4. Where to camp near Dinosaur, CO. The one park in town looks pretty rundown.
5. Which route from Dinosaur, CO to Zion NP?
- Option 1 - Through Rangely, then 139 South to Grand Junction, and I-70 West, I-15 South:
-

- Option 2 - Backtrack to Vernal & Provo, then South on I-15:
-

Happy to hear your thoughts on my questions, and any other suggestions.

Thanks!

[Murphsmom]

We stayed at Hidden Valley Campground (about six miles south of Deadwood) when we were in the area last May. Nice, clean grounds and very clean restrooms/showers. We had one of the sites with a deck right on the creek.

X2 on the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs.

[DakotaDad]

MPond wrote:

Also, input about campgrounds in South Dakota would be helpful....

There are a ton of campgrounds in the Rapid City/Black Hills/Badlands area. Many are very nice, and some are not as nice. A couple of the nice ones have been mentioned already.

The KOA in Interior, south of the Badlands is a great place. Called White River KOA or the Badlands KOA, depending on where you look. We're actually headed there this weekend for our first outing of the year. The kids love the place.

The Custer State Park campgrounds (there are quite a few different ones) are excellent as well, but are not full hookups, so keep that in mind. Not all of them even have dump stations, requiring you to go to one of the campgrounds that does to dump. Many of them also are lacking in sites for larger rigs. But, Game Lodge and Legion Lake are great campgrounds if you can accommodate the drawbacks above. Beautiful, and you may find a buffalo outside your door when you wake up. We go there as often as we can, but sites can be tough to book, as they fill up quickly. You won't get in without a reservation made well in advance.

Hill City is a little town in the central Black Hills, with a great campground just outside of it call the Rafter J. They have a wide range of sites, from wide open big pull-thru sites, to heavily wooded ones better suited to smaller campers. Service there has been hit or miss for us, but the place is well maintained, and a very scenic campground.

For something a little more rustic, there's another place near Hill City and Rafter J, called Horsethief Campground. It's a tightly winding road to get back to it, and it has limited sites for larger rigs. But it's far enough off the main road to be very quiet at night. Not as "nice" as the other places, but very peaceful if you have good neighbors.

For the opposite end of the spectrum, there's Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort in Spearfish, SD. It's up in the northern Black Hills. It's not rustic at all. Big, level concrete pads. Easy access. Decent spaces. Beautiful pool. It's only a few years old, so the trees are small. But it's kept immaculate. You won't hit anything, scrape anything, have any problems leveling, or have to make any tight turns. But you do lose a little bit of Black Hills atmosphere.

There are LOTS of other places as well.

As for things to do, a few have been mentioned. I'd also add:

Custer State Park. Drive the Wildlife loop, preferably early in the morning, or in the evening. Buffalo, antelope, prairie dogs, and who knows what else. Also, take a drive up to Sylvan Lake, a very picturesque spot in the park. And drive the Needles Highway if you have a smaller vehicle to use. Don't try it in the RV. Great scenery, as well as twists, turns, pigtail bridges, and single lane tunnels that will barely fit larger vehicles.

Wind Cave and Jewel Cave are nearby, run by the National Park Service, with some great cave tours ranging from mild to strenuous, depending on what you're looking for.

Black Hills Burger and Bun Company, a little restaurant in Custer, SD. Rated the best burger in the United States a couple of years ago. I'm partial to the "Fat Smitty", but the "Hot Granny" seems to be the most popular choice.

Deadwood, in the northern Hills, is the original town from the HBO series "Deadwood" where Wild Bill Hickock was killed, and Calamity Jane lived. It's mostly casinos now, and some of the historic feel has been lost, but it's still there if you look, like Mt. Moriah cemetary, resting place of Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock. Or the Friendship Tower, built by Seth Bullock in honor of Teddy Roosevelt. Or the Adams Museum in Deadwood.

There are also a number of smaller things to visit. Gold mine tours, the historic fish hatchery in Spearfish, the Western Heritage museum in Spearfish, a great 2/3rds day hike to the fire tower at the top of Harney Peak (amazing views). A couple of wineries, Prairie Berry winery being the best example.

If you're a motorcycle rider, Sturgis is worth a stop, even if it's not Rally time, just to see where it all happens, though it's a pretty tame little town the other 51 weeks a year.

You won't run out of things to see in South Dakota!

[TyroneandGladys]

Add Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument between Red Lodge and Devils Tower then to Rapid City, SD
Mount Rushmore after Minuteman Missile and Badlands National Park
From Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse stop at
The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs SD
If you need a overnight stop on the way to Flaming Gorge BJ's Campground in Lusk WY is a great overnight stop

[NCWriter]

Re your option #1 route from Dinosaur down to Grand Junction...did it once, wouldn't want to repeat that drive.

We weren't even towing and were in just a Class B Sprinter with plenty of power to haul us across Douglas Pass. But some steep grades and switchbacks earned a spot in my "roads to avoid." Other people might scoff, but I still recall the very unhappy faces of some other campers towing big trailers when we stopped for a break halfway at a rest area pull-off. Nice scenic view, though.

I'd backtrack as you described in option #2. There's a KOA at Vernal, by the way. Nothing special, but it was fine for an overnight.

For campground in the Black Hills, I loved Game Lodge in Custer State Park. One of the best SPs in the country IMHO. We spent five days there as a base for touring the area.

[MPond]

agesilaus wrote:
The KOA south of the Badlands is very nice, it's in Interior IIRC. If you are there for the 4th watch out for the fireworks in Interior. It was the most dangerous fireworks display I've ever seen. They (Fire Dept) launched the fireworks maybe 50 feet from the audience and they were crashing down all around us...LOL.

Thanks. We're looking at June, so probably not going to be there for the fireworks... too bad - sounds like fun!

If we decided to camp that far east, that'll be the spot for sure - that looks like a nice KOA.

But I'm wondering if there is something more central - so we can stay at once place in South Dakota and see Badlands, Needles Eye, Mt. Rushmore, etc...

[agesilaus]

MPond wrote:

yrusoslo wrote:
Crazy Horse Memorial

Thanks - I've added that to my list for South Dakota.

The KOA south of the Badlands is very nice, it's in Interior IIRC. If you are there for the 4th watch out for the fireworks in Interior. It was the most dangerous fireworks display I've ever seen. They (Fire Dept) launched the fireworks maybe 50 feet from the audience and they were crashing down all around us...LOL.

[agesilaus]

For off roading the area we are looking at is the Wasatch Plateau. That's tours 21-26 in that Utah Byways book. They are around Price UT, which is an area that I haven't heard a lot about. The roads are the three Skyline DRives (I, II, and III) , Nine Mile canyon, Ferron Canyon and the Reservation Ridge area. Plus some others. We've mainly been doing the area around Escalante but this will be our next target area. You may be able to google them

I don't know if we will get to it this summer since we are targeting WY like you and Central CO

[MPond]

yrusoslo wrote:
Crazy Horse Memorial

Thanks - I've added that to my list for South Dakota.

[MPond]

accsys wrote:
If it were me, instead of taking I-15/70 to CO from Zion, I would go south and east to go through Page, Monument Valley and then north through Canyonlands and Moab before getting to I-70. There is a lot to see in that area if you haven't been there and the Moab area is Jeepers paradise.

Thanks for the suggestions. We've done each of those several times, and will go back again - they're beautiful, and some of our favorites. And Moab is the Jeep Mecca - we try to get there every couple years over Spring Break; have done the summer a couple times, and it's just too hot.

For this trip we're looking to do something different, so I'm currently looking for things we haven't done before, which makes this loop around Wyoming more interesting. But as we've not done 70% of this loop, I'm doing a lot of research.

We've done Yellowstone, so we're only going to spend a few days there to hit a few favorite spots, and catch a couple things we missed before. And then we'll move on to new places we've never been to (and some that I saw as a kid).


So what I'm really looking for is help with Flaming Gorge, campgrounds near Dinosaur, CO, and comments on the route from Dinosaur, CO to Zion NP.

Also, input about campgrounds in South Dakota would be helpful...

And lastly, the route from Red Lodge, MT to Rapid City, SD. The one in the map I posted above was the default route provided by Google Maps, but I'm considering I-90 instead of 212 - I-90 is only about 55 miles longer. And then I was toying with the idea of re-routing a bit to combine a trip through the Big Horn Mountains, a stop at Thermopolis, and Devil's Tower.

[yrusoslo]

Crazy Horse Memorial

[accsys]

If it were me, instead of taking I-15/70 to CO from Zion, I would go south and east to go through Page, Monument Valley and then north through Canyonlands and Moab before getting to I-70. There is a lot to see in that area if you haven't been there and the Moab area is Jeepers paradise.

[MPond]

agesilaus wrote:
For Utah I'd get this book: Utah Byways

I think most of the Colorado 4WD trails are further east but the best books I've found on them is this series: CO 4WD trails

For CO south of Grand Junction CO HWy 141 is very scenic, it reminded me of a mini Yosemite Valley in places and the southern section drives right thru CO Uranium mining district.

Thanks!

I used to have that Utah Byways book, but can't find it on my bookshelf at the moment... will have to look around the house.

As for Colorado - we've spent a lot of time exploring different parts of Colorado, and intend to go back for more. I'll make a note about 141 for our next Colorado adventure, but for this particular trip I'm thinking of focusing on Wyoming / Utah / South Dakota.

[agesilaus]

For Utah I'd get this book: Utah Byways

I think most of the Colorado 4WD trails are further east but the best books I've found on them is this series: CO 4WD trails

For CO south of Grand Junction CO HWy 141 is very scenic, it reminded me of a mini Yosemite Valley in places and the southern section drives right thru CO Uranium mining district.