Trip Planning from Spokane > Port Huron, MI in May

[RoadXYZ]

Actually will be a semi-leisurely trip with the 18 ft. "weekender" travel trailer and leaving Pasco WA to:

1)St. Regis MT - Nugget RV Park
2) Bozeman MT - Sunrise Campground
3) Garryowen MT - 7th Ranch - Little Big Horn Natl. Park
4) Sundance WY - Mountain View RV Park
5) Rapid City SD - Mt. Rushmore day trip
6) Wall SD - Arrowhead Campground - 2 nights - Badlands Natl. Park
7) Mitchell SD - Mitchell KOA
😎 Austin Minn - Oakwoods Trails Campground
9) Portage WI - KOA Kampground
10) Utica IL - LaSalle / Peru KOA
11) Fort Wayne IN - Bluffton/Fort Wayne KOA
12) Kimball MI - Fort Huron KOA
13) - next stop Ontario Canada

And yes, we are not going over 300 miles per day - hoping that leaving May 1st is not too early, but if it is then we will just hold over and/or watch the weather reports closely before and as we travel. BTW we have a 3/4 ton Suburban.

If you have stayed at any of these overnight campgrounds or park and didn't like it for a specific reason, could you all share. Or if we have missed somewhere besides the museum in Hardin, please enlighten us .. at our age this will most like be our last cross country road trip. AND we are full-timers, and have two travel trailers.

[RoadXYZ]

UPDATE on May thru Aug/Sept trip Eastward Plans :
Leaving SE Washington going South to :
- Boise ID
- Brigham UT
- Rock Springs WY
- Laramie WY
- North Platte NE
- Greenwood NE
- Topeka KS
layover for a month
- Eureka MO
- Louisville KY
- Charleston WV
- Milton WV
- Richmond VA
layover for a couple of weeks
- Verona PA
-Syracuse NY
- Bellville Ontario Canada
layover for a few weeks
- Port Huron MI
and on down to make trip thru to North Dakota Westward ..

I think this will work out better as probably be in Ontario in July/August timeframe, then will have to ensure we have RSVP for RV Parks when coming down from Port Huron, south then over thru Dakotas to Spokane and on home ..
Going to be a leisurely trip as may be last road trip for us - even with pulling our small 18 ft. 'weekend trips only' small travel trailer instead of the 30 ft. one, but doable nonetheless.

Any input would be most welcome .. hopefully will be able to leave before June 1st from SE Washington State.

BTW will be going the reverse of our first posting on the trip back.

[Dog_Trainer]

I would stay on Rte #2 through Minn. and into Mi. then down to 28 and across the top of lake MI. go across the Big Mac and into the lower stay on I75 to I69 east and on to PH and Ontario.

[RoadXYZ]

Tried finding the information on that Grayline tour .. maybe in a month or two there were be posting on the Mt. Rushmore site .. though did look it up, but there are several tours available .. some more expensive than others ..

[Dick_B]

Take the all-day Grayline bus tour of Rushmore and Crazy Horse and leave the driving to others; includes lunch.

[dalenoel]

We'll be traveling some of the same route on probably our last big loop next spring also. Hitting Rapid City the same week. Hope you are right on the snow situation along 80, 90, and 25. In May for Michigan you should be alright.

[wntrtxn]

We traveled part of that route a few years ago. We can share some of our experiences and suggestions with you.

We stayed at a free campground at Haugen, MT. It's the Silver Dollar Casino at Exit #16. They have 30 amp hookups, but no water or sewer. It was OK....for free. The restaurant at the casino was not great.

We liked Mountain View RV park in Sundance. We got their Passport America rate of $16.50 The water there was great. Normally we would buy jugs of drinking water along the way, but in Sundance, we filled our water jugs from the tap, it was that good. We took a day and visited Devil's Tower, worth the drive.

If you're into aviation museums, there's The South Dakota Aviation Museum at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, not too far off the freeway, and their parking lot is plenty big for RV's

In Mitchell,SD, we stayed at the R&R Rv park. It was an OK campground for $15. We visited the Corn Palace, kind of an interesting place.

If your route takes you near the Twin Cities, I'd recommend staying at Dakotah Meadows RV Park in Prior Lake, just southwest of Minneapolis. It's a very nice park for just $26/night. Just make sure you ask for one of the single sites up the hill along the back row. (a lot of the other sites are back-to-back with shared hookups.)
It's an easy walk to the Mystic Lakes Casino, a very nice "Las Vegas" style casino with an excellent atrium restaurant.

That was in 2011, our route from there took us south through Iowa.
Hope you have a great trip.

[Tom_Barb]

Paso to Spokane then north to Bonnersferry and #2 to Mackinaw, south to Flint, east to Port Huron. we pass this way almost every spring as early as April, no problems. snow on the side of the roads some times.

[doxiemom11]

Some of those northern locations could still have snow. In MI, we have seen freezing temps or 90 in May - you never know.