week trip badlands to yellowstone

My family (4 total-2 kids(15 and 8) are flying into Raipd city and have a week to see the sights. Thinking about 2 days Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Wall drug/

move up to Sturgis and then drive over to Yellowstone and back to Rapid City. Can we fit all that in.

Arrive Saturday(late) leave the next Sunday. Want to see the caves/do a bison jeep tour/ horse back ride/chuck wagon also.

My concern is the long ride to Yellowstone-or should be make this a trip on it%26#39;s own at a later date

week trip badlands to yellowstone

Check the South Dakota forum, you are in the North Dakota forum. You will get a lot more responses there.

I personally think Yellowstone takes at least four full days. I think even really pushing it, you couldn%26#39;t get more than three days in at Yellowstone.

Your intinery is possible. But it is going to be VERY tight.

You could do SD badlands Sunday morning, then Wall drug area for lunch (I might skip this), then head over to wind or jewel cave, then Crazy Horse and then see the lighing ceremony at Mt Rushmore that evening.

Monday would spend all day in Custer state Park. do your jeep tour, horse back ride, and chuck wagon that night (might have to check times to see if you can actually get all that in, might have to make some decisions, but you can see tons of bison just from your own car on the wildlife loop in Custer, so might skip the bison tour and do the horseback ride in the park, if have to choose).

You might also have to choose whether to do your chuckwagon or instead head to sturgis/deadwood and see it that night.

Tuesday drive all the way to Yellowstone or just outside the park. It is a LONG drive. 10-12 hours depending.

Spend W-Fri in Yellowstone, Spend all day Saturday driving back.

The dilemma I see for you is that, a whole week can be a bit long in just the black hills area, depending on how much you want your days filled with activities. But a week would allow very leisurely exploraton of the area. Spending a few days in custer park at one of the lodges would be nice. And then split some time with the deadwood/spearfish area, with a day trip to devil%26#39;s tower in Wyoming.

If you want to see more than just the black hills area, you could even take a trip down to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park for two or three days, which might be more doable than all the way over to Yellowstone. It is about 6-7 hours to there.

You could spend S, M, Tue in SD, then drive to RMNP in Colorado on Wednesday. Spend W afternoon, TH, Fri, and drive back to Rapid City on Saturday.

Or even do the reverse, and fly into denver (might be cheaper), and then do RMNP and then Black Hills area and drive back to denver.

week trip badlands to yellowstone

I agree with Izziblizzi. Keep in mind it%26#39;s a lot of driving even between Badlands NP and the Black Hills area. If you want to visit Badlands NP first from Rapid City and drive to Hill City or Custer, most of your day has gone. You easily can spend a week in this part of the world and explore places like Devils Tower NM or even Wounded Knee.

Driving RC-Yellowstone and back already takes 2 full days just driving. Maybe decide to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton and nice places like Red Lodge,Cody, Jackson and the Beartooth Pass drive.

instead.You also easily can spend a week in the Yellowstone region.

Visiting both locations is doable in 8 days of course but it restricts your time for sightseeing very much, not only for the distances in between but also for the slow and timeconsuming driving in both places.

Tet