Now is the time to start brainstorming things to do and scheduling or reserving some of it.
Day 1 / August 3 Antigo --> Sioux Falls, SD
Day 2 / August 4 Sioux Falls, SD --> Rapid City, SD
Day 3 / August 5
Day 4 / August 6 Rapid City, SD --> Cody, WY
Day 5 / August 7 Cody, WY --> Gardiner, MT
Day 6 / August 8
Day 7 / August 9 Gardiner, MT --> Signal Mountain, WY
Day 8 / August 10
Scenic Float Trip via the Signal Mountain Lodge site: (Make a reservation closer to that date)
https://www.signalmountainlodge.com/lodge-services/snakeriver
Day 9 / August 11 Signal Mountain, WY --> Saratoga, WY
Saratoga Hot Springs:
https://www.wyomingcarboncounty.com/things-to-do/hotsprings
Day 10 / August 12 Saratoga, WY --> Colorado Springs, CO
Day 11 / August 13
Day 12 / August 14 Colorado Springs --> ???
Day 13 / August 15 ??? --> Columbia, MS
Day 14 / August 16 Columbia, MS --> Madison, WI
Day 15 / Madison, WI --> Antigo
Ideas:
Update:
After reading other people's itineraries and feeling totally overwhelmed, I checked a site called Dirt in My Shoes that was recommended by someone on FB. She sells 2, 3, 4, and 5-day itineraries for several parks, and has articles about lots of parks and other things. Everything is laid out very simply and updated frequently. I bought an itinerary for 3-days in Yellowstone and 2 days in Tetons. She also has articles about Badlands and Black Hills. I am feel much more at ease about this now.
https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/
https://fullsuitcase.com/yellowstone-grand-teton-itinerary/
https://www.wanderingstus.com/yellowstone-and-grand-teton-in-4-days
https://liveadventuretravel.com/yellowstone-grand-teton/
Taken from a fellow traveler on FB:
In case anyone is looking for a week long itinerary. This was built based off of staying in Gardiner the whole week at an AirBnB. I figured it might be helpful for planning purposes.
Gardiner:
**restaurants have super long wait times - order or reserve way ahead**
Wonderland cafe
Gardiner Market -a comprehensive grocery store with pre-made lunch and dinner options
Yellowstone Grill – breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, and burritos
The Corral – a classic burger joint with picnic tables out front
Yellowstone Pizza Company – pizza and pasta
Grizzly Grille – tacos, rice bowl burritos at their food truck
NOTE: there will be a lack of cell service in the park; some visitor centers have WiFi; use the GyPSy App to have a downloaded self guided tour play on the phone
Dining options in the park are limited; crowded, at times underwhelming and pricey so plan to pack drinks and food daily
Saturday 24 July
Leave airport and head to AirBnB
On the way, stop and get groceries/supplies; get bear spray
Roosevelt Arch/Explore Gardiner/Fill up on gas
Swim in a boiling river? (need to check if open during COVID) https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/swimming-soaking.htm
Yellowstone hot springs https://yellowstonehotspringsmt.com/
Chico hot spring resort and spa (alternative)
Sunday 25 July
Stop at mammoth spring visitor center
Bunsen peak hike (4.3 miles; 2-4hrs); moderate difficulty with panoramic view; Getting there: Park in the Glen Creek Trailhead parking lot, just under 5 miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs and right past the Golden Gate Bridge Park
Fort Yellowstone (self guided tour) @ Mammoth springs area
Monday 26 July:
Rent spotting scope for wildlife viewing - BEFORE 8PM; Melba Coleman, Optics Yellowstone, 406-224-1567
Mammoth Hot Springs (do in AM before the Pad/Sad excursion) – Upper Terrace Drive and the boardwalk hikes (lower terraces: Palette Spring, Minerva Terrace and Cleopatra Terrace, Canary spring and Liberty Cap).TIP: the Mammoth Visitor Center has WiFi
Paddle and Saddle excursion with Montana Whitewater Rafting Co. 406-848-7398
http://yellowstoneraftzipline.com/packages/pad-n-sad/ (unfortunately zip line closed down); location for horseback riding is approx 30 min outside of Gardiner
Tuesday 27 July: approx 1hr40min to trailhead
Hike: Fairy Falls Trail to Imperial and Spray Geysers
The Fairy Falls trailhead begins one mile from the Midway Basin Geyser and is an easy out-and-back despite its length (6mi).
Getting there: Park at the Fairy Falls Trailhead lot, 1 mile south of Midway Geyser Basin (space is very limited) arrive early
From the trailhead, hike a little over a half-mile and take the short, side trail to see the Grand Prismatic Spring and the Excelsior Geyser from the newly constructed overlook. Stop on the way back from Fairy Falls and you’ll have a better view of the spring’s radiant hues which is best mid-day, but expect more crowds.
Tips while hiking to Fairy Falls:
Continuing on, stroll through a regenerating lodgepole pine forest until you reach the spray of Fairy Falls, 2.5 miles from where you started. Nearly all of the Fairy Falls area was affected by the fires of ‘88, and it’s worth taking note of the new growth that’s bringing the forest back to life. Imperial Geyser can reach up to 35 feet, but it erupts infrequently. Just a little more to the east, you’ll come across Spray Geyser, a little less impressive, but a frequent erupter. These thermal features tend to be much less populated than other parts of the park and definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for an escape from the crowds.
Explore: Midway Geyser Basin/Grand Pristmatic Spring area/Black Sand Basin/Biscuit Basin: Emerald Pool, Sunset Lake, Rainbow Pool, Sapphire Pool, black opal pool
Wednesday 28 July:
EARLY MORNING START RECOMMENDED TO SEE THE BEST WILDLIFE Bring spotting scope and bear spray
Lamar valley - WILDLIFE VIEWING: Dawn/dusk to see the most animals
Hiking Lamar river valley trailhead: Getting there:Park at the pullout in front of Soda Butte on the Northeast Entrance Road and follow the signs to the Soda Butte trailhead. This easy hike begins at the Soda Butte Creek trailhead, where you’ll cross the creek via a bridge (bird watchers should keep an eye out for song birds and waterfowl here). As you continue on through the meadow, you might have the opportunity to spot the park’s unofficial resident mascot: the bison. At the right time of year, this area will be covered in wildflowers, with peak season for wildflower viewing generally starting in June and extending through July. After a mile and a half, you’ll reach the junction. Continue straight on Specimen Ridge Trail for another mile or so, and you’ll reach Lamar River — the spot to sit down with your picnic lunch and enjoy the scenery. When you’re ready, head back the way you came. Approx 4 mile round trip. Alternative: (to Cache creek - 7 mi round trip, easy)
(Trout lake trail - alternative hike)
Tower Falls - first viewpoint easy, second viewpoint (UNABLE TO SEE - ROAD CLOSURE)
Calcite springs (UNABLE TO SEE - ROAD CLOSURE)
Tower junction/Roosevelt lodge - Cowboy cookout ride reserved 2HR horseback/cookout @ Roosevelt Corrals https://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/.../old.../
Petrified tree
Thursday 29 July:
Old Faithful (approximately 2 hr drive from lodging) - arrive early in the morning!
Old Faithful Inn - bike rentals/explore Upper Geyser basin especially Morning Glory Pool
Short trail leads up to Observation Point, offering a wonderful vantage point overlooking Old Faithful and the Old Faithful Inn
Complete lower loop counterclockwise: Kepler Cascades, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Lake Yellowstone hotel (restrooms), Mud Volcano & Sulphur Cauldron (acid-green Sour Lake, roaring Dragon’s Mouth Spring and the Churning Caldron), Hayden Valley - GOOD WILDLIFE VIEWING, (Canyon village - for rest stop)
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - MUST SEE
South Rim, panoramic view from Artist Point, arguably the most famous view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. (Uncle Tom trail temporarily closed); View upper Falls separately
Option to do North Rim: Lookout Point, Inspiration Point and, especially, the Brink of the Lower Falls
Friday 30 July:
Roaring Mountain
Norris Geyser with Steamboat Geyser and Porcelain Basin
Artist Paintpots
Beryl Spring
Gibbon Falls
After Madison junction: one way southbound Firehole Canyon Road and stop at swimming hole
Fountain Paintpots and Lower Geyser Basin - best mud pot here
Firehole Lake Drive (one way only east bound) and White Dome geyser
Return spotting scope - BEFORE 8PM; Melba Coleman, Optics Yellowstone, 406-224-1567
Saturday 31 July: DEPART FOR AIRPORT
Feedback/update on our itinerary is below in comments.
I'd love your feedback on our Itinerary. Everything is booked that can be. I wish we had more time at each park but we won't make it back here anytime soon. It was more important to do a little at each park and experience it all than skip it altogether. We have 5 kids in our family ages 8 to 17 (2 of which hate to hike, one of whom has high functioning autism) and 2 cousins we will meet up with who are ages 6 and 8. We are coming from Michigan.
Day 1 Drive thru the night
Day 2
• Badland best quickie stops: Panorama Point*, Conata Basin Overlook*, Ancient Hunters Overlook, Pinnacles Overlook*, Sage Creek Basin Overlook
• Alpine slide park in Mt Rushmore –TramWay Adventures
• Custer (drive wildlife loop) and Needles Highway Allow for 2 hours time
o Driving Directions: https://goo.gl/maps/abvWffS5mcXUr4TP6
• Sunset at 8:38 pm: go to Mt Rushmore
Day 3
• Wind Caves, arrive at 5:30 am, to get tickets available at 8 am. First come first serve. Tours sell out quick.
• Drive to Jackson (7 hr 45 min drive),
• Take route that goes thru Mt Moran for beautiful views of Tetons
Day 4
• 10 am float: Barker-Ewing: 10-mile float https://barkerewing.com/10-mile-classic-scenic-float-trip/
• Do Jenny Lake boat from Inspiration Point 1.7 miles hike
• If extra time do indv activities at TreeTop adventure
• 8 pm Jackson Hole rodeo http://jhrodeo.com/
Day 5
- pack up camp on the road by 7:00 am, gives 1 hr for stops enroute from Gros Ventre to Old Faithful, ETA Old Faithful 10:15 am
Stops along the way https://goo.gl/maps/BRJCgVZybFDYmtNp8
-meet family at Faithful, Upper Geyser Basin
• Highlights of Upper Geyser Basin: Old Faithful, Castle Geyser, Daisy Geyser, Grotto Beyo, Morning Glory Pool
-Grand Prismatic
-If time - Artist’s Paint Pot
-Norris Geyser Basin including at picnic area here for dinner
-If time persists head to Firehole River (swimming is closed)
Day 6
-Hayden Valley
-meet family at: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
-w/ Artist point
-w/ Uncle Tom’s Cabin
-ADD MORE ACTIVITIES THIS DAY?
• Favorite places in Yellowstone Canyon: Artist Point, Brink of the Upper Falls, Uncle Tom’s Trail (some access points to this trail are closed for repairs)
-After this plan to do West Thumb Geyser Basin hike by our campground
Day 7 Drive to Glacier
Day 8 Lake McDonald - Stop: Trail of the cedars
Drive Going to the sun road
Day 9 Glacier Boat Company: hike Grinnell Lake trail
• If time allows: St Mary Falls trail- but that’s it for the day
Day 10 Drive home
Hit Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Day 11 Devils Tower
Day 12 Finish driving home
Update on our itinerary:
-Badlands stops I listed are quick and easy to spend as much or as little time as you want
-we only spent 1 1/2hrs at Mt Rushmore Tramway. It was a good way to break up activities into something different to do. Kids each did the alpine slide twice and picked either the tubing run or shorter zip line.
Needles highway is amazing! The driving route I posted either we got lucky w timing or it’s the way to go. There are a couple of passes that are one lane of traffic at a time. When we went thru this passageway there were five cars going our way. But the other way there were probably 30 cars waiting to pass thru. We never had to wait for traffic.
-Sylvan lake is a place we stopped along the way that we hadn’t planned on doing. It was very busy. But was a lovely little place to stop and walk around (wish we’d had the time to let the kids swim here). Beautiful views.
- we loved watching the lighting ceremony at Mt Rushmore.
-Wind caves - definitely needed to arrive extra early for a tour. We arrived at 5:45 am and were the first ones there. While hubby waited in line I took the kids to hike the Wind cave canyon trail. It was a easy walk. We rounded the corner and saw a Bison right off our path (30 feet away) lots of wildflowers and hiked out 20 minutes then turned around and came back. the ppl who arrived at wind caves right after us (at 5:45 am) said they had come the day before at 8:30 am and all tours were sold out for the day. The day we arrived to get tour tickets ppl arrived later, however by the time tickets went on sale at 8 am the line was 300+ ppl deep.
-Tetons: we loved the Barker -Ewing float out of Moose that takes us rather close to the Teton range. Our rafting guide was amazing. Don’t forget to tip your guide like you would any other. Guide commented that we had to get the nachos at Signal Mtn lodge. We took our nachos to the boat ramp area around there and let the kids swim in the lake in the Tetons.
-Tetons: as you come from Jackson and head north into Moose there is a left turn into Moose and it’s on the right side that twice we saw moose sheltering in the marsh
-Jenny lake hike: we only hiked to hidden falls. We took the boat over to the falls around 2pm. My teen w autism melted down after the hidden falls hike so we did not hike onto inspiration point. However when we originally departed from the boat I asked the ppl in line how long they had waited. Their wait was approx 1 hr. After our hike to hidden falls and back our wait for the boat was 20 min. Tip: do this hike later in the day to avoid crowds at the boat.
- nice place to let kids swim
- we were looking forward to riding the coaster at Tree Too adventure. I didn’t realize they close early afternoon and we missed them by 30 min. Bummed the kids didn’t do this.
- we’ve never been to a rodeo. The Jackson rodeo was worth it for a newbie
- driving from Tetons to Yellowstone. We packed up camp and hit the road by 7 am. Unfortunately we saw little wildlife and did not see any bears along the way. We drove the East side of Jackson Lake and hit a couple of waterfalls and overlook stops along the way. Let me know if you want names of the stops we did.
-day 5 we were able to do all the stops on our itinerary in Yellowstone except the younger kids ran out of energy for Norris Geyser basin. We pulled into the parking lot and a few of us looked around for a bit. We arrived at old faithful parking lot at 10:30 am and had no traffic delays. We walked the boardwalk around there for about 2 hrs.
- at old faithful we knew rain was on the forecast but we ended up getting hail. Glad we packed rain coats.
- there’s a nice boardwalk to do at old faithful and many more geothermal things to see from there
- we saw a bison on our path on a board walk of the old faithful area
- loved artists paint pot
At artist paint pot there is a mud geyser and our family was mesmerized watching the mud geyser
- grand prismatic: I heard to see the colors best you need temps of 80+. It was 65 when we went and foggy. We did not hike to the overlook to see it simply bc it was so foggy. We still got decent colorful pics from ground level.
- we finished the day in Norris geyser basin area. Our tour guide from baker Ewing had told us that to get back to grant campground we should avoid the old faithful area and instead go thru Hayden valley. Gps estimated time was the same. It was early evening and we were able to see herds of bison fill the road and pasture. Amazing!
- day 6 Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was worth it. the hike was hard enough for our young kids however. We hiked from artist point parking lot to uncle toms cabin parking lot. And decided to let the kids rest and one of us hiked back, got the car, drove to pickup the kids waiting at uncle toms cabin area and drove back to artist point for lunch with our big group
-then we drove thru Hayden valley and went to west thumb geyser basin for a short loop hike
-we did not hit any traffic in Yellowstone. I think that’s cause when we did Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we arrived at 9 am. We had early starts to all our days.
- we found that all the parking lots constantly had ppl coming and going. There were three cars in our group and we all always got parking spots in every lot. Ppl are constantly coming and going. Just wait. You’ll get a spot. Don’t be deceived by the cars parking outside the lot.
-day 7 - was just driving to glacier area
-glacier: day 8: going to the sun road wasn’t open yet. It was foggy. We did a few overlooks by Lake McDonald. 10 yr old took a hard fall into a rock (thot we’d need ER at first) medical tape, gauze. Neosporin we utilized from our medical kit)
-hiked the trail of the cedars. Lovely and easily. Someone had spotted a black bear cub 15 min before we took off onto the trail
- since we couldn’t drive the GTTSR, we drove down hwy 2, south of the park to get to the west side for our evening accommodations. We Stopped at Two Medicine lake route. (Road is terribly Paved. It is Was pouring rain when we arrived. We didn’t really stop here.)
-day 9 glad we booked the glacier boat company tour to grinnell lake. A few of us detoured off the guided tour and hiked the extra 0.2 hike to Hidden Falls. It was 1 mike out and 1 mile back from boat to grinnell lake w the guide. Lots of snow at the base by grinnell lake.
-day10 - our itinerary had us packing up our Airbnb and driving to Theodore Roosevelt NAtional park. Except this day the GTTSR opened for the season. Having gone all this way To glacier it was worth it to detour and take four extra hours and drive the road. We drove from east to west. We Originally thot we could just turn around and drive the road back but having seen how the traffic slowed up bc of bicycles on the road and the sharp cliff curves we decided to complete the road entire road and drive down hwy 2 to head east and head back home to michigan.
- we skipped Theodore Roosevelt NP
- we definitely needed bear spray. My brother saw a huge Grizzly on his trail as he rounded the corner. Make noise. Talk. Sing. Etc
-we went third week of June. Temps ranged from mid 35 to high 80. We packed hat and gloves and packable puffer coats and rain coats and used them all
-we all used water bladders. And that worked out well
- groceries in the parks are expensive. Avoid it at all costs
- bring your own emergency kid. Basic supplies are not available at stores. See a ranger if you still need stuff.
Mosquitos are bad in some places on a hike. I suggest you cover up before heading out on each hike.
- we have Verizon. Cell data is spotty everywhere. It was best to download Google maps for offline usage. And we used the gypsy app which we loved
-saw lots of wildlife. We always had early morning starts. But we are disappointed that we didn’t see a bear,
Hope this helps! Thanks for reading!
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