EJinPa

I have been planning a trip to see Yellowstone this Fall and have decided to add Mount Rushmore to the mix.
Plan on flying into Rapid City and renting a car one way , leaving from Jackson Hole. We have about 12 days to play with.
Here are the places that are "must sees".
Mount Rushmore
Devil's Tower
Custer's Nat. Park (I think)
Grand Teton
Complete tour of Yellowstone.
I have been researching where in the parks we want to see but I am curious if anyone has suggestions. We are two adults, no kids. Not into hard hiking but love to walk the trails with moderate climbs.
My head is spinning as to what/where we will experience the Big Horn, Falls, etc.
ANY help is greatly appreciated!

Dukey1

How late "this Fall?"

utahtea

Custer State Park and Mt. Rushmore can be seen in the same full day. It's been a while since we visited those two places so I'll let others do the advising.

Devil's Tower National Monument is just a short detour on your way to the Grand Tetons. There is an easy hike all around the base of Devil's Tower.

I'm not as familiar with things to do at the Grand Tetons as I am with Yellowstone but I do enjoy the boat shuttle on Jenny Lake.

There are a lot of easy hikes in Yellowstone. One of my favorites is the easy 5 mile round trip to Lone Star Geyser. You and maybe a dozen other people will be lucky enough to be there for an eruptions. Fairy Falls is another easy hike and I'd recommend continuing on to Imperial Geyser. I don't recommend doing these hikes from longer Fountain Flat Drive...it was 10 miles round trip according to me fitbit pedometer. http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisi...htm#-Ofdayhike

I love doing all the usual hikes at the many geyser areas like the Upper Geyser, Midway Geyser, Lower Geyser, Black Sand Basin, Norris, West Thumb Geyser areas. Artist Paintpots, Mud Volcano, Hayden Valley, Mammoth Hot Springs are places I won't miss each time we go.

Utahtea

Dukey1

Just FYI in case it becomes an issue for Yellowstone:

"Most park roads are CLOSED to auto travel between early November and late April.
The road from the North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana, through the park to Cooke City, Montana, via Tower Junction is open twenty-four hours a day, all year to auto travel.
U.S. Highway 212 is closed to auto travel just east of Cooke City from late fall to late spring."

EJinPa

ukey1, we are going first two weeks of Sept or last week of August, first week of September!

EJinPa

Dukey1 I guess I think of Sept. as Fall but it really isn't. Sorry for that. I did read about when the roads close, etc.
Our dilemma is we don't know what are the profound views to catch and what is of historical importance we don't want to miss!

utahtea

EJinPa,

You shouldn't have any problems with the end of August and the first two weeks of September. That's the time we like to go.

Utahtea

Dukey1

Have a wonderful trip.

EJinPa

thank you!

bkington1858

We were in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons earlier this month. A highlight of our trip was a river float on the Snake River. We used the ones that left from Jackson Lake Lodge. This is not "white water" but just a float for about 2 hours.

EJinPa

s great! I just booked Jenny Lake cabins for two nights. I think they have that also!

utahtea

bkington, Thanks for the recommendation. I've been thinking about doing the float trip on the Snake River this year too.

Utahtea