SE Washington State to Bozeman to Mount Rushmore to Phoenix Arizona
Sep 11th, 2016, 12:18 PM
#1
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SE Washington State to Bozeman to Mount Rushmore to Phoenix Arizona
My husband and I are traveling from Southeast Washington State (leaving on October 11) to the Phoenix area (arriving on October 17). I would like to go to Bozeman and Mount Rushmore, but do not know what "must see" sights lie between and around the two locations or between Mount Rushmore and Phoenix area. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Sep 11th, 2016, 01:05 PM
#2
Mount Rushmore to Phoenix.. So much to see in CO and NM..Ft. Collins, Boulder, Estes Park, Denver Co Springs-AF Academy, , then to NM...Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, the Native American Pueblos, esp. Acoma, then AZ. ..Canyon de Chelley, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Sedona ....and much, much more.
Sep 11th, 2016, 04:10 PM
#4
Wow! All that in 6 days? I hope you are a fast driver and don't mind driving by sights without stopping to see them.
The trip you have outlined (guessing at a starting point in Walla Walla, WA thence Bozeman, Mt Rushmore, and Phoenix), by the most direct possible routes, is shown on google maps as being 2,243 miles taking 34 hours of driving "wheels turning' time - not including stops for eating, gas, or sightseeing ... that would require average driving of 373 miles for 5.6 hours each of 6 days.
Is there a reason you need to go to Mt Rushmore?
You could drive from SE Washington to Phoenix via Salt Lake City and Bryce Canyon National Park in half the distance: 1,287 miles, 19.5 hrs driving "wheels turning" time. And if you went via that shorter route you could detour to one of the following by adding only a few hundred miles onto your trip: Arches National Park or Grand Canyon National Park or one or two of many other sites.
The trip you have outlined (guessing at a starting point in Walla Walla, WA thence Bozeman, Mt Rushmore, and Phoenix), by the most direct possible routes, is shown on google maps as being 2,243 miles taking 34 hours of driving "wheels turning' time - not including stops for eating, gas, or sightseeing ... that would require average driving of 373 miles for 5.6 hours each of 6 days.
Is there a reason you need to go to Mt Rushmore?
You could drive from SE Washington to Phoenix via Salt Lake City and Bryce Canyon National Park in half the distance: 1,287 miles, 19.5 hrs driving "wheels turning" time. And if you went via that shorter route you could detour to one of the following by adding only a few hundred miles onto your trip: Arches National Park or Grand Canyon National Park or one or two of many other sites.
Sep 11th, 2016, 04:33 PM
#5
Or you could go from Walla Walla, to Bozeman, to Yellowstone National Park to Salt Lake to Bryce Nat Park to Phoenix. That would take 1,778 miles, 28 hrs wheels turning driving time, and would leave you a day of two to sightsee en route
Sep 11th, 2016, 05:05 PM
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We're going to Mount Rushmore because we haven't seen it yet. We have been to Bryce, Arches, Grand, etc. My husband hasn't been to Yellowstone, but maybe that should be covered in a different trip. If necessary we could bypass Bozeman and go to West Yellowstone or save West Yellowstone for a different trip (we are snowbirds so we go down to AZ every year). If we go to Mt Rushmore, it's kind of natural drop into Colorado and New Mexico. My husband hasn't seen anything in these states, either. That's my logic ... faulty, I know, but my goal is to see Mount Rushmore. The rest is frosting on the cake. Your thoughts?
Sep 11th, 2016, 07:13 PM
#8
It will help you to use google maps, especially the directions on it, to estimate distance and driving time.
Here is the shortest route, per google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/c7bQJtqNxt92
The biggest points of interest directly along that route *to me, maybe not to you* are Denver, the Rockies between Denver and Grand Junction, and the area around Moab, UT that includes Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
An alternate route, furter south through Santa Fe would be https://goo.gl/maps/iK6SxGbd54y .
Denver and Santa Fe and Taos NM are some points of interest along it.
And an intermediate route through Mesa Verde National Park would be https://goo.gl/maps/7jaZohcMFu12.
Denver, Pikes Peak, Durango, and Mesa Verde National Park would be some of the main points of interest along it.
All those routes would take between 34 and 36 hours direct highway driving time, not including stopping for gas or eating or sleeping and not including exploring off of the highway.
To cover that much driving in 6 days you won't have much time for sightseeing.
Here is the shortest route, per google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/c7bQJtqNxt92
The biggest points of interest directly along that route *to me, maybe not to you* are Denver, the Rockies between Denver and Grand Junction, and the area around Moab, UT that includes Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
An alternate route, furter south through Santa Fe would be https://goo.gl/maps/iK6SxGbd54y .
Denver and Santa Fe and Taos NM are some points of interest along it.
And an intermediate route through Mesa Verde National Park would be https://goo.gl/maps/7jaZohcMFu12.
Denver, Pikes Peak, Durango, and Mesa Verde National Park would be some of the main points of interest along it.
All those routes would take between 34 and 36 hours direct highway driving time, not including stopping for gas or eating or sleeping and not including exploring off of the highway.
To cover that much driving in 6 days you won't have much time for sightseeing.
Sep 12th, 2016, 07:37 AM
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Since Mt. Rushmore is the goal, and also the biggest outlier, I would focus on that area and not so much on what else there is along the way. It seems like a fairly long drive just to see one thing, so try to budget your time and spend at least a couple days in the Black Hills and visit some other things as well (Badlands National Park, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park all come to mind).
Devils Tower National Monument (NE Wyoming) is not too far off your route. I would stop to visit that as well. If you have time to stop anywhere in Colorado or New Mexico, that's great but those states are not nearly as far out of the way as Mt. Rushmore, so you could more easily visit those on future trips. Skip Yellowstone as a destination until you have several days - at most you could drive through just to get a small taste of it, but with the amount of ground you're covering in 6 days, you just don't have time to really do much exploring.
Devils Tower National Monument (NE Wyoming) is not too far off your route. I would stop to visit that as well. If you have time to stop anywhere in Colorado or New Mexico, that's great but those states are not nearly as far out of the way as Mt. Rushmore, so you could more easily visit those on future trips. Skip Yellowstone as a destination until you have several days - at most you could drive through just to get a small taste of it, but with the amount of ground you're covering in 6 days, you just don't have time to really do much exploring.
Sep 12th, 2016, 05:58 PM
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Thank you everyone for your input. You are right, of course. I don't have enough time to do justice to everything I want to see. Since Mount Rushmore is the actual target, I think we will see it, as well as other things in that area including Devils Tower National Monument and safe West Yellowstone and New Mexico for another time. Again, thank you so much!
