First time to Yellowstone
 

My husband and I were not planning a end of summer family vacation, but suddenly we have 10 days, gas money and a pop-up tent trailer. First thought for us is family road trip from MN to Yellowstone, back track through Mt. Rushmore and the badlands on the way back home. We have camped many times and are use to "roughin it" in MN, but we have never done something like this across states with no reservations. Excitment has turned to fear, ANY suggestions would help!

We have found that once the kids go back to school in late August, the campgrounds empty out. I'm sure that's true in South Dakota too. Have a great trip!

If you can stay at a National Forest campground, many of these never fill up. When you get to the Black Hills, consider Wind Cave National Park for camping instead of Custer State Park. Only a few miles south, its campground has never filled, even when people are being turned away from the campgrounds in Custer (according to their custodian). Many small towns allow camping in the city park too.

We did this trip from Minnesota to Yellowstone in June and camped all but 2 nights of an 11 day trip.

We hate reservations and we take a lot of road trips. We hate being tied down to a destination on a certain day.

On your long travel days you might consider a private campground just because they can be so easy to find. There are several campgrounds in Yellowstone that are first come first serve, but you have to be there early in the day to get a site. What we did last June for Yellowstone was call ahead the day before we knew we were going to be in the park and made reservations on the phone.

I liked camping at Badlands NP...it was like camping on the moon!

You might want to get a Campground Directory to help you find campgrounds.

Utahtea

We camped last year the 3rd week of August without reservations, we stayed in Dubois Wy KOA, check in about 6 pm, in GTNP Coulter Bay checked in 12:30 pm & Madison Junct in YNP about 1 pm.

I'm in the Black Hills and our experience with camping here is that as long as it is not the weekend and not the Sturgis rally (going on now thru the 13th) I don't think you'll have any problem finding camping here. Some of the Custer state park campgrounds do take reservations and you could bring that number along.