CityGuy

With a fear of heights, I am planning a trip to Minneapolis to YNP. I do not like to drive near drop-offs, cliff edges etc. Rolling hills, bends, ups and downs are fine.

1. If we decide to drive from the Twin Cities area, what is the best route - the flattest.
2. If we decide to fly in, which is the best airport & YNP entrance are best for people like me?
3. How is the drive inside the YNP itself? Too scary?

thanks.

cd

The route from the Twin Cities is mostly flat all the way,especially if you drive through the Dakotas and enter from the East. If you fly, Jackson Hole would be the closest and the drive to the South entrancc is alson mostly flat. Insidr YNP is almost all flat and quite enjoyable.

rizzo0904

Look at flying into Salt Lake as well. It's a lot cheaper and I don't remember the ride being "scary".

cd

entrance - almost - inside ---hate when that happens

CityGuy

cd and rizzo:
Thanks for the replies.

1. cd, what do you mean by the entrance being almost inside?
2. I think the route from Twin Cities to Billings is almost flat, we were going to take 94/90 through North Dakota.

3. How is the ride from YNP to the West Glacier National Park - in terms of edges, cliffs and heights?

cd

CityGuy, I was just spelling those three words correctly as they were misspelled on my post....Sorry,

WhereAreWe

I would take the route through South Dakota instead, you can drive through Badlands NP, visit Mt. Rushmore and Devils Tower. The North Dakota route has Theodore Roosevelt NP which is supposed to be nice but I think you'd find more interesting stopping points on the southern route.

CityGuy

WhereAreWe:
Thanks for that suggestion. We were planning to come via South Dakota during our return journey. How many days would this loop take at the minimum? The driving should in itself take 1.5 days each way, right?

spirobulldog

Are you planning on going to Glacier National Park? You will have some serious drops there.

If you just don't like to drive on it, take one of the Red Tour Bus.

WhereAreWe

Depends on how hard you push yourself. I think 2 days of driving is more realistic but if you have 2-3 drivers that alternate and drive late into the night or even overnight, then you could do it in 1.5 days.

We drove to the Black Hills this winter, took 4 hours from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls, SD. Rapid City is another 6 hours beyond that, and Yellowstone is probably 9-10 hours from Rapid City. So altogether plan on about 20 hours of driving that route, which I think is more doable in 2 days than 1.5.

Ackislander

Yuo can go to Glacier without cliffs if you stay off the Going to the Sun Highway (you can go as far as the upper end of MacDonald Lake on the West side).

Route 2 is an easy pass. It is the way the trains go, and they can't go up steep hills.

There are some airy spots between East Glacier and Babb, but if you go toward Browning, it looks like a wheat field.

CityGuy

Spirobulldog: There is a very small possibility. It depends on the heights and our time. We want to do MSP-YNP trip I'm about 5 days. So if we want to do GNP, we might take an Amtrak from MSP to GNP, and then drive to YNP.

Wherearewe: Your schedule seems reasonable and likely. We will have 2 or 3 drivers, but with several kids it probably will take 2 days. The ND route is just a few hours faster.

Ackislander: How is the drive from the West GNP to YNP?

docbigsky

If you really want to take on your fears, Big Sky Resort has a great zipline tour!