Missouri to Yellowstone
 

My husband and I are planning a spur of the moment trip to Yellowstone. I am a little overwhelmed b/c I am a planner. He is more of a fly by the seat of your pants guy and thinks "lets just go". Unbelievably I got a few nights in the park. Just wondering a route to take, and things to see on the way, how much time to spend..all that. I know we want to see the Grand Tetons and Mt Rushmore. We are leaving Oct. 8th and have 2 weeks. Our reservations in the park are for the 15th thru17th.

Without knowing where in Missouri we can only guess at travel times but...

10/8 - drive to Denver
10/9 - Denver
10/10-10/12 - Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park
10/13 - drive to Grand Tetons
10/14 - Grand Tetons
10/15-10/17 - Yellowstone
10/18 - drive to Devils Tower National Monument, find lodging (maybe Sturgis or Deadwood?)
10/19-10/20 - Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore/Custer State Park, etc.
10/21 - start heading home, drive through Badlands National Park on the way, Sioux Falls overnight
10/22 - arrive home

If you run into any winter weather it will slow you down or totally disrupt those drive times and you may need to adjust on the fly.

Good plan from WhereAreWe, If it works better for lodging, weather, etc. you could reverse the plan and do Badlands, Black Hills etc. first then Yellowstone, Tetons, etc.

As mentioned, do stay flexible, there has been snow in the Rockies already, but I'd take this trip in a heartbeat.

I don't think it works well to reverse the order. Average closing date for Trail Ridge Road in RMNP is October 23rd so the OP would want to get there sooner rather than later. They have pretty good odds of decent weather there at the start of the trip.

I'm usually all in favor of reversing if it makes things line up better but I don't think it helps for this trip.

Thanks so much. We are leaving from the Lake of the Ozarks.

Lake of the Ozarks is a 12 hour drive to Denver. If you decide to use my itinerary, I'd drive as far as possible the first day and probably stop a few hours short of Denver, then push on to Denver for day 2. If you take turns and get an early start, you could make it to Denver in one day but you'll be pretty tired when you get there.

Sioux Falls is 8 hours from Lake of the Ozarks so that day is still realistic.

Estes Park to the Grand Teton NP is a 7.5 hours not counting stops according to Google. I would look for an intermediary stop.

I just posted on your other thread- I see you are planning a similar trip to one we just completed, however we are from the west coast.
Definitely go and see and stay in Yellowstone and the Tetons! My only comment is to pack for all varieties of weather. We were in YNP Sept 15-17 and got snow! It wasn't sticking to the road but on the 16th the temperature never got out of the 30's. I forgot to pack gloves and ended up buying some along the way.
Have a fun trip!

Thanks everyone so much. This is my first time using Fodors. It is great to see peoples who want to help complete strangers. I think we are going north staying the 1st night in Sioux Falls SD. 3 nights in Custer NP. then on to the Tetons a few nights in Jackson Hole and then on to Yellowstone for 3 nights. We are so excited. Landseaair I have been watching the weather as well and dragging out the winter wear. We love the snow!!