National Parks Trip 2017
 

Hello! My family (2 adults and two kids, 16 and 10) will be traveling to Wyoming in July 2017, to visit several national parks in the area. I am finding myself a little overhwelmed with the planning, and I was wondering if this itinerary is doable?

Day 1: Fly into Salt Lake City, drive to Grand Tetons (5 hours)
Day 2: Grand Tetons
Day 3: Grand Tetons
Day 4: Drive to Yellowstone (2 hours)
Day 5: Yellowstone
Day 6: Yellowstone
Day 7: Drive to Wind Cave (8 hours)
Day 8: Wind Cave
Day 9: Drive to Badlands (2 hours)
Day 10: Badlands
Day 11: Drive to Theodore Roosevelt NP, stopping at Mt. Rushmore
Day 12: Theodore Roosevelt
Day 13: Theodore Roosevelt
Day 14: Drive to Bismarck, fly home

Also, my daughter has severe Celiac Disease, so our family is strictly gluten free. Any places that are safe for Celiacs or that we should be sure to avoid?

Thank you so much!

Any help at all would be much appreciated, we have never been to this area of the country before. :)

The Grand Teton and Yellowstone part seems doable to me. I can't comment on the rest, as I haven't been to those places yet.

Hopefully someone will have recommendations for your gluten-free question. If not, Googling "gluten-free travel" brought up a number of sites that may be helpful.

Lee Ann

You might want to also tag North/South Dakota to get more comments on that part of your trip. In looking at your itin, the first thing that strikes me is that it seems you have allocated a lOT of time to Badlands/Wind Cave/Theodore Roosevelt parks. You could see the SD badlands and Wind Cave in one day IMO. If it were me, I would trim that whole part down and allocate at least another day to the Yellowstone area unless you are really into the Badlands and looking at more bison (that you will already see in Yellowstone). I appreciate the Badlands now as an adult but honestly, it felt like a big yawner when I was a kid - maybe your kids will be more appreciative than I was:)

In Yellowstone, given the ages of your kids, you might take your extra day and go into West Yellowstone to see the Grizzly Discovery Center and then right down the road from that is a zip line/ropes Adventure park that could both easily be done in one day.

HannahKay...looks good. In years past we've explored what you'll be seeing. You haven't allowed enough time for the Badlands I fear. We loved the area camping with family.

My question: any ideas for an older couple (us) that has less strenuous walking? I wonder about Yosemite which we have not seen.