maacbuck

Planning a cross country trip from NC to see Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. Have 16+ days, and would like to include Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon. I know this is a lot in one trip but w/kids ages 13 and 10 in year-round school this may be only trip west. Plan on driving w/popup camper. Does this Itinerary sound reasonable?

Aug19 (day1) Start drive from Raleigh, NC to Mount Rushmore
Aug20 (day2) Drive
Aug21 (day3) Drive and arrive Mount Rushmore- camp O/N
Aug22 (day4) drive to Yellowstone- arrive and camp at
Grant Village (have reservations for 4 nights)
Aug23-25 Yellowstone
Aug26 (day8) drive to Grand Teton- camp 2 nights? (Colter Bay Campground?)
Aug27 (day9) GTNP
Aug28 (day10) drive to Bryce- camp 2 nights? (North Campground?)
Aug29 (day11) Bryce
Aug30 (day12) Zion and drive to Grand Canyon- camp 2 nights? (Mather Campground?)
Aug31 (day13) Grand Canyon (Northern rim)
Sept1 (day 14) Start drive back to NC (I-40)
Sept2 (day 15) Drive
Sept3 (day 16) Arrive home in Raleigh

Kids have a 3 week break and we plan to stretch this trip to a total of 18 days if the money holds out. (2 extra days to be used as needed to break up driving) Have budget of $3000. Is this reasonable? Any suggestions? Plan to stay in hotels during long drive out and back, but camp all remaining nights. Currently only have reservations for Grant Village in Yellowstone, do we need to make them elsewhere?

RedRock

Your drive times are not realistic, and your camper will slow you down somewhat. Its a long way from NC to Yellowstone and then south to the Grand Canyon... Then back home to NC. You would be better off just planning a trip to the Black Hills and then to Yellowstone and back home. Even this trip would be a lot of travel in such a short time. Don't know what you are driving but gas alone will be a big expense. I would suggest you get a good set of maps, like AAA or a Rand McNally Road Atlas (Wal Mart, $4.97) and see just how many miles you are looking forward to. With 2 youngsters and your DW in the vehicle you will need to do much more stopping than you are planning. Another thing you are not taking into consideration is the roads in the mountains size of the western states.

Photodog

Since you don't know when you might arrive, camping reservations will assure you a place that night, regardless of arrival time. You can reserve Zion & Grand Canyon thru www.reservations.nps.gov/. If you want to try and stay on forest service land might try www.reserveusa.com.
To save yourself some money get a National Parks Pass at your first stop. Costs $50 good for a calendar year. Takes care of entrance fees for the car load.
Be sure to carry binoculars. If the kids keep a journal it will help pass the time and make the trip much more memorable years from now.
Some must stops are Lamar Valley (dawn or sunset) in Yellowstone for chance to see the wolves. Oxbow Bend at sunrise or set in Grand Tetons.

TheWeasel

Photodog has a good point re: forest service land. There are national forests with camping around Grand Canyon and Bryce (and Yellowstone, but you've got that covered). You can also look into state parks in those areas if the national parks are full.

Regarding drive times, you have quite a drive, but with 2 extra days to play with it's certainly doable. The kids should be old enough to handle driving without stopping for several hours at a stretch. There are two things I might change about your itinerary: maybe cut out Zion to give yourself extra time somewhere else, and rearrange your dates at Mather Campground and the North Rim. It doesn't make sense to bypass the North Rim on the way from Utah to the S. Rim, and then backtrack to the N. Rim for 1 night, and then backtrack again to get to I-40. Stay at the N. Rim the 1st night, then drive to the S. Rim for 1-2 days, and then continue on to I-40. That would save probably 6+ hours of driving by eliminating the backtracking.

sweetsailing

Your drive times from NC to SD are fine, driving about 8 hours a day or more. Your amount of time at Mount Rushmore will be limited. If that is your intent that should be fine. There is alot more to see in the Black Hills/Mount Rushmore area, however it looks like the focus of your itinerary is on Yellowstone and other areas. The amount of time you have in Yellowstone is appropriate. Keep in mind that you are doing alot of driving on this trip and just day trips within Yellowstone you can put on quite a few miles and hours in the car just driving from one end of the park to the other. Yellowstone is bigger than you might think and traffic is very slow at times.

On day 10, it will take you all day to drive from GTNP to Bryce, so don't count on seeing much of Bryce on day 10. So seeing Bryce on day 11. Then you are driving to Zion on day 12, touring Zion and then driving to Grand Canyon all in the same day. Here is where you might want to consider adding a day. Amount of time at the north rim should be fine.

Keep in mind that all of the areas you will be in have more to offer than what you will have time for and many here will tell you to spend more time in various places. The bottom line is you will need to prioritize the places that are important to you and your family.

Have a great time!

gail

The first leg of your trip (to Mt. Rushmore) is listed as about 28 hours on mapquest. So even with reasonable stops and being slowed by pulling camper, I see this as 3 11 to 12 hour days. If you are OK with that, then go for it. Scenery can only get you so far, and much of the mid-section of the country thru which you will be traveling is boring and flat. Even the most patient passengers and toughest drivers may find that gets only about day 1 1/2.

I admit to never having been to Mt Rushmore, partly because it is such a long drive from anywhere and it is in a rather isolated section of the country. Also, I am not all that excited about carvings in a mountain. So I take a different approach than those replying above - I would cut out Mt. Rushmore and take a somewhat more lesiurely drive to and from - including Yellowstone, GC, Zion, Bryce and finding someplace to stop in the middle of the country for a day.

Don't get too fixated on "only trip west". Coming from the east (we are in Boston), it is so easy to keep adding to a trip west with the idea that "we came so far and it is so close" - distances are vast and the idea is to have a quality trip, not hit as many National Parks in as little time. There can be other trips, if not as a family then your kids will be inspired to travel there as adults. You run the risk of diminishing the experience by rushing to hop back in the car to make your next scheduled stop.

utahtea

Your first three days are going to be hard. It's almost 1800 miles from Raleigh, NC to Rapid City, SC. You're looking at almost 600 miles per day. Any chance of leaving on Friday after the kids get out of school to give you a little head start?

Mt. Rushmore is on your way to Yellowstone so I would leave it in. It doesn't take that long to enjoy this park. I usually like natural places, but this place is pretty special.

Rapid City to Grant Village is almost 500 miles. If this was all interstate driving, you would be fine, but it's not. After you leave Sheridan, WY you will be driving through the mountains at a lot slower pace. You could have up to a half-hour delays from May 5, 2006 through November 5, 2006 between the East Entrance of Yellowstone and Sylvan Pass inside the park. This section is also closed nightly from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am. Completion is expected fall 2006. See National Park website:

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planvisit/or...l/roadclos.htm

You really need an extra day to get to Yellowstone. Can you change your reservations or leave a whole day earlier?

Grand Tetons to Bryce is 570 miles and again, not all of it is Interstate driving. You will be driving through Salt Lake City on a commute day, hope you don't hit it during commute time because it will REALLY slow you down! I really don't think this is realistic. I would add a day here. I would also change the order. I would do Zion first and stay 2 nights, then move to Bryce for 2 nights and skip the North Rim and just do the south Rim.

If you decide to keep the North Rim in your itinerary, then do as TheWeasle suggested and do the North Rim before the South Rim. With your limited time, I really wouldn't do both rims.

I would suggest reservations for Mather Campground. I would also suggest reservations for North Rim, Bryce and Zion if you aren't going to be getting to the campgrounds early in the day.

From the North Rim the drive home is 2277 miles to Raleigh, NC. From the South Rim, it's 2165 miles. Even though it's only 113 miles longer from the North Rim it's a good 5 hours longer drive because the road out of the North Rim is SLOW and if you get stuck behind a big motorhome it could be worse!

You're drive home isn't going to be much of a picnic. You're looking at 720 miles a day from the South Rim. I hope you don't mind driving well into the night, you could really use another day for the drive home.

I agree, get the National Park Pass for $50. It will get you into all the national parks you will be going to. Yellowstone & Grand Canyon's entrance fees are going up to $25 each this May! The National pass will save you money!

If you can cook most of your own meals and stick to budget motels for the driving days, you should be fine with a $3,000 budget.

Gas is always our biggest killer and comes in at about half our budget. In our motorhome we only average 7 MPG. If you know what kind of milage you get pulling your pop-up you should be able to estimate your gas costs. This year I'm estimating using $3.00 per gallon and hope we find the price lower!

Utahtea

LindainOhio

We did a shorter version of this trip about 10 years ago with our kids. Here's what we did:

We drove from NE Ohio,spent first night in a motel.

Drove through and made our stops in the Badlands. Arrived at Custer State Park--beautiful campground. Toured Mount Rushmore. 2 nights

Drove to Yellowstone--couldn't make camping reservations back then so we stayed 2 nights at the cabins at Roosevelt Lodge and 2 nights in the cabins at Old Faithful Lodge.

Took short drive to Grand Teton National Park and stayed in the most beautiful campsite ever--hope someone can tell you where we stayed. The campground was in the GTNP and was a tent only campground--I think you were allowed pop-ups. We had 3 sites--we went with 2 other families. We camped on a peninsula that jutted out over the lake. It was a spectacular setting for camping. A moose and her calf spent their time wandering the campgound, munching on bushes. Spent 3 nights. Be sure to hike to Lake Solitude--one of the most beautiful hikes anywhere.

Drove to Estes Park--2 nights. We had a cabin here.

Drove to Kansas City to visit family---one really long boring drive.

Back to Ohio.

NGail

We did this kind of trip twice many, MANY years ago, with three kids and a pop-up camper and my kids, who take their own kids camping now, still talk about it.
Some thoughts-
..You say your kids have 21 days off- use all of them for your trip if you can- you'll need them especially if you take on all of the parks.
..Reservations are a must! Nothing's worse than driving through the dusk and wondering if you'll find a site, much less be able to throw together a meal before nightfall. You didn't say when you're going, but this is especially important during the summer.
..Visited all the parks on your list except for Grand Tetons (campgrounds were filled and we had to drive on). My personal favorite is the Grand Canyon (4 visits, the last one rafting down the Colorado). Your kids are old enough to hike down the Bright Angel Trail as far as Indian Gardens and back. It's a wonderful experience. (My second favorite on your list is Bryce, least favorite is Mt.Rushmore)
..Break up those long drives with run-around time for all of you. Who cares if they stare at the rest-areas!
..Journals are a great idea. We still have them around. Also cameras, drawing paper and pencils, etc.
You will have a WONDERFUL time!!