I am looking for some advise about a family vacation in July for 10 days. We will be driving and camping. Any advise? Any good campgrounds people would recommend? We will be driving from Wisconsin to the West.

Does the 10 days include driving time?

I have couple of thoughts. Yellowstone and Tetons would be great.
Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park(nice camping there), Crazy Horse would be good. You could combine this with Yellowstone or just stick with one or the other.
Glacier National Park-Probably better Mid to Late July rather than early July(depends on how much snow they get).

The West is more of a concept than an actually location. Southern CA or northern Washington are all in the west. As is New Mexico, Nebraska, Wy, etc. Pick one - where are you going?

Unless you have a specific destination in mind, Spirobulldog's suggestions sound great for July.

Lee Ann

I would do the Black Hills/Yellowstone combo for a 10 day trip.

Good, if going to do Yellowstone, I would check quickly with the lodge. It may be too late for this summer but you should try. It is worth the extra bucks to stay within the park.

Sorry I will get more specific. We will be traveling from Wisconsin to Yellowstone or a little farther depending on time. 10 days does include drive time. I looked at Mapquest and it will take us a little over 21 hours to get to Yellowstone. I think we are planing on spending one night at Mount Rushmore. I hope that helps and thanks for all the positive remarks.

Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Jackstone/Grand Tetons and then choose the best return.
The point might be that you can sightsee on the way "out", stay in Yellowstone (and PLEASE Grand Tetons), and then "hit it out for home by the most direct route.
Plan you overnight at Mt. Rushmore (plus/minus) by whether it fits.
The Badlands are really interesting. I am not looking at a map but dealing from memory of our trip

Maybe more importantly, plan the number of days you want in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons (it can be a drive through), and then do the days on either side. Just a thought.

We booked 3 days at Yellowstone and 1 day at Mount Rushmore so far.

How far is Grand Tetons from Yellowstone or Mount Rushmore

Ummm, obviously you NEED to get a map and look at it.
The Grand Tetons are directly south of Yellowstone (maybe 3 hours), and it would make a round trip possibility.
Please, have you looked at a map other than "there and back". This is ridiculous, if you want to maximize your very short time.
You are fixated on Mt. Rushmore. A worthy site, but not the most incredible in the west.
Do some research with a real map. Just my opinion.

Where did you book at? And just curious did you book thru actual concessionaire?

Personally, I would stay at Custer State Park for Mt. Rushmore. I hope you are going to see other things while there too.

I think you need 3-5 days for Yellowstone. 1-3 days for the Tetons. 2-4 days for Mt. Rushmore/Black Hill area. You could easily add in 1-3 days for everything between Rushmore and Yellowstone.

Yellowstone is the better part of a days drive from Rushmore. Tetons and Yellowstone pretty much adjoining parks.


There is a lot that can and should be done at both locations. Everything from floating the Snake River, Wild Cave Tours, Great Hikes, To Alpine Slides.

To me Yellowstone/Tetons is in a class all by itself. Just a Fantastic Place!!! Something for everyone. I would be tempted to spend the entire time there. It sounds like really you only have 6-7 days not including driving?

Your Original Post mentioned camping. Be aware that only a few of the campsites in Yellowstone and Tetons have showers. Be very very very Bear Aware. I would have Bear Spray. Although, I think firing it off in a tent would be a real mess. Yellowstone operates campsites along with the Concessionaire operating just one or two(I think those have hookups and showers). Perhaps Colter Village in the Tetons would be a good spot for there.

A little frustrated with the negative comments. This is our first vacation so all information will help us plan a trip. I was looking for others who have done this so that we don't waste the time or money on something that would not be worth it. I know we have to map out a lot of stuff but that is why I was looking for attractions that other thought were fantastic so that we could possible decide which area to stay around on this trip and then next year do some of the other stuff. So please dont be negative with the comments. This website is for people asking for where is and what is the best stuff to do to plan stuff.

Thanks for all those who have left positive comments. We have decided to book our trip around Mount Rushmore area. We will be camping and renting a cabin to get a little taste of both.

Robyn,
I understand your frustration a bit. That said, there are really only a handful of people on here that comment. Often, people post here without looking at even the basics(like how far it is from one place to the next-which is easily accomplished with googlemaps or mapquest). That frustrates most of the people who comment on here. That leaves them thinking that the poster is just using them.

Now back to your original thoughts. You are now not going to Yellowstone? Your just going to stay around Mount Rushmore area? If so, that is a great idea to just do one area. Plus, would be much easier to plan for Yellowstone the next year(2015-but you need to make reservations soon for that: a full year in advance).

Not counting driving time here is what I would suggest. We are doing most of this ourselves late May.

Badlands-1 full day (we will see Wall Drug this day too)
Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse-better part of a day
Wind Cave and Jewel Cave-Most of the day
Custer State Park-Drive the loop road (probably early morning and late evenings are best). Hike Harney Peak, Swim in Sylvan Lake or Legion Lake, also different kinds of boat rentals there(hydrobikes, canoes, kayaks, paddleboats). If you have younger kids perhaps do a jeep tour or the chuckwagon dinner.

If you happen to have older kids(must be age 16) then do a Wild Cave tour at one or both of the caves. This is spectacular!! They also might do a Jr. Cave tour for younger kids, I'm not sure.

Have a meal in State Game Lodge in Custer Park. In the town of Custer have a piece of pie at Bobkat's Purple Pie Palace. Blackhills Burger and Buns is another good option. Baker's Bakery is good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Custer.

Perhaps do the Alpine Slide near Mt. Rushmore.

Consider seeing Mammoth Site, which is about an hours drive.

If you wanted to you could do a huge loop that would take a a couple of days. Include Spearfish Canyon, Devils Tower, Bighorn Canyon, and Battle of Little Bighorn. This would involve a lot of driving. We are going to do this in one day and will drive about 600 miles in one day. We will skip the Bighorn Canyon area though.

Camping is great fun, fairly inexpensive. It does require good planning or more planning than a cabin.

If you do intend to include Yellowstone on this trip, then frankly I would probably skip Rushmore area entirely and spend all my time in Yellowstone/Tetons/and a bit of the loop I proposed above.

Oh, and don't get frustrated by comments on here, most folks on here have good advice. Some are just more to the point than others and it's hard to read into what people actually mean sometimes.