Sounds like a great plan! And unplanned stretches are the best times to see unexpected treasures....

Sikki, I only calculate 2000 miles from Chicago to Seattle. South Dakota is the home of Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills+ Deadwood.

Sikki

From Chicago, head north/west on I-90/94 to where they split off in Wisconsin. Then take I-90 west. There are things to do/see in Wisconsin/Minnesota, but nothing to compares to the national parks and mountains of the western U.S. When you hit South Dakota (which seems to take forever to cross), you'll have the option of visiting Mt. Rushmore, Badlands National Park, Wind Cave NP and Custer State Park, all of which are generally in the Rapid City area. A little ways into Wyoming is Devil's Tower National Monument.

sikki,

I don't know how to break this to you, but Rambo First Blood, was filmed in Hope, British Columbia...not Oregon.

http://www.airhighways.com/hope.htm

http://www.stormpages.com/firstblood/locations.html

http://www.britishcolumbia.com/regio...s/?townID=3360

Utahtea

Can you get a flight to start the journey further west than Chicago? Even starting in Montana would help cut out some driving time for you so you could focus on the areas you really want to get to.

Badlands NP in South Dakota is one of my favorite spots. It's fairly easy to get to off the highway too, if you are traveling. Definitely breathtaking to me- but not in a mountain-way necessarily. But VERY unique and vast. When I went there I just stood with my mouth open for a while.

Very true. I should probably fly closer to Glacier or Yellowstone and then start on the road trip. Am looking into that.

Canada's Banff to Jasper area-my favorite though not in USA
Yosemite
Glacier
Grand Teton
Yellowstone

Sikki,

Can you possibly fly from Chicago to Seattle? The drive west from Chicago will be long ( as you know from Mapquest), and with the price of petrol, the cost of rental for the car, and lodging and meals, it may be cheaper (and much faster) to fly. The beautiful mountains you want to see---Mt. Rainier NP and Glacier NP are much closer to Seattle, and you could drive through another national park, North Cascades NP, "the Switzerland of America", on the way to or from Glacier and Yellowstone.

Unfortunately we do not have huts for hut-to-hut trekkng as they do in Austria and Switzerland. In the U.S., you either camp in a campground, or stay in a motel near the trails, and do day hikes from there, or you backpack, carrying everything on your back. In September, at least in Washington State (Rainier and the North Cascades), September is often the best weather, so the backpacking is great.

If you fly into Seattle, you could rent all the gear you need to either camp from your car, or backpack, from REI:
www.REI.com

That is, tent, sleeping bag, backpack, campstove, etc. There are very nice campgrounds in Mt. Rainier NP, the North Cascades, and in Glacier NP. This would be a better opportunity to meet people than stayingin motels.

Please take notice that there are grizzly bears in Glacier NP, and read and pay attention to the information that the park hands out about hiking in bear country. A person hiking alone is more vulnerable than people hiking in groups. This is not something you need to worry about in Rainier or the North Cascades, however.

There is a trail that goes all the way around Mr. Rainier, the Wonderland Trail. It takes about 2 weeks to hike the whole way, but there are many nice sections for a 3-day backpack trip.

I have read about the wonderland trail and thats a good opportunity.

Salt Lake City is perfect to fly into from chicago. Cheap flights and very accessible to the area i want to cover.

So now my route looks like;
- Fly from Chicago to SLC, UTAH
- Drive from SLC to Yellowstone/Grant Teton
- Yellowstone to Glacier
- Glacier to Seattle/Mt. Raneir (accomodate trekking)
- Seattle/Mt. Raneir to North Bend Oregon/West Cost
- Drive back across Oregon from North Bend/west coat to SLC (do crater lake on the way or whatever)

Thanks guys! in a matter of 2-3 days i have been able to narrow down from most of the western region of US to my current route. Sikki

You of the States are blessed with so many natural wonders. I cannot understand why you don't just enjoy what you have, instead of practicing the obcession with ranking things, .

Enjoy, and God bless America!

Utahtea! appreciate the info on first bloog. Now that you told me I do remember someone making that correction many years ago but my memory chose to discard this update. Memory is strange. Infact, i do remember the correction now but never really registered it. But the info wasnt discarded, only left at a non-active memory plane. Memory seems more like layers that we isolate ourselves in.

There seem to be a lot of people out there who "can't understand" anything.

In the last five minutes I've read that somebody can't understand (1) why anybody would want to rank anything and (2) why anybody would want to go to Las Vegas.

Are these people just too good for us, are they clueless, or what?

no, they just don't bother to read the whole thread, and it skewers things. Look at it this way, you didn't mention the US Virgin Islands, so you're to be commended.

Well just watched the travel channel and considering the Grand Teton was RATED #1 it would have to be the Grand Teton. And never heard of PAUL so have no clue about that one.

Paul National Park is the BEST!
It's the former homer of center square Paul Lynde,
But because the Federal Budget is in such sad shape from BushCo, it doesn't get enough Publicity.

Huh?

I thought this was about the best parks for Sikki, who will be traveling a long. . . way, to visit.