My husband and I would like to take our three children ages 13,15 and 17 on a family driving vacation. We are located in Minnesota and will be taking approx. one week. My husband wants to go to Yellowstone but i hear the crowds are terrible in the summer. Need somewhere that will keep the kids and ourselves interested.We've done the Disney thing many times.Any suggestions??????
Thanks!!

All national parks are crowded during the summer months so stick with Yellowstone if that is your first choice. A factor to consider in your choice would be distance from your home. If the distance is 1000 miles of more you will be spending at least two of the seven days in the car.

What do the kids think? When our son was older we tried to combine his interests with ours. In Bowling Green KY we toured the Corvette Assembly Plant (great tour), in Vermont we would stop at military surplus stores plus we visited a humvee dealer. We took his bike to Bar Harbor and let him bike to the top of Cadillac while we drove. Is there a water park you've never visited? A long drive is going to be torture on all of you unless you can find some interesting stops along the way. Good luck!

How about the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore area? Another place teens would love is Denver/Rockies area. You could spend a day or 2 in Denver and a day or two in the mountains. Another fun place that's within your driving range is the Ozark area--you don't even have to go to Branson and could follow that up with a day or two in Kansas City--a fascinating place if your kids have never been there. We haul our 12 and 9 year old all over the US by car and wouldn't trade our memories for anything. Have never tried this with teenagers, though! Have fun whatever you do--let us know what you decide.

Based on a sample of two, myself and a co-worker ...

We have both visited Yellowstone in early July over the past two years, and both were surprised at the absence of those long traffic jams that are always being talked about. Not to say it wasn't busy, but not crowded enough to detract from the experience.

My son drove across from California two years ago with his son. The places they loved were Yellowstone and the Black Hills, S.D. I would also take a look at Bryce and Zion and the Green River which tend to be a little less crowded but as stated above, all National parks are crowded in the summer.

Yellowstone is a park that has sights that are like nowhere else in the world. If you can make it there, you will all enjoy a fabulous, one-of-a-kind experience. (If you go, do yourselves a favor and take at least one hike - it can even be a short one - and get away from the roads and parking lots.) The geographic features are fantastic.

We visited Yellowstone in mid-June last year, and while the campgrounds & hotels were all full (in fact, there was little lodging available in the Park when I called in January), the Park did not seem crowded at all. There were no backups on the roads(ok, except for the day the bison wouldn't move off the road - and who wants to make a bison move out of the way) or at the park entrances; we stayed in W. Yellowstone, so entered & exited each day.

Do it if you can. Also visit Grand Teton National Park, just to the south; the mountains there are absolutely gorgeous.

Agree the Black Hills area is a good family vacation. Our kids enjoyed the Black Hills Maze, Evan's Plunge (an indoor hot spring water park), Mt. Rushmore, plenty of hiking. Just outside Custer is Ken's Rocks and Minerals. Have Ken take you out panning for gold in his creek (if he's still alive--he was over 90 when we went there two years ago). It was the real deal, not just planted fake gold in a trough. The kids learned a lot and we found three little flakes of REAL GOLD. They were impressed. If you run out of things to do in the Black Hills, Devil's Tower is not far away. The kids liked that too. If anyone in the family is into motorcycles, Sturgis is nearby also.