Hollyday Planner

See my itinerary for the summary of this trip.

This was an exciting vacation to plan. Organizing how to fit in some of the big highlights in America. We saw Mount Rushmore, Devil’s tower, Yellow Stone, Grand Tetons, & more. I hope you make some version of this trip. It’s one of my favorites. Here’s the details of our vacation.

Day 1

This trip started with an overnight drive from Oklahoma north to South Dakota. We stopped for a quick photo in Nebraska on the way. Once we got to our first destination, everything is very close together. Making this a jam packed day 1.

• Minuteman missile National Historic Site – This might not be high on the search results for South Dakota. But this should be high on your plan. Stop in the National Park’s office for the museum and information for where to see one of the missiles. We wanted to tour the control center but it was closed. Check out the link to see what’s needed to reserve tickets.
• Badlands National Park – Only 15 minutes from Minuteman Site. This is a very large park with a variety of nature sites & historic information. We did the main Loop Road. We spent about 2 hours with a few stops on the drive. Coming from the Minuteman Site you’ll go South to North. Which will put you right by our next stop.
• Wall Drug Store – The city of Wall, South Dakota, is home to this well known stop. The store is practically a full city block. There’s something for everybody. A great place for a quick break & recharge.
• Mammoth site – Really excited I found this. They are still actively digging this site. You get to see fossils from the ice age & learn about the science behind this discovery. It’s about an hour & a half from Wall Drug. And is a slight turn off the path to Mount Rushmore. But I suggest fitting it in this order for the road trip.
• Mount Rushmore – The big headline of the day. From Mammoth Site it’s about an hour back north. Parking will be crazy. See if you can spot the 5th face in the mountain. We also enjoyed the sculpture studio.
• Crazy Horse – The statue is actively being carved into the mountain. This is practically right next to Mount Rushmore. There’s plenty of options for how to spend time here. They even offer a tour to the top of the mountain if you want to get up close.
• Custer State Park – Where we stayed the night. We got a cabin in the Camp BlueBell Campground. We drove the Wildlife loop. And ate dinner at the restaurant. Great place to stay.

Day 2

The fun continued in nearby Deadwood & Sturgis as we made our way north.

• Deadwood – This historic town is about an hour from the Cabin. We stopped first at Mount Moriah cemetery. This is where Wild Bill & Calamity Jane are buried. Plus, it has a great Birdseye view of the down. We then headed downtown for a stroll. A highlight for us was the Historic Saloon #10. We went downstairs to the original location of the bar for a photo op. We also learned the history of what happened.
• Sturgis – Famous for the Bike Rally. Which… we didn’t know was the weekend of our trip. As we were coming north we saw tons of bikes. So I looked and sure enough, we were headed to the rally. We had some fun planned, but the rally was better. Sturgis is roughly 30 minutes from Deadwood.
• Devil’s Tower, Wyoming – We followed the bikes and made our way over to Devil’s Tower. It’s and easy 2 hour drive from Sturgis. This site is crazy. You see it well in the distance and it just gets massive the closer you get. There are usually people climbing the side and we had fun watching some while we were there. We walked around it & the views looking out are incredible. We climbed up a few of the rocks on the base. And tried the classic photo illusion of falling from the top.
• Bowman, ND – For us, North Dakota was a required stop. Trying to go all 50 states. If this isn’t importation, I would skip this leg. The drive was shockingly desolate & long. It was fun to think about what life is like for those who live there. If you are going this way, we drove into Bowman, North Dakota. It’s a cute small town with great charm.

Day 3

This is a slower paced day. Montana is a big state so there’s a lot of driving. But it’s good to have some days with less activities. This way you can rest up before the next jam-packed day. I suggest finding a place to stop every so often to try to break it up. But windshield time can be some of the best bonding time for families.

• Theodore Roosevelt National Park -We obviously love National Parks. This was an interesting one. The COVID impact struck us again here though. Some of the things were closed. We did the South Unit Scenic Drive and got real close to a bison. If you skip this park, I’ve heard the Eastern part of North Dakota is really cool. It may be good to look at incorporating Fargo with a Minnesota itinerary.
• Little Bighorn Battlefield – Custer’s Last Stand! Now you’ll understand the phrase “die on that hill”. This place is MASSIVE. It gives a great understanding of what happened here. It’s a driving tour with lots of options to get out for pictures & history lessons.
• Billings, MT – This is a stop we made to break up the drive. It’s close to the Battlefield & will put you on I-90. I’m glad we weren’t making this drive in the winter. The snow fences along the drive make that look intimidating. But this is a popular route for road trips. You’ll have fun watching the landscape.
• Bozeman, MT – This is the town we chose to spend the night. It got us ready to start the big show, Yellowstone, the next day.

Day 4 & 5 – Yellowstone

There will be too many pictures to pick from when you’re done here. Everybody should spend at least 2 days here once in their life. Without polling my family, I would say this was our favorite US National park.

• Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center – Honestly, I would skip this. But… you’re guaranteed to see bears. And it’s on the way into Yellowstone. Check out the site to decide if you want to include this in your vacation.
• Yellowstone – PRO TIP: Download the National Parks App before getting into the park. There is little to no cell reception. The app is a great way to find everything you want to see.
  • We did the North Loop Day 1 and the South Loop Day 2
  • Some of our favorites: Mammoth Hot Springs, Undine/Wraith Falls, Mud Volcano, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Old Faithful (& the Inn), Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone Grand Canyon.
  • We grabbed lunch at the Inn & prepared ourselves for the show. Sure enough, Old Faithful was right on time. We did grab seats fairly early and glad we did. We got front row.
  • Use that app to help pick which stops you want to make. You could easily spend a full week here. We had to make some tough decisions for which stops to skip.
• Cody, WY – Between these two days we stayed at the KOA in Cody. We love a good camping experience for this trip. It’s about an hour from the park. Also, cody also has many great sites to see that we didn’t plan for this trip. We enjoyed a family cook out, then played some of the games around the park. Great memories.

Finish Day 5

The grand finale with a surprise. Yellowstone connects with Grand Teton so it’s 2 parks for 1.

• Grand Teton – This is where we saw a mama bear with 3 cubs! We did Signal Mountain, Jenny Lake, Snake River, Oxbow Bend, Jackson Lake.
  PRO TIP: If you haven’t ready my Grand Canyon post I’ll repeat this one here. It’s important. If you see cars pulled over, keep your eyes peeled. There’s probably wildlife nearby. These bears, though, were right in plain sight. Plus, the park rangers were out there directing traffic. They had drawn a big crowd. And they were so cute!
  PRO TIP: Put your phone on video mode & keep rolling. You’ll be more likely to catch a good shot you can save. Trying to click photo and capture the exact moment can be difficult. Especially because you’re in a moving car while they are also moving.
• Jackson Hole – The highway out of Grand Teton will put you right to Jackson, Wyoming. I wanted to see the 3 Million Dollar Bar but we didn’t get to. This is a well-known ski area so there are plenty of restaurants and stops to pick.
• From here, we started our drive home with a stop in Colorado to see family. We had some things on a list of stops we could make. The Flaming Gorge looked most interesting to me personally. However, at this point, we were ready to start home. Plus, there was a large wildfire in the area. So we scooted our way to the family’s house.