advice needed please

seatrout

seatrout

New member
I need some advice on approx timings for my vacation plans

Have you been to these places?

Steamboat Springs
Mount Rushmore
Devil's Tower
Thermopolis
Yellowstone


If so .. how long did you spend there .. is Mount Rushmore an hour or a day, for example?

Has anyone done a helicopter flight at Mount Rushmore / Crazy Horse monuments?

Any help appreciated :)
 
Mount Rushmore itself wouldn't take very long, really. Like an hour or two. But, when we went, we did a train ride through the Black Hills, and that was really fun and gorgeous. It still only took a couple of additional hours.

Yellowstone is so huge and there are so many parts to it that you could probably spend a day or a week there. It just depends on what you want to do.

I'm no help on any of the other locations. Sounds like a really fun vacation, though. :)
 
Oh Lydia .. I could cry. I have just looked up the train and it looks amazing .... but ...
the schedule starts exactly a week after we will be there :(
 
Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse are a day together. Yellowstone I'd try to allow a week, it's simply amazing. I lived in West Yellowstone for the summer one year and I still didn't get to see all of the park.
 
I wish we could spend a week there but we won;t be able to have that much time .. we have 10 days to get from Denver .. via these places and then back across Nevada to Scaramento
 
I went to Devil's Tower as a child and I remember it being more of a pit stop on our way to somewhere else than a destination. I don't think we spent much more than maybe an hour there and really, it might have been more of a jump out and take pictures kind of thing. So I don't think you'd need a ton of time spent there.

As far as Yellowstone, when we went we spent about a week there: 4 days touring Yellowstone, 1 day at Grand Tetons NP and 1 day relaxing at our campsite. That was more time than I think we really needed but it did allow us to get to almost all of the major areas of the park - I think the lake was the one part we didn't see.

Since it sounds like you don't have that amount of time, realistically I think you could see the highlights in one long day or over two days if you went in with a plan. One thing to keep in mind is Yellowstone is huge in area and the speed limits are slow because of the animals - and it's not uncommon to get stuck waiting for a herd of buffalo to cross the road or walk right down it in front of you, haha. So even distances on the map that didn't look that far were usually at least a 20 minute drive or more. We spent a lot more time in the car on that trip than we thought we would, haha.
 
I've only been to mt Rushmore and devils tower - both only take a few hours. Devils tower less then mt Rushmore for sure. I'm jealous that you get to visit all those places!! (Sorry for the poor grammar - on my phone!)
 
In late September, we went to Yellowstone for a day and saw barely a blip of it! But we did see plenty of wildlife, lots of hot springs, and Old Faithful. I wish we had more time, but it was a last-minute thing when we were in Idaho interviewing. I will say, that was a great time to go since it was much less busy than it is in the summer months... locals say it's one of their favorite times to visit, at the end of the season when it's just starting to get chilly. And the autumn colors were coming in. Just beautiful!
 
We did Devils tower in a morning. And Mount Rushmore we went on the 3rd of July when they do the fireworks. We went and saw the Crazy Horse man that morning. I think that was one of my favorite trips. We also worked in Seven Falls, Black Hills, Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods and more that trip. But it sounds like you've already got your hands full. We typically spent half a day at one and then half the day at the next place. That's just how we do road trips though. I'd make a list of around 20 places in an area and then grab a map. We'd just go and my daddy would drive whichever way I pointed. Black Hills and Seven Falls really were beautiful if you have time.
I think if you figure out exactly which you want to see and then spilt your time up you should be fine. But yes beware of the buffalo crossing, it is a real thing.
 
I've been to all those places, everyone is spot on. None of those places need more than a day. I went to Yellowstone as a teenager and to be honest, we saw Old Faithful and were like, uh, wow, we waited for that? lol Maybe it was a teenager thing, but I was a bit bored. When will you be there? We decided to go to Rapid City after the 4th of July this year for a short vacation. (I am from North Dakota) I wish you could sneak in some time in the Badlands in ND.
 
We love the Keystone and Rapid City area. There is so much to do! Not only is there Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore, but there are some amazing caves! We love the caves. We spent a weekend and stopped at several places. I can't even remember them all. When I was in highschool our church group spent a week there and we had plenty to keep us busy. We didn't do Devil's Tower but when DH and I go back with the kids we will... and the badlands and a few other areas we missed before.
 
Nettio said:
One thing to keep in mind is Yellowstone is huge in area and the speed limits are slow because of the animals - and it's not uncommon to get stuck waiting for a herd of buffalo to cross the road or walk right down it in front of you, haha. So even distances on the map that didn't look that far were usually at least a 20 minute drive or more. We spent a lot more time in the car on that trip than we thought we would, haha.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes... I just read this. It's so true. Driving around Yellowstone will be beautiful to see... but will test your patience. Herds passing in front of the car is one thing. But, another thing is the tourists stopping in their car in front of you to take a picture of something (instead of pulling over to the designated areas and walking out to take the pic... people were lazy and wanted to tour from the comfort of their vehicles). The driving situation in the park will cost you some time. I'd say designate 2 days to Yellowstone, at least!
 
We went to Steamboat Springs last summer and spent about 4 days there. It was beautiful and we had such a great time! Depending on whether you just want to see it or want to do some out-doorsy type stuff, you could spend a day or several days. We took the gondola up to the top of the mountain and went hiking one day (you can also rent bikes to take up the gondola and then ride the trails down). Another couple days, we went tubing on the very, very shallow river that runs right through town (that was our favorite activity of the trip). We went on the Alpine slide and ate at some great restaurants. They also have an amazing hot spring outside of town. I'd say that each activity itself took about 2-3 hours (except the Alpine Slide which doesn't take that long), so you could combine some of them in a day (e.g., gondola & short hike + alpine slide) or be more leisurely about it if you wanted to stay longer.
 
I've been to all of them but Thermopolis. Everyone's comments are really similar to what I would say. Half a day is plenty for Mount Rushmore and an hour is plenty for Devil's Tower. Especially when spending less time at those places will leave you more time for Yellowstone. I have traveled a decent amount and Yellowstone is still one of my very favorite places to go. I would try to spend two days there, but if you can't swing it, you have to spend one entire day there for sure.
 
Devil's Tower is really not long of a visit, maybe 30 minutes. There are some nice photo ops there and some history, but really not much. Mt. Rushmore is about an hour or two, depending on if you watch the video and go inside the gift shop. We enjoyed it and spent more time there taking photos than anything else. Yellowstone has LOADS of stuff there to visit. Haven't been to the other places.
 
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