4 Week Road Trip to Northern US
Replies: 11 - Last Post: Jul 6, 2012 10:39 AM Last Post By: montereyjack
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4 Week Road Trip to Northern US
My girlfriend and I are planning a 4 week road trip to the Northern parks in the US. I've done a 3 week road trip around the desert SW before and i've flown to the Colorado parks, so i'd like to focus on the parks I haven't been to yet.Here's the rough itinerary that can easily change, just trying to estimate the number of days in each park.
Sunday 7/22 (can't start on saturday) -Maryland to around Toledo, OH, stop at Cuyahoga Valley National Park
7/23 Toledo to Minneapolis, stop at Mall of America
7/24 Minneapolis to Theodore Roosevelt NP South Unit, camp
7/25 Teddy Roosevelt NP South Unit hiking, camp
7/26 Teddy Roosevelt NP North Unit hiking, start driving towards Billings, MT
7/27 Finish driving to Yellowstone, visit park but work way south into Tetons to camp and to avoid spending the weekend in Yellowstone
7/28 (saturday) Tetons hiking, camp
7/29 Tetons hiking, camp
7/30 Tetons hiking, camp in Yellowstone if possible
8/1 Yellowstone hiking, camp
8/2 Yellowstone hiking, camp
8/3 Yellowstone hiking, camp
8/4 (saturday) Yellowstone hiking unless tired of the park, camp
8/5 Drive ~7 hours to Glacier NP
8/6 Glacier hiking, camp
8/7 Glacier hiking, camp
8/8 Glacier hiking, camp
8/9 Glacier hiking, camp
8/10 Glacier hiking, camp
8/11 (saturday) Glacier hiking unless tired of the park, camp
8/12 Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, camp
8/13 Bob Marshall Wilderness hiking, camp
8/14 Extra day for whatever, in case more time is spent in any of the previous places or another spot to visit is found
8/15 Glacier area to Devils Tower, WY, camp
8/16 South Dakota Parks - see two or three between Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Needles Highway, Custer State Park, Badlands NP
8/17 SD Parks area to around Cedar Rapids, IA
8/18 IA to around Cleveland, OH
8/19 Home in Maryland
I've done the whole drive 8 hours, spend 3 hours in a park, then drive to the next before and you miss so much in the park, hence spending a number of days at each of the main parks. There's a lot of good trails in these parks and we'll be able to do somewhere around 6-10 miles a day depending on the trails, so I plan to take it at a decent pace and see a lot. Plus less overall driving = less gas used.
I know the South Dakota places need a good 1-2 weeks to visit themselves, but I wanted to save that area for its own trip. We just happened to have an extra 1-2 days that we could spend seeing some of this area and it's conveniently on the way home.
I don't want to book campgrounds ahead of time because the days at the parks could easily change, maybe we're sick of Yellowstone after 4 days or maybe we spend an extra day there. The thing i'm wondering is, are there a number of campgrounds whether it be in the national park or on a private campground very close by, where they won't book ahead of time and will be a first come first serve kind of deal? Do you really stand much of a chance in getting a campground site for a couple days at these places in the middle of the summer?
The other option is to do another desert SW trip to the lesser visited parks, some of which I missed or hardly visited before, but I was hoping to visit this area and my girlfriend being a teacher means the summer is the only option.
Thanks,
Jeremy
1
Maryland to around Toledo, OH, stop at Cuyahoga Valley National Park
That's a looong day. You're looking at about 8 hours of just driving, then adding a trip to a park on that. Cuyahoga is not much of a "stop and look" park either.I find it odd you have more days for xGlacier than xYellowstone. Especially when you are rushing other portions.
8/16 South Dakota Parks - see two or three between Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Needles Highway, Custer State Park, Badlands NP
Even though you want this for it's own trip, I still think you're biting off more than you can chew here. Remember how you have many days in xGlacier? Steal one for here.You can easily spend a full day in xCuster. The next day, visit xWind Cave and xRushmore.
On your way home the next day, you can drive through the xBadlands, since it's on the way and you can easily just stop at viewpoints.
(Btw, the Needles Highway is in xCuster.)
I don't want to book campgrounds ahead of time because the days at the parks could easily change
You may find yourself in less desirable campgrounds (i.e. not near main attractions, not even in the park, etc.). You're going in high season.maybe we're sick of Yellowstone after 4 days
You'll just have scratched the surface.
2
On the last road trip I managed to go from Baltimore to St. Louis in a 14 hour day. Not advisable, not a lot of fun, but it was possible. I know Cuyahoga is pretty large but because it's fairly close and wouldn't be hard to visit on its own trip I didn't want to spend a ton of time in the park. I would've camped here but there aren't any campgrounds in the park.I planned on more time in Glacier because Glacier has so many less places to just drive to, get out, and there's the view or it's a very short walk to the view. There's a ton of 6-10 mile hikes in Glacier and i'd like to go on a number of them. Yellowstone has plenty of trails too, but i'm more interested in visiting Glacier than Yellowstone.
I know it's the busy season, but the gf is a teacher so it's the only season she can do a 4 week trip.
I wasn't going to do all of those things in the SD area, just 2 or 3 depending on what they were over 1 to 2 days depending on the amount of time we had. Nothing is set in stone, it's just a list of places to visit with the freedom to spend more or less at them after we see how much we like the areas. We could even spend an extra 2 or 3 days in Yellowstone and cut out SD completely if we really wanted to.
4
Considering the Badlands is what I want to see the most out of that area, we likely would. :-)Do you have any specific trail recommendations for yellowstone or the other parks? I know the area's pretty diverse and we expect to hike in quite a few different areas plus the usual overlooks. The shorter trails in the 4 mile range are nice, though a couple of 6-10 mile ones would be good to get away from a little bit of the crowds.
We're likely going to find a company to go horseback riding with, i've found a 3 hour trip in the Tetons that was pretty reasonable, though if you guys know of any riding into more remote areas (short of being an overnight trip) we would be interested.
I'll definitely drive Going to the Sun road in Glacier, though I haven't looked into which trails to do there yet.
Anything in the nearby National Forests that's worth hiking or an overlook not to be missed? I plan on going to the Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Have you guys found Waterton Lakes NP in Canada to be worth the visit too?
Thanks,
Jeremy
5
With an 11 hour drive between Toledo and Minnepolis, and another 9 hour drive to Medora, ND and Teddy Roosevelt NP, there's no time to visit/see Mall of America except from the outside.Because Glacier is top of your list, I suggest you instead take the more southern MN/SD route on the way out - via Badlands, NP to Casper, WY, through Yellowstone (by which time you'll be beyond the weekend). Explore Yellowstone, moving campsite a couple of times as you work your way NW and go on to Glacier.
Put Teddy Roosevelt NP (which was frankly under-whelming) & Minneapolis/MOA (which I enjoy as a local) - especially if shopping is planned that will result in stuff needing to be hauled along the rest of the trip -- at the end of your vacation.
7
Just noticed I was missing 7/31 in the original list...so add 1 more day to YellowstoneWe could always drop Cuyahoga Valley and drive farther than Toledo, which would give us a few hours at the Mall of America. I wasn't expecting to walk around the entire place and go on a big shopping spree.
My concern with going through the SD area first is I know we could spend 2 weeks there easily, so I don't want to spend 2 or 3 days, then get farther west to Yellowstone and Glacier and wish we had more time at those, because they're harder for us to get to. If we love Glacier and Yellowstone enough, we could end up staying an extra 1-2 days at each and just drop the SD area (aside from a drive through the badlands) on the way back.
By the way, which route do you guys recommend taking in Yellowstone, 26 (we'd do tetons first), 16, or 212?
If we switch routes it'd be something like:
Sunday 7/22 (can't start on saturday) - Maryland to Chicago
7/23 Chicago to maybe Chamberlain, SD
7/24 Badlands, other SD parks
7/25 SD Parks
7/26 SD Parks to Tetons (8-9 hours)
7/27 Tetons
7/28 (saturday) Tetons
7/29 Tetons
7/30 Yellowstone
7/31 Yellowstone
8/1 Yellowstone
8/2 Yellowstone
8/3 Yellowstone
8/4 (saturday) Yellowstone
8/5 Drive ~7 hours to Glacier NP
8/6 Glacier hiking, camp
8/7 Glacier hiking, camp
8/8 Glacier hiking, camp
8/9 Glacier hiking, camp
8/10 Glacier hiking, camp
8/11 (saturday) Glacier hiking unless tired of the park, camp
8/12 Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, camp
8/13 Bob Marshall Wilderness hiking, camp
8/14 Extra day for whatever, in case more time is spent in any of the previous places or another spot to visit is found
8/15 Glacier area to Teddy Roosevelt (8-9 hours)
8/16 Teddy Roosevelt NP, South Unit
8/17 Teddy Roosevelt NP, North Unit for 2-3 hours, drive to Minneapolis
8/18 Couple hours at Mall of America, drive to Chicago
8/19 Home in Maryland
8
You may be pushing it on those first two days, but that's up to you.You may consider a brief stop at the Indiana Sand Dunes near xChicago.
9
On the last big road trip my friend and I made it an hour past St. Louis after a 14 hour 900 mile day. Going 12 hours won't be quite as bad, though I know it'll still be a long day.Thanks for the Indiana Dunes suggestion!! That is actually a great suggestion because they have campsites and we'd be arriving sunday night, so they may not be full and it'd only be $15 to camp instead of $50 for a hotel. Plus it would also cut down on our first day's drive by a 1/2 hour. Then in the morning we could catch the sunrise over Lake Michigan and walk around the dunes a bit if we want. We're right next to Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland so we've been to a place just like here, wouldn't need to spend a ton of time exploring it the next day.
Edited by: jjkirkendall
10
Maryland to Yellowstone, via the Mall of America? What are you smoking? Why not just fly to Denver and get a car? You are missing so much between Maryland and Chicago alone its a shame, why even drive this? It will be 4 tanks of gas alone just to the NW region, plus lodging/food, seems to me flying/renting car would be the same, and also allow you more time for the big parks. Also, camping in these parks you need reservations in summer months.Why on earth would you stop at Mall Of America? Its gigantic and would take 3 hours just walk all 4 levels, its a hellish place of nothing but mostly crap stores/chains that are everywhere else in any major market.
I would much rather stop in downtown Chicago and enjoy Michigan Avenue, the Lakefront and wine, dine and shop there, its 1 mile from 90/94 at the Ohio Exit.
Toledo to Chicago is 3.5 hours, and Chicago to Minneapolis is 5 hours, thats not including traffic in Chicago. I suggest you take the I-90 toll road into Chicago, and not I-94.
Why would you not enjoy downtown Cleveland and the Rock n Roll Museum?
You could camp at Indiana Dunes National Seashore, they even even have Tent Only across the road from the main park a few miles. There is also a few good state parks in Wisconsin not far off 94 for camping too. Black RIver State Forest is very nice.
