Help me plan my 1 month road trip

[Anonymous]

We have a month over the summer and we’d like to do a road trip across the US.

We haven’t been yet much beyond the east coast, so would like to drive west either towards Yellowstone or Washington state or towards San Francisco.

The kids are 10, 12, and 14 so great ages for an extended road trip. Thinking of making about 4-5 stops so we spend 4-5 days in each place.

What would be your fun spots to spend 4-5 days on a month long road trip? National parks, state parks, lakes, rivers, cities, fun kids attractions.

Would love to visit Yellowstone but that could be too late now to plan so areas around it or other alternatives would be great as well.

[Anonymous]

I would look for national parks/state parks/sites that are less well known.

Here are a few of my favorites:

A few years ago my son (age 16 at the time) went to Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado.
Last summer we went to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. One of our favorite things we did was go kayaking with https://paddlepicturedrocks.com/

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP. I was looking more yesterday into options and think we’d enjoy staying a week in 1 place.

So we’d drive out west in 2-3 days, and then could stay a week in South Dakota, a week in Montana, or we could choose Colorado or Iowa.

For me Yellowstone is a dream but if it will be as crowded as Disney during spring break, I’d better look for something else.

Any lakes out west where we can spend a week at a lake? Wonder if it’s worth driving it all the way to pacific or leave it for another trip where we just fly all the way there?

Any gems in Nebraska or Idaho?

Should we keep it to South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming? Could stop a week on a lake in Iowa, any gems in Iowa?

[Anonymous]

We did this in 2021 with our kids ages 11, 11, 8, and 3. Our stops were:

Nashville -- 1 night to break up drive
Memphis -- 2 nights
Oklahoma City -- 1 night to break up drive
Santa Fe/ABQ -- 3 nights
Grand Canyon/Williams, AZ -- 3 nights
San Diego -- 4 nights
Las Vegas -- 1 night to break up drive
Salt Lake City -- 1 night to break up drive
Yellowstone -- 4 nights
Billings, MT -- 1 night to break up drive
Custer, SD/Mt Rushmore/Badlands -- 3 nights
Sioux Falls, SD -- 1 night to break up drive
St. Joseph, MO/Columbia, MO/Indianapolis --each 1 night to see DH's relatives. We also stopped for a few hours in St. Louis

We drove back to DC straight from Indy.

It was seriously such an amazing trip. I'm happy to answer any questions or give other tips.

[Anonymous]

OMG thanks PP 7:31 this is amazing! Sounds like an amazing trip! Did you this in summer? Looking back anything you’d do differently?

[Anonymous]

NP here.

There are no gems in NE or Iowa that are owed more than a quick stop when you have the opportunity to spend time in SD and points west.

The Pacific states are their own road trip. You could spend months exploring those 3.

I like the idea of going to the UP of Michigan, then to SD, and then points west. You could be at Pictured Rocks in less than 1.5 days drive from DC.

[Anonymous]

Wisconsin, Minnesota or Michigan would have better lake stops than Iowa in my opinion. Or, if you want to go more southern try Starved Rock State Park area in Illinois which is gorgeous.

Western South Dakota is probably filling up by now so you should definitely book soon.

We’ve stayed here before and my kids loved it. It was in a good location and still available when everything was getting booked up and we didn’t want to drive 45 minutes from Rapid City for everything. It is more rustic, not luxurious.

https://www.goldcampcabins.com/

[Anonymous]

PP here. We did do it in the summer...left around June 8 (kids missed last few days of school). The only thing I'd do different is make a point of spending a day or two in the Tetons. We could see them from Yellowstone and they looked so beautiful and I regret not going there too.

[Anonymous]

Couer d'Alene, Idaho is worthwhile. (Not far from Spokane, Washington.)

[Anonymous]

Have you asked your kids where they'd like to stop? Baseball hall of fame, Deadwood, or something similar that they will be excited about?

Fwiw, we did Indianapolis Speedway, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore (planned it for 4th of July; nice fireworks), Badlands, Black Hills, Cody WY, ID Falls, then onto Las vegas/Hoover Dam.

Super hot by the way and the weather can turn really bad really fast in the mid-west.

[Anonymous]

What's your travel style? From your post of saying you would like to spend a week in each place, I'm getting big city or relaxed traveling vibes. What exactly are you looking to do? One attraction followed by downtime at a pool and a leisurely dinner? A museum in the morning followed by another in the afternoon? Backpacking to a remote campsite?

I think you should look at Michigan, perhaps the Traverse City area although Pictured Rocks and the rest of the UP is also spectacular but would be a different type of vacation. In addition, consider Santa Fe, the mountains of Colorado but not necessarily Rocky Mountain National Park due to the crowding, and southwest South Dakota.

[Anonymous]

I heard two segments on NPR yesterday about winter storm damage at Yellowstone that will impact what areas are open to visitors this summer. You might want to look into that first.

I'd build an itinerary around things the kids will like since road trips can be miserable (lots of time in the car). Do they like baseball? Could you hit a handful of different stadiums? Or at least one if you have a sports fan?

Have you taken your kids to Canada--particularly French-speaking Canada? Beautiful outdoorsy opportunities abound plus it feels like a big trip since you'll encounter French and old world charm (Quebec).

i'd build a mix of cities, towns, and outdoorsy opportunities. Hit some lakes and beaches if that's what your family likes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you asked your kids where they'd like to stop? Baseball hall of fame, Deadwood, or something similar that they will be excited about?

Fwiw, we did Indianapolis Speedway, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore (planned it for 4th of July; nice fireworks), Badlands, Black Hills, Cody WY, ID Falls, then onto Las vegas/Hoover Dam.

Super hot by the way and the weather can turn really bad really fast in the mid-west.

Echo this -- We went through a thunderstorm on the way to the Badlands that forced us (and everyone) to the side of the road to wait it out.

Plus side, it passed and the Badlands after the storm were amazing. Glistening, color, so cool!

[Anonymous]

My two cents-

You need to pick either the northern parks (Yellowstone, grand Tetons, badlands) or the Southern Parks (CO, UT, NH). CA/WA/OR require a longer trip or a fly to CA and drive trip.

We did the southern trip a couple of years ago. Took a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's your travel style? From your post of saying you would like to spend a week in each place, I'm getting big city or relaxed traveling vibes. What exactly are you looking to do? One attraction followed by downtime at a pool and a leisurely dinner? A museum in the morning followed by another in the afternoon? Backpacking to a remote campsite?

I think you should look at Michigan, perhaps the Traverse City area although Pictured Rocks and the rest of the UP is also spectacular but would be a different type of vacation. In addition, consider Santa Fe, the mountains of Colorado but not necessarily Rocky Mountain National Park due to the crowding, and southwest South Dakota.

Op here. Yes, it’s more relaxed style, but not big city necessarily. I like spending a week or 2 weeks somewhere so we have time to really explore and do a variety of things. This may be a slightly different vacation because of the distances we are planning. We’ve been before to Michigan traverse city and the dunes, so this time focusing on areas and states where we haven’t been at all, and this is basically the middle of the US. It’s too big to even cover in a month. I guess we’re now going for the flavor of the area, so would be ok with not seeing every single thing but just a few major attractions and then small scale fun things to do, like swimming, hiking, may be find a place with activities like zip lines, kayaking, and this type of stuff.