Travel at your own pace and with your friends and/or family in a comfortable Motorhome to get to know, in the purest American style, a memorable combination of Yellowstone and three other National Parks; Mount Rushmore and several world renowned icons: Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and Deadwood Stage; Old Faithful, geysers and gigantic waterfalls, Indians, cowboys and the Laramie men. And the colossal Rocky Mountains too.
DEPARTURES FROM: DENVER
DURATION: 13 DAYS
DISTANCE: 1,505 MILES
We pick up our motorhome and head off to Cheyenne, Wyoming – the capital and gateway to Cowboy Country. Try to arrive during Frontier Days(www.cfdrodeo.com) , making sure to book well in advance, as the event draws visitors from far away.
110 miles (176.99 km) to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Visit the State Capitol Building and the State Museum. www.campcheyenne.com/default.aspx
A long journey through undifferentiated places, of tumbleweeds, which makes sense when we cross the border with South Dakota. The campsite we recommend doesn’t have sockets or connections, showers or facilities, but buffalo and deer graze quietly on the other side of the fence. The howl of coyotes breaks the deafening silence, and the stars here shine like in few places. If we prefer, we can choose another campsite with more services.
270 miles (434.43 km) to Wind Cave National Park.
Visit the Mammoth Cemetery and Evans Plunge Water Park in Hot Springs. www.koa.com/campgrounds/mount-rushmore
We’ve all heard of Mount Rushmore, one of America’s icons. The monument to Crazy Horse, a gigantic bust of the Indian chief carved into the side of a hill. Both visits are essential..
40 miles (64.36 km) to Mount Rushmore KOA Campsite (through Custer State Park).
Visit the Badlands National Park, and if time permits, the site of the Wounded Knee massacre. www.mountrushmorekoa.com
As the song says, “The Deadwood Stage was comin’ on over the hill” probably carrying Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. It’s worth stopping for a pint at the Old Franklin Hotel or Kevin Costner’s bar… she fell in love with Deadwood during the filming of “Dancing with Wolves”. Encounters in the third phase? Remember the movie? It is filmed in Devils Tower.
120 miles (193.08 km) to Devils Tower stopping at Deadwood.
Visit Spearfish Canyon. It’s easy to get to from Deadwood and is on your way to Wyoming. www.devilstowerkoa.com
It may seem like a long trip, but we will be riding mostly on the highway, so we should have no problem getting to Cody and visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Society, just after noon. It may seem boring, but we shouldn’t miss it. We are at the gates of Yellowstone National Park.
315 miles (506.8 km) to Cody.
Visit Medicine Wheel by taking the Alt 14 scenic road before reaching Cody. In Cody, visit the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, with its collection of paintings by Remington and Russel.
An impressive tour through the canyon of Shoshone Canyon to enter the Yellowstone National Park to the west. About 40 miles (64.36 km) separate us from Grant Village and our campsite. The traffic jams that we will occasionally find are produced by other visitors when stopping to look at an animal. It may be a moose with its cub, a bear, or a group of deer. It’s hard to resist stopping to admire the wildlife. Just before Grant Village, we’ll turn right onto Old Faithful – a geyser that gets its name from the regularity with which it expels miles of liters of boiling water each day at about 150 feet (45.72 meters) into the air several times throughout the day.
100 miles (160.9 km) to Grant Village Campground in Yellowstone National Park, which is usually open from the third weekend in June to the third weekend in September.
Visit the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with its twin waterfalls, one of which doubles in height to Niagara Falls, the Paintpot fountain and many more geothermal lagoons and geysers.
We will travel 22 miles (35.3 km) south from the entrance of Yellowstone National Park to enter Grand Teton National Park. Just look at the Colter Bay website to admire the majesty of the Grand Teton Range. Open from June to September, camping is not cheap; But its location will make it worth it.
40 miles (64.36 km) to Colter Bay Village in Jackson Lake.
Visit Flagg Ranch Resort, between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
Today we will leave Grand Teton behind through the Great Divide Basin to the city of Lander. On our trip we will pass through the Wind River Indian Reservation, home to Shoshone and Arapajoe peoples.
140 miles (225.26 km) to Lander.
Visit Fort Washakie and the tomb of Sacajawea and Chief Washakie, the last chief of the Shoshone.
With good reason, the name Laramie conjures up images of the old west. Originally, Laramie was a railway town with such hustle and bustle that the idea of building the territorial prison here made all the sense in the world. In Wyoming Territorial Park you can catch a glimpse of the cells where bandits like Butch Cassidy once served time.
235 miles (378.1 km) to Laramie.
Visit the hot springs of Saratoga’s Hobo Pool, deviating from the spectacular Medicine Bow National Forest.
The last night of our tour will be spent in Fort Collins: the city that Money Magazine described as the best place to live in the USA. In the hills of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado this place is perfect to relax after having enjoyed so many wonderful places and views during the last days.
75 miles (120.6 km) to Fort Collins Lakeside.
Visit the Anheuser-Busch brewery to see their wonderful horses and try a Budweiser and maybe visit some of the local craft breweries.
We drove 60 miles (96.54 km) to the Cruise America branch in Denver for the delivery of the motorhome and headed to the airport for the departure of the flight to Spain. Night on board.
