Better late than never! Here’s a high-level trip report…
What gave me the easiest start in planning is that I went on a very similar trip with my parents in the 1990s. I remembered our big main stops, but I also pulled out my pictures from that vacation and made notes about what we did on specific days when we stayed longer (like at Yellowstone). What complicated our trip was the flooding there in early June. We actually didn’t know that it would reopen in time for our planned arrival until about 36 hours before we left. Had it not, I was going to switch directions and figure out at the last minute a trip to New England/Acadia instead. I knew there would still be plenty to do out west had we not been able to go to Yellowstone, but I also didn’t want to drive all that way and not be able to go. Fortunately, the southern loop did reopen in time for us, so west we went!
We are in Louisville, so we took a northerly route out up through South Dakota, with stops along the way. Our longest day of driving on the way out was just around 7 hours. On the way back, once we left the Grand Tetons, we had about 2.5 days of straight driving back. By “straight,” I mean no “destinations”…we stopped overnight, but we didn’t do much of anything. Heading back, our longest day was about 12 hours.
Day 1- Louisville to Dubuque, IA- my husband wanted to see the Field of Dreams baseball field, and it’s nearby in Dyersville, IA. Stayed in a Hampton Inn.
Day 2- saw Field of Dreams, drove to Brookings, SD. Stayed in a Hampton Inn. (This stop set up the next day for me. I read the Little House books over and over as a kid and could not go to South Dakota again without visiting De Smet (something we hadn’t done on the trip as a kid). Brookings was the closest town with a hotel brand we were looking for.)
Day 3- Went to various locations that were in the later Little House books and actually spent much of the day in the De Smet area. Drove to Kadoka, SD, that afternoon and stayed in an AirBnB.
Day 4- Kadoka is only about 20 minutes from the entrance to the Badlands National Park. Spent the day there doing the various shorter hikes and driving around to the other lookouts. Finished the day in Wall, SD, and visited Wall Drugs (huge touristy trap, but there are a ton of billboards for it along the road in SD, so you can’t not go). Drove to Rapid City, and stayed in another Hampton Inn & Suites (sensing a theme? ) for the next two nights.
Day 5- Went to Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial. We could have spent more time in the Black Hills or going to Keystone or Windcave National Park which is also nearby, but we opted for a small sight-seeing break and actually decided to play a round of miniature golf! It was pirate themed, so absolutely nothing to do with what I’d picture for SD/“out west” at all, but fun (I won!) and right next to a grocery so we could stock up before heading to Yellowstone. Stayed the night again in Rapid City.
Day 6- Left Rapid City via Deadwood and Devil’s Tower to head to Yellowstone (east entrance, Cody, WY, is the closest town to it). We were originally going to stay at one of the new buildings at Canyon Lodge, but due to the flooding, they were not going to reopen before we arrived. I switched our lodging to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel cabins instead, and that’s where we checked in this evening and stayed for the next 4 nights. (I’m not fond of hotel hopping when possible, so both the Lake Hotel area and Canyon areas are both good, more central spots for day trips in any direction.)
Day 7- We went west from the Lake cabins today, following the southern loop. Visited the West Thumb Geyser Basin, Old Faithful area, Grand Prismatic, Gibbon Falls, and Beryl Springs, with some stops being short hikes and some just going to the lookouts/park paths.
Day 8- Went north from the cabin this day towards the Canyon area, and visited LeHardy rapids, the Mud Volcano area, Hayden Valley, and both the north & south rim drives along the Canyon. (Again a mix of short hikes and lookouts/park paths.)
Day 9- Headed back to the Canyon area and did a longer, backcountry hike along the rim in the morning. This afternoon we did a horseback ride from the Canyon Corral and then went to the Norris Geyser Basin area.
Day 10- Went back to the Old Faithful area and did a longer walk to see some of the geysers that we didn’t visit on the first day. Had lunch and then left YNP, heading to the Grand Teton National Park. On the drive through GTNP, we stopped at the various pull-offs/lookouts along the road to Jackson, WY. We stayed at another Hampton Inn in Jackson for the next two nights.
Day 11- Took a rafting trip on the Snake River this morning. Did a hike around Taggert Lake in GTNP that afternoon and saw Jenny Lake, and that evening we rode the gondola to the top of Teton Village.
Day 12- This was our last official sight-seeing day. Did a hike around String Lake and the Leigh Lake area, had lunch, and then headed out to start our trip back home. Stopped in Laramie, WY, at a Hilton Garden Inn for the night.
Day 13- Drive from Laramie to Kansas City, MO. This was actually our longest travel day of the whole vacation. Stayed the night at a Springhill Suites. Got frozen custard on the Kansas side of the city, since that was a state that we hadn’t hit yet so the kids could say they’ve been there.
Day 14- Drive from Kansas City to home; official end of the trip.
Overall great trip. We did and saw a ton in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, but we could have done a ton more still. Since the northern loop in YNP hadn’t yet reopened while we were there (it actually did the day we got back to Louisville), we missed all those areas (like Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar Valley). Had it been open while we were there, I would have rearranged some of our days and maybe not seen all of the things we did go to on the southern loop. We also could have spent more time in the Teton/Jackson area (loved the hiking there!) and explored more in the Rapid City area, but given that the trip was already a full 2 weeks, I don’t think we could have added days even though I wanted to! That just leaves some for a future vacation—maybe flying out next time though!
Hope this gives you some ideas…Let me know if you have questions about anything specific!