South Dakota to Wyoming: the Badlands, Black Hills, Yellowstone and Grand Teton

Rapid City to the Badlands

Rapid City Regional Airport to Wall and the Pinnacles entrance, then the Sage Creek Rim Road and the Badlands Loop Road to Cedar Pass

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Badlands
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Soir

Lodging at the park's edge is simpler than in the towns, and evening choices are few, so we sit down to a welcome dinner near Cedar Pass, then step out for the last of the light.

Compris

• Pick-up at Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP)
• Badlands National Park entry
• The Sage Creek Rim Road and Roberts Prairie Dog Town
• The Badlands Loop Road overlooks in evening light
• Welcome briefing and welcome dinner near Cedar Pass

Badlands trails, then into the Black Hills

Cedar Pass to the Door, Window and Fossil Exhibit trails, then Rapid City and Keystone, with Mount Rushmore in the evening

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Keystone
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we walk it properly: a short boardwalk through a gap in the Badlands Wall onto a maze of eroded ridges. The Window Trail is next door, and at the Fossil Exhibit Trail a boardwalk passes casts of the animals found in these rocks, among them early horses, rhinos and sabre-toothed cats. At the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, named for a Lakota congressman born on the Rosebud Reservation, the park's story comes together before we leave the heat behind.

Après-midi

It is about an hour and a half west to Rapid City for a sit-down lunch downtown, where bronze statues of past presidents stand on the street corners, then half an hour up into the pines to Keystone. The afternoon is free.

Soir

In the evening we drive five minutes to Mount Rushmore for the lighting ceremony, when it runs, as the faces are lit against the dark.

Compris

• The Door, Window and Fossil Exhibit trails with your guide
• The Ben Reifel Visitor Center
• Sit-down lunch in downtown Rapid City and the City of Presidents statues
• The Mount Rushmore evening lighting ceremony (about late May to late September)

Mount Rushmore early, Custer State Park and Crazy Horse

Keystone to Mount Rushmore, the Iron Mountain Road and the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, then the Crazy Horse Memorial and back by Hill City

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Keystone
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We are back at Mount Rushmore by about 7:45 am, ahead of the tour coaches, with the faces in clear morning light. Gutzon Borglum and nearly 400 workers carved them between 1927 and 1941, each about 18 m high. Walk the Presidential Trail to stand below the granite, and hear the older story of the mountain, which the Lakota call the Six Grandfathers, and of the Black Hills, promised to the Lakota by the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty and taken after gold was found. The Iron Mountain Road winds south over wooden pigtail bridges and through tunnels that frame the faces behind us, into Custer State Park.

Après-midi

On the Wildlife Loop we look for bison, pronghorn, prairie dogs and the burros that wander up to cars, then sit down to lunch in the park.

Soir

In the afternoon we visit the Crazy Horse Memorial, a carving begun in 1948 and still unfinished, where Lakota opinion on the project is divided, and return to Keystone by Hill City for a free evening.

Compris

• Mount Rushmore at about 7:45 am and the Presidential Trail
• The Iron Mountain Road
• Custer State Park entry and the Wildlife Loop Road
• Sit-down lunch in Custer State Park
• Crazy Horse Memorial entry and the visitor complex

Activités en option

• Buffalo safari jeep ride in Custer State Park (price shown at booking)
• The bus to the base of the Crazy Horse carving (price shown at booking)

Deadwood and Devils Tower to Sheridan

Keystone to Hill City and Deadwood, then Spearfish, Sundance and Devils Tower, and west on I-90 by Gillette to Sheridan

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Sheridan
• Environ 6.5 h de route

Après-midi

A short run down to Spearfish brings a sit-down lunch, then we cross into Wyoming to Devils Tower, a column of grey rock rising about 265 m above the Belle Fourche River, sacred to the Lakota and other Plains nations as Bear Lodge and made the first US national monument in 1906. The paved Tower Trail circles its base. The last leg is about three hours by Gillette and I-90, with a coffee stop halfway, and we reach Sheridan, below the Bighorn Mountains, by about 6:30 pm.

Compris

• Deadwood's Main Street and Mount Moriah Cemetery with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Spearfish
• Devils Tower National Monument entry
• The Tower Trail round the base of Devils Tower

Over the Bighorns to Cody and into Yellowstone

Sheridan over the Bighorn Mountains by Granite Pass and Shell Canyon to Cody, then the Wapiti Valley, the East Entrance and Sylvan Pass to Hayden Valley and Canyon Village

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Canyon Village, Yellowstone
• Environ 6 h de route

Après-midi

Across the Bighorn Basin we reach Cody, the town Buffalo Bill Cody founded in the 1890s, for a sit-down lunch and an hour at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, five museums under one roof; most guests pick the Plains Indian Museum or the Draper natural history galleries. Then west up the Wapiti Valley beside the Shoshone River, through the East Entrance and over Sylvan Pass to Yellowstone Lake.

Soir

We stop at Lake Butte for the view across the water, and come through Hayden Valley in the early evening, when bison gather on the flats along the Yellowstone River. Dinner is waiting at Canyon Village, our base for three nights.

Compris

• The Bighorn Scenic Byway over Granite Pass
• Shell Falls in Shell Canyon
• Sit-down lunch in Cody
• Buffalo Bill Center of the West entry
• Yellowstone National Park entry by the East Entrance and Sylvan Pass
• Lake Butte overlook and Hayden Valley in the evening
• Dinner at Canyon Village

Lamar Valley at dawn and Mammoth

Canyon Village over Dunraven Pass to Tower Junction and Lamar Valley, then Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris and Artist Point

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Canyon Village, Yellowstone
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

This is the one pre-dawn start of the trip, and it is worth it. We leave Canyon about an hour and a half before sunrise (about 4 am in late June, nearer 5:30 am in mid-September) and drive over Dunraven Pass and past Tower Junction into Lamar Valley, about 55 km, arriving as the light comes up. Wolves, bison, pronghorn, elk and sometimes grizzly bears are most active at dawn, and a local wildlife guide joins us with spotting scopes and news of which packs and herds have been seen that week. Nothing is promised, but the valley at first light, bison spread across the flats and the river below, is the Yellowstone most visitors miss. Breakfast is in the field, with hot drinks.

Après-midi

Mid-morning we head west by the Tower Fall overlook to Mammoth Hot Springs for lunch and a walk on the travertine terraces, where elk often graze the lawns of old Fort Yellowstone. We return by Norris and end at Artist Point, with the Lower Falls dropping 94 m into the yellow and rose walls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Compris

• Lamar Valley at dawn with a local wildlife guide and spotting scopes
• Field breakfast in the valley
• Tower Fall overlook
• Sit-down lunch at Mammoth
• Mammoth Hot Springs terraces with your guide
• Artist Point and the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful

Canyon Village to Norris, Madison and Midway Geyser Basin, then Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic overlook, and back to Canyon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Canyon Village, Yellowstone
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

Rangers post a predicted time for each eruption, so we time our arrival and watch from the benches, then walk the Upper Geyser Basin along the Firehole River, past Castle and Grand geysers, to the deep blue of Morning Glory Pool, about 2.5 km each way.

Après-midi

Lunch is at Old Faithful, with a look inside the Old Faithful Inn, the log hotel opened in 1904. In the early afternoon, when the steam has thinned, the van drops us at the Fairy Falls trailhead for the 1.9 km round trip to the Grand Prismatic overlook, about 30 m above the basin.

Soir

We are back at Canyon by about 5 pm for a free evening.

Compris

• Grand Prismatic Spring from the Midway Geyser Basin boardwalk at about 7:30 am
• An Old Faithful eruption
• The Upper Geyser Basin to Morning Glory Pool with your guide
• Sit-down lunch at Old Faithful
• The Old Faithful Inn lobby
• The Grand Prismatic overlook in the early afternoon

Yellowstone Lake and south to Jackson

Canyon Village to Hayden Valley, Mud Volcano and Lake Village, then West Thumb and the South Entrance to Oxbow Bend and Jackson

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Jackson
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

We leave Canyon at 8 am and drive slowly south through Hayden Valley, where bison, elk and sometimes grizzlies feed in the morning, to Mud Volcano, whose boardwalk passes the churning grey pools and the steaming cave of Dragon's Mouth Spring.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal by Yellowstone Lake, the largest lake above 2,100 m in North America. After lunch we walk with your guide from Bridge Bay to the Natural Bridge, a rock arch about 15 m high cut by Bridge Creek, about 4 km round trip on a level path through the pines. At West Thumb Geyser Basin hot pools run right to the edge of the cold lake, and we give the boardwalk about 45 minutes before following the Lewis River south out of the park by the South Entrance. The John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway carries us into Grand Teton National Park and along Jackson Lake to Oxbow Bend, where the Snake River curls below Mount Moran and moose and white pelicans use the shallows. About 210 km and a little over four hours of driving at park speed limits, broken by four stops and lunch; we reach Jackson by about 6 pm.

Compris

• Hayden Valley in the morning
• Mud Volcano and Dragon's Mouth Spring
• Sit-down lunch by Yellowstone Lake
• The Natural Bridge walk from Bridge Bay with your guide
• West Thumb Geyser Basin
• Grand Teton National Park entry and Oxbow Bend

A lake morning in Grand Teton

Jackson to Schwabacher Landing and Jenny Lake, then Moose and back to Jackson

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Jackson
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

This morning is spent at the water below the range. We leave Jackson at about 6:30 am for Schwabacher Landing, where beaver ponds beside the Snake River reflect the peaks in the still early air, then drive on to Jenny Lake to be on one of the first shuttle boats across. The crossing takes about 12 minutes, and from the west shore dock a rocky trail climbs to Hidden Falls and on to Inspiration Point, about 125 m above the lake, with the view east across the water to the valley. The boat brings us back by late morning.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at Moose, then we visit the log Chapel of the Transfiguration, whose window frames the Grand Teton, at 4,199 m the highest peak in the range, and Menor's Ferry, a rebuilt Snake River crossing from the 1890s. We are back in Jackson by about 2:30 pm.

Soir

The afternoon is free for the Town Square and its elk antler arches, the National Museum of Wildlife Art or a rest, and in the evening we meet for a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Schwabacher Landing in the early morning
• Jenny Lake shuttle boat across and back
• Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point with your guide
• Sit-down lunch at Moose
• The Chapel of the Transfiguration and Menor's Ferry
• Farewell dinner in Jackson

Activités en option

• Scenic float trip on the Snake River in the afternoon (price shown at booking)

Mormon Row and home from Jackson Hole

Jackson to the Gros Ventre River, Antelope Flats and Mormon Row, then Jackson Hole Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A last morning in the valley before your flight. We leave Jackson at about 7:30 am, when the sun is full on the east face of the Tetons, and drive north to the Gros Ventre River, where moose browse the willows in the early hours. Antelope Flats is just beyond, wide sagebrush where bison and pronghorn graze. On Mormon Row the weathered barns of homesteads settled by Mormon families from the 1890s stand in front of the range, and we give it time for pictures without a crowd of coaches. Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) is a short drive away on the valley floor, inside Grand Teton National Park, and we drop you there by about 11 am. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm. If you are staying on in Jackson, we take you back to town instead, and your guide says goodbye there.

Compris

• The Gros Ventre River and Antelope Flats
• Mormon Row and its homestead barns
• Drop-off at Jackson Hole Airport (JAC), or in Jackson