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

1. Day 1: 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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Badlands
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP) and land by about 1 pm; most flights connect through Denver or Minneapolis, and we confirm the group pick-up time with your final itinerary. Your See Sight Tours guide meets you in arrivals, and we drive about an hour east across the prairie on I-90 to Wall, then south into Badlands National Park at the Pinnacles entrance. The Lakota called this country mako sica, land that is bad: hard to cross, short of water, hot in summer. We start on the gravel Sage Creek Rim Road, where bison graze and the prairie dogs of Roberts Prairie Dog Town stand guard over their burrows, then turn back and drive the Badlands Loop Road east as the sun drops, stopping at overlooks where the striped buttes turn gold and pink. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Activity: Short walks from the van to the overlooks. Bring water and a sun hat: the Badlands can be very hot on summer afternoons.

2. Day 2: 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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Keystone
   Day 2 details

   Early risers can watch the sun come up over the buttes from the Door Trail, a few minutes from the hotel. 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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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)

   Easier option: Keep to the boardwalk sections of the Door and Fossil Exhibit trails, both level and short.

   More active option: The Notch Trail, about 2.4 km round trip with a log ladder up a gully to a ledge over the White River valley.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Keystone

   Activity: About 2 to 4 km of walking, much of it on boardwalks. Start early: there is little shade in the Badlands.

3. Day 3: 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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Keystone
   Day 3 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

   • 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)

   Easier option: Watch from the Grand View Terrace at Mount Rushmore instead of the trail, and stay in the van on the Wildlife Loop, where most animals are seen from the road.

   More active option: The full Presidential Trail loop, about 1 km with 422 steps, and the sculptor's studio.

   Free time: Evening free in Keystone

   Activity: About 2 to 3 km of walking on paved paths and steps. Bison are wild and fast: stay in or beside the van when they are close.

4. Day 4: 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

   • Drive about 6.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sheridan
   Day 4 details

   The first of two long days that carry us from the Black Hills to Yellowstone, and the longest of the trip: about 540 km and six and a half hours of driving, over the cap because it is the price of not driving back to Rapid City. It runs in four legs, each ending somewhere worth stopping. We leave Keystone at 7:30 am and drive north through the hills to Deadwood, a gold-rush town of 1876 whose brick Main Street is a National Historic Landmark. Wild Bill Hickok was shot at a poker table here that August, and he lies near Calamity Jane in Mount Moriah Cemetery above the town. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Walk the first part of the Tower Trail to the boulder field and wait at the visitor centre, or skip Mount Moriah's hill and stay on Main Street.

   More active option: Add the Red Beds Trail at Devils Tower, about 4.5 km in all, down to the Belle Fourche River and back up.

   Free time: Evening free in Sheridan

   Activity: The longest drive of the trip, about 6.5 hours, broken by stops at Deadwood, Spearfish, Devils Tower and Gillette, never more than about 90 minutes apart. About 3 km of walking, mostly paved.

   

5. Day 5: 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

   • Drive about 6 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Canyon Village, Yellowstone
   Day 5 details

   The second long day, about 405 km and six hours of driving, and the reward is arriving inside Yellowstone. We leave Sheridan at 7:30 am and climb US 14 into the Bighorn Mountains, over Granite Pass at about 2,740 m, then down Shell Canyon, stopping at Shell Falls as the creek drops through a granite gorge. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Activity: The second long drive, about 6 hours including time for wildlife jams, broken by stops at Shell Falls, Cody, the Wapiti Valley, Lake Butte and Hayden Valley about every 90 minutes. Short walks only.

   

6. Day 6: 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

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Canyon Village, Yellowstone
   Day 6 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay by the van at each Lamar pullout and watch through the spotting scopes, and keep to the Lower Terrace boardwalks at Mammoth.

   More active option: The Brink of the Lower Falls trail from the North Rim, about 1.3 km round trip with a steep climb of about 180 m back up.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at Canyon Village

   Activity: Dress for near-freezing temperatures at dawn, even in July. Wildlife jams can add 30 minutes or more. About 3 km of walking, with stairs at Mammoth.

7. Day 7: 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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Canyon Village, Yellowstone
   Day 7 details

   We leave Canyon at 6:15 am and drive about an hour and a quarter by Norris and Madison to Midway Geyser Basin, to walk the boardwalk around Grand Prismatic Spring at about 7:30, before the small car park fills. Early on it steams heavily, so we come back for the colour later. Old Faithful is about 10 km on. 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. 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. We are back at Canyon by about 5 pm for a free evening.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Walk only the first part of the Upper Geyser Basin and watch a second Old Faithful eruption from the benches, then wait in the van at the overlook trailhead if you prefer.

   More active option: Carry on past the overlook to Fairy Falls, 61 m high, about 8 km round trip on a flat trail from the trailhead.

   Free time: Evening free at Canyon Village

   Activity: About 6 to 7 km of walking on boardwalks and level trails, plus a climb of about 30 m to the overlook. Stay on the boardwalks: the ground in the basins is thin and scalding.

8. Day 8: 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

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Jackson
   Day 8 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay on the lower, level loop at Mud Volcano, and wait by the lake shore at Bridge Bay instead of walking to the Natural Bridge.

   Free time: Evening free in Jackson

   Activity: About 5 to 7 km of walking on boardwalks and a level forest path, with some stairs at Mud Volcano.

   

9. Day 9: A lake morning in Grand Teton

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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Jackson
   Day 9 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Walk only the short way to Hidden Falls, or stay on the east shore and walk the level lakeside path while the others climb.

   More active option: Carry on past Inspiration Point into Cascade Canyon for an hour or so before turning back, about 6 to 8 km round trip from the dock.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Jackson

   Activity: About 3 km round trip from the dock to Inspiration Point on a rocky trail with steps, climbing about 125 m.

10. Day 10: Mormon Row and home from Jackson Hole

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

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    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.

    Included

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

    Easier option: For a morning flight we go straight from the hotel to the airport, about 15 minutes.

    Activity: Book a flight leaving Jackson Hole Airport after about 1 pm to join the morning drive.

Wildlife and weather: June brings bison calves in Custer State Park and Yellowstone, green prairie and snow on the high peaks, with cold mornings in the mountains. July and August are hot on the plains and in the Badlands, often over 30 C, warm in the parks, with afternoon thunderstorms and the bison rut in Lamar and Hayden valleys. September brings the elk rut at Mammoth, first frosts and thinner crowds. Late-summer wildfire smoke can haze the views. Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed.

• Badlands1 night
• Keystone2 nights
• Sheridan1 night
• Canyon Village, Yellowstone3 nights
• Jackson2 nights