I is for Itinerary

Every trip must have some sort of Itinerary, right?   We most certainly do.  I’m going to give a brief outline.

First off, we have to leave home.  Since the oldest child is getting out of school that day, we cannot leave until 2 pm.  That’s the plan anyway.  I have the day off before so I plan on getting everything loaded and packed up then.  Also, to grocery shop and prepare any meals that I can ahead of time.

Our first destination on our trip is Sioux Falls, SD.   It’s almost 5 and half hours of driving time.  We will have to stop and eat at some point.  Kids get hungry.  Sioux Falls is mainly just somewhere to sleep.   If we aren’t too exhausted from all the driving, we will visit Falls Park and Sculpture Walk.  They are free and not too far from the hotel we are staying at.

The next day we will be traversing most of the state of South Dakota.  There are a few places we might stop at depending on what everyone wants to do.  We will have to stop at the famed Mitchell Corn Palace and take a glimpse.  There is also the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village that the kids seemed interested in.  We will have lunch in the car because I’ve been warned there is NO WHERE to eat along the highway.  Also, I was warned, get gas whenever you see a gas station.  We plan on stopping by the 1880s Town and Wall Drug.  Wall Drug is super important as that’s where we are going to get our breakfast for the next morning.  Donuts.  Enough to share, because who doesn’t love donuts!  That night we are staying in the Badlands National Park. 

Picture from visit Rapid City

After leaving the Badlands in the morning, we will visit the alpaca farm.  We will head into Rapid City for a while.  There is the Museum of Geology, Dinosaur Park (picnic lunch here) and Chapel in the Hills.  We will visit the Cosmos Mystery Area and then head to our campground for the night.  We will visit the Crazy Horse Memorial at night!  Super excited about that one.  It’s supposed to be beautiful.

Picture from Trip Advisor

The next couple of days, we will be camped out in the same place, taking in the places of the Black Hills.  A visit to the Wind Caves National Park, Custer State Park, Rush Mountain Adventure Park, hike Black Elk Peak, lunch at the Alpine Inn, Galena  and we can’t forget Mount Rushmore.

Picture from their website

When we leave our campground, we will be heading toward Wyoming with a few stops in between.  HomeStake Visitor Center, Deadwood things: Broken Boot Gold Mine, Mt.Roosevelt Memorial, Dough Traders for Pizza!, DC Booth Fish Hatchery all before we head to the hotel.  We will have dinner at the little diner than head to Devils Tower for the night show.

The next day is a heavy travel day.  We will be heading from the Devils Tower area all the way to Yellowstone Park via Montana.  The next three days will be all Yellowstone and Grand Tetons exploring.  We could probably spend a lot longer there, but we have to head home sometime.

After we leave Yellowstone, we will travel to Cheyenne to our hotel.  The only stop we have planned is the historic Wyoming Frontier Prison.

From Cheyenne, this is where it gets iffy.  Either we will spend the day and night in Denver than make the long trek through Kansas or we will just knock the rest of the way home in one day.  I opt for the Denver stop over.

I’ve been accused of over planning at times, but hey, I am who I am.