route suggestions estes park to hill city then to red lodge

Hello,

We are 2 middle aged couples on a 3 week trip,July 1-23.This is 1 leg of the trip.We will leave Estes Park, Co.,visit Mt.Rushmore and spend the night at Coyote Blue B%26amp;B near Hill City. The next day we will drive to Red Lodge,Mt and spend the night.We would like to take some senic routes ie 385 vs 87/16A;385N/85S/14N to Spearfish vs 16Wto Moorecroft then 90.I am also considering taking 90W to Ranchester then 14 to 14a to Lovell,Wy then310 to 72 to 308 to Red Lodge.Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

route suggestions estes park to hill city then to red lodge

Yikes.. way too many highway numbers, lol!

I would eliminate 16W to I90 via Moorcroft. I gets pretty boring near Newcastle!

The rest of the routes.. I guess it just depends...

Check on www.rockymountainroads.com (pick your state and then scroll down for highways)

Have fun.

route suggestions estes park to hill city then to red lodge

CasaAzul,

Thank You for the reply and the advice. The site you suggested is a great source!

thanks again,

rwhit833

I found that the area between Greybull and Cody to Red Lodge via 14/120/72/308 to be a bit barren (boring??) and I suspect that the route north of Greybull would be much the same. Without knowing the next leg of your trip or your other stopping points, I%26#39;d suggest following highway 14 from Ranchester to Cody and making that your overnight. The following morning take 120 north to 296 (Chief Joseph Highway) to 212 (Beartooth Highway) and on to Red Lodge. If you plan to go from Red Lodge to Yellowstone , you will backtrack on 212, but there is such scenic beauty that you will probably miss going east that retracing your route here will seem like a whole new route to you.

I don%26#39;t know all of the highway numbers (we followed mapquest directions), but 3 weeks ago, we traveled from the Denver Airport to Hill City on the first leg of our trip to Yellowstone. I had read a few posts on TA that mentioned it was a boring drive from Denver to the Black Hills. While I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I loved the drive. It is so different driving through the grasslands than driving in Tennessee.

We stayed on I 25 and then went east through Lusk and up to Custer and Hill City. We saw many pronghorns near the interstate. The grassy plains seemed to stretch forever. This will sound hokey (at least my kids thought it was), but I put in the soundtrack from ';Dances with Wolves'; as we drove through the grasslands and had a blast watching the scenery unfold before me. (While we were in Estes Park, I was listening to the John Denver%26#39;s Greatest Hits CD and kept replaying ';Rocky Mountain High';.)

You will have a great trip.

Thank you for your responces.As for the next leg of our trip...We have reservations at the Rocky Fork Inn in Red Lodge for a night then we plan to drive the Bearthooth Highway the next day and stay in Cooke City for the night.We have reservations in Yellowstone for 2 nights,2 nights in GTNP,down to Moab for 3 nights,then to Zion for 4 nights,and back to Vegas for 1 night.We did similar trip through some of these areas about 8 years ago and had a great time.What I%26#39;m finding is the more I look at our itinerary the more places I want see and the longer I want to stay.Anyway we%26#39;re happy to have the 3 weeks.

tntlands, I guess I%26#39;m hokey too...the music with the scenery is great. That%26#39;s why I don%26#39;t mind a long drive out west,it%26#39;s all beautiful.

Thanks again,

rwhit833