I've got 2 days, please help me with an itinerary.

My DH and I are flying into Rapid City on Oct 2, 2008 leaving Oct 5, 2008 early in the morning. I would appreciate it if someone could help me with an itinerary with the time we have. We already have lodging reservations. Here is our schedule

1. Thurs Oct 2: Arrive in Rapid City, drive to Gillette, Wy (looking at a practice opportunity, so can%26#39;t change those plans). Staying in Gillette

2. Fri Oct 3: Leave Gillette. Have reservations at Sylvan Lake Lodge for that night. I don%26#39;t know how long it will take to drive from Gillette to Sylvan Lake Lodge, but is there anything to see or special routes to take?

3. Sat Oct 4: Free day. I was thinking that would be the Mt. Rushmore day, but after reading the boards. I don%26#39;t think it needs the whole day. The sculptor studio is not open at the time we are going. What else should we do? We have hotel reservations in Rapid City that night

4. Sun Oct 5: Leave early back to San Diego.

Things we would like to see:

Mt. Rushmore

Crazy Horse Monument

Custer State Park

Fall Colors (there is none in San Diego)

I have read on the boards about the evening lighting ceremony at Mt. Rushmore, something about Needles Hwy, Iron Mountain Rd., Wildlife loop. We are open to other ideas.

About us: DH and I are in our 30%26#39;s, no kids. We were in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone this past July.

thanks so much.

I've got 2 days, please help me with an itinerary.

Couple thoughts.

Since you will be coming back from Gillette if you%26#39;ve never seen Devils Tower that would be a really great loop off the freeway. Especially leaving sort of early the morning where the sunrise light would be on the side facing as your enter...although the visitor center would be maybe shaded. The monument opens at 9am that time of year and is about an hour or so from Gillette.

Another sight along the way that can be combined with a DT visit would be the Vore Buffalo Jump right neat I-90 exit 199 (look for teepee on north side frontage road just east of WY 111). Interesting and good for a quick stop.

Even with the above you can very easily make it yo Sylvan in a day...even shorter Oct. daylight. US 14 Spearfish Canyon is very scenic and may have really good fall colors about then but is slow and will add some time. Same colors probably via the more freeway like US 85 to Deadwood and then US 385. Often 385 is sort of jammed with slow moving RVs but with the prime season past it should be fairly fast. US 16 and Alt-16 through Keystone and over to Rushmore would not take long and with not more than a couple hours at Rushmore it would be easy to get to Sylvan lake from there.

That would leave most of the next day for Custer State Park and Crazy Horse with plenty of time to drive to Rapic City. Do them in that order and especially the wildlife loop at Custer if possible early in morning when more critters are active. Light on Crazy Horse will be better later than first thing in morning. Might be an OK place for lunch. The museum and exhbits can be fascinating and take time if you are interested in that sort of thing.

Optional routing....As above but skip Rushmore on the 3rd and do Spearfish Canyon with a short stop (lunch?) in Deadwood. Then side trip to Crazy Horse on way to Sylvan to catch it in late day sun. Then Custer loop (via Needles Highway 87) and to Rapid City via Alt-16 (and Norbeck Overlook) and Rushmore. Actually the more I think about it this last might be a lot more time efficient.

I've got 2 days, please help me with an itinerary.

Thanks for the ideas! I need to look at a map to get a better idea how all these highways fit together. We may not get to leave Gillette as early as I thought. We have an appointment that morning to speak with a representative from the Economic Development Council of Campbell County.

vc