Time needed for Mt. Rushmore

Our family trip to Yellowstone is just a little over a month away. We plan to make a brief visit to the Black Hills on our way from Denver to Cody.

How long should we allow for Mt. Rushmore? I was a chaperone on a school trip to Washington D.C. last week and found out the travel agency rep on our bus had experience touring the west. I tried to pick her brain as much as possible. She thought 3 hours would be plenty of time for Mt. Rushmore.

If we arrive in the area about 3:00 or so in the afternoon, would it be feasible to spend a few hours in Custer State Park that afternoon, then check into our Hill City hotel, eat supper and attend the night lighting ceremony. Then the next morning, return to Rushmore for early morning pictures and the sculptor%26#39;s studio before leaving the area. We need to leave in time to be in the Devil%26#39;s Tower area by dark.

Thanks for any advice.

Time needed for Mt. Rushmore

I think your plan for the 2nd day is very do-able. I rememeber spending a morning at the monument, walking the presidential trail, seeing the sculptor%26#39;s studio and spending time in the visitor%26#39;s center. If you get an early start in the morning, you can probably be on the road heading to Devil%26#39;s Tower by 11 am or noon. You should be able to make it to Devil%26#39;s Tower in about 2.5 hours. This will give you plenty of daylight to see the tower and prairie dog town.

On the arrival day, I would choose a section of Custer that interests you most and focus on it. (i.e. Sylvan Lake, Iron Mt Rd, Wildlife Loop, or Needles Hwy) The area you choose will probably be dependent on where you are driving in from. I know you have posted in the past; I am sorry for not remembering your route. This day will be a bit more rushed imo, but you can get an overview of one section of the park. You really don%26#39;t have to be at the monument for the lighting ceremomy much before 8:15 or 8:30. There are no bad seats.

Time needed for Mt. Rushmore

We will be coming from Denver. I guess we should focus on the Sylvan Lake and Needles area. That would be pretty close to our Hill City Hotel and after seeing National Treasure 2, I really want to experience Sylvan Lake. As bad as I hate to leave out the wildlife loop trail, we may need to skip it. Depending on our time, we may try to drive part of Iron Mountain Road on the morning we return to Mt. Rushmore. I was given advice on how to do a ';mini tour'; in an earlier post. Hopefully, we will see a lot of wildlife in Yellowstone to make up for missing the wildlife loop.

As the trip gets closer, I am trying to prioritize, cut things out and make the trip more reasonable.

tntands,

Hope you enjoyed your trip to DC with all those teenagers!!!

You will see a lot of wildlife in Yellowstone. There are huge buffalo herds near West Yellowstone and another big herd on the way to Old Faithful. You will also see mountain goat, bald eagle, elk, moose, wolf and hopefully bears. We saw all last year and are hoping to see lots more this year.

Countdown to our trip to the west in now one month. We have a lot to do in that month- move our son home from college, have a wedding and reception for our daughter and when we return help her move to Pittsburgh.

One last minute item that I need to do is make my reservations through AAA for park n%26#39;fly at the Atlanta airport. Right now I am just finalizing my plans and making adjustments to our schedule like you.

Cece,

We had a great trip (except for 16 hours on the bus each way). Our group travel director had some DC connections and we got to do a few things that I couldn%26#39;t have done if I had traveled with just my family. We got to have breakfast with our 2 US Senators and we were blessed to have Senate Chaplan Black talk with our students for about 30 minutes on the capital steps.

We are 37 days away from flying to Denver and I am getting more and more excited. We will spend our last 2 days visiting friends who recently moved from Denver to Buena Vista, CO. They were visiting in Nashville recently. Their house in on the Arkansas River. He said he has plenty of fly fishing gear, so I am glad I won%26#39;t have to pack my fly rods.

We are also AAA members and have saved a lot on lodging costs.

Good luck on your trip.

tntands,

If you are going to Devil%26#39;s Tower remember that is where the movie Close Encounters was made. Just a bit of trivia to go along with Sylvan Lake and National Treasure Two.