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Vacation ideas?

madplotter

PMA Member
Looking to take a family vacation the 2nd week of July. We like outdoors type vacation stuff and we took our 10yo daughter to Estes Park last year. She loved it but I'd like to go elsewhere this year. Thinking about maybe Montana/ Wyoming area via the Badlands? Everyone tells me to avoid Yellowstone in July. With softball we are stuck with July travel.

Anyone have any good suggestions?
 
Yellowstone in July is busy but it is still awesome. I wouldn’t let Chinese tourists scare me away. If your doing Badlands hit Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower and then drive thru the Bighorn mountains over to Cody WY.

Make sure you hit the Cody museum (the Winchester family gun collection is there) plus a rodeo every night in Cody. That puts you about 25 miles out of Yellowstone. For wildlife the North East entrance has the best wildlife in the park. We always stay at the Comfort Inn in Gardner MT one night. The owner has a ton of great mounts in the lobby.

Skip Jackson Hole. Too many people. You can’t go wrong in the rest of the park. Take your time and enjoy!!
 
Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower, drive through the Bighorns on the way to Cody WY then tour Yellowstone then swing down through the Tetons. While in Yellowstone spend plenty of time in Lamars Valley for the wildlife. This trip will take all of your weeks vacation

Glacier has beautiful mountains and plenty to do and see but is a hefty drive
 
Its pretty easy to spend a week while outdoors the majority of the time in the Black Hills. So much to see, so much to hike or rent bikes. Neat communities to spend time in and places to stop and see. Hit the Badlands, the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, Wind Cave, Custer State Park, hike to Black Elk Peak from Sylvan Lake, drive the Needles Highway, Rushmore, tour a mine, hike Spearfish Canyon and check out some waterfalls, fish for trout, ride some horses, go to Devils Tower and the Vore Buffalo Jump in WY, Deadwood has great entertainment, Bear Country, Tetonka, Red Ass Winery in Hill City, the list is endless. We have done this two times as a family doing a VRBO since there was so much to see and do. I had hunted out there several times prior for turkeys so knew my way around real well.

We are taking my 12 year old son out of school in Sept to hit Yellowstone and the Tetons during a slower tourist time and enjoy the elk rut. If you do head out that way through the Bighorns stop at the Medicine Wheel. There are also some neat petroglyphs west of Thermopolis. If you come home through Eastern WY you can follow the Platte and some historical sites from the Oregon Trail.
 
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Not sure how far you are wanting to travel- but South rim of grand canyon and Antelope canyon on the AZ/ utah border is bucket list stop. Not sure how unbearable it would be in july- i have always gone in winter months.



Otherwise I second the Devils Tower, Deadwood for a few days, crazy horse, mount rushmore, etc.
 
Also, we are considering a truck tent for the nights when the weather is good. Anyone have experience with them? We have an F150 with a hard trifold cover and a bed rug.
 
When I was younger, maybe 12 or something, we went on a family vacation to the blackhills. I still remember it and I remember having a lot of fun. I remember the badlands, mt. rushmore, crazyhorse, devils tower, and a hay rack ride we went on at some ranch or something. I remember on the hayrack ride we saw a lot of deer and some elk. I remember we stayed in the town of Custer too and they had a cowboy reenactment/shootout and being little I thought that was the coolest thing.
 
Can anyone else relate to the movie Vacation? We took that trip with my family in a similar station wagon without air conditioning from MN to California (Disney). So could relate... except no Cousin Eddy or dead aunts tied on the top of the station wagon.
 
Can anyone else relate to the movie Vacation? We took that trip with my family in a similar station wagon without air conditioning from MN to California (Disney). So could relate... except no Cousin Eddy or dead aunts tied on the top of the station wagon.

"Real tomato ketchup Eddie?"
 
Can relate to the softball ,baseball seasons . Basketball volleyball track and XC. Farming arggg vacation is a dirty word around here. Quick nice vacation would be Eminence Mo. it’s closer to you . Grab a cabin on Jacks fork. Nice clear river spring fed. One of the pretty places on earth.Think the cabin are called Rivers Edge.Kayak rental they pick you up drop you off. Don’t get me wrong I love out west kinda like to live there sometimes I like the mountains .
 
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