Ohio - The Badlands - Yellowstone - Boulder, Co - Ozarks - Ohio

[aaconn]

Hey all!

Planning a trip from Cincinnati, Ohio to the Badlands then Black Hills through Yellowstone down through the Tetons and to around Boulder, Co then hauling our way through Kansas to the Ozark's and then back to Cincinnati. The plan is to stay a day or two in the Badlands and Black Hills up to 5 or 6 days between the Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons then finding another place to camp around Boulder (Boulder's is a pitstop to replenish, say hi to friends and truck on) then the Ozark's on our way back home. We have planned 15 days for this journey.

Our main destination for the trip is Yellowstone and the Tetons the rest are nice breaks for the drive and other places we want to see. Who has traveled out to Yellowstone and to the Tetons before? I am hearing mixed reviews from friends. Some say you spend all your time in Yellowstone and you still will need to go back multiple times. Then other say its a place to see but the Tetons are where you should spend your time. Both comments are coming from people who have spent time in both. Also if you all have any thoughts on the Badlands and the Black Hills throw them out there. All info and opinions are welcome greatly appreciated!

What we are looking to get out of this trip is to get in some good hiking but also some peace, quite and adventure. We picked up a new RRT and basically looking for a good time. We have plenty of experience camping and I have some driving off road but this is our first "overlanding trip". Our xterra is equipped to take it on though this isn't a trip for spending most of our time crawling around its more to get out to some open land and forest roads and find some secluded campsites.

Thanks in advance, Cheers!

- Also plan on doing some Fly Fishing so any tips on that let me know.



(Roughed out google map to work out drive time and milage)

 

[Flipper]

We did a trip last fall thru Co., Wyoming, and SD. from Fl. IMO I would only spent one day driving thru but not staying overnight at the Badlands. It was sort of a let down for me. I would opt for Devils Tower instead. The Black Hills were a lot larger than we expected, you could spend 3-4 days there and not see it all. Mt Rushmore was cool but a bit too touristy for me, this stop was on the Wifes bucket list. Crazy Horse was worth the stop. Hope this helps, be safe!

 

[donkability]

I am from the columbus area and go out there often, actually this year I am going thru colorado to vegas than to montana via tetons and yellowstone. Playing off road between col. springs and vegas, and again between vegas and Montana. If you are playing around in yellowstone go out the north east entrance to cooke city then continue into montana over the beartooth pass to red lodge. My best bud moved out there years ago so i try to make the trip frequently, the beartooth highway is one of the best ive been on, dosent open tell the first week of june, they got some late snow thou so you never know. you can also hit chief joseph while up there. tetons and yellowstone is grizzly country if your hiking make noise and have bear spray. 20$ on amazon. If you have a dog with you, yellowstone pretty much sucks and its not cheap to pay the toll. tetons is one of the most beautiful mountain ranges! Theres so much to do between the two, I agree with above post i use black forest/badlands as a overnight stop and keep trekking. when are you going out? Most of the land is BML or national forest and you can camp pretty much anywhere, there are tons of pay campgrounds as well. running water not so much in the high elevations, some of the campgrounds have seasonal running water. im pretty new to the overlanding aspect of this thing but now I have a 4runner I am all in! Colorado has millions of offroad trails! I am definitely going to try some of the alpine loop assuming i can get to it end of may. I guess snowfall was insane there this year.

 

[aaconn]

We did a trip last fall thru Co., Wyoming, and SD. from Fl. IMO I would only spent one day driving thru but not staying overnight at the Badlands. It was sort of a let down for me. I would opt for Devils Tower instead. The Black Hills were a lot larger than we expected, you could spend 3-4 days there and not see it all. Mt Rushmore was cool but a bit too touristy for me, this stop was on the Wifes bucket list. Crazy Horse was worth the stop. Hope this helps, be safe!

Thanks for the replay I will look into Devils Tower. I think our main objective for the area around the Badlands and The Black Hills is a place to stop and sleep with a little scenic appeal. The Bandlands puts us at 7 hours on the road so in my mind a good stopping point.

I am from the columbus area and go out there often, actually this year I am going thru colorado to vegas than to montana via tetons and yellowstone. Playing off road between col. springs and vegas, and again between vegas and Montana. If you are playing around in yellowstone go out the north east entrance to cooke city then continue into montana over the beartooth pass to red lodge. My best bud moved out there years ago so i try to make the trip frequently, the beartooth highway is one of the best ive been on, dosent open tell the first week of june, they got some late snow thou so you never know. you can also hit chief joseph while up there. tetons and yellowstone is grizzly country if your hiking make noise and have bear spray. 20$ on amazon. If you have a dog with you, yellowstone pretty much sucks and its not cheap to pay the toll. tetons is one of the most beautiful mountain ranges! Theres so much to do between the two, I agree with above post i use black forest/badlands as a overnight stop and keep trekking. when are you going out? Most of the land is BML or national forest and you can camp pretty much anywhere, there are tons of pay campgrounds as well. running water not so much in the high elevations, some of the campgrounds have seasonal running water. im pretty new to the overlanding aspect of this thing but now I have a 4runner I am all in! Colorado has millions of offroad trails! I am definitely going to try some of the alpine loop assuming i can get to it end of may. I guess snowfall was insane there this year.

Thanks for the input. We are leaving May 25th. So that puts us in Yellowstone amount the 28th/29th. So we will have to check in on any closures. I know they got snow today in the northern region of the park. I appreciate the input and places to look into. We will also have a dog with us which I just recently learned makes hiking in the back country hard. We do have bear spray and I have experience in bear county from hiking in Alaska.

Looking up BML lands and where we can go is what I have been doing recently plus found another cool app called iOverlander which is a user inputted camp grounds and good campsites. I am pretty new as well but really enjoying the planning and prep and getting real excited for the trip. Colorado sounds like a great trip as well!

 

[donkability]

It is dog country out there, dogs go everywhere with their owners! You just cant do much with them inside the park, 15 feet from road max, leash strictly enforced inside park. When you get to red lodge you will see dogs on motorcycles lol. unlimited amount of space out there, so many places to camp for free and so many pay campgrounds!

 

[donkability]

fishing may be great between badlands and rapid city, less snow melt, Ive read about some great spots near spearfish and rapid city. redlodge side of montana will be running high in june. fishings almost neverending out there just like back country.

 

[Steve]

Our daughter went to college in Seattle, so we've made a few cross-country wanderings. Anywhere from three to seven weeks, I think. Some of our trip itinerary were beyond where you are looking, but you can take a peek at our trip reports and see if there's anything you might find interesting. We stayed in motels, so no camping suggestions.

2015 [LINK]



2016 [LINK]



2017 [LINK]



In late May of this year, we will be heading back to Seattle to watch her graduate. She actually graduated in December, and has moved out and is working, but SPU only does one graduation ceremony each year. It won't be a long trip, as we are having our kitchen remodeled, and Deb is an avid gardener, so will want to be back soon. I'm guessing 5-6 days out, four days there, and 7-10 days home.

I can't begin to make suggestions for just 15 days First time we spent five days in Yellowstone, and barely felt like we'd gotten a feel for the place. Still haven't been to the NE section. Tetons are one of my very favorite national parks. It is a beautiful place, and we've been three times for maybe ten days total.

Badlands and Black Hills are cool. Deadwood is not what you are going to expect. It is all modern casinos and crowds. Check out Custer State Park South of Rapid City, too. It is almost better than some national parks. Iron Mountain Road and the Needles Highway are a must if you have time. Just south of Rushmore.

Expect huge crowds wherever you go. You might get away with a little smaller crowds being before Memorial Day, but likely not. We were at Old Faithful 2/3 through October and were among maybe 200 people there. Next time we were there in mid-September, and maybe 3000 people. Ranger said high season expect 10,000 plus at each eruption. We were in Yellowstone the last week it was open before the gap to snowmobile season. We'd pass roads that were open going in in the morning that were closed coming back out. Hardly anyone there. It was awesome!!!

Peruse my links and if you have any questions about where we were, let me know. Most of all, enjoy your trip!
Steve

 

[Gecko792]

Hey all!

Planning a trip from Cincinnati, Ohio to the Badlands then Black Hills through Yellowstone down through the Tetons and to around Boulder, Co then hauling our way through Kansas to the Ozark's and then back to Cincinnati. The plan is to stay a day or two in the Badlands and Black Hills up to 5 or 6 days between the Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons then finding another place to camp around Boulder (Boulder's is a pitstop to replenish, say hi to friends and truck on) then the Ozark's on our way back home. We have planned 15 days for this journey.

Our main destination for the trip is Yellowstone and the Tetons the rest are nice breaks for the drive and other places we want to see. Who has traveled out to Yellowstone and to the Tetons before? I am hearing mixed reviews from friends. Some say you spend all your time in Yellowstone and you still will need to go back multiple times. Then other say its a place to see but the Tetons are where you should spend your time. Both comments are coming from people who have spent time in both. Also if you all have any thoughts on the Badlands and the Black Hills throw them out there. All info and opinions are welcome greatly appreciated!

What we are looking to get out of this trip is to get in some good hiking but also some peace, quite and adventure. We picked up a new RRT and basically looking for a good time. We have plenty of experience camping and I have some driving off road but this is our first "overlanding trip". Our xterra is equipped to take it on though this isn't a trip for spending most of our time crawling around its more to get out to some open land and forest roads and find some secluded campsites.

Thanks in advance, Cheers!

- Also plan on doing some Fly Fishing so any tips on that let me know.

View attachment 95343

(Roughed out google map to work out drive time and milage)

Not sure when going but this is my first overlanding so would be great if possible to meet up tag along as I am heading to Moab in September also looking to fish when out an about, let me know I am in Columbus