Out West - A Quick Guide

A Quick Guide

Our first vacation we ever took together was an adventure I like to call "Out West." This adventure included driving from Wisconsin to various places "out west." These places included:

• Badlands National Park
• Harney's Peak - The Black Hills
• Yellowstone National Park
• Devil's Tower
• Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse
• Custer State Park

This adventure was about 10 days in the beginning of August and sparked our love for National Parks! Below is a brief overview of our trip in case you want a quick idea of how to plan your vacation. This should also give you a timeline of how long we spent in each place and an abbreviated version of what we did each day!

Day 1 (driving, seriously all we did was drive)

Map of our Route

Day 2: Badlands National Park

• Arrive at the Badlands!
• Hike Castle Trail and combine it with Medicine Root Trail
• Eat at Wall Drug
• Sunset hike - Window and Notch Trail 
• Spend the night at Badlands Inn

Day 3: Black Hills 

• Drive about 2 hours to the Black Hills. 
• Hike Harney's Peak (now known as Black Elk Peak)
• Drive 6 hours to Irma Hotel just outside of Yellowstone

Day 4-6: Yellowstone National Park

• Drive 2 hours to Yellowstone. We set up camp at the Bridge Bay Campground. 
• Things we explored:
• Hiked Mount Washburn 
• Hayden Valley
• Artist's Point
• Lamar Valley
• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
• Old Faithful
• Upper Geyser Basin
• Firehole River
• Mammoth Spring
• On day 6 we drove 6 1/2 hours to Devil's Tower and spent the night at Devil Tower's Lodge (HIGHLY recommended!) 

Day 7: Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse

• Explored the tower and did a short hike as far up as we could get without actually rock climbing!
• Drove a little over 2 hours and explored Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse
• Spent the night in Custer (20 minutes from Crazy Horse) at Dakota's Dream Bed and Breakfast 

Day 8: Jewel Cave National Monument and Custer State Park

• Jewel Cave Monument Lantern Tour 
• Custer State Park Wildlife Loop

Day 9: Custer State Park 

• Sylvan Lake Hike 
• Started our long journey home 

Day 10: Homeward Bound (aka hours of never ending driving)

More Details:

For more information on hotels, see my Hotels Out West - Our Suggestions and More page! For more information on each place we explored, view the post with the name of the place you want more details about!