Family RV trip advice

[flatlander51]

I’ll be doing a 3 week RV trip June 15th- July 6th with my wife and 4 kids this year. We live in md and will be flying into Denver where our journey will start. The plan is to head NW to Dinosaur then North to Jackson, grand Teton and yellow stone. From here we’ll continue north to Missoula then to Glacier national park. From there we will head south to Idaho falls for a few days and then continue south to Salt Lake City Utah and then back to Denver. We have some stops planned along the way but would take any advice from you guys on places visit along our course. I would also love to get the boys hooked up with some trout so any advice there is welcome???

 

[kicker338]

Are you renting an RV in Denver or just a car ? The RV would be the best for the 5 of you, other than that it sounds like your going to have a lot of fun and see a lot of places, enjoy.

 

[BuckSmasher]

Golly that sounds like a good trip already!

-If you go through Cody go to the firearms museum.
-If you go through West Yellowstone check out the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery center (best eats in West Yellowstone are Wild West Pizzeria, and The Buffalo Bar. Stay away from the food in the malls.
- Maybe add Rocky Mountain National Park on your way to Dinosaur, I've never been but its on the list.
- If you go hiking in Grizzly Country bring spray and a pistol. Most likely you will be ok but for your sake and the bear's.
-Plan for a few extra bucks on food in Jackson. Pricey but some of the best restaurants in the country are in Jackson.


Good on you for doing stuff with the family. This country needs more family men.

 

[Jimbob]

My dilemma of road trips: lots of amazing places with short stays vs a few amazing places with longer stays.

We did a Banff Glacier Yellowstone Rushmore area trip a few summers ago and it was amazing. However, it was jam-packed and we always felt we were leaving each place to soon. Loved every minute of it but it was only a small taste of what each place offered and it left me itching to get back.

Glacier was so cool, Going to the Sun road was out of this world.

Anyways, really think about the timing of your trip so you can really experience each area. Going back I would give myself more time in one place before moving on. It's more relaxing and you get a better experience.

 

[flatlander51]

Are you renting an RV in Denver or just a car ? The RV would be the best for the 5 of you, other than that it sounds like your going to have a lot of fun and see a lot of places, enjoy.

We’re renting the RV in Denver

 

[flatlander51]

Golly that sounds like a good trip already!

-If you go through Cody go to the firearms museum.
-If you go through West Yellowstone check out the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery center (best eats in West Yellowstone are Wild West Pizzeria, and The Buffalo Bar. Stay away from the food in the malls.
- Maybe add Rocky Mountain National Park on your way to Dinosaur, I've never been but its on the list.
- If you go hiking in Grizzly Country bring spray and a pistol. Most likely you will be ok but for your sake and the bear's.
-Plan for a few extra bucks on food in Jackson. Pricey but some of the best restaurants in the country are in Jackson.


Good on you for doing stuff with the family. This country needs more family men.

Thank you sir.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Yeah that itinerary is pretty grueling...with that route and schedule, you're going to see the worst interstate traffic and worst crowds available in the Intermountain West!
....if your crew can handle it, good....if it gets too much, consider shortening your trip and exploring more off the beaten track....you will be driving right by an almost uncountable number of awesome rural roads, hiking trails, mountain lakes (the stocked ones are the best fishing around) hot springs, quiet campgrounds, yadda yadda yadda...

 

[87TT]

Honestly, I think your kids will hate you. Just too much to even drive though let alone experience. I own and have lived in an RV. Unless you have a dingy, you are limited on parking and where you can go. Take Glacier NP, you can't take an RV on the Going to the Sun Highway. With that schedule, you will be spending all your time driving. My advice. pick one or two places and spend a few days at each. Your kids will get bored to death with that "death march" drive.

 

[BuckSmasher]

Honestly, I think your kids will hate you. Just too much to even drive though let alone experience. I own and have lived in an RV. Unless you have a dingy, you are limited on parking and where you can go. Take Glacier NP, you can't take an RV on the Going to the Sun Highway. With that schedule, you will be spending all your time driving. My advice. pick one or two places and spend a few days at each. Your kids will get bored to death with that "death march" drive.

Over three weeks? I disagree. I think that isn't much driving for three weeks.

 

[87TT]

Just being honest. I have traveled with kids and grandkids in an RV. I wish you well and look forward to hearing how it goes. Just curious, how much RV'ing has your family done?

 

[87TT]

Sorry, thought that was the OP. To the OP feel free to PM me if you have any RV questions.

 

[Jimbob]

Honestly, I think your kids will hate you. Just too much to even drive though let alone experience. I own and have lived in an RV. Unless you have a dingy, you are limited on parking and where you can go. Take Glacier NP, you can't take an RV on the Going to the Sun Highway. With that schedule, you will be spending all your time driving. My advice. pick one or two places and spend a few days at each. Your kids will get bored to death with that "death march" drive.

Give kids more credit. On my road trip, we started in North Bay, ON and drove 34 hrs straight to Calgary, AB. Minivan, wife and I, 3 kids (youngest was 2), and camping gear. The kids ad my wife slept while I drove through the night. The rest of the trip we had a few 12+ hour driving days.

Spent time in Calgary then three nights in Banff, back to Calgary. A few nights there then drove to Glacier and spent three nights there, then drove to Yellowstone and spent 4 nights there. Headed to South Dakota and spent three nights near Rushmore. Drove to Chicago and spent three nights there then back to North Bay. Camped, family of 5 in one tent, everywhere but Chicago and Calgary.

The kids loved every second of it, they keep bugging when the next road trip will be. Just a couple weeks ago we did a 15-hour day trip, 9 hours total in the car but we hit up natural hot springs and had dinner over a fire at a river while Eagles, mountain goats, sea lions, and seals were in view. It is amazing what you can experience with a good attitude.

Just sharing this to let Flatlander and others know that it can absolutely be done and enjoyable.

 

[Jimbob]

I'm sure it depends on the kids though.

 

[mooretitan]

How old are your kids?
I have done a few cross country trips with 5 kids all under the age of 12. We stayed in motels but made the decision to keep driving roughly 12-14 hours between stops. Each stop we planned to stay between 3-5 days depending on where we were. We have a no-electronic policy for the kids. So they either read, figured out games to play, listened to music or just stayed quite. We ate pretty much every meal out of an ice chest. Great trips and the kids enjoyed them.

Yellowstone was by far the best. Wish I could have added on another week. Did pretty much everything there but next time want to fish and get away from the crowds. I would say 4-5 days for Yellowstone just to see most of the stuff and still not be rushed to much. We stayed outside the park and had an hour drive in each day. Went to firearm museum in Cody and the kids enjoyed it also

Spent roughly a week in Rapid City. Lots to do there also.

Spent 3 days in Denver. Did the science museum and a couple amusement parks

I think with 3 weeks, I would pick 3-4 places that you really want to enjoy and spend the time there. Drive through the night to give you more time.

 

[atfrith]

We did a similar trip last summer but on a much shorter time frame. It was a blast. We were also in an RV and I thought that we'd be able to get away with finding campgrounds once we were there (and open up our schedule so we weren't locked into any one place for a given time), well I was mistaken and in certain places it was impossible to find openings. Specifically near Glacier. So if you can, start looking in to that now.

I'll echo a few things that others have said
- Going to the sun road in Glacier was awesome
- Yellowstone was nut to butt tourists EVERYWHERE, I would spend more time in the Tetons and elsewhere if I could do it again.
- Jackson was beautiful! Take the free cam up to the top of the mountain at the ski resort for happy hour. It's a free ride (be there early, that line forms quick). Gorgeous view at the top, pretty sure I got this recommendation from reading Rokslide actually
- I'll 2nd the wild west pizzeria in West Yellowstone
- We were told to visit the Grizzly and Wolf Center in Yellowstone and never did, wish we would have. We did not see either species the entire roadtrip. Though we did see some tourist chasing after a momma black blear and her cubs in The tetons....
- Ennis Montana was beaufitul and had some fun shops to walk around in. You could also fish the Madison if you are a fly fisherman
- If you are spending any significant time near Butte MT PM me and i'll give you intel on some eager Cutthroat trout
- There is a buffalo reserve not far outside of Missoula that we found pretty interesting and got some cool photographs

 

[cwegga]

If you are going through Missoula stop in and check out the RMEF info center there. They have some awesome elk mounts.

 

[austinphps]

For Yellowstone I'll echo the Grizzly and Wolf Center in West Y. It's pretty cool. If you want to see the main attractions and beat the crowd - wake up early and have your cooler packed with lunch and snacks. We would wake up at 5:30 have a quick breakfast of pre-made burritos or oatmeal and then get on the road to a site. Depending on where you camp it will take you 30-40 minutes to get to some things, but if you get an early start you can get to the main attraction before the crowds and then stop for lunch somewhere - make your way back to camp and go fishing/let the kids swim in the river

 

[tdhanses]

Sounds like a great trip to me. Bring plenty of movies and games for the kids and traveling will be super easy. Really the biggest issue traveling with kids and even a wife is being stuck in the same spot for hours on end. Once we added a dvd setup to the pickup traveling was much easier but I still don’t like all the stopping for food and potty time.

 

[Tom_]

Just some thought from a fellow Marylander.

If you want to catch trout and size is not important fish Blacktail Deer Creek or the Gardner River in Yellowstone. Nice thing about the Gardner in that there is a hot spring along the river that you can soak in. The Firehole River is a cool place as well.

The lodge at Old Faithful is well worth a visit.

A great hike is the suspension bridge at Hellroaring creek.

Get up early if you want to see bears. The road up from Canyon and on to Mammoth is usually reliable.

Huckleberry ice cream is a must. You will thank me later.

Plan your gas. RV's eat a ton and sometimes there is quite a distance between stations.

 

[timberland]

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