Road trip must-see from SW WI to Great Fall

[mgray]

Good morning,. I've been tasked with planning our family road trip next summer. Heading from WI to Great Falls, probably a seven or eight day trip. We have five kids who will be ages 1-10, so I'd like to keep the driving days reasonable. Ideally we'd like not to double back, but make a big loop. Per tradition, we'll make them see Wall Drug and The Corn Place. Any suggestions for things to do or places to stay? Anything from the big national parks to local rodeos. This would be towards the end of July. Thanks!

 

[WCB]

Badlands Natl park, Devils Tower, head over to Cody for the Buffalo Bill museum. You could obviously then hit up Yellowstone then up the Madison Valley in MT. Stop by Virginia City with the kids of an afternoon. Then head up to Great Falls. Lewis and Clark Museum is neat there also there is a Buffalo Jump and visitor center 15minutes or so west of Great Falls.

Not a whole lot on the way back if you don't want to back track until you hit Medora on U.S. 94. Mostly just scenic routes to get to eastern MT. At least you can avoid going back down through Helena and Bozeman. You can go down 89 east of GF and hit White Sulphur keep heading south to Livingston or take 12 east and just keep going till you hit 94 in Forsyth or just take 200 over and cut south to Miles City.

 

[nodakian]

Badlands Natl park, Devils Tower, head over to Cody for the Buffalo Bill museum. You could obviously then hit up Yellowstone then up the Madison Valley in MT. Stop by Virginia City with the kids of an afternoon. Then head up to Great Falls. Lewis and Clark Museum is neat there also there is a Buffalo Jump and visitor center 15minutes or so west of Great Falls.

Not a whole lot on the way back if you don't want to back track until you hit Medora on U.S. 94. Mostly just scenic routes to get to eastern MT. At least you can avoid going back down through Helena and Bozeman. You can go down 89 east of GF and hit White Sulphur keep heading south to Livingston or take 12 east and just keep going till you hit 94 in Forsyth or just take 200 over and cut south to Miles City.

Exactly. This will be more than enough to fill 8 days.

 

[TSnave]

Devil's Tower for sure. My kids loved it. If you then head for Cody, take the highway from Ranchester, WY up over the Bighorns. From Cody, you can go north and take the Chief Joseph scenic byway to Cooke City and then into Yellowstone, or go over Beartooth Pass and drop into Red Lodge.

When in GtF, go to Giant Springs and see the fish hatchery. On the way back east, Consider the highline (US 2); lots of little towns, dinosaur museums, just rural MT. Definitely recommend the Fort Peck Interpretive Center if you go that way.

 

[wyosteve]

For a change in scenery, you could head to MT. Hwy. 2 from Great Falls and take it east. Stop at the Fort Peck Interpretive Center for the history and a T-Rex on display.