North & South Dakota Road Trip
Basic Info
The major airports in North or South Dakota are not major airline hubs hence would need connections getting there. We flew into Minneapolis and rented a car from there to begin our road journey.
A 9 Day Itinerary Covering North & South Dakota
Day 1: Minneapolis
Day 2: Badlands National Park
Day 3: Mount Rushmore
Day 4 & 5: Grand Teton National Park
Day 6: Yellowstone National Park
Day 7: Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Day 8: Fargo
Day 9: Back to Minneapolis & home
Day 1: Minneapolis
Minneapolis doesn't come up on a lot of lists on what to do but there is plenty for a day. This city is the headquarters of Target. This city is full of great eateries as well.
We started our day by walking down to Mill Ruins Park. You will see abandoned flour mills and the while here check out the Stone Arch Bridge which dates back to 1883. Next stop is Guthrie theater also in the same neighborhood. It is one of the top performing arts venues in the midwest. Next stop has to be the Weisman Art Museum - quite a bit of a walk from the Mill Ruins Park but the museum is well known for its design by the great architect Frank Gehry. After the art museum you can head on over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden to see huge and beautiful constructions throughout the park.
Lastly you can head on over to the Minnehaha Regional Park - its reasonably close to downtown and features a 53 foot waterfall
Day 2: Badlands National Park
We drove from Minneapolis. So we got a headstart and stopped at Sioux Falls for lunch. Have lunch at Falls overlook Café. Sioux falls is a small waterfall yet quite pretty. From Sioux falls it is about 4 hours to get to Badlands National Park. Follow route 240 – which is the sceninc byway that takes you through all of the national park and has several scenic lookout points. The whole route is about 60 miles but estimate to spend about 2 hours if you want to do some trails. The best trail is the notch where there is a ladder that takes you to an overlook that you can further hike on. None of the trails are difficult but is dependent on the weather.
Spend the evening in Rapid City if possible. We stayed at Wall since we didn’t make exact calculations. Rapid City is closer to Black Hills and Mount Rushmore and if you want to be at Mount Rushmore bright and early I suggest staying at Rapid City
Day 3: Mount Rushmore
Drive to Mount Rushmore. Make sure to get there early to beat the crowds. Park opens at 6AM so try to get here before 8AM. Nothing quite prepared me for how impressive it is to see the carvings on the mountain. After Mount Rushmore you can either go to Crazy Horse or skip it like we did and go on to Black Hills National Forest. It is such a beautiful drive with lots of scenic overlooks and plenty of trails. Stop at Lake Sylvan and do the 1 mile loop around the lake. You will not regret it. After the lake you can choose to go on to Custer State Park and do the wildlife viewing loop. Unfortunatley for us we didn’t see any except for some donkeys. Nevertheless the drive is absolutely gorgeous with rolling hills that look manicured. You can choose to stay at Mount Rushmore and splurge at the glamping Under Canvas tents. It is well worth it and the food here is far better than anything you can get in town.
Day4: Grand Teton National Park
From Mount Rushmore we drove straight to Grand Tetons National park. It was a long drive – about 8 hours. I recommend staying at the Jackson Lake Lodge. Ask for a mountain view room. The views from the room are insane. The rooms at the hotel are large & comfortable. Do book well in advance as it does get sold out pretty soon in. high season. After check in, we went to Lake Jenny to take the boat to hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Since we arrived rather late we beat the traffic and were able to park comfortably and get on the boat. After our hike we drove further to get out of the park to go see the famous Mormon Row Barns. We got back and had dinner at Jackson Lake Lodge. Reservations are highly recommended as they tend to get really busy. Dinner was quite good and service was excellent.
Day 5: Grand Teton National Park
We dedicated this day to covering some of the popular spots in Grand Teton and do some hiking as well. We covered Schwabacher Landing – a beautiful photography spot with an easy hike. For lunch we decided to go to Grand Teton village. This town has the vibes of an alpine village. Check out Il Vilaggio Osteria – the hotel looks amazing and could be a good option to stay outside of the Grand Tetons.
Towards late afternoon we headed to Yellowstone National Park. The drive to Yellowstone is absolutely fabulous. We got to Yellowstone by around 5pm. Some of the most famous and the ones I would say that cannot be missed in Yellowstone are:
The old faithful Grand Prismatic
The Old faithful has predicted eruption times – it is worth it to look up those times so you can come in time for them. Again I would recommend late evening or early morning to beat the crowds. The Grand Prismatic is an absolute must In Yellowstone and since you don’t need to book anything It can be done at any time. However it is good to keep in mind that the roads tend to get very crowded in the park and you could be stuck in traffic for a long time so it is good to factor that in during peak season.
After watching the Old Faithful we decided to pick up dinner and being closer to 8pm couldn’t find a single place without long lines so got into the car and decided to go to our hotel. Little did we know that we would be stuck in traffic for over 2 hours getting out of the park. We had booked a hotel at the West Entrance. We were so worried that the hotel that we had booked would consider us a no show. Coupled with that we had no phone service in the car. It was quite the experience. But we did get to the hotel around 11:30pm to discover there was no food there just some popcorn and microwable mac and cheese.
Day 6: Yellowstone National Park
After a good breakfast at our hotel we went back to the Park to finish up what we hadn’t covered the day before. We drove first to see the mammoth hot springs which is located in the north of Yellowstone. Then we drove south to see the Norris geyser basin where the tallest geyser in the world, the Steamboat geyser is located. Then we continued to see the Grand Prismatic spring. This is one you do not want to miss in Yellowstone for sure. The beauty of this area is to be seen and experienced. It was evening by the time we wrapped up and left the park a little before 5pm because of our experience the previous day. We spent the second night at our hotel in Idaho.
Day 7: Drive to Theodore Roosevelt National Park
We had an early start since the drive to Theodore Roosevelt national park was around 8 hours. On our way we passed by the delightful town of Bozeman. My recommendation would be to stay 1 night closer to Yellowstone and spend the 2nd night at Bozeman since it is closer to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Bozeman has nicer hotels. The drive to Bozeman is absolutely stunning and highly recommended. Close to Bozeman we stopped at the Montana Grizzly Encounter to see some rescued grizzlies and learn about these fascinating animals. We got to Medora where we stayed for the night. Since we arrived rather early in Medora and since the national park is a small one we were able to go into the park. We saw so many bison, elk and wild horses.
Day 8: Fargo
We started the day walking a bit in Medora, got some coffee and visited the Chateau de Mores to learn a little bit of the history of the place. After our tour we drove to Fargo, ND. We got to Fargo around 5pm, checked into our hotel and went for a walk. We had reservations for dinner at Mezzaluna an upscale restaurant serving decent food.
