Rockies and Great Plains road trip, 2015 (intro)

Back in 2011, I was going to be laid off in mid-year and so I put together a cross-country road trip that would hit 10 of the 11 states that I still had not visited (Alaska was not feasible on this trip). My final plan was that I was going to drive over 4300 miles from Houston to Salt Lake City, UT (new state #1), and then hit in order Idaho (#2), Oregon (#3), Montana (#4), Wyoming (#5), North Dakota (#6), South Dakota (#7), Minnesota (#8), Iowa (#9), and Nebraska (#10) before driving south back to Houston. That would have taken me over 4300 miles and at least a good 3 weeks of leisurely driving and stopping wherever I wanted to (but no deadlines).


Originally, I wanted to fly into Portland, Oregon, then get Idaho on the way to Utah, then go up to Yellowstone in Wyoming, ("D" on the map below) flying home from Sioux City, Iowa, but the rental companies wanted about $2000 for that itinerary, to which I said "I can buy a cheap used car for that much". That's when I added my drives from and to Houston and rerouted Oregon. This is what I came up with:

But then I decided to think bigger, and planned travel in Europe instead. I kept this plan in my back pocket in case I could ever use it again.

Cut to summer 2015, I've got a new job, and nothing at work the week before my cousin's wedding in Chicago, so I dusted off my plans to see what would fit into the time frame of leaving Houston on Saturday morning and getting into Chicago late Thursday night. That left me just five nights to plan, way less than I'd need for the grand tour, so I had to make cuts to the west (the drive to Utah and stop in Oregon) and east (the drive across South Dakota to Minnesota and Iowa, then the drive home). Still got me 7 new states.

New plan, with the map below:

• Saturday - fly into Salt Lake City ("A"), Utah (#1), and drive through Idaho (#2) with a stop in Craters of the Moon National Park ("B") to get to Yellowstone for the night
• Sunday, Monday - Yellowstone ("C") in Wyoming (#3)
• Tuesday - drive through Wyoming and across Montana (#4) to a tiny sliver of North Dakota (#5), then into South Dakota (#6), with a detour back into Wyoming for Devil's Tower ("D") and spend the night in Deadwood, after a LONG day of driving
• Wednesday - see Deadwood ("E") and the Badlands ("F"), stay near Mt Rushmore
• Thursday - see Mt Rushmore ("G"), drive south through Nebraska (#7) into Denver ("H"), fly to Chicago

Click here to zoom in on the map.

I tried looking at driving to Sioux City IA or Sioux Falls SD to the east to fly to Chicago (which would allow me to be in Minnesota and Iowa), but the rental car companies wanted way too much money for the rental on that route. Even flying out of Rapid City SD was $350 more than driving to Denver and leaving out of there, so that's why I drove from Mt Rushmore to Denver to fly to Chicago (and that still got me Nebraska).

I ended up hitting Oregon on a later trip, and I'll save Minnesota, Iowa, and Alaska for another time Those are my last 3 states, but I don't foresee putting together a single trip that has all three.

The next 5 parts will be one for each bullet point above.