Denver - Yellowstone - Colorado Springs Loop

Hi everyone, We’ve made up our minds—this summer, we’re heading back to the USA. Our last trip to the American West was in 2017. Back then, I planned my itinerary with help from this forum, and it was perfect. I’ve drawn inspiration from a few travel journals and some really interesting websites to sketch out a rough route. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this itinerary. Let me know if I’ve missed any cool stops along the way or if some things seem unnecessary. My husband and I love hiking, nature, and photography, but we’re not into museums and aren’t big fans of cities. We’ve sorted our ESTA, checked out hotels, and already booked some with cancellation options. All that’s left is the flight tickets and renting a vehicle.

If you’ve got any tips or great deals, we’d love to hear them. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to share their thoughts!

USA ITINERARY, DENVER/DENVER LOOP, YELLOWSTONE 2025

DAY 1: FLIGHT FROM MARSEILLE, ARRIVAL IN DENVER Arrival in Denver / pick up rental vehicle /

Estes Park, Rocky Mountain (note: a permit is required)

DAY 2: ESTES PARK / ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Rocky Mountain

DAY 3: ROCKY MOUNTAIN / CHEYENNE / FORT LARAMIE / CUSTER

Cheyenne (giant boots, The Wranglers store) Fort Laramie Custer and its Bison statues, Wyoming State Museum (free) Custer State Park

DAY 4: CUSTER, BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Crazy Horse Memorial Mount Rushmore Rapid City (Chapel in the Hills, Presidents’ statues) – hometown of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Badlands National Park

DAY 5: BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Badlands National Park Wall Drugstore (Wall Drug)

DAY 6: WALL / SHERIDAN

Devil’s Tower (1 hour) Buffalo, quick stop Deadwood, an old gold rush town with a well-restored downtown

DAY 7: SHERIDAN / COOKE CITY

Bighorn National Forest Bighorn National Recreation Area (secret arch to find) Chief Joseph Highway, stop at Indian Summit Cody, hometown of Buffalo Bill

DAY 8: COOKE CITY / YELLOWSTONE

Roosevelt Mammoth Hot Springs Norris Basin Lake Village

DAY 9: YELLOWSTONE

Canyon Village South and North Rim Mud Volcano Lake Village

DAY 10: YELLOWSTONE

Lake Village Madison via Norris Basin, Porcelain Basin Old Faithful, Firehole, Midway Basin

DAY 11: YELLOWSTONE

Old Faithful

DAY 12: YELLOWSTONE

Old Faithful West Basin

DAY 13: YELLOWSTONE / GRAND TETON

Grand Teton via the West on Teton Park Road

DAY 14: MORAN / MANILA

Grand Teton via the East route Pilot Butte (wild horses, pronghorns) Rock Springs Red Canyon (visitor center, well-maintained loop)

DAY 15: MANILA / VERNAL

Rock Springs Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area Dinosaur National Monument

DAY 16: VERNAL

Dinosaur National Monument

DAY 17: VERNAL / GRAND JUNCTION

Fantasy Canyon (2 hours) Colorado National Monument West entrance

DAY 18: GRAND JUNCTION / MONTROSE

Colorado National Monument East entrance Black Canyon of the Gunnison Crested Butte (lovely spot)

DAY 19: MONTROSE / ALAMOSA

Black Canyon of the Gunnison (3 hours) Great Sand Dunes National Park

DAY 20: ALAMOSA / COLORADO SPRINGS

Great Sand Dunes National Park Paint Mines Interpretive Park (2 hours) Garden of the Gods in downtown Colorado Springs

DAY 21: COLORADO SPRINGS / SILVERTHORNE OR DENVER

Bass Pro Shop (outdoor gear store) Outlets in Silverthorne or visit Denver

DAY 22: SILVERTHORNE OR DENVER

Wash the vehicle / fill up with gas

Flight departure at 4:30 PM (tentative)

DAY 23: ARRIVAL HOME Arrival in Marseille at 11:15 AM (tentative), then back home

DAY 24: BACK TO WORK!!!

Hi there,

Personally, I’d tackle the flight tickets first—summer is the busiest time.

Stupid question maybe, but have you checked how long the driving legs are?

Since you like hiking, I’d take a day away from Yellowstone and add Grand Teton National Park instead. It’s probably less crowded and has tons of hikes, like at Jenny Lake (check AllTrails).

Colorado Springs doesn’t do much for me, and Garden of the Gods even less (just for the photo).

Happy planning!

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.

Yep, we’ll take care of the flight tickets in January. I’d heard it was a good time to buy them, but I’ll admit that’s just a hunch.

For the distances, we planned the stages in kilometers. We even ran into some trouble because some roads were closed, which sometimes sent us on detours. We winged it a bit. We bought a map (Michelin’s *172 Big Sky Country*) to get a better view of the route.

I’m not sure I want to cut a day from Yellowstone—it was the main goal of this trip. I’ll take a good look at the hikes in Grand Teton, but I’ve already noted Jenny Lake.

I’ll take your advice about Garden of the Gods Park into account. The photo is really pretty, though.

Happy holidays!

Hi there,

I’m not sure whether to rush or wait for flight tickets, but I booked mine last week for next summer and they were already 100 € more expensive than three weeks ago... Still, I get that you need to have at least a rough idea of your route, especially the flight departure and return dates! Oh, and is your ESTA sorted?...

On the first day, you’ll just stop in Denver to sleep—you’ll be wiped out. Don’t hit the road.

For YST, book your hotel as early as possible—it fills up fast!!! From what I remember, the Alpine Motel, which is great for exploring the park, opens reservations in December.

I skimmed your plan (no time today!), but it looks packed. Have you laid out your itinerary like this: Morning stop - Driving time - Visit time - Evening stop. Driving time = Google Maps + 20%, and make sure to include "hidden" time in your schedule to keep it realistic (and doable)—things like grocery shopping, breaks, etc.

Hi there, We checked the flights again, and the one that seemed to fit our schedule is no longer available. So we’re going to book quickly.

Our first hotel is 1 hour and 20 minutes from the airport, so even if we’re tired (because we *will* be tired), we think it’s doable.

For Yellowstone, I’ve booked the hotels, including Alpine Motel. All with cancellation options, just in case.

We’ve calculated the kilometers and accounted for moving around a lot once we’re there, but I’ll admit we didn’t break down the morning and afternoon steps in detail—just added 20%. I’ll try to calculate more precisely. We know we’ll be driving a lot for this destination. We’ll also see how things go once we’re there, depending on time, weather, and other unexpected factors. But I’ll study the route more carefully—we’ve already redone the full itinerary (city to city) to see the minimum we’ll cover.

Thanks for your reply. To be continued.

It’s pretty packed, but personally, I like to take my time, do some hiking, and limit myself to about 125 miles (200 km) per day on average—often even less than that. If you’re spending the night in the Badlands, check if they’re hosting a stargazing event that evening. The night sky is incredible if the weather’s clear.

Adding an extra day or not between Grand Teton and Yellowstone really depends on what you want to do. If you’re up for a day hike in Grand Teton, I’d recommend Cascade Canyon from Jenny Lake (ideally by booking the boat early in the morning to save yourself the walk around the lake). It gets pretty crowded around Jenny Lake in the summer. In Yellowstone, there are endless hiking options, all very different, and you’ll often find fewer people once you start walking. Two suggestions: Mount Washburn (if the bears let you pass—the trail is sometimes closed) or Imperial Geyser.

Hotel reservations (inside the parks) are more time-sensitive than flight tickets.

Hi, Thanks for your reply. You're right, the days are pretty packed, but we've tweaked the itinerary a bit, and we know we won't be able to do everything. Once we're there, we'll have several options, and depending on the time we have, our mood, the weather, and other unexpected things, we'll adapt to what's doable. For example, day 3 is a driving day, where Cheyenne and Fort Laramie will serve as short breaks, and we'll do Custer the next day. On day 4, we'll likely visit Crazy Horse (either we'll see it along the way or make a specific trip—we'll decide on the spot), then spend the rest of the day at Custer State Park, finishing up at Mount Rushmore. On day 5, we'll stay in the Badlands, etc... As suggested by Caussat, we tried to plan the itinerary by accounting for visiting times in the morning and afternoon, and leaving some wiggle room. We've also booked our flight tickets and confirmed the vehicle rental. All the hotels are reserved with free cancellation. So if we see that our schedule isn't working on certain days, we can still make changes. Thanks for the info about the Badlands—an astronomy event could be interesting, we'll look into it. We'd already noticed that whenever we hiked several kilometers on trails (in Utah's parks), we were pretty much alone. Have a great day.