The Great American West: Self-Drive Through the USA Rockies

Sixteen nights across the American West, self-drive with the flights included, from the Black Hills up to Glacier National Park.

Custer State Park takes the first three nights, with the Wildlife Loop, the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road, all three of them good driving, and bison in numbers on the open ground. Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial are visited together, which is the honest way to do it, with Jewel Cave and Wind Cave nearby and their place in Lakota creation accounts explained.

Sheridan follows for a night by way of Deadwood and Devil’s Tower, then Cody for two, a town built by and named after Buffalo Bill, where the Center of the West opened in 1912 and now runs to five separate museums. Yellowstone comes next for two nights at Old Faithful, then Gardiner for three at the northern gate, with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, hot springs and a private naturalist-guided wildlife tour of the northern valleys. Glacier National Park closes the route with a guided high-mountain hike.

Flights, fully insured car hire, the named activities, all the accommodation and round-the-clock support while travelling are included, and the price is quoted per person. Seventeen days is the length this route needs, since the distances between the stops are long and most of them deserve two nights. The season runs roughly June to September: the Going-to-the-Sun Road at Glacier often does not open until late June and the Yellowstone roads close for winter. No wildlife sighting can be promised.