Massive road trip, st louis to co to glaicer and back.

The son and I are doing a nice 2.5 week road trip in a few weeks. We will be booking it to CO, hitting pikes peaks up, then moab and arches, dinosaur national monument, grand teton, yellowstone, glacier and mt rushmore. We are bed camping some places and cabins in others.

What are some must do along the the trip? I am lifted, with a slim line bumper (no winch), silders and on 255/85/16s MT tires. I have a full repair kit and straps.

 

Dad and Lad trips are the best! (IMO, with my son...YMMV.)

If you want to avoid some of the crowds, think about easy day trips to hot springs in the Gunnison and Crested Butte areas.

If you're near SE CO Pagosa Springs area, Piedra River has a low traffic, well maintained gravel road with killer vistas, camping and fishing. You probably don't need 4WD until well after the DOT style bridges end, but it's handy in the pastures. It's super comfy easy ride in a Tacoma, not so much in a beater sedan, but both are viable fish camp vehicles. Remember you are visiting during monsoon season, so flash floods can happen anywhere in the canyons, but mostly in the bottomlands. The high road is pretty much foolproof and the authorities will keep it cleaned.

beginning of canyon:


canyon from last highway type bridge:


said bridge:


bonus mostly downhill MTB cruise coming out of the canyon:

 

im more familiar with colorado springs stuff.

pikes peak is fun. try to make a reservation and go up early if you can. lots of places to stay and eat in springs. people like manitou, but i think its over crowded and meh. i lived there for a couple years but moved closer to downtown colorado springs.

take hwy 24 west from springs to moab, i wouldn't recommend denver to i70 unless you need something up there. my preferred route is hwy 24 to breck to get on i70. i think hwy 50 west of gunnison has some construction, but if not, going west to montrose then north to grand junction is a much more scenic route and takes maybe an extra 30 minutes when you factor in i70 traffic.

if you get real wild, you could take the rim rocker trail from durango to moab. that would take some time. you could still go that way and take the highways though.

my princeton hot springs is kinda on the way. not sure if thats a thing you wanna do. 4 mile area east of buena vista has some easy off road trails. there are tons of other around there too from easy to difficult.

 

Super jealous..have fun!

 

Well we are skipping pikes peak and going to do rimrocker. We would do both but we have to be in moab on the 10th at noon and with us50 being closed near Saperino, that add a ton on to the drive unless you know of a different route.

 

You could go further south and through Pagosa

 

You may be trying to do too much in one trip. You can't REALLY see much at any one place. I've been to all of those places except Glacier, and we are going there in July.

Be aware that many of those places are still snowed in and roads may not be open. They got snow today in Rocky Mt NP. They normally try to get the roads open there by June 1 but have already announced they will be late this year due to excessive snowfall. Glacier isn't normally open until July. And pack warm clothes. You will very likely see temps below freezing and snowfall in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

It takes a while to clear this much snow.

pictures of trail ridge road snow clearing - Search (bing.com)

If you do go through Pagosa Springs make a day trip off the main road from South Fork to Creed and drive the Bachelors loop.

Creede Colorado Mines - Search Images (bing.com)

We are leaving GA and headed straight north to Michigan and into the Upper Peninsula. Then west through WI, MN, ND and into Montana to see Glacier. Taking a round about route to see some things along the way. After we leave Glacier the plan is to cross Idaho and into Washington state just to check off 2 more states we've been to. Then work our way to Yellowstone.

I've seen most of Yellowstone except Lamar Valley. That is the only place we plan to go to in Yellowstone.

 

A trip like that needs to hit some of the Backcountry Discovery Routes

https://ridebdr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=c7e559fa199d448485a6e2e1e45e0f3d


You’ll be GNP to early to be able to drive over the pass but shouldn’t have any problem going around south from Saint Mary to West Glacier (or vice versa). Plenty of trails on either side.

 

I live in the Black Hills area in SD. I do a lot of off roading (dirt bike and taco) as well as some overlanding. You can camp pretty much anywhere, it's shown on the Black Hills MVUM map. I usually just find a spot on a trail with a good view and nothing beats it. There's also some amazing secret-ish, campgrounds that are great. Endless trails if that's your thing, I'd recommend ONX offroad to see trail difficulties, some I wouldn't even think about going down lol. Sounds like an amazing trip!

 

Just finished a trip from Louisiana through North Texas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Tried to due some trails and go north through the Tetons but got snowed out and cut through to Moab from Montrose, CO. I definitely bit off more than I could chew with what I wanted to see. Came back south after a few days in Colorado and Utah and had to fly through everything else. I'd also recommend maybe lowering the list down a few places and just enjoying it slowly and save some for another trip. (Didn't quite have a time frame but took me 15 days, excuse the dump)

 

Thanks yall! We leave in less than a week. We are doing 103 miles in rimrocker on the 9th, the other 60 in the 10th with arches at noon, late night and early morning. On the 11th, we are going to try to knock out white rim road, yes all 100 miles in a day. We are going to start early, like 6am, I have lights and Im not a total noob to off roading and long ass days in a car. Last year, we did 17hrs non stop from Montreal to St louis. The 12th we are going to try to do a guided tour at Arches then head north to our next top.

 

great pictures. Thanks for sharing

 

Man, i do love me some cock and ball doughnuts, but we are doing st louis to glenwood springs in one day, 15+hrs of driving, we arent stopping for shit.

 

What’s your spare tire look like? I’d drop it & get a matching spare. Check the air before you go.

Hit up Golden & go to Coors. It’s awesome. Also go to Buffalo Bills Grave @ Lookout Mt

 

We are about half way done. Wish we spent more time at moab/arches/canyonlands. We did about 130 miles on rimrocker before we turned off due to time, did montrose to buckeye in a day. Did some trails at Arches, did about 20 miles in on white rim trail and did echo park at dinosaur national monument.
Will upload photos at home.