Chicago – Glacier National Park, Montana Road Trip Day 3
Distance: 427 miles (including all attraction)
Driving Time: 7 hours 30 mins (including all attractions)
Lunch Tip: Custer, SD or Gillette, Wyoming
Cost for Day: $300 (gas + attraction fee + hotel + food)
Main Attraction: Chapel In The Hills (FREE), Mt Rushmore (FREE), Crazy Horse ($28), Needles Hwy to Needles Eye (FREE)
Time at Attractions: Chapel (15 mins), Mt Rushmore (10 mins), Crazy Horse (45 mins), Sylvan Lake (as long as you want)
The Plan:
Earth and sky,
woods and fields,
lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea,
are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us
more than we can ever learn from books.
John Lubbock
First Attraction: CHAPEL IN THE HILLS – For a FREE sliver of NORWAY in Rapid City – 15 mins from rapid city
Cost: FREE
Time Needed: 15 mins
Next all attractions are featuring the cluster state park…
Second Attraction: MOUNT RUSHMORE – 36 mins from chapel in the Hills
Tip: Do not pay and park…instead pull over while driving to it to get best pictures from far and the up close at the entrance. That is the best view and FREE of money and quick with time.
Cost: Free if you take my tip, else about 8 bucks to park
Time Needed: Less than 10 mins.
Third Attraction: CRAZY HORSE – 25 mins south from Mt. Rushmore
Cost: $28 per car
Time Needed: Less than 1 hour
Drive to Custer, SD next, 10 mins south of Crazy horse. Good stop to grab something to eat…dine in, or carry out for the scenic drive next. Here are some recommendations. Drive via 16A east to go north on the scenic needles highway 87 all the way to Needles and Sylvan Lake.
Fourth Attraction: Drive through needles highway (40 mins without stopping) to Sylvan Lake and Needles Eye Tunnel. Drive through the needles highway 87 east and then south and loop back west on. Look at the clickable map below pictures to plan additional stops.
Take the very scenic drive to Billings, Montana to crash for the day. It is 5 1/2 hours from needles eye (last stop according to this plan). Do not forget to take a nice collection of music as you drive with the range of Rockies on your west and enter Montana in all of its wildness.
Hotel Recommendation with Free Breakfast – Hampton Inn
Dinner Recommendation – Enzo Mediterranean Grill
