Day 1 - Sightseeing in the
Blackhills.
Over night in Rapid City. The bus will pick everyone up from the hotel to
this morning.
Coffee, orange juice, and muffin will be served on the motorcoach in the
morning.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial - This massive granite
sculpture memorializes four American presidents: Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, & Theodore Roosevelt.
Crazy Horse Monument - The face of Lakota leader, Crazy Horse, is emerging as the fifth
granite face in the Black Hills on the world's largest mountain carving.
Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski started work on the mountain in 1949 with only
$174 left to his name. Today his wife and several of their 10 sons and
daughters have dedicated their lives to continuing the project.
Custer State Park A driving tour of
this 73,000 acres world class park featuring spectacular geological formations
and one of the nation's largest bison herds.
Spearfish
Canyon Scenic Highway - Includes Roughlock Falls and the Thoen Stone Monument that
commemorates the
Ezra Kind party, killed by Indians over a gold discovery.
Overnight in Historic Deadwood has only one main street - all that space permits on
the floor of Deadwood gulch. The rest of the town clings to the steep sides of
the canyon. Today with casino gambling and abundant night life, Deadwood is
strongly reminiscent of the wild frontier and mining days of the past Wild
Bill Hickok was shot and killed in Deadwood during a poker game in Saloon #10.
Breakfast is included at your hotel this morning. Lunch at the Crazy Horse Memorial
and dinner in Deadwood at the Casino is at your own expenses.
Day 2
- Sightseeing as we travel to Yellowstone Park
This morning we cross the magnificent Bighorn Mountains. As we ascend,
we'll pass different rock layers, each representing thousands of years of
geologic history. We descend into the Bighorn Basin to the town of Cody.
Buffalo Bill Historical Center at Cody is widely regarded as this
country's finest western museum. The Buffalo Bill Museum established in
1927, contains a wealth of material relating to the life of William F
"Buffalo Bill" Cody and the pioneer culture of the western frontier.
Travel from Cody to Yellowstone
- We will stay two nights in Yellowstone, breakfast is included at the hotel
this morning; everyone is on their own for lunch today at one of our tour stops; and
dinner is included at our hotel this evening.
Day 3
- Sightseeing of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park contains more than 2.2 million acres of
steaming geysers, thundering waterfalls, crystalline lakes, and panoramic
scenery. Yellowstone boasts of four distinct types of hydrothermal features.
Underground pressurized magma keeps the thousands of geysers, hot springs,
fumaroles (steam vents) and mud pots active. One scientist
describes Yellowstone as "a window on the Earth's interior."
Yellowstone is also one of the most successful wildlife preserves in the
nation. Wildlife abounds in the park's millions of acres of pristine forest.
Old Faithful is undoubtedly the world's best-known
geyser and most publicized natural phenomenon of any sort. It is the
most consistent geyser in all of Yellowstone Park. Its heights,
intervals, and lengths of eruption have varied very little in the past 100
years. The average eruption heights vary from 130 feet to 184 feet,
discharging up to 7,500 gallons of water per eruption. The geyser's
average interval between eruptions is about 74 minutes.
Mammoth Hot Spring is the only place in
the park where this type of hot springs can be found. Hot water works
its way up thought rock fractures in the limestone resulting in these delicate
fountains and beautiful terraces.
Grand Teton National Park - Known world wide for its breathtaking
beauty. The mountain peaks, lacking much foothill, rise so abruptly that
visitors can stand at their foot and look seemingly straight up to the
13,772-foot summit of the Grand Teton, towering a mile-and-a-half above the
valley floor.
Breakfast is available at our hotel this morning; everyone is on their own for lunch
today at one of our tour stops; and
dinner is included at our hotel this evening.
Day
4 - Sightseeing as we travel to Glacier National Park
Leave Yellowstone behind and enter Montana's "Big Sky
Country." Delight in the beautiful vistas as you descend toward Missoula,
nestled in the Lolo National Forest. Since the days of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition, Missoula has been a trading and transportation crossroads.
Enter the Flathead Indian Reservation with views of Mission Range and Bison
Range. Continue to Kalispell along the Mission Range. Arrive in Glacier National Park.
Stay for two nights in Glacier National Park, breakfast is included in
the hotel; everyone is on their own for lunch today at one of our tour stops; and
dinner is included at our hotel this evening.
Day
5 - Sightseeing as we travel to Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park was established in 1910. The park's beautiful
landscape, U-shaped valleys and numerous lakes, was sculpted by glaciers of
the last Ice Age. The park features alpine meadows, deep forests, waterfalls,
about 50 glistening glaciers and 200 sparkling lakes.
Going-to-The-Sun-Road - The Sun Road
was completed in 1932 and is a spectacular 52 mile, paved two lane highway
that bisects the park east and west. It passes through almost every type of
terrain in the park, from large glacial lakes and cedar forests in the lower
valleys to windswept alpine tundra atop the pass. The vistas seen from
Going-to-The-Sun Road are breathtaking, a photographer's paradise. Set in a
rugged section of the northern Rockies, Glacier National Park joins Waterton
Lakes national Park in Alberta, Canada.
Stay our second night at Glacier National Park, breakfast is include at the hotel; box lunch is provided on the Sun
Road; and dinner at our hotel is included.
Day
6 - Travel through beautiful Montana "Big Sky Country"
Through Lewis and Clark State Park, the Little Belt Mountains, and
the Big Belt Mountains.
Overnight in Bozeman, Montana - breakfast is included with
the hotel; everyone is on their own for lunch today at one of our tour stops; and
dinner is included at our hotel this evening.
Day
7 - Sightseeing as we travel back to Rapid City
After breakfast, lookout for Pronghorn antelope and herds of cattle as
we follow the old Bozeman Trail to Sheridan. This area was the last open
hunting grounds of the Sioux and the site of numerous conflicts in the 1860's.
Custer Battlefield - Site of Custers Last Stand on June
25, 1876. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument memorializes one of the
last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their
traditional way of life against the encroachment of white civilization.
Devils Tower - Clusters of rock columns
1,000 feet wide at the bottom and 275 feet at the top. Standing 1,280 feet
high, the tower is the tallest such formation in the United States. It became
the world's first national monument when it was established in 1906. The Kiowa
Indians call it Mateo Tepee - The Bear Lodge.
Conclude: You
have seen four of North America's most beautiful national parks. We
return everyone to the Holiday Inn in Rapid City. Everyone
is on their own for lunch today at one of our tour stops; and
dinner is at our own expense at our hotel this evening.
Tour Price: $928
(double)
$841
(triple)
$798
(quad)
$1,188
(single)
Tour Includes:
* Deluxe motorcoach transportation
* 6 nights super hotel accommodations
* 7 total meals to include: 2 breakfasts. 5 evening banquet-style meals,
* 1 noon picnic lunch at Glacier National Park
* Professionally escorted and baggage handling
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