National Parks & Lodges of the Old West

Day 1: Depart for Rapid City, SD

• Transfer to the hotel
• Welcome dinner

Meals: Dinner

Day 2: Rapid City | Badlands National Park | Spearfish Canyon

• Badlands National Park
• Lunch is on your own
• Free time: at the lodge for a walk or hike

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 3: Spearfish Canyon | Mount Rushmore | Custer State Park

• Mount Rushmore
• Free time: suggested – Visitor Center, Sculptor’s Studio, Presidential Trail
• Jeep safari tour through Custer State Park

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 4: Custer | Hot Springs | Custer

• The Mammoth Site
• Lunch is on your own
• Crazy Horse Memorial
• Artist Korczak Ziolkowski – his sculptures that illustrate the culture, tradition, and living heritage of Native Americans
• Free time: explore on your own

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 5: Custer | Devils Tower, WY | Cody

• Devils Tower
• Board a motor coach to Cody

Meals: Breakfast 

Day 6: Cody | Yellowstone National Park

• Buffalo Bill Center of the West
• Whitney Museum
• Yellowstone National Park
• Yellowstone’s Upper and Lower Falls

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 7: Yellowstone National Park

• Full day exploring Yellowstone
• Suggested: Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Mammoth Hot Springs, Albright Visitor Center and Museum

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 8: Yellowstone National Park | Grand Teton National Park | Jackson

• Grand Teton National Park
• The Tetons
• Farewell dinner

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 9: Jackson | Idaho Falls | Depart

• Transfer to Idaho Falls Regional Airport

Meals: Breakfast 

Bob Grese is a Professor Emeritus in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the former director of the University’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. He formerly taught in the landscape architecture program and is a strong advocate of ecologically-based design and ecological restoration. He has researched the work of early landscape architects who advocated such an approach to design, especially the work of O.C. Simonds and Jens Jensen who worked throughout the Midwest and were known for the “Prairie style” of landscape gardening.

Bob is the author of Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens and The Native Landscape Reader and co-edited Passion for Peonies with David Michener. He is a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects as well as in the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He also is an honorary member of the Garden Club of America.