worldbanker

Wife and I will travel this summer to either using miles on AA, CO, DL or NW as our options. What would be the nearest major airport to:
Mt. Rushmore- Denver, Minneapolis or closer?
Yellowstone- Denver, Boise

Also, what would be closer for Monument Valley- Phoenix, Albuquerque or Salt Lake City. Another idea was to fly into a regional airport such as Grand Junction.

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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

airoli

Have a look at BZN (Bozeman, MT) for Yellowstone. There are services on DL and NW.

clacko

rapid city sdak is close to mt rushmore. used to go there & once drove over. don't know who serves it. think ua from den.

mudgal

I used to live in BZN. Quaint western town; lots of shopping as well as things to do in the great outdoors.

The Museum of the Rockies is well worth a stop; fairly well reknowned for its dinosaur "stuff" and Jack Horner; nice planetarium, old homestead with all the niceties life provided back then.

The drive from BZN to W Yellowstone takes you down Gallatin Canyon -- a beautiful drive. Big Sky MT (ski resort), which was developed by Chet Huntley (of Huntley/Brinkley news team), is enroute.

If you have time to contact the BZN Chamber of Commerce, do -- there's always something interesting going on there. First weekend of August is the Sweet Pea Festival: arts/crafts, music, Shakespeare in the Parks, a parade -- big small town fun.

Here's a list of links that would be helpful if you have the time to investigage:

http://www.rockwelllending.com/bzmn.htm

Enjoy your visit to "Big Sky Country"!

Happy trails!

JerryFF

The other possibility for Yellowstone is to fly into Jackson, Wyoming and drive norh through Jackson Hole and Teton Natl Park.

cactuspete

Of the 3, Albuquerque is a lillte closer than Phoenix. Salt Lake City is substantially further.

airoli

mudgal,
your description of BZN reminds me of a wonderful 4 weeks stay in that area in '99. And I still keep my Sweet Pea sticker!

Thumper

I flew into Jackson Hole Wyoming. It was seasonal. You can get the flight from Dallas, which is how I went from BDL.

This was on American Airlines. Slept over the border in Idaho, where the same hotel chain, just 40 miles further though, was $118 a night cheaper.

Enjoy the trip!

jerry a. laska

Actually Phoenix is about 20 miles closer than abq to kayenta, az, just down the road from monument valley. For my twice or thrice annual hiking trips in southern utah I usually use las vegas to fly into as I find car rental rates usually substantially cheaper there as compared to phx, not to mention airfares often are also.

As for Yellowstone you might as well just fly into Jackson and experience the tetons also. Nearest major airport is SLC.

Mount Rushmore - Rapid City is closest airport with commuter service. Denver is closest major city. If you have enough time and don't mind driving you could drive up from Denver to Mt. Rushmore, hit frontier days in Cheyenne (last full week in July), see the wagon ruts at Guernsey, Wy, visit Ft. Laramie N.H.S. (north of Cheyenne), and visit Wind Cave N.P. among other attractions.
jerry

[This message has been edited by jerry a. laska (edited 06-04-2001).]

SpuddBrother

The most beautiful way to enter Yellowstone is over Bear Tooth Pass from Billings. The first campground inside the Park is Pebble Creek. The best campsite is the one furthest South!!

Check out the park, and then exit on the East side. Spend some time in Cody, Wyoming, and then drive over to Devil's tower (The KOA shows 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' outdoors at dusk, if I recall). Check out Rapid City for a day (The KOA shows 'North by Northwest' at dusk in the picnic shelters) and Mount Rushmore. Don't forget Crazy Horse too.

0524

The drive from Jackson Airport to Yellowstone, with the Tetons looming to the West, is fabulous as well. Stop and smell the wildflowers, gawk at the wildlife, and take a hike or two.

Thumper

Just read this and thought of my prior posting.

Here's some details on American flight:

On June 15, American will begin seasonal summer service from Dallas/Fort
Worth to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Daily nonstop flights are scheduled to depart
DFW at 11:09 a.m. and arrive in Jackson Hole at 12:59 p.m.

Thumper

worldbanker

Wow, didn't expect so many responses. The main reason we asked about nearest major airports within 1 days drive is because:

a) to avoid flying NW to Dakotas, only ATR planes and availability is less for award travel. Once tried to book American Eagle flight MIA-TPA before 737s and the 7% seats allotted for award travel turned out to be only 1 seat available on the entire twin prop
b) major airports and choice of airlines increases chances of number of flights, routings and most importantly- availability of award travel
c) it is vacation and we want to drive through some nice scenery

Thanks for the tip on Jackson Hole on AA. Whenever there is a new route, it is a sometimes a clean slate for booking award travel since few had been able to book it before.

If we go to Yellowstone, we will probably fly AA into Jackson Hole.

If we to Mt. Rushmore, we will probably fly into Bozeman as the area sounds nice as well.

And lastly, if we visit Monument Valley, we will fly into Phoenix if we wish to couple the visit with Grand Canyon and Lake Powell or Albuquerque if we wish to visit Santa Fe and Taos plus the four corner States.

Thanks to all. No weekend trips planned here, just a week of relaxation and sight seeing out West.

------------------
"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

Thumper

Worldbanker -
Have a great trip!

Last July my wife and I flew into Jackson Hole and then spent the next 15 days driving to Phoenix. (Yellowstone, Salt Lake, Arches Nat'l Park, Vegas,Grand Canyon, Zion NP, Painted Desert, etc.) Best vacation in years - both my beeper and my cell phone were out of range!

Yes, alot of miles, but we saw some of the greatest National Parks in this country.

Bring plenty of film and water.

Thumper