Summer Travel: Wild West Road Trip
A travelers' guide for enjoying a summer road trip through Montana, South Dakota in Wyoming in 2024.
With 2024 being named the “Year of the Cowboy,” now is the time to set out on a summer road trip and enjoy wide-open spaces, catch a rodeo or two, visit national monuments and dive into history throughout the Wild West.
This spring and summer, plan a long road trip through South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana to experience all these expansive states have to offer. A true adventure through the West, the route has historic trails, tribal nations, small towns, roadside diners and the residents who call the region home.
From wildlife watching to hiking and scenic drives to powwows and rodeos, here are four ways to experience the best of the West.
1. Wide-Open Spaces
Around here, the only traffic jams travelers encounter are wildlife crossings, cows being moved from winter pasture to summer pasture and the natural migration of wildlife through various corridors. And if it feels like there is no one in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota? All three states combined have a population of just over 2.5 million people, which breaks down to an average of 13 people per square mile (compared to New York state alone which has 415 people per square mile).
2. Western Way of Life
Through all three states, the cowboy way of life lives on. But not just any cowboys – instead the cowboys who hang their hats here are born and raised, Western-living and loving kind of cowboys. From the Black Hills of South Dakota to northwest Montana, there are ample opportunities to catch a rodeo on a trip trip throughout the summer.
Here are a few must-see 2024 rodeos throughout the region.
-Brash Rodeo Series (May – September); Kalispell, Montana
-Wild West Wednesday Rodeos (June – August); Rapid City, South Dakota
-College National Finals Rodeo (June 9-15); Casper, Wyoming
-Augusta’s ‘Wildest One-Day Rodeo in the West’ (June 30); Augusta, Montana
-Dubois Friday Night Rodeo (every Friday night of the summer); Dubois, Wyoming
-National High School Rodeo Finals (July 14-20); Rock Springs, Wyoming
To take the cowboy way of life to the next level, book a stay at Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork, Montana. An all-inclusive guest ranch that’s family-owned and -operated, the ranch offers weeklong stays in the summer and has a special spring adventure retreat May 29-June 2, 2024. Mills Wilderness Adventures of Montana also takes guests on weeklong pack trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
3. Visit National Parks & Monuments
For many travelers, national parks are on their bucket lists. And the tri-state region is full of them. In South Dakota, visit Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial© and Badlands National Park just outside Rapid City. Wyoming is filled with one-of-a-kind national icons like Flaming Gorge, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Montana is most well-known for Glacier National Park, just outside of Kalispell, Montana. Additional highlights include Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Killpecker Sand Dunes and the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Good to know: this year, no vehicle reservations are required for the St. Mary entrance of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Make the most of the new reseravaton guidelines and visit Glacier National Park by traveling north along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front (via Montana Highway 287 and U.S. Highway 89) to St. Mary. After driving the road from east to west, exit via the west entrance at West Glacier and plan to spend a night or two in Kalispell.
4. Dive into History
For states that are young in modern-day terms, the depth of history that exists here goes back millennia and includes tribal nations, fur trappers, early explorers and more. In Montana, get acquainted with the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. Before venturing into the park, stop at the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, Montana, to learn more about Plains tribes. In Rapid City, take a guided tour of Badlands National Park, explore Wind Cave National Park or attend a lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore.
In Wyoming, explore four historic trails that run through Casper, Southwest Wyoming and Wind River Country – the Mormon, Oregon, Pony Express and California trails. Southwest Wyoming – which includes Rock Springs and Green River – also has an incredibly rich coal mining history. There are also incredible petroglyphs throughout Wyoming that tell stories from various tribal nations.
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