Tour Code: 558-972

6-Day Tour to Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, Grand Teton from Salt Lake City

When you arrive at Salt Lake City airport (SLC), take a complimentary hotel shuttle to transfer from the airport to our hotel. Then enjoy a free day in marvelous Salt Lake City on your own.

This morning, we’ll visit the Great Salt Lake which covers roughly 1,700 miles of area and is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere. Moving through Emigration Canyon, we’ll follow the original trail used by Mormon Settlers led by Brigham Young to colonize the Salt Lake area of Utah. Branching off into Wyoming, we’ll travel along the original Oregon Trail, once the only travel corridor to the west, visiting natural sites that helped mark the way. The history written on Independence Rock carries many stories of the travelers that once reached it, stopping to carve their names in a sort of memorial upon the granite. And then there is Devil’s Gate, the dark and narrow gorge that marked points on both the Mormon and Oregon Trails; its mere presence seems symbolic of the dangers that travelers faced. We’ll it make to Casper by nightfall to bed down for the evening.

Bright and early on our third morning, we’ll head off toward South Dakota to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, until we are standing beneath the imposing sculpted profiles of four of the most prominent Presidents in United States history. Meet a 60-foot granite bust of George Washington, heroically fronting a line formed by Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, respectively. Attracting over 2 million tourists a year, the sculptures of these colossal men are a totem to America’s rich history. Next, we’ll make our way roughly 130 miles to the northwest to visit the Devil’s Tower, a remnant of an ancient volcano, which rises 1,200 feet above the surrounding area. After admiring this natural wonder (and the climbers brave enough to scale its surface) we’ll head to our hotel in Gillette for the night.

Today, we’ll visit Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s oldest national park. Here, you will be captivated by the beauty of the Yellowstone Canyon, punctuated at either end by waterfalls fed by the Yellowstone River. We’ll see rumbling mud volcanoes barely containing the energy below, as well as the geothermal pools at Mammoth Hot Springs. All the while, the finest preserved ecosystem of the lower 48 states will play out around us as it has done for centuries, giving us the opportunity to see wildlife such as elk, bears, moose, and even rare buffalo.

Yellowstone National Park is rife with geothermal energy thundering beneath the ground, and at its most famous attractions, this energy breaches the earth’s surface; in some cases, it even flies high into the air. Perhaps the park’s most explosive attraction is the Old Faithful Geyser, which erupts every two hours, spewing upwards of 8,000 gallons of boiling water 180 feet into the sky. Sitting not far away is the Rainbow Pool, a natural funnel to the hot spring water of Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin. The water, heated to 175 degrees, turns a brilliant fluorescent shimmer, creating what seems to be a rainbow around the pool’s outer edge. We’ll then depart Yellowstone and ride south ten miles to Grand Teton National Park to gaze upon the Teton Mountain Range, the tallest of which, Grand Teton, towers 13,775 feet above sea level. Afterwards, we’ll stop at the nearby Jackson, Wyoming, for a rest before setting out to Salt Lake City to spend the evening.

After checking out, take the hotel's complimentary shuttle to the airport for your return flight home, bringing with you the countless memories of the Wild American West.

** Please arrange your return flight from Salt Lake City (SLC) to leave after 12:00 pm.