Alright douchebags, need some help. Starting to plan the big summer vacation for next year. The family (1 wife, 3 girls ages 7,10,11) would like to check out Yellowstone. We've never been on a camping trip, though we do frequently travel in the mini van on trips such as Florida, South Carolina and last year drove to Colorado.
Since we're driving from Indy we'd like to hit Mt. Rushmore on the way and probably Gran Teton National Park too. We're thinking we'll have about 10 days available for the entire trip.
So we've never taken our girls camping and we really don't own any gear. We're considering the following options:
1) Pack up the mini van, probably need to buy a rooftop carrier, do a couple 2-3 days of camping and the rest stay in the lodges (though I've heard they book up quickly for summer stays)
2) Rent an RV from Indy (if you have suggestions on who to rent from do tell)
3) Fly out west and rent an RV closer to the destination (not sure if this is a dumb idea, but it would save on rental driving miles) We'd probably have to skip Rushmore then.
I'm not sure yet if there's camping outfitters that I can rent all the gear from or if I should invest in the gear myself. Honestly a local camping trip would make a ton of sense to make sure the kids have fun.
So if you have any suggestions or experiences to share I'd really like to hear what you have to say. Some of you may remember contributing to my Colorado trip thread last year. Your suggestions were extremely valuable and we ended up having an amazing trip.
TIA
Since we're driving from Indy we'd like to hit Mt. Rushmore on the way and probably Gran Teton National Park too. We're thinking we'll have about 10 days available for the entire trip.
So we've never taken our girls camping and we really don't own any gear. We're considering the following options:
1) Pack up the mini van, probably need to buy a rooftop carrier, do a couple 2-3 days of camping and the rest stay in the lodges (though I've heard they book up quickly for summer stays)
2) Rent an RV from Indy (if you have suggestions on who to rent from do tell)
3) Fly out west and rent an RV closer to the destination (not sure if this is a dumb idea, but it would save on rental driving miles) We'd probably have to skip Rushmore then.
I'm not sure yet if there's camping outfitters that I can rent all the gear from or if I should invest in the gear myself. Honestly a local camping trip would make a ton of sense to make sure the kids have fun.
So if you have any suggestions or experiences to share I'd really like to hear what you have to say. Some of you may remember contributing to my Colorado trip thread last year. Your suggestions were extremely valuable and we ended up having an amazing trip.
TIA