Mat
Navigator & driver
Family Roadtrip · April Break 2026
A western loop, four people, eight days
Boston to Denver, then 1,408 miles through Wyoming, the Black Hills, the Badlands, and Rocky Mountain National Park.
Mixed (Air + Drive) Browse other trip types →
A family of four flew into Denver, picked up a hybrid SUV at the curb of an airport hotel, and drove a long, unhurried loop through the kind of country that doesn't show up well in cell coverage maps. Devils Tower at sunrise. Iron Mountain Road's pigtail bridges. The Wildlife Loop's bison. The Badlands. A Cold War missile silo. Wind Cave's depths. Rocky Mountain National Park as the last act. And on the bookend days, two short personal-history detours: Day 2 through Boulder, where Mat used to live, and Day 7 through Lyons, Colorado, where Mat and Jacqui got married.
Who came along The four of us
Jacqui
Co-pilot
Edrik
Park-pass holder
Sierra
Wildlife spotter
Crops from the Mt Rushmore family selfie on Day 4 (Apr 21).
By the numbers The trip in six stats
- Days
- 8
- Miles driven
- 1,408
- States crossed
- 5
- MA · NJ · CO · WY · SD
- National parks & monuments
- 6
- Devils Tower · Mt Rushmore · Crazy Horse · Badlands · Minuteman Missile · Wind Cave · Rocky Mountain
- Photos kept
- 85
- curated from 778 imported
- Trip total
- ~$4,800
- flights · lodging · rental · food · groceries · activities
The route Denver to Denver, the long way
- Day 1— Boston Newark Denver (Avid Hotel)
- Day 2— Denver Boulder Cheyenne Moorcroft, WY
- Day 3— Devils Tower Spearfish (Redwater lunch) Deadwood Rapid City
- Day 4— Mt Rushmore Iron Mountain Road Wildlife Loop Crazy Horse back to Mary Jo’s
- Day 5— Badlands Minuteman Missile Wall Drug
- Day 6— Wind Cave Hot Springs Cheyenne
- Day 7— Cheyenne south on I-25 US-36 northwest Lyons (Stone Mountain Lodge) Estes Park / RMNP DEN airport redeye flight home