Great American West

Welcome to South Dakota! Your adventure starts at 10 am with a welcome meeting in Rapid City. After, take a short drive to Badlands National Park. Have your camera handy to capture the sweeping prairie grass plains and dramatic rocky pinnacles. If you’re lucky, you’ll spot bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, chirping prairie dogs and American bison. Take a short hike on one of the scenic trails before continuing to the nearby Wall Drug Store – drawing millions of visitors every year, it’s hard to believe this store won over customers in its early days by offering something as simple as free ice water. Take some time to wander around and maybe grab some lunch before heading to your lodge in Custer. Your home for the next two nights will be a game lodge, established in 1920, where you can see bison wandering the property grounds and immerse yourself in the Western feel of this historic-style accommodation. Tonight, you’ll have a group dinner at the lodge to settle in and get to know your fellow travellers.

Enjoy breakfast at State Game Lodge – your residence has played host to several presidents – then it’s time to jump in a jeep and go wild on a buffalo safari. Trek through the Custer State Park in an open-air jeep as your expert guide shares historical and educational facts and helps you spot pronghorns, elk and buffalo. Continue to the famous Mount Rushmore to walk the Presidential Trail – a bucket list location, this is a great spot to grab a photo! After, you’ll visit the Crazy Horse Memorial – the largest mountain carving in the Black Hills (widely considered the Eighth Wonder of the World in progress). Tonight, you’re free to grab dinner at your accommodation or a nearby local restaurant.

It's an early start this morning as after breakfast you’ll drive to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. After a stop along the way for lunch, join your Crow Nation Guide for a tour that provides an Apsaalooke perspective on the conflict. With a tribal historian at your side, you’ll traverse the battlefield and learn how Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors defeated the US Army on the Greasy Grass at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. After, head to Billings, where you’ll spend the night.

This morning after breakfast, depart Billings and drive west towards Yellowstone National Park – one of the country's most popular, expansive, and beautiful national parks. Stop in Cody along the way – a western town in Wyoming famously named after Buffalo Bill Cody. Enjoy some free time for lunch and to explore Cody, and then carry on to the park. When you arrive at Yellowstone, you’ll head straight for a visit to the Old Faithful Geyser – a must-see for any trip to the park, Old Faithful is a cone geyser with striking colours and a predictable geothermal eruption (hence the name). Watch as it sprays over 4000 gallons (14,000 litres) of boiling water into the air, then be hypnotised by the startling colours of the Grand Prismatic Spring. After, you’ll check into your hotel in West Yellowstone.

Today after breakfast, you’ll continue to explore the gorgeous Yellowstone National Park, looking out for grizzly bears, wolves, buffalo and elk roaming free. Visit The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (a great spot for photos) and then explore the Norris Geyser Basin – the hottest and oldest geyser in the park. Along the way, you’ll enjoy a picnic lunch with your group, giving you some free time to sit down and relax or wander and take photos. Tonight, you’re free for dinner, so maybe get your group together and say a pre-final day goodbye over a couple of drinks.

You'll be up before the sun this morning, but it's for a good reason! After breakfast, you’ll head back into Yellowstone to join a wolf-tracking expedition with an experienced naturalist guide. There's no better place than Yellowstone to see these magnificent animals in the wild. Your guide tracks the movements and behaviour of Yellowstone wildlife almost daily and knows the best places to find the animals. There will be top-of-the-line binoculars and high-powered spotting scopes for each person, so no one will miss out. After an included lunch, travel to Bozeman, where you'll have the evening free to explore the town.

There'll be a meeting at 10 am to welcome new travellers joining the next leg of your adventure. After your meeting, visit the Museum of the Rockies, a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum that’s famous for its world-class dinosaur exhibits. After a bit of culture to get you going, you’ll head to Helena, where you spend the night. When you arrive in the capital of Montana, you might like to head out for dinner with your group.

After breakfast, you’ll follow in the footsteps of the explorers Lewis and Clark and venture to the Gates of the Mountains on a scenic river cruise. You’ll sail alongside limestone cliffs to a set of towering stone walls which appear to open like a gate as your boat approaches. Little has changed since the two explorers first visited this stretch of the Missouri River, and the region’s untouched beauty remains. After, sit down for a picnic lunch with your group among the beautiful scenery. Your night is free in Helena to rest and recharge or find a good dinner spot – your leader is always on hand with suggestions.

After an early breakfast, hit the road and drive to First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park – home to the largest buffalo jump in America, used as a hunting tool by Native American tribes for at least 1000 years. This is a special and unique experience to learn about the history of the land firsthand. Get to know the landscape with a member of the Blackfeet tribe, who will take you on a full day experience including hikes, walks, talks and a cultural exchange on their homelands. Then, sit down and soak up the scenery over an included lunch where you can ask questions and learn more. Spend the night in Great Falls, where you’re free for dinner.

This morning, you’ll hit the road again after breakfast. Known as the ‘Crown of the Continent’, Glacier National Park offers an impressive array of activities for lovers of nature and the great outdoors. Tour the park in a vintage 1930s bus with a roll-back top that provides excellent views of the surrounding mountains and learn how this historic transport option fits into this national park's history. Along the way, you might like to grab some lunch. Tonight, you'll continue to the town of Whitefish, where you’ll spend the night.

After breakfast this morning, you'll take a locally-guided nature walk in Glacier National Park – a wilderness area in Montana’s Rocky Mountains, with glacier-carved peaks and valleys running to the Canadian border. Your walk will be followed by a picnic with your group. Enjoy some time to soak up the beauty of your surroundings and then after lunch, board a raft and enjoy an exhilarating (and splashy) rafting experience down the Flathead River with an expert local guide – a must-do in this area! Tonight, you may like to drop into one of the local craft breweries or restaurants for dinner.

Enjoy a morning at leisure before hitting the road to Missoula. When you arrive, head out for one last meal with your group to celebrate all you’ve done in this jam-packed adventure. Head to a local brewery and taste some local Montana huckleberry beer over an included lunch. Your adventure will end at around 3 pm.