AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS - 2010

10 days from Salt Lake City to Rapid City (AN)

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Vacation Overview

Experience the wonders of the West through its best-known national parks, gold-mining towns, and old saloons on this colorful escorted vacation. Your tour begins with a sightseeing tour in Salt Lake City before heading north to Jackson, Wyoming, to see the Teton Range. In Jackson, enjoy a chuck wagon cookout, Wild West show, and a ride on the aerial tram that takes you to the 10,450-foot Rendezvous Peak. At the top, witness amazing views of the Teton Range and Jackson Hole Valley. Enjoy leisure time in Jackson then head further north through Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone National Park. In Yellowstone, your tour includes Old Faithful and a short trail walk through steaming limestone terraces in the Mammoth Hot Springs, as well as photo stops at Yellowstone’s Lower Falls.

From Yellowstone, venture on to Cody and the cattle town of Sheridan at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Other highlights include the Little Bighorn Battlefield and a tour of the battlegrounds where Custer was defeated, the gold-mining town of Deadwood, and Tatanka. Your Western journey ends with visits to Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore—a perfect conclusion to an unforgettable escorted tour through America’s National Parks.

Fall Foliage Departures:
Enjoy the spectacular fall colors of the West on our special Fall Foliage departures: September 14-28 (if Mother Nature permits).

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Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story The “War” for the Grand Teton

In the winter of 1927, residents in the cattle town of Jackson, Wyoming began to learn of a mysterious business concern known as the Snake River Land Company that was rapidly buying up property around their picturesque valley, which is overshadowed by the dramatic Teton Mountains. Rumors soon began to spread that a plot was afoot to elbow ranchers out of the area and close off key cattle drives. Finally, in 1930, it was revealed that the company was actually a front for America’s richest man, the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller Jr. Rockefeller had visited the area three years earlier and had been stunned by its alpine beauty; a visionary philanthropist, he decided to purchase the whole valley floor from private owners and donate it to the United States Government for an extension of the Grand Teton National Park, which was then only a tiny enclave covering the remotest mountain zones. But tempers flared against Rockefeller’s secrecy; many suspected that the magnate might use the land for his own private ends.