"Griswald" vacation 2004 edition - I need some advice.

[Campaholics]

A couple more places to think about.  Just west of Mt Rushmore is Wind Cave National Park.  Assuming you enter Yellowstone via Cody, and leave heading south for Grand Teton National Park, stay in Jackson Hole and the kids will enjoy white water rafting.  

One of the major traditions of the route west is a stop at Wall Drugs.

We left I 90 and took US 14 over the Big Horn Mountains. Steep climb.  The trip down was even more of a white knulkler.  It went down 4,000 ft in 10 or 11 miles.

I'd do it all over again in a heart beat.

Bob

[mortjv]

We have made this trip a couple of times.  Around Mt. Rushmore, Rafter - J Campground is the place to stay, http://www.rafterj.com/.  Very nice large sites, swimming pool, horse livery, and not overcrowded.  Stayed at the Mt. Rushmore KOA once.  Never again.  We were packed in like sardines.  They have about 1/3 more 'sites' available than their space allows.  The first site they assigned wasn't large enough for my popup.  The site we ended up with was so narrow, I couldn't set up my awning because we were too close to our next door neighbor.   We opted for the W. Yellowstone KOA, at Yellowstone so that we could have a reservation.  This is a typical KOA, but it has an indoor swimming pool, and is very convenient to the west park interest.
As I recall all of the Campgrounds in the Teton's are run by a service, but you can make advance reservations.  I have forgotten the name of the campground we stayed at, but it was very nice and near a lake.