Great American West

Welcome to Rapid City! Your tour starts at 9am with a group meeting followed by 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. We'll 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 grab lunch (at own expense).

Drive to Custer State Park and wander through the State Game Lodge, a stately residence which was built in the 1920 and 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 park in an open-air jeep as your expert guide shares historical and educational facts and helps you spot pronghorns, elk, and buffalo. Continue on to the famous Mount Rushmore to walk the Presidential Trail.

It's an early start for the drive to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. After a stop along the way for lunch, join your Crow Nation Guide for a three-hour tour which provides an Apsaalooke perspective on the conflict. With a tribal historian at your side, 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 the tour, drive to Sheridan where you might like to visit the Sheridan Inn for a drink and a chance to learn about the history of Buffalo Bill who auditioned new members for his “Wild West” show from the front porch of this historic inn.

After breakfast, you’ll spend the day driving to Yellowstone National Park so settle back and enjoy the scenery, or perhaps listen to an audio book or your favourite tunes as the miles roll by. Along the way, your leader will choose the perfect scenic spot for everyone to stretch their legs and a enjoy a delicious picnic lunch.

Spend the day exploring Yellowstone National Park where grizzly bears, wolves and herds of buffalo and elk roam free. Watch as Old Faithful sprays over 4000 gallons (14,000 litres) of boiling water into the air, then be hypnotized by the startling colours of the Grand Prismatic Pool. Other highlights include the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with its geysers along the north and south loop.

You're up before the sun this morning, but we promise it's for good reason. We're heading 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 lunch, travel to Bozeman where your adventure ends at around 4pm.

This morning, join your group for a meeting at 10am to welcome any new travellers joining you for the next leg of your adventure, then get ready to stretch your legs on a hike through Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park that’s easy on the legs and even easier on the eyes. After your hike, travel to the city of Helena, Montana’s capital and your base for the night. On arrival, you may like to head out for dinner with your group – your leader will be on hand with suggestions for where to grab a great bite to eat.

After breakfast, 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 a picnic lunch, we will continue to Great Falls for our overnight stay. Tonight, enjoy a relaxing evening at your accommodation or perhaps share a meal together.

After an early breakfast, hit the road and drive from Great Falls 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. Get to know the landscape with a guided hike, then sit down and soak up the scenery over lunch. From here, head to the Lewis and Clark center to learn about their famous expedition, then take a short hike to the Giant Springs State Park. Next is a visit to the Charles Russell art museum to hear stories about his work from the Blackfeet perspective. Known as ‘the cowboy artist’, Russell created more than 2000 paintings and sculptures depicting Native Americans, cowboys and scenes of the Old West. Return to Great Falls for the evening.

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 we'll continue to the town of Whitefish.

After breakfast, we'll take a stroll along the easy trails in Glacier National Park followed by a picnic with time to soak up the beauty of our surroundings. After lunch, we'll board a raft and enjoy an exhilarating (and splashy!) rafting experience down the Flathead River with an expert local guide. 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, with a stop along the way for a walk alongside the serene waters of Flathead Lake. Stop off for one last lunch and perhaps take the time to look back with you group on all you’ve seen and done in the past week. Then, it’s onto Missoula where the trip finishes at 3pm and your Montana adventure will come to an end.