Planning our trip to Yellowstone

Incremental-ism, The process by which one expands a trip to encompass something else.  Little steps add up.
Maybe she planned it, maybe she just let it happen, but all I said was sure, lets go to Yellowstone and the die was set.  We started making plans, surfing the net, discussed dates.  We knew which campgrounds we wanted at Craters of the Moon, The Tetons, and Yellowstone, we would make a round trip and make our way back to Oregon via Montana, Washington and find suitable camping along the way. Then one day she said, you know its not much further to Devils Tower, maybe we should consider including it as a side trip.  We probably will never be in the area again.  Wait a second I said, Devils Tower and Yellowstone are not in the same areas, Wyoming and some Dakotas separate them.  It's only 500 miles, "yeah one way, that's like driving all the way to San Diego"  OK, I'd like to go see Devils Tower too, lets find a campground nearby. You can guess that next it was Mt Rushmore, "you know right over here (pointing at a spot on the map) in the next state is Mt Rushmore, there's lots to see around there like Jewel Cave, and old west gold town type places, oh, oh and further over here is The Bad Lands.  And so it went until Incremental-ism had stolen my simple Yellowstone trip.

Here are some good points I think those of you planning a trip to these places might find helpful.

Starting in Portland ,OR Try camping at Immigrant Springs in the Blue mountains, its a good stopping place along  I-84 and not crowded, next don't miss stopping at the Oregon Trail Museum just outside Baker, the fee is reasonable and its worthwhile, plan about an hour or so then hit the road again. I'm sure there's some good things we missed but we went all the way to Craters of the Moon and camped in a lava desert, they have some lava tube caves and cool hikes, we spent two nights and one full day, very worth while stop.
Next we drove to Jackson and stopped for ice cream and a walk in the park that has arches made from antlers, (one hour)That night we camped in the Tetons at Colter Bay Campground (there are others) on Jackson lake, two nights was enough to take in the sights, but if your into hiking you could spend more nights. Its just a little ways north into Yellowstone Park with lots of campgrounds to choose from (you will need a reservation for sure) we spent four nights and had to really hustle to see the basic sights, I can easily see spending six nights and taking a more relaxed tour.  It doesn't matter where you camp at Yellowstone, the whole place is a big figure eight park road. You will use camp as home base and drive around each day, plan on a lot of driving (you can buy and will buy gas in the park) If you only have a short time or your just driving through, then skip everything except Old Faithful, plan on a day of hiking at Old Faithful to do it justice and then back to camp to sleep and rest. Our next stop was Devils Tower, it took all day with no side stops to get from Yellowstone to the tower in the late afternoon. We toured the info/gift shop and walked around the tower before dark, then went to a very close by KOA campground at the base entrance, in the morning we went back to the info/gift shop for a half hour and then left. Give yourself two hours at the tower including the walk around the base and then hit the road. On the way to Mt Rushmore there are some old west gold towns that cater to tourists but we went straight to the KOA only a few miles from Rushmore ( This KOA is expensive but worth it, water slides two, pools trampolines, all sorts of kids stuff) Plan on two hours at Rushmore to read up some history, plus try to be there for the sunset flag lowering ceremony. (another hour) very worthwhile if your patriotic. Just a short drive from Rushmore is the Chief Crazy horse Memorial that is being blasted out of a mountain top just like Rushmore, don't miss it, it was the highlight for me on this trip. We also toured Jewel Cave, the area has several caves to choose from, Jewel was worthwhile and took about an hour plus drive time. We spent two nights at this KOA, and I think you could spend three or four, we skipped a lot of Black Hills historical stuff, and kind of cheated ourselves after driving so far.  This was our turn around point, after this we drove some very long days to get home.
In case anyone cares, we hauled a thirty foot trailer on this trip, home sweet home.
John