Salt Lake City to Rapid City

[takesiteasy]

I have reading the forum for about a year while I searched for a camper for my Tacoma. I enjoy reading others experiences here and have learned quite a lot from folks during that time.

After looking for a year for a used camper and taking numerous detours to investigate alternative approaches, we made the decision to buy a new camper and finally settled on a custom Bobcat Shell from ATC. My wife and I are leaving in a few weeks to pick up our new camper. I am dropping my wife in Salt Lake City and going on to pick up the camper in Sacramento. I will pick up the wife in SLC on the way back. We are planning to travel from SLC through Wyoming to Rapid City to test out and get acquainted with our new camper. We then will head across South Dakota with a few destinations in mind but mostly heading for home.

We will have 3-4 days the first week of June for Wyoming. We are looking for advice on more or less direct routes to take and sites to see along the way. We don't want to detour to the obvious points north on this trip but that will definitely happen in the future. We are interested in learning about off-highway routes with scenery and good camping spots. Nothing too challenging in the off-road sense but dirt is definitely ok. GPS routes are welcome! Thanks in advance for any advice you can give us. Anticipating the inevitable request, we will agree to post photos and a report when we get home.

 

[Alley-Kat]

Congratulations on your custom ATC Bobcat shell.
Jeff, Marty and Don are great guys.

What did you include or remove to make it "custom"?

 

[takesiteasy]

Our changes were not significant but we really appreciate ATC's willingness to let us make some changes. They have been great to work with. Mostly we just tweaked the exterior dimensions a bit to make it fit the truck better. Inside, we made the storage benches a bit wider for more storage and added a storage cabinet on the driver's side accessible from the outside. We ordered the furnace and put the propane on the passenger side to allow us to hook up our outdoor cook stove on that side. That's mostly it. Needless to say, the anticipation is killing us but we know the camper will be good for years of fun.

 

[craig333]

Good job. I'm no prognosticator but I predict you're gonna love your new camper. Nice job on the customizations. So far.

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I know it's just the beginning of camper mods.

I've been looking at the map and thought I'd post our current thinking about our route in the hopes that generates some comments and suggestions for side trips and camping spots or alternate routes. After leaving SLC, we will head to Lander WY. The route will then take us to Shoshonie, Thermopolis, Warland and then over the Ten Sleep road to Buffalo. Then we will head to Rapid City and camp in the Black Hills somewhere. I've heard the drive from Shoshonie to Thermopolis is scenic and it looks like the Ten Sleep road area is pretty interesting, but I don't know much about the rest of the route. I've still got to figure out driving times and potential camping locations.