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Via Bozeman

Via Idaho

Long post, sorry!

Planning a 2.5 week road trip this July starting in Las Vegas and ending in Seattle, and looking for advice for the last few days of my trip!

I'll be driving an Escape camper van and plan to sleep in the van pretty much the whole time, in either campsites or BLM/national forests. The main goals of the trip are tons of hiking, taking in incredible sights, and camping. I'm an athletic person and a pretty competent hiker, but a medium camper (I've done it plenty, just nothing of this length or in this area). I plan on being up at the crack of dawn especially in the desert parts of the trip to utilize the cooler hours. I'm currently planning it by myself, but hoping to convince a friend or two to join me for a week or so each. The main stops will be Zion, Bryce Canyon, Great Basin, SLC, Grand Tetons, (the places in question), Seattle, Olympic NP.

The current plan (via Bozeman):
Day 1: Arrive LV, pick up van, quick stop in Valley of Fire in the early evening, drive to Zion
Day 2: Zion NP
Day 3: Zion NP, drive to Bryce in the evening
Day 4: Bryce Canyon NP
Day 5: Bryce Canyon NP, drive to Great Basin
Day 6: Great Basin NP
Day 7: Great Basin NP, drive to Salt Lake City
Day 8: Quick look around SLC, drive to Grand Teton NP
Day 9: Grand Teton NP
Day 10: Grand Teton NP, drive to Bozeman
Day 11: Hang with friends in Bozeman
Day 12: Drive to Missoula, explore a little
Day 13: Drive to Seattle, stay with family
Day 14: Up early to drive to Olympic NP
Day 15: Olympic NP
Day 16: Olympic NP, drive back to Seattle
Day 17/18: Seattle, fly out either on night of 17th or 18th day

My main question is: after Grand Teton NP on the way to Seattle, should I go via Bozeman/Missoula or via Idaho? My plan was originally to go via Bozeman, as its so close to GTNP and I have some friends in the area I could see. But as I look more into the drive from Bozeman to Seattle, I can't tell if that would be the most scenic route. I truly know nothing about the area and have never been (so I may be very very wrong, please tell me that!!), but it didn't seem like there was as much to see along the way without making an excursion to Glacier (which I don't have time to do). I'd love to see Bozeman and Missoula as cities, but I am more interested in big mountains and small towns on this trip.

On the other hand, as I'm looking into the drive through Idaho, I'm loving the look of Sawtooth national forest, Alice lake, Craters of the Moon, etc. I'll only have 1-2 days to explore on the way to Seattle, so some of this is also honestly a question of how scenic the route will look from the car.

So, for anyone who knows the area, is the route through Idaho as beautiful as it seems? Is the route via Bozeman/Missoula comparable? If you had to pick one, which would you do?

Some other notes: I do know this is a lot for a short period of time with only ~2 nights in most parks, but I have only these 17 or so days and won't have another summer vacation again for a few years. I also know that Zion will be hot as hell and crowded in July, but it feels like a lost opportunity not to see it while I'll be nearby and I plan on utilizing the v early hours of the morning as much as possible. I'm leaving out some incredible places on the possible route like Yellowstone/Glacier/Grand Canyon because they feel like trips in their own right and I can't dedicate enough time to them. Also, everyone and their mother will be out on the roads and parks this summer, so while I am hitting some big name parks, I'm also purposefully avoiding some others and saving them for another time.

I also have tons of other road trip questions, but I'll save those for another post