Well it'll be a long road trip but Cypress Hills, the Manyberries Badlands and returning via the Red Coat Trail to Lethbridge and home will make for a lot of sites and stuff the wife and two of the kids have never seen. The trip down there, https://goo.gl/maps/fH3vRJVGPmTXrR3b8 and the trip back, https://goo.gl/maps/wFngj22Jnzr4tMz99
Skipping Elkwater is an option but it won't save that much time and having a peek at places I camped as a kid is really worth the time. The real point of all of this is to spend as much time as possible in the badlands, have already spoken with the lease holder of the public lands we'll be tootling around in and a bonus would be able to score some fossils, maybe even some ammolite. Will see tons of deer, antelope and possibly even some horned toads.