We’ve just completed a month-long road trip through 6 states! I am not planning to do a full trip report (with the exception of our 3 days in DLR – am working on a TR for that), but since I managed to pick up a lot of inspiration here on TP from other Liners completing similar trips, I wanted to share some highlights and tips in case useful for others planning something like this.
Our travel crew: me, DH, DD9 and DD7
Itinerary: one-month, 4400 mile summer road trip across six states (Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada) split into three parts:
Part 1: two-week RV trip (staying in campsites) from Seattle to LA with the following stops:
- Seattle (6/13-14)
- Olympic NP (6/15-17, 1 night each in Port Angeles, Lake Crescent, Kalaloch Beach)
- Portland (6/18)
- Depoe Bay/Oregon coast (6/19)
- Crater Lake NP and Diamond Lake (6/20)
- Redwood National and State Parks, CA (6/21-22)
- California coastline (6/23-28), overnighting in Ft. Bragg/MacKerricher SP, Petaluma, Monterey/Marina, Morro Beach, and Malibu/Leo Carillo SP.
Part 2: 28 June – 1 July: Disneyland!
Part 3: 10 day road trip in rental car, staying in hotels/National Park Lodges, with the following stops:
- Palm Springs (7/1)
- Joshua Tree NP/Yucca Valley (7/2-3)
- Grand Canyon NP (7/4)
- Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon (7/5)
- Horseshoe Bend, Marble Canyon/Lee’s Ferry (7/6)
- Zion NP (7/7)
- Death Valley NP (7/8)
- Yosemite National Park, CA (7/9-10)
- Lake Tahoe/Reno (7/11)
We had an AMAZING time. Here a few of the big picture takeaways and tips that I would share:
- Planning resources: our trip covered so many states and parks that I found planning a bit overwhelming. I worked out our itinerary based on key destinations as well as driving distances/appealing activities and campsites. For the National Parks, I really enjoyed watching YouTube videos of “We’re in the Rockies” and “Dirt in My Shoes” to get inspiration for kid-friendly hikes or activities, be able to picture the layout of the park/rhythm of the day, and gather logistical tips. I browsed around many other websites and YouTube channels, and also got advice from friends and family who had traveled to these locations before or lived nearby (two of my siblings live in the Lake Tahoe area, and I have an aunt and cousins who live in Portland, all of whom joined us for portions of this trip, which was fantastic.) I also found a few great trip reports/chats about this part of the country written by Liners on Touring Plans, which is what inspired this post!
- Book as early as you can, and keep trying! Many National Park lodges and privately run campsites open their reservation systems up to 12 months in advance. The National Park Services opens the reservation system for campsites 6 months in advance. Almost all reservation are flexible/fully refundable until shortly before arrival (typically 48-72hrs for campsites, and around 1 week or more for NP lodges/hotel rooms), and I definitely made a number of changes over the course of planning without losing any money. Competition for the most beautiful NPS campsites is FIERCE – worse than WDW ADRs
! I managed to book all the campsites I wanted on the day they opened, but I was initially disappointed that I did not manage to get the specific i.e. the prettiest sites that I wanted (e.g. ocean/lakeview, on the river, etc.) I ended up using two subscription services (the free Campflare website, and the paid subscription service from Campnab – the latter starts at $10 a month and you can set highly tailored alerts), and got exactly what I wanted over the course of the final 6 months, especially the month before arrival, by being notified of cancellations/available slots. Totally worth it to me to fall asleep to the sounds of crashing waves and wake up to see the sun rising over the lake! - Start your days early. National parks can get crowded in the summers, but as trained Disney rope droppers, we never encountered any problems as long as we got started relatively early. Crowds varied dramatically from one park to another (and from one area of a park to another!) Our longest waits were in Olympic NP (we saw 2hrs + long lines to enter the Hoh Rainforest on the western side of the park as we were driving back out around 11.30 – but didn’t have any lines when we arrived two hours earlier) and Crater Lake NP (only the south entrance was open in June when parts of the park were still snowed in – so the line to enter is long all day, especially if coming from Klamath in the south). We also saw pretty sizeable crowds in Zion NP where we hiked The Narrows (we rope dropped the hike by being on the first bus of the day at 6am, so we had a quiet first half of the hike but saw hordes of people at the trailhead when we came back out at noon), at the Grand Canyon (where at least there’s a lot of space to spread out so it never felt too bad), and at Yosemite (which we visited at a time when you could only enter with reservations, so had no lines to get into the eastern gate – but full trails, long lines at the bicycle rental, grab-and-go food places, etc.) It was never particularly difficult to find more quiet spots away from the crowd, and we never encountered any rude or disrespectful behavior (the only thing that made me uncomfortable especially in the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend was how casually people would take risks and step out very close to unsecured sheer drops, but I’m also scared of heights so my comfort level here is probably lower than most).
- RVing was easier and more comfortable than we thought…and also much more expensive! We went into this with zero experience RVing or camping, and both my husband and I quickly felt comfortable driving and handling our 25ft RV. Hooking it up to power/water and dumping waste was really easy to learn/quick to do. We had never been inside an RV and were blown away by how spacious and luxurious our rental (from Road Bear RV) was: fully equipped with a large fridge/freezer, three-hob gas burner, oven, microwave, toaster, coffee machine, all kitchen equipment you need to be self-sufficient, etc. We had initially thought about doing the whole trip in an RV, but quickly discovered that RVing can be more expensive than staying in hotels! Even after shopping around to find the most competitive rental package, our RV rental cost (with equipment and insurance) was around $350 per night! Campsite fees ranged from $25 (no hook-up state park sites) to $160 per night (full hook-up/amenity-packed KOA near San Francisco) and it cost us around $250 to fill up our gas tank every 3 days. We saved some money by cooking v. restaurants (we usually had breakfast/dinner in the RV, and lunch somewhere en route) but it was still a pricey experience. We would absolutely do it again though!
- The Junior Ranger and the ‘Every Kid Outdoors’ Programs rock! We had planned to buy an Annual Pass for the National Park Services (already very reasonable at $80 per year) but since one of our children had just finished 4th grade, we learned that she was eligible to get a free NPS park pass on which the whole family could visit the parks this summer as part of the ‘Every Kid Outdoors’ Program! We had also read many good things about the NPS Junior Ranger Program and can whole-heartedly echo that it was perfect for our 7 and 9-year-old daughters. In each park we visited, we picked up some really thoughtful and kid-friendly activity booklets for them and they’d spend time in the car or while waiting in restaurants completing them. When they’d completed the books, we’d find another Visitors’ Center where a Ranger would check their answers, chat with them and eventually certify their work/aware them a badge (which they proudly wore pinned to their t-shirts most days). At most Visitors Centers, they were also able to join talks/briefings, watch short films about the parks and walk through exhibits. Without exception, every single Ranger with whom we engaged was knowledgeable, enthusiastic and helpful – many were particularly great with kids and added fun jokes when they recited the Junior Rangers pledge. We also really liked the NPS app for logistical information (like location of Visitors Centers) and for advice on hikes/activities.
- Finally, I seriously underestimated the extreme temperatures we would see in the summer! For our first week in Washington (mid-June), I had packed fleeces, windbreakers and beanies, but was still surprised at how chilly the mornings and evenings were all along the western coastline throughout June, and felt we should have packed even more layers (we were ambitiously traveling with just two mid-sized duffels for the four of us). The week before we were scheduled to check into our campsite in Crater Lake NP (on 20 June), I was shocked to receive an email informing me that all campsites (as well as most of the park including activities like the boat trip across the lake) were still closed due to snow! We briefly deliberated changing our itinerary and skip this park, but am so glad that we did not – through my campsite subscriptions, I found us a new lakefront campsite just outside of the park at what ended up being our favorite campground of the whole trip (on Lake Diamond), and we had a beautiful, sunny walk with stunning views along the crater rim to Discovery Point, where the girls built a small snowman – such a beautiful day! I similarly knew that we would be hot during out time in the desert in Arizona and Utah (and especially Death Valley where we had planned to arrive in the evening, and depart again in the morning), but I was not fully prepared to drive from Anaheim and Palm Springs and be greeted by temperatures of 115F. My plans for the cable car and/or bike rides around town obviously went out the window (we instead spent the day in the pool and watched ‘Inside Out 2’ in fully reclining seats at a really cool movie theatre). We quickly learned from the Rangers in Joshua Tree and Zion NP that they did not recommend ANY hiking between 10am and 5pm in this kind of weather, so we adapted our plans but I still underestimated the heat when I figured we could fit it the walk to Horseshoe Bend (20 min each way from the parking lot to the viewpoint) in the middle of the day – it took me a good 30 min and several glasses of ice water in an airconditioned restaurant before I was able to speak to my family again afterwards.
It was an absolutely incredible trip for our whole family, and we all agreed that we should try to plan another National Parks Road Trip – maybe in a different part of the country - when my youngest daughter is a 4th grader (in 2027)! Happy to respond to any specific questions or try to advise on campsites/hotels/hikes/activities based on our experiences – we saw so many beautiful places and stayed in lovely spots that I’d be happy to share.
