The Coolest Road Trip Anyone Could Ever Go On

 Rocky Mountain National Park is one we had driven past many many times over the years, but never happened to stop by or actually enter the park. So we were very excited to finally cross it off the list!  It was a great relief to see mountains once more, and we began to realize how much elevation is correlated to our enjoyment of a park. So we already knew this park would be a 'high' on our trip!  Our first day in the park we stopped by a ranger station for some hot cocoa and information. It was awfully chilly that morning and we were on the far west side of the park so it was good to hear what hikes to go on. We had to eventually make our way across the park to go to our next camp site, so we did the scenic drive getting out to hike a ways along the Colorado River. It was lovely to be amongst the tall trees and taller peaks.  The next day we hiked to the top of Deer Mountain. It was a short but steep trail that we thoroughly enjoyed. It was great to get one more 'hi...

 Well, we are back in the heartlands! Our drives to and from parks have gotten a lot more Illinois-looking although there are still plenty of hills.  But, the Badlands definitely didn't look like Illinois! We weren't able to spend much time in the park and it was a little hot to do much hiking (97°f 😳) but we really enjoyed the scenic drive. Teddy Roosevelt National Park had some 'badland' areas but it couldn't compare to the real deal!  The beautiful transition between multi-colored rocks and rolling hills was a real treat for the eyes after a long drive. We got out at every pullout to see a new perspective of the unique park.  After we checked out the Visitor Center (ahem, gift shop, ahem) we were back in the road to get to our campsite in Wind Cave.  Surprise surprise, we didn't know much about what to do Wind Cave or why it was even called that. Was there even a cave? Whose to say! Turns out, yes.  Wind Cave is one of the largest cave systems in the U....

 Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a quaint park nestled into the corner of North Dakota, home to rolling hills, badlands, and bison. We did not expect it to also be home to one of our most chaotic campgrounds to date. All of this unexpected hubbub tested our limits as campers in ways we haven't been tested yet.  Our first night in TRNP was taken up by some conflict in the campsite! We knew something was up when we heard from inside our tent a man shouting about being drugged. We were confused and a bit nervous after hearing him shouting at a little boy, so we slowly scampered out of the tent to observe and possibly engage in the situation.  The man was shouting about being drugged (his dog too) with meth, and that he needed an ambulance ASAP!!! Ten minutes later, a ranger, police officer, and a sheriff came instead. And they were asking him to leave.  You may be curious how we learned all of this out, but we have nothing impressive to say. We walked about 75 feet ...

 Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks were two of the very first national parks we had ever been to (and we're old enough to remember). We had some memories of certain areas of the park and some of our favorite things that we did there, mainly eating huckleberry ice cream! As we left Glacier we were excited to hit yet another park that we had been too before.  Since we weren't able to get campsites in the park, we stayed in a National Forest right outside near West Yellowstone. It was a bit of an inhibitor needing to drive through park traffic each morning but no biggie, we had somewhere to sleep at night and that was good enough for us.  We only really had one day scheduled in the park, and so we wanted to hit some new things that we hadn't seen before. We visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, viewing both the upper and lower falls, did a couple scenic loops and made a stop in Canyon Village.  The views that stuck out to us the most though, were on the ...

 After we left the North Cascades, we visited with some family for a couple days. We had a great time taking it slow for a bit -- quite literally as our car was up on blocks. It was planned for us to finally fix our car's bearings but it was much harder than expected. What was supposed to be a 4 hour fix turned into a three day job. After stalling out on that project we enjoyed making bread boards as we waited to get some help from our mechanic (Dad). Luckily our mechanic is really good and our bearings were finally fixed, a huge weight off our shoulders! We were sad to say goodbye to our family and missed out on visiting some others, but we eventually got on the road.  This set back meant leaving for Glacier National Park a day late and only having one day to spend in the park. Definitely a bummer, but thankfully we had been there last August and already had a game plan: the high line trail. It was one of our favorite hikes from our previous trip and being 12 miles long we wa...

 Driving into the North Cascades we were as far north as we will get on our trip, and it was our last stop before we left the great Pacific Northwest. We have greatly enjoyed our time up north and our experiences at North Cascades reminded us of some of our favorite things that set this region apart.  First things first, the Pacific Northwest has water. Oceans, lakes, waterfalls, no matter how it flows it's all water. And the North Cascades is marked by several rivers and dams. Our first hike at the park was a short but steep trail up to a beautiful viewpoint over a lake. We loved the view so much it immediately inspired us to go swimming, so we spent the rest of the afternoon by the lake soaking up some rays!  Another feature of the Pacific Northwest is tall peaks and the park isn't called the Cascades for nothing. Although we didn't summit anything, our entire time in the park was spent looking up at the grandiose peaks and foothills. The mountain range dominated surrou...

 Mt. Rainier was one of the parks that we have been looking forward to the most. Although we've never been there, we had high expectations! And we knew it'd meet all of them. Why? Not only was it one of the tallest mountains that we'd be visiting, but the park also has green meadows sprinkled with wildflowers --two of our favorite things. And in this beautiful backdrop we experienced some steep highs and lows.  Our first high is twofold! We camped using some really nice sleeping mats (thank you kind benefactor 🫡) in a really nice campsite (thank you Big Creek Campground). We also got to go hiking again! We hadn't been hiking too much in Annacortis, and it felt difficult but good to hit the trails again!  Unfortunately, we also hit a new low... as in we got our car stuck in a ditch. Oops! It wasn't ideal to bottom out with our back wheel drive completely out of commission. It was even less ideal to have no cell service either! Thankfully, we met some kind folks who ...

 This past week we have taken a bit of a side step from our camping trip to see our family in Washington. A vacation in a vacation - a vaception if you will! We met up with some family members in Anacortes to see the ocean, ride a couple boats and check in with our community!  As part of this trip we visited with some old friends of our relatives which we greatly enjoyed! Although we had never met them before they were every welcoming and it was very interesting to hear about their journeys.  Although we didn't get up to our normal camping shenanigans, it was a fantastic break. Not only were we able to shower and do our laundry regularly, but we were able to talk to some super cool and interesting people! We have written about this before, but things have gotten pretty dry to say the least. So it was great to hear from friends and family and actually get to sit down and have a conversation with them!  But now, we are off our hiatus and back in the road 🫡

 Although each national park is unique, we have been able to mentally group some of the parks we have visited together into different types based on their general features. For example, canyon parks, mountain parks, or forest parks. But Olympic National Park? Oh, she's got it all!  The park is separated into different sections with scenic 101 splitting them up. There is no road through the middle of the park so taking 101 is the primary way to get around. As we were wrapping up our 13 hour drive coming in through the south end of the park, we saw a couple signs simply titled 'beach'. As loyal parrot heads, we jumped at the opportunity to see the ocean once more and pulled over at the famous Ruby Beach.  Now most of our beach experience is on the east coast and the beach at Redwoods stuck out to us but Ruby Beach was even more iconic! With large rocks marking the view along with piles of driftwood and surprisingly warm water we knew we were in for a treat! After soaking up...

 Going to Crater Lake at the end of June was a concerning plan. When scheduling our trip, we knew that we wanted to stop at Crater Lake, but we had absolutely no idea why. We didn't know just how big the lake was, or how stunning the mountains looked from the Rim Drive, or to expect almost all the hikes to be closed due to the threat of avalanches. But we all know the saying ,"when in Crater Lake.." On our first day, we got going from the Redwoods around 5:30 in the morning, and started trucking up to Oregon! There, we learned about a unique check-in procedure which involved us waiting until 2 to hopefully get a spot at their campground. In line, we met some incredible ladies who were all well-versed in being on the road! They told us what to expect for levels of snow in the campground, what hikes they recommend, and advice for road tripping! After learning of our travel itinerary, they shared advice for other National Parks too! So I guess, when in Crater Lake, talk to t...

 The fog at Redwood National and State Parks carries with it an air of mystery. Maybe not for those who know what they are doing, but definitely for us! As we drove up the coast into the park, we were surprised to find a Redwood visitor center hidden in the dense northern air right between the beach and the forest. As it was nearing the late evening, we decided to skip it for the day and continued driving to our campsite in the Elk Prairie Redwood State campground.  We were confused by the signage at the front gate, but as no one was there we figured all is well and we'd check back in at 8 the next morning. We slept in the most perfect campsite imaginable. Tucked away in a dense pocket of ferns, trees and huckleberry bushes providing plenty of privacy while still being in the center of the campground with quick access to the exit was spot 47: a dream come true.  The next morning we sat around waiting to check in, which the rangers told us is of great importance so that th...

 Have you ever heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park? Neither had us before planning for this trip. After a quick Google search, it seemed like we had a lot ahead of us. The usual mountains, but also plenty of geysers, sulphur flats and other volcanic activity. Huh, who knew?  Another thing we didn't know was that in mid to late June the main road through the park with the majority of the hikes and views is still closed due to about 15-20 ft of snow. Well that's okay, we have gotten used to adapting to our campsites! So, after driving around and enjoying the mud pits that we could, that's exactly what we went to do.  Pulling up to our campsite, we immediately knew something was off. People were sitting around in their campgrounds and chit-chatting between different campsites! This is very different to the waking up at 4:00 a.m. and competitively looking for parking that we had come accustomed to at Yosemite. What we came to understand after a bit more nosy activity than ...

 When we were in Kings Canyon, we spoke to a couple about our next stop: Yosemite National Park. They said that Yosemite was by far their favorite park and suggested that we do two things. 1) Get reservations for the Green Dragon open cabin tour and 2) Rent bikes to ride around the valley loop. Naturally we did neither, but their recommendations did not fall on completely deaf ears.  Reservations were out the window for the time crunch we were working with and there was no way we were going to pay for a bike when we can hike. So, instead we aimed to hike the Yosemite Valley loop trail. This should have been a somewhat easy, mostly flat 12 mile hike, circling the valley to hit all of the most iconic views. But that would be our hubris talking.  Our first mistake was planning to wake up at 4am. This made sense at the time since we were expecting it would be pretty difficult to find a place to park. The evening prior we had tried to enter the park to take a look around, but ...

 Our time spent at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks was marked by the fact that we were finally able to stay in the same campsite for 4 nights in a row. Although this may not seem like a big streak, with all of the running around to and from different parks, it was a very nice break from constantly putting up and taking down our tent. Our first night at Sequoia was also very exciting since we had just gone grocery shopping and could finally roast hot dogs and s'mores! Due to fire restrictions, we couldn't have a camp fire to do this, but our newly working camp stove sufficed!  After studying some maps, we were quick to notice that there were laundry services at Lodgepole within the park, so with dreams of freshly clean clothes we went to bed. As we drove through the park we were amazed by the gentle sunlight streaming in between the huge trees. After doing our laundry we hopped around the shuttle visiting some of the more iconic views within Sequoia. We saw the General ...

Leaving Great Basin, we knew we were about to meet a new extreme: The High Desert. Although we had traveled through hot, dry, deserted areas before, this was a 'new' for us since past parks didn't earn the moniker 'Death Valley'. To prepare for this excursion we hung out at a rest stop for a couple hours, hoping to once again beat the heat by rolling into the park after sundown.  On our way, we past through Sin City, also a new for us! The chaos of Las Vegas soon turned into quiet no-nothing towns as we drove deeper and deeper into the desert of southern California. After passing the twinkling lights of the bougie 'Death Valley Inn', we eventually found our way to Furnace Creek Campground, the only campground still open during the summer. A couple other campers we already tucked in for bed, but we had no problem finding a campsite. Even at 10 pm it was 103°F, so we decided to cowboy camp. After rolling out a tarp and our sleeping bags (just as extra padding ...

 We had no clue what to expect from Great Basin National Park. It wasn't in our initial plans for our route (neither was the entirety of Utah for that matter) and we didn't know anyone who had been there before. Despite this, the park was one we were looking forward to the most! Mostly based on the premise that the park had mountains in a big bowl-ish shape surrounded a lake, we eagerly awaited our time there. Big piles of dirt and water is all it really takes to amaze us.  On the short drive from Zion to Great Basin, we were amazed at how out-of-nowhere mountains began popping up, from some of the flattest areas we have ever been in (and we are from Illinois!). The gorgeous views continued as we sped up into the mountains. For the first time on our trip, we weren't surrounded by dusty red/brown cliffs and canyons but instead a forested alpine environment. The elevation was new too, and we had a bit of trouble adjusting.  After a quick stop at the visitor center, we drove...

 Being a Junior Ranger is about growth, honesty and respecting nature. And although we haven't been pledged in, based on our experience thus far, we believe that there is a Junior Ranger in all of us.  We have learned many a life lesson while on the road, like how to pivot plans when circumstances change, what to do when you are lost, and how to get by without a working camp stove.  The first thing we do when we arrive at any park is to head straight to the visitor center. He have found that Rangers are extremely helpful, and so are their maps and resources. When we spoke to the Ranger at Zion Canyon National Park he told us some concerning news. The famous Narrows hike, a strenuous walk upstream through a slot canyon, was closed due to a flash flood and if it opened, the water would be up to our shoulders. This was the primary hike we were planning on doing in Zion, so we had to pivot our plans. We asked a bunch more questions, getting a little bit more information than...

 Leaving Capitol Reef, we were a little beat, we will admit. The confusion around our campsite that night did not help and we were generally pretty tuckered out. After some ups and downs, our luck turned around the next day.  With our camp stove out of commission and maxed out on trail mix, we decided to go out for breakfast before entering Bryce. Having actual warm food was much needed, but during breakfast we realized that we didn't actually have reservations for Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, or any of the parks in Colorado except for the Great Sand Dunes.  A new crisis to solve. What do we do now?  Well, we looked into different possible alternatives surrounding each of the parks that we intended to go to in Colorado. This was troublesome and discouraging because we could either opt into paying about $250 per night or gamble that we would be one of nine to get a spot at local Forest Preserve within the region. This crisis is still on the table, and our scheduling...

 As one could imagine our trip is not entirely sunshine and rainbows, sometimes it's sunburns and rashes. After leaving the Grand canyon on our way to arches National Park, we discovered that we were heavily sunburned and (presumably from our sun exposure) had began to rash. Due to this, we unfortunately didn't do much at Arches. Pitifully, we mostly just drove through the park and got out at the big scenic areas to snap a couple photos. Devil's Garden and the Balanced Rock stood out the most to us, but we thought that Delicate Arch was not exactly what it was chopped up to be. We thoroughly enjoyed Arches though and despite not giving it the time of day, we do think that it's a great park for people who are not on the brink of heat stroke.  We nursed our sunburns and rashes at what we found out to be a horse campground that we had reserved months back. It became a common theme for us to realize that there were a few holes in our planning and we figured we should have p...

Every vacation we go on, we will usually make a 'bingo sheet' with various events that we think will happen on our trip. When going backpacking in the Beartooth Mountains, we added seeing a mountain goat to our bingo sheet but unfortunately never did. For every following vacation, it became a goal of ours to spot a mountain goat (even if it did not make sense). Three years later, we can finally mark it off our bucket list!  When we were walking along the Southern Rim trail on our way to the Bright Angel hike, we couldn't help but back in the stunning sight of the canyon! There was blue haze and red rock as far as the eye could see. We paused to take pictures of the foggy sunrise over the canyon just as a mountain goat approached us! It walked within about 5 feet of us, grazing on small plants along the pavement. As we continued to the trailhead, another one was munching on a bush on canyon wall! This experience was one that we had been looking forward to for years, and the ...

Leaving Petrified Forest was such a beautiful drive, and we even got to hop onto Route 66 for a couple of miles before our car completely shut down. The dash lit up like a disco ball with random alerts before we rolled to a stop and the engine sputtered off. Through some fatherly advice we determined the alternator was the issue, meaning we would need a tow.  We had many visitors on the side of the road, including a mechanic and a state trooper who bothered tried to get us moving again. Resolved to fix the car ourselves, we towed the car to the nearest NAPA Auto Parts who could get us a new alternator the next day, but when we arrived they told us we couldn't leave the car there overnight. With our heads in our hands and our hearts on the floor, we called the exact same tow truck guy to tow us .3 miles down the road to a Motel 6 to wait for the part.  Luckily, we were put into contact with some extended family members in area! They were extremely kind and upon hearing our situ...

 ***We just learned how to add photos and will be going back and adding some in!*** The past couple days, we have visited Petrified Forest National Park. It offers a multitude of experiences including wilderness backpacking. The forest spans from the painted canyons of the north, past the devil's playground, the blue mesas, and down to the crowded and colorful petrified logs to the south. As we explored the short hikes and scenic drives, we found each turn more breathtaking than the next!  When we drove up north to the Painted Desert Inn, we hopped out of the car and got some ice cream! Our final meal before our excursion into the wilderness was a hefty single scoop strawberry cheesecake ice cream cone. It was amazing! When discussing our plans for future trips to come, two cool ladies walked over to our table after hearing us discuss the Virgin Islands. These travelers became friends in the Virgin Islands and deeply encouraged us to go !! They told us about all the parks they...

 Moving North, the scenery has continued to amaze us! Especially with our experience at the White sands and Saguaro National Parks.  White Sands was one of the most unique experiences that we expect to get out of our trip due to how otherworldly the scenery is! We were quick to fall in love with how shockingly white the sand truly was, and how the dunes hid between the Organ mountains and the grassy plains. There, we did the Scenic Nature Dune Trail and drove most of their scenic loop. We drove until the washboard became too much for us. Overall, the park was so memorable! We are looking forward to going back one day, perhaps for a sunrise or sunset picnic. Used to the orange colors of the deep south west, the color palette of saguaro welcomed us into their (comparatively) lush scenic loop! We saw the famed saguaro cactus, and many other cacti which we didn't know about previously! It really stuck out to us that this is one of the few places in the world to see Saguaro cacti. ...