The Coolest Road Trip Anyone Could Ever Go On

 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...