So it’s November. It’s getting cold — the perfect time to start planning, or dreaming, anyway, about a summer vacation, in particular, the big road trip we’ve talked about for years. This will be the last summer before our oldest goes away to college, too.
This is what I’ve mapped out. Readers, please share your experiences. What’s realistic in terms of travel times? How much time should we allot at each destination? How quickly will hotels fill up? etc. I think this would be (if it’s not wholly illusory that we could make this work) targeted for immediately after school gets out — but there’s the issue of whether my middle son’s hoped-for camp counseling gig fits in or not.
Day 1: Home (suburban Chicago) to Mount Rushmore, 13 hrs.
Day 2: Mount Rushmore
Day 3: Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone, 8 hrs; might stay the first night at Cody, and see the rodeo.
Days 4 – 7: Yellowstone
It’s already apparent that the only possible in-park lodging is camping, which is fine, though I’d probably tend towards eating in the cafeterias rather than cooking at the campground. How quickly the campgrounds fill up I don’t know.
Day 8: Yellowstone to Bryce Canyon NP, 8.5 hrs. Possible stop in Salt Lake City — is it worth it (other than catching up with an old friend who lives there)?
Day 9: Bryce Canyon NP (maybe also Zion NP next-door?)
Day 10: BC NP to Grand Canyon, 4.5 hrs
Day 11: Grand Canyon
There seems to be one South Rim hotel with availability. I’m not sure if this is a fluke and this last remaining room would fill up any day now.
And I’d also need to read up to know how much time to allow for the Grand Canyon; other than people taking trips into the canyon floor, the only thing you ever see is people standing on a single overlook.
Day 12: Grand Canyon to Mesa Verde NP, 5 hrs
Day 13: Mesa Verde NP
Day 14: Mesa Verde NP to Arches NP, 3 hrs
Day 15: Arches NP
Day 16: Arches NP to Denver, 5 hrs
Day 17: Denver
Day 18: Denver to Kansas City, 8.5 hrs
Day 19: Kansas City (visit relatives)
Day 20: Kansas City back home, 7.5 hours
Google-forecasted driving time, 63 hours.
Of these destinations, the only one I’ve seen is Yellowstone; that was a trip when our oldest was just a year old. We flew into Cody, rented a car, bought a styrofoam cooler, and drove into Yellowstone, and stayed in the “old house” part of the Old Faithful Inn, cheap and available since the bathrooms were down the hall (though now, even in November, the “old house” is booked up, which I suppose is the result of the advent of the internet). The baby was old enough that he drank milk instead of formula, and we washed the sippy cups out in the room’s sink, and bought the milk, and ice at the convenience store in the hotel, and ate a combination of convenience-store baked goods for breakfasts, and either sandwiches or cafeteria food, with the baby eating some finger foods off our plates at that time. The Old Faithful Inn was fairly central but it was still a long drive to get to the other sites, upwards of 2 hours. The one difficulty was that the baby wasn’t walking, and there really weren’t any park-like/grassy areas for him to crawl around in, which I felt bad about; he was in the backpack-carrier whenever we hiked (or “hiked” – a lot of the sights were boardwalks), but then we had enormous difficulties getting him to sleep at night.
So what do you think? Is this a reasonable plan, or too ambitious?
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/grand-canyon-usa-national-park-1235221/
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