Family National Parks Road Trip

[adamis]

This summer with all of the virus mess we have found the silver lining in the cloud in that our summer for once is completely wide open. We have a 13 year old and 11 year old girl plus two twin identical newborns. Ordinarily our older girls would have a summer jam packed with activities making it nearly impossible to do any trips longer than a week. The virus however has changed all of that and so we are looking at taking this rare oppurtunity to do a long road trip around the Western US to visit as many of the National Parks we can. So far my proposed route looks like this. Note that Google Maps only allows for route planning with 10 stops.

Editing this proposed Route from my original post... The number to the left is the cronilogical night(s) we would stay at said location. My initial post had Yosemite and Death Valley but I wasn't considering them as stops more than just passing through since we are close to Yosemite and Death Valley is not a place worth visiting in the summer.

1 - June Lake
2 - Las Vegas
3,4, - North Rim Grand Canyon
5 - Grand Staircase
6 - Salt Lake City
7, 8 - Grand Tetons
9, 10, 11, Yellow Stone
12 Deer Lodge
13, 14 Glacier NP
15 Spokane
16 Woodinville
17 Queets WA
18 Astoria
19 coos bay
20 eureka, CA
21 Point Arena, CA
22 Gilroy

At the very early stages of planning, I am stuck with two approaches:

1. Stick with this loop that hits as many of the parks as possible and allot just one to two days to see and do everything at the parks.

2. Drop a few parks in order to increase the number of days we can stay at the remaining parks.

I know many of these parks to fully experience you need several days to do them justice and really explore each one. We only have maybe three weeks to work with however and because of the babies, most of the activities will be limited to what can be driven too (long hikes are out but we can probably handle hikes up to about 3 miles in length). It is very unlikely we will ever get the chance again to do a long road trip with our girls in the future so we have one shot at this experience.

So my questions for the community are:

1. Given these constraints, if you have visited these parks before, do you have any suggestions on which approach to take? IE, hit as many as possible or just focus on a few?

2. Out of these locations are there any MUST SEE destinations that are easily accessible via stroller or short hike (less than 3 miles) that need to be on the bucket list?

3. Camping Reservations we expect to be a challenege. Are there any great campsites / campgrounds either in or close to these parks that you know about that tend to be less busy?

4. We will be pulling our cargo trailer so our older girls will have their own space. Wife and I are debating on what "toys" to bring along. Bikes are always a pain so we are considering electric scooters because they are compact and easy. We have some blow up paddle boards but they only make sense if we might end up at a campground next to water that is decently warm. Any other suggestions on activities to bring for a trip like this?

[zb39]

As usual the retired crowd screams you need months to do that trip. I have been to every place on your list way more than once and I'm not retired. Both of my kids have been out west(and it's a drive for me, PA)
At 23 and 27 they still want to travel with us and the older one is already looking for her own RV.

Take the trip as planned and have a great time, your kids will love it and talk about it forever. Mine still do.
Older one is considering doing a trip for the honeymoon this fall. When your not retired sometimes you have to push it a little. I did Alaska in 5 weeks from PA. Awesome trip, but I was told it couldn't be done by ,many.

[billtex]

time2roll wrote:
21 days?

Glacier(Waterton?), Yellowstone, Tetons would be enough. Or do you plan to just do a drive-by tour?

Maybe some OR coast if you seem to have time.
Skip DV and Vegas due to the heat.

This. Sounds more like a vacation. There’s so much to see and do at all of these Parks. Tetons was our favorite. Spend a day in Jackson Hole, go white water rafting for a day, another day at Jenny lake...nice. Have fun, but geez...make it relaxing not a race.

[Kayteg1]

adamis wrote:
Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. Does anyone have a good campground suggestions for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon?

Why would you want to pay for smelling neighbor sewer at campground?
In AZ camping in the wild is perfectly legal and I found the note at campground office where are good spots.
This 1 was like 4 miles past park gate and about 1/2 mile from paved road. Look at the privacy and all free firewood.
If you need it, I can pinpoint it on the map.



EDIT FOUND IT

[ppine]

This thread is out of control. The OP starts with 22 destinations in 2-3 weeks and people want to add new ones.

Its Tuesday we must be in Wyoming.

[MarkTwain]

adamis wrote:
Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. Does anyone have a good campground suggestions for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon?

North Rim area. Bauer's Canyon Ranch. 1-888-648-2564 Reservations. Great family owned RV park and very friendly.

[adamis]

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. Does anyone have a good campground suggestions for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon?

[TexasShadow]

From Salt Lake, take 89 north up past Bear Lake en route to the Tetons.
Between Spokane and Seattle, there is the Columbian River Gorge, or further north, the Grand Coulee Dam.
Grand Canyon North Rim will be cooler, but South Rim has the visitor center, museum etc. Yes, it could be hot there, by day.

[ppine]

Any time people describe their vacation as a full day or two full days at a destination, tells me they are doing way too much traveling and not nearly enough being there.

[Buzzcut1]

I did the drive from Reno to Flagg in Grand Teton in one long day 5am to midnight. Remember that the speed limit from sw of Jackson to the park is not at freeway speeds and in the park it is 35 this will add hours to your planned drive time

[richclover]

Adamis:

“...6. The drive from Grand Canyon to Grand Tetons looks to be ~675 miles. This we will need to break up into a least 2 days. Split in half we would need to stop on the southern end of Salt Lake City. Is there anywhere of note to stop for a night in this area?...”

We did a part time winter in Mesquite, NV, and usually did the 7 hr drive in a day. We decided to break it up, last trip home, because we were towing our new 5er for the first time.

The KOA at Fillmore, UT, was a great stop and we’ll stay there again. Easy off I-15, and near a Maverick with easy access RV pumps with lots of room.

Have fun and safe travels!

[BarryG20]

Wow, lots of naysayers and comments without apparently reading your post or at least comprehending it. It sounds to me like you have thought this out pretty well and know what you are getting into. Not everyone can take a month long vacation once a year much less multiple times a year to truly take the time needed to fully enjoy/explore some locations. You do have some long drive days for sure but just stop as you can at interesting spots where possible for leg stretches.

[Grit_dog]

It's great you have the time! Finally I know, right?
Never been on more than a week's trip unless you include 8 days to AK, but we were moving there and camped our way up there. And like 4 years ago, out of work for 6 weeks and spent 3 of it on vacation!
We drive, ALOT. Weekend trips to Canada somewhere half the year for hockey, X country run to WI, just drove 10+ hours today with a tag trailer to pick up a new truck.
But you have a sht ton of miles packed into that itinerary. Suggest picking a few destinations only. Cannonball run to each of them so you can actually spend time at them.

Most importantly, make whatever reservations you can and then plan your trip around that. Unlikely you'll get the day you want or even a campsite at many NPs, unless there's something I'm unaware of with the Rona cancelling all the reservations form the last year and leaving them open for folks that didn't reserve well ahead of time.

To that point, plan Bs like dispersed camping and reservations at private campgrounds may get you a spot close to where you want to be when you want to be there.

On the upside, we've saved enough money with no kids sports and wife/son not driving around everywhere and the ancillary expenses, I've paid cash for a new deck and an old truck and still ahead of the game the last couple months!

[rexlion]

Asking the kids for input is a good idea. And another factor might be what areas you can or can't get reservations, unless you plan on winging it.

If you go to Grand Canyon in July, my vote is for north rim. You will see good views (Point Imperial and Cape Royal as well as the North Rim proper) and it will be cooler; besides, south rim would be a whole lotta extra miles.

You might think about taking the boat ride across Jenny Lake and walking back along the south shore (or vice versa). It's pretty and pleasant (unless the weather is bad, of course).

If going to Glacier, you can't tow your trailer across the Sun Road and you're heading west afterward, so maybe you'll want to stay on the west side. Then drive into the park, spend some time around Apgar (stroll the paths, rent a motorboat or canoes for an hour, eat an ice cream cone, or have a picnic) and unwind.



Personally, I like to take my bike just about everyplace. Sometimes there are some nice flat paths to ride and it's a good break from walking (not to mention driving). If the cargo trailer would be too cramped with the bikes, no big deal; otherwise it costs nothing to take them.

If you can have a day of driving followed by a day of mostly walking, exploring, relaxing it can break things up. Driving constantly every day can make the vacation feel like a nonstop vehicular vibrator treatment.

[Buzzcut1]

The caves at Great Basin National Park are worth the stop

[jdc1]

Why don't you ask the kids what they want to see? I took the eldest two grand children on a short week long trip up 395. I lived in SoCal at the time. They were 17(F) and 16(M) years old, respectively. I was amazed at how much time they spent reading EVERYTHING at Manzanar. The Lava Tubes were the same. The Mammoth fault was awesome, in their eyes. Then, of course, the Tofa towers at mono lake was another all day thing. I didn't expect any of these things to be of such great interest to teenagers, especially the grandson (Varsity football kid). Everything we did was new to them. I basically told my wife before this trip that we would make the trip a learning experience for them to remember for eternity. The other grand children (12 total) heard about the trip and are awaiting their turns. We did the same thing with a couple of our children 25 years prior. I let the eldest tell me where she wanted to go, day by day. I drove, she navigated (maps...no internet yet). She recounts that time as her favorite vacation ever....and she's been all across the nation, and to Hawaii a few times.