Welcome to Travel Tuesday! It’s been a longgggg ride–if you’ve been following me throughout the entire of the past 1.5+ year’s worth of posts…you’ve pretty much come along for my entire cross country national park road trip!
Cross Country National Park Road Trip
General Advice
Summary of Destinations
- 13 states + DC (NJ, DC, WV, KY, OH, IL, WI, MN, SD, CO, UT, AZ, NV, CA)
- 22 national parks
- 3 national forests
- 7 national monuments/landmarks/recreation areas/museums
- 5 state parks
- To visit a bunch of friends + some extended family
Complete(-ish) Itinerary
I didn’t quite write about every single thing I did, either due to (1) not enough photos, (2) not quite enough content to be able to write a whole post about it, or (3) just didn’t feel like/get to it.
DC
West Virginia
-
- Blackwater Falls State Park
- Seneca Rocks (Monongahela National Forest)
- Please Save A Cat
Ohio
- Toledo Botanical Garden
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- Toledo Zoo
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Illinois
Wisconsin
- Devil’s Lake State Park
Minnesota
Badlands National Park
South Dakota
- Badlands National Park
- Mount Rushmore + Crazy Horse Memorial
- Wind Cave National Park
- Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary
Colorado
- Horseback Riding in the Rockies
- Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
(Quick break to California!)
(It was to participate in my friend’s bachelorette party festivities.)
Colorado (continued)
- Garden of the Gods
- Pulpit Rock Trail to Summit
- Palmer Park
- Red Rock Canyon Open Space
- Contemplative Trail to Sand Canyon Loop Trail
- Red Rock Canyon Trail Loop
- Helen Hunt Falls Trail
- Great Sand Dunes National Park
- High Dune Trail
- Zapata Falls Trail (Rio Grande National Forest)
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
- Rim Rock to Uplands to Oak Flat Loop Trail
- Scenic Drive
- Mesa Verde National Park
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Utah
- Arches National Park
- Park Avenue Trail
- Balanced Rock Trail
- Windows Loop Trail
- Delicate Arch Trail
- Sand Dune Arch to Broken Arch Loop Trail
- Devils Garden (Landscape Arch to Double O Arch to Dark Angel to Partition Arch to Primitive Trail Loop)
- Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky region)
- Dead Horse Point State Park
- Goblin Valley State Park
- Capitol Reef National Park
- Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Queen’s Garden to Navajo Loop Trail (Two Bridges/Thor’s Hammer)
- Rim Trail to Fairyland Point
- Peekaboo Trail to Navajo Loop Trail (Wall Street)
- Mossy Cave Trail
- Zion National Park
- Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Grand Sanctuary Tour
- Moqui Cave
Zion National Park
Nevada
Lower Antelope Canyon
Arizona
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Sandys Canyon Trail
- Walnut Canyon National Monument
- Fatman’s Loop
- Bus Tour to Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam, Lower Antelope Canyon
- Sedona
- Devil’s Bridge Trail (Coconino National Forest)
- Soldier Pass Trail
- Red Rock Crossing (Red Rock State Park)
- Midgley Bridge Trail
- Allen’s Bend Trail (Grasshopper Point)
- West Fork Trail
- Bell Rock Trail (didn’t finish)
- Lowell Observatory
- Petrified Forest National Park
- Tucson
- Saguaro National Park
Channel Islands National Park
California
- Joshua Tree National Park
- Channel Islands National Park
- Sequoia National Park
- Kings Canyon National Park
- Big Stump Trail
- Yosemite National Park
- Pinnacles National Park
- Bench Trail
- Have you ever been on a road trip? Where did you go? If not, where would you want to go?
- How many national parks have you been to? I made it to 22 on this trip, but I think my overall total is 31 so far!
24 comments
Skip to comment form
What a fantastic trip!! I’ve never really been on a road trip where we went from place to place. I’m sure it would be fun though, especially if you got to stop and do a lot of fun things as you traveled. I have so many older travel posts I still need to get posted. LOL
-Lauren
ShootingStarsMag recently posted…Book Review: Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
It was a ton of fun! I’m with you there–I’m always playing an endless game of catchup on the travel posts! :P
I love that you’ve compiled so many of your travels into one easy to use post! I’ve been to many of these places too, but not nearly as many! I am going to ask the dreaded question: did you have a favorite? Better yet, which would you jump on going back to?
hahaha, that’s a reallyyyy hard question! I loveddd exploring Colorado/Utah/Arizona and would love to go back, if that counts…? Rocky Mountain National Park is probably one of my favorite-favorite national parks though out of the ones I visited!!
Woww that’s an epic trip! Thank you for sharing your journey with the rest of us. Definitely saving this for my future reference.
Ummi | Ummi Goes Where? recently posted…Top 16 Things to Do in & Around Sekinchan (A Complete Guide)
It was so much fun! I wish I’d extended it for another month, hehehe. :]
Wow! This is amazing! I’d love to do something like this one day. To be totally honest I haven’t done many road trips but I think now with the pandemic it’s shifted my focus and it really makes me want to just slow down and enjoy the journey. Saving this!
I hadn’t really until this trip either, but it was so much fun! I definitely feel that way about the pandemic as well–enjoying the journey and being able to just slow things down is really nice to be able to do!
Farrah recently posted…Cross Country National Park Road Trip
Wow! Loved this cross country road trip suggestion, perfect for a family trip this summer
It would be a ton of fun! :]
Farrah recently posted…Cross Country National Park Road Trip
Oh Wow ! Congratulations on visiting so many National parks. I would love to visit them all when the time permits. My trip to Utah is long due, and your guide will definitely help plan my time out there.
Thanks! I’d really love to visit them all someday as well! Hopefully somewhere in the next several years! :]!
This is great for the current times, where international travel is limited. I’m looking forward to exploring domestic destinations, will bookmark this!
Yay! I hope you have fun when on your explorations! :]
Farrah recently posted…Rocky Ridge View and Elderberry Loop Trail
This is an awesome guide! I haven’t done a cross country road trip, but I’ve done smaller road trips around the USA where I got to see a lot of these beautiful spots. :)
That’s awesome! :] I’ve been really wanting to do that lately but sadly no vacation days available yet. Fingers crossed for maybe later this year though!
This looks like such an amazing road trip! What a wonderful way to experience so many epic national parks on one trip! I’d love to try this out one day. Thanks for the great guide!
Thanks! It was so much fun to get to visit so many places — I kinda wish I’d stayed out longer now but maybe someday! I hope you get to go sometime! :D
Farrah recently posted…Rocky Ridge View and Elderberry Loop Trail
This sounds like the kind of road trip I would love to go on, stopping at all of these fantastic national parks!
Yay!! I’d love to check out all the rest of the ones I haven’t visited someday but that’ll have to wait for another time! :P
Farrah recently posted…Rocky Ridge View and Elderberry Loop Trail
Wow, massive road trip! We are hoping to do a long road trip this summer, covering some of these, looks like a lot of great hikes!
They were a lot of fun (definitely helped to break up the monotony of the driving! :P ). I hope you have lots of fun on your trip!!
Farrah recently posted…Rocky Ridge View and Elderberry Loop Trail
OMG Farrah, this sounds like the trip of a lifetime! This must have kept giving you content for your blog for aaaaaages!! I have seen lots of your posts abut these places, but I didn’t realize you did them all in one giant cross country adventure!!
Josy A recently posted…Wilcox Viewpoint and Wilcox Lake
hahaha, it really did! I scheduled a billion posts into the future and finally ran out of posts earlier this spring. I’ve been super-slacking so there haven’t been a whole lot in terms of posts lately. I’m trying to get back to writing again though! Slowly but surely, heheh.
Farrah recently posted…Ultimate Coffee Date: December 2021