Everything in blue is a link to a separate site, providing more information.
Pointers:
- If you have grandparents as awesome as mine, this trip will be a breeze! Otherwise, choose a companion that you can stand to be with 24/7. Believe me.
- Stop at Welcome Centers as you enter all states, unless they aren’t available. Get Hotel Discount books where available. These aren’t easy to find out west, so just do the best you can there… maybe use priceline.com!
- Winter and mid-summer are not good times to do this trip. Maybe late May/early June (you’ll still see a lot of snow on the ground, but not on roads) or late September (it’ll be fall in Wyoming: beautiful changing leaves!).
- I would suggest playing the license plate game: make a list of every state and check off the ones you see. You will definitely see all 50, plus some. Also play the cow game. Count how many cows you see on your side of the road (hint: in Texas, you want to be on the south side of the car.)
- Be prepared to spend lots of time in the car and do not complain.
- This itinerary is very flexible. It’s just what my grandparents and I chose to do! Feel free to take many more days/weeks to do what we did in 18 days.
- If you are a age 62 or over, they make these things called "Senior Pass". It costs $10 and gets you and your car load into any national park for free. We probably saved a good $200 with it. You also must show identification, so don't try to borrow someone's. (I have learned that it pays to get old.)
- Invest in AAA, or use the free month card they send you in the mail. Worth it.
Day 1 | Monday | Start the day in Lincolnton, NC with breakfast at the largest Bojangle’s in the world. Travel to Paducah, KY to stay the night. Get there early enough to see the river front and downtown in the daylight. Eat dinner at Cracker Barrel.
Day 2 | Tuesday | Travel to St. Louis to spend the afternoon. Go up the arch, visit the old courthouse, walk through the city gardens and turn around to get a great picture. Head toward Kansas City to stay for the night. (If you’d like to spend extra time in St. Louis, stay the night and travel to Sioux Falls on day 3. You’ll have an extra day in Wyoming that you can use)
Day 3 | Wednesday | Travel to Sioux Falls, SD. On your way, hopefully you will not be forced to take a detour because of floods on the Interstate. The only thing really to enjoy on this day is time in the car. So make the most of it. Play a game or two.
Day 4 | Thursday | Travel west. On your way, take a detour to the BadlandsNational Park. Worth it. Drive the whole loop and it will put you out in Wall, SD. Go to Wall Drug. It’s a tourist trap, but their doughnuts and 5-cent coffee is worth it. Stay the night in Gillette, WY.
Day 5 | Friday | Travel to Cody, WY, driving over the Bighorn Mountains. When you get to the top of the winding road, stop and turn around to look out over eastern Wyoming. Stop in Shelly, WY, at Dirty Annie's. Order the Bison Burger. If you have a good friend who lives in Wapiti Valley, stay in his house for the next few days. If not, good luck.
Day 6 | Saturday | Head to Yellowstone National Park, entering through the East Entrance. The road through Yellowstone makes a figure eight. Do the north loop. You’ll see lots of bison/buffalo, the beautiful Yellowstone Lake and Yellowstone River (make sure you see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone), Mammoth Hot Springs, and lots of other wildlife. Drive back to Wapiti Valley that evening. Maybe eat dinner at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone, and you might see some people you know (for me, it was Jerry Falwell and his family:)).
Day 7 | Sunday | Go to church at Wapiti Valley Church. You will be blessed. Spend the afternoon in Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. Learn cool things about him and see other neat exhibits.
Day 8 | Monday | Go back to Yellowstone and do the Southern Loop, going south on the eastern side first. You’ll experience Old Faithful (to get a good seat for the show, check out the timing in the Old Faithful Inn and get to the geyser at least 30 minutes before it is timed to go off) and many different kinds of hot springs and other geysers. The best hot springs are at Biscuit Basin and Midway Geyser Basin. Go back to Wapiti Valley for the night.
Day 9 | Tuesday | Leave Wapiti Valley (:() for the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole. You have to go back through Yellowstone to get there, so enjoy it just a little bit longer. As you go through Grand Tetons National Park, take the road to “Jenny Lake” to see the mountains at their best. When you get to Jackson, go to the Visitor Center and see the Elk Refuge they have. Also go to the main square and go to a few of the photography galleries. Apparently some of the best photographers in the world live there because of all the beauty in Wyoming. My recommended ones: Brookover Gallery (new favorite photographer of all time- makes me want to drop everything, take a few sessions with him, and become as good as he is) and Images of Nature Gallery (he’s famous- you’ll have seen his work somewhere). Oh, and Harrison Ford lives there, so you might want to eat dinner at a nice place to see if he stops by! Your next stop will be Denver, so you probably want to drive a couple hours that evening to get some headway. We stayed in Rock Springs, WY. On your way out of that great state, make sure you watch the scenery so that it sticks in your mind for a very long time.
Day 10 | Wednesday | Drive to Denver! Before you go, check to make sure the Microsoft Convention, Little League Championships, American Idol concert and a million other things aren’t going on the same night. All hotels were booked within 50 miles of Denver while we were there. Praise the Lord our wonderful friends live in Denver and had an extra bedroom.
Day 11 | Thursday | Go see the Rockies game with your wonderful friends, Danny and Stacie Bote, especially if the Braves are in town. If that is not an option, either find something awesome to do in Denver/Boulder/etc, or head on over the Rockies on I-70 toward Grand Junction. You may even want to stay in Vail or Aspen the previous night! I-70 was probably my favorite road. You’ll see why. Stay in Grand Junction tonight.
Day 12 | Friday | Head into Utah and drive south into Arizona. Stop by Arches National Park. It’s pretty cool. Also stop by Mexican Hat and take a picture of it. There’s a little dirt road off the main highway to get you closer to it. As you drive through Monument Valley, turn RIGHT when you get to the touristy area (the sign will say that’s where John Wayne’s cabin is). His cabin is at the first left you come to, at the top of the hill. You can perfectly see the monuments from there. And there’s nothing really more to see there, so keep going. On your way to Flagstaff stop by the Cameron Trading Post and have dinner- order the Navajo Taco (and the mini version is enough to feed at least 2 of me), but if you don’t like hot stuff or lots of beans you might want to stay away from it. The souvenirs are a littler pricier there, but a lot of the jewelry is made by locals, so it’s mostly worth it. You’ll see a lot of the same pottery at the Grand Canyon and in Sedona for slightly cheaper. Drive to Flagstaff for the night.
Day 13 | Saturday | Go to the Grand Canyon! Have fun. Enjoy the big hole in the ground. Stay in Flagstaff again.
Day 14 | Sunday | Drive to Sedona and spend as much time as you want there. It’s a cute town with lots of fun things. Might be a good idea to check out the tours that take you to the really awesome viewpoints- maybe the Pink Jeep Tour?? :) If you don’t do a tour, make sure you go to the Chapel of the Holy Cross to see the best view in Sedona. The house that you can see from up there (yes, the one with 3 garages, a fountain, and a pond, that is larger than your house by at least 5 times) is owned by the man who invented LASIK surgery, and it is his second home. So maybe if you ever had LASIK, you can knock on his door and say, “You’re welcome.” Start your 4-day long drive back east on I-40. Stay somewhere near Gallup, NM, or farther if you can make it.
Day 15 | Monday | Drive to Santa Fe and go to the Loretto Chapel to see the mysterious staircase. It really is pretty awesome. Walk around town a little bit. Their buildings are really cool. When you get to Santa Rosa, NM, get off on the first exit to drive on Historic Route 66 for a few miles- you’ll see a few historic sites that are fun. (There are several places/cities where you can do this between Flagstaff, AZ, and Oklahoma City, OK, but this is just where I chose, and it was pretty cool.) Head over to Amarillo and eat at The Big Texan, home of the free 72-oz steak dinner (if you can eat it all in under an hour). Stay somewhere near there or drive on a little ways.
Day 16 | Tuesday | Stop at the big cross in Groom, TX, and learn about their ministry. Drive through Oklahoma and stay somewhere in Arkansas. Prepare to start seeing trees again today!
Day 17 | Wednesday | Go through Memphis and see Graceland. There are probably a lot more fun things in Memphis, but we were tired and ready to get home. Stay somewhere in mid-Tennessee.
Day 18 | Thursday | Drive home to Lincolnton, NC, through the beautiful Appalachian Mountains! :)
If you ever decide to do a similar trip, let me know and keep me updated on your travels!
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