Road Trip Tips!

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• Purchase the "America the Beautiful" Park Pass

 It's $80 and is good for 1 year!  This is completely worth it! If you don't have this you end up paying individually for each park... so if you plan on hitting up a few national or state parks, I suggest looking into this. You can purchase this online here: US Park Pass

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• Print out directions as a back up

We used our phone GPS the entire time, but we did print out directions for our entire route just in case we lost service, which we did a ton of times. Although the GPS still will work (as long as you put your destination in when you do have service), if you exit out of it, you will not be able to get it back without service. When this happened we looked at the printed directions as a guide on nearby roads and where we needed to go. And also maps! Maps are super important when doing a road trip. You cannot always depend on electronics ;)

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• Get gas whenever and wherever you can

Gas stations don't come around often out on the open road.  Even if you think you have enough gas in your car, get some more, to be safe!

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• Check the weather

Everything I list on my itineraries and under "places visited" is solely related to the weather I experienced.  I went on both road trips during the summer time.  If you go during a different time of the year, all the things I mention may be an entirely different experience. Plus as you're driving, you'll realize you'll be experiencing all kinds of weather because you're constantly on the go heading to a new city, state, & destination.

 

• Check for forest fires (If you're driving out west in the US)

My most recent road trip, summer 2018, we definitely hit some fires that unfortunately affected our travels. We traveled from Washington, through Oregon, and down the coast of California. We were supposed to hike up Crater Lake National Park in Oregon but had to cancel and re-route due to the insane amount of smoke. Although we didn't see actual fires, it was way too smokey to enjoy any kind of hike, or take advantage of any kind of beautiful views. Also, a couple days later we were hoping to check out Yosemite in California but had to cancel that as well due to the park being completely closed because of the fires. This may be something that you'll only find out last minute but just have some "plan B's" in case you run into this too.

• Pack key items for your hikes
If you plan to do hikes, make sure you are prepared.  I got a camelbak backpack on amazon that held 3 liters of water.  Some held 2, but I felt the more water the better.  The backpack also had a ton of different compartments making it easy to separate my belongings. We brought extra tumblers with water, little towels, cooling towels (great for summer hikes), baby wipes, a small first aid kid, flashlights/head lamps, water protected phone cases, extra socks, sandwiches (peanut butter was our most common), snacks, gatorade for those electrolytes!, etc. (oh and of course a GoPro to capture some awesome footage)

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I had regular ankle sized hiking sneakers, but they make ones that go over the ankles that apparently are better and keep your ankles sturdy. Mine worked fine for me but this is up to you!

Certain hikes I did I used a walking stick, this was a MUST for "the narrows" hike at Zion National Park in Utah. It's a necessity for this one because you'll really need that extra guidance when hiking through rough, rocky waters. You can rent the sticks nearby at local shops. This is a hike that those "over the ankle" hiking sneakers would have been so much better.

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• Renting a campervan or using a trailer during your road trip?

Check out my page "van living" for all the details (and tips) on my summer 2018 road trip experience where we camped the entire time in a van! We used Escape Campervans.