“Wow, look at that!” – phrase most often spoken on our trip
We’ve been home for a week, and already “real life” is taking over—so it’s time for a trip retrospective!
We left home on April 27 and returned July 25, just shy of 3 months. In that time we covered 15,231 miles, had two oil changes, and listened to 10 audiobooks! One question we were holding in mind as we began the trip was whether full-timing might be for us at some point. Now we know the answer is no! Even though we thoroughly enjoyed the trip, after 9 or 10 weeks we felt ready to come home. Last year’s trip was too short at 6 weeks, so it seems like the sweet spot is about 10. We’ll shoot for that next time. And there certainly will be a next time! This was our route:
The National Parks
Our intention on this trip was to visit as many national parks as we could, and we managed to see 17, as well as four other Park Service sites and two state parks. Here they are (parks with asterisks mean we want to visit again):
National Parks (in order)
Great Smoky Mountains (TN)
Hot Springs (AR)
Carlsbad Caverns (NM)
Guadalupe Mountains (TX)
Mesa Verde (CO)*
Canyonlands (UT)*
Arches (UT)*
Grand Canyon (AZ)*
Saguaro (AZ)*
Petrified Forest (AZ)
Channel Islands (CA)
Sequoia & Kings Canyon (CA)
Yosemite (CA)
Redwood (CA)
Crater Lake (OR)
Glacier (MT)*
Theodore Roosevelt (ND)
Other NPS Sites
Lyndon Johnson NHP (TX)
Canyon de Chelly NM (AZ)
Glen Canyon NRA (includes Vermilion Cliffs and Navajo Bridge) (UT & AZ)
Point Reyes National Seashore (CA)*
State Parks
Dead Horse Point (UT)*
Patrick’s Point (CA)
Our original plans had included Bryce and Zion Canyons, as well as Capitol Reef NP, but it was snowing in that area so we decided to move on. Conversely, we had also planned to visit Joshua Tree NP, but we were coming from the extreme heat of Arizona and couldn’t face more of the same, so we took a pass. After Glacier we had hoped to visit Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, but there were absolutely no campsites to be found. So all of these will have to wait for a future trip!
One thing that’s fun for me—because I’m an unabashed nerd—is the National Parks Passport book. In the front pocket there’s a clear plastic pouch to keep your America the Beautiful Pass ($80 annually and worth every penny) and a map of the whole system. Inside, the parks are grouped by region, and there’s a room to stamp your book when you visit each park. Every visitor center has a stamp station, and some have really cool stamps, as you can see. It’s a fun way to keep track of where you’ve been.
Favorite Parks:
Dead Horse Point State Park was my most favorite of all the parks. It was relatively uncrowded, and just as beautiful as nearby Canyonlands and Arches.
Campgrounds
Aside from the places we camped for free (The Gardens, our daughter Kayt’s place in TX, and my aunt Lynn’s in NH) or stored the trailer (Cedar Haven in ME), we camped in 40 different campgrounds on the trip. The most expensive was Anchor Down near Great Smoky Mountains National Park ($69 per night), and the least expensive was a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Park called Seven Points ($22 per night) outside Nashville. Most parks were in the $35-38 range, with some outliers on either side.
We love campgrounds that have huge, private, wooded sites, which are primarily in state and regional parks. Our least favorite campgrounds are essentially parking lots where we're packed in like sardines. Luckily, we didn't have too many of those! In the end, we experienced both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. Here's a small sampling:
Because we traveled with our friends Hal & Val for three weeks of the trip and they were Thousand Trails members, we decided to give it a try ourselves. Basic membership covers one region, so we chose the western region and camped in three different TT parks in Sedona, San Diego, and the Yosemite area. The Yosemite park was by far the best of the three. Membership for us was $350 for the year, and we have already gotten our money’s worth. For example, the San Diego TT would have cost $70 per night if we had not been members.
We had also decided to join Harvest Hosts, which enables you to camp for free at orchards, wineries, farms, and the like. We thought it was a fun idea, but the truth is that we are not really equipped to comfortably boondock. The temperature range needs to be just right—which it was for the one HH place we stayed, Austin Orchards (pictured above, bottom right). We loved it there. But I’m not sure I would renew our membership.
The same goes for Passport America, which has too many restrictions to be useful, and Good Sam, which only gives a 10% discount. We have a AAA card, which yields the same level of discounts and has benefits beyond camping.
Favorite Campgrounds:
Buckhorn Family Campground at Usery Mountain Regional Park in Mesa, AZ
Gulpha Gorge Campground in Hot Springs National Park
Other Points of Interest
While our primary focus was the national parks, we also enjoyed a few museums and other cultural points of interest along the way. These included the National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis), the Grand Ole Opry (Nashville), the Texas State Capitol building (Austin), the International UFO Museum & Research Center (Roswell), and the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, Wild & Scenic Film Festival, and Canyon Road art galleries (Santa Fe). I especially loved the Amitabha Stupa & Peace Park (Sedona).
Of course no trip would be complete for me without visiting a few independent bookstores! We visited Collected Works (Santa Fe), Back of Beyond Books (Moab), Antigone (Tucson), and—my all-time favorite—Point Reyes Books (Point Reyes Station, CA). If I lived there, I would have to work there!
We didn’t eat out a whole lot while we were on the road, but my favorite restaurants were Mariposa (Sedona) for the views as much as the food, Big John’s Texas BBQ (Page, AZ), and the Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station, where I had my birthday lunch and the best rustic bread I have ever eaten.
People We Visited
People often wonder how it is to spend 24/7 with your spouse for months at a time—and the answer is fine! When we’re driving along we’re usually listening to an audiobook, drinking iced coffee (we drank gallons upon gallons), and/or exclaiming over the views. I often wanted to pull over and take pictures. And when we pulled in at night, we usually did our own thing: Dave “reading” (i.e., sleeping) and me reading (for real) or typing up the day’s events. Occasionally we watched movies. Some nights there was laundry to do. It was a peaceful coexistence.
However, for the three weeks we traveled with our friends Hal & Val, there were also board games and lots of laughter, which was fun, too! Along the way we also visited friends and family in Memphis, Wimberley, Sedona, Scottsdale, Tuscon, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Hancock, NH. We missed a few people we wanted to see because we weren’t planning very far ahead, but that gives us something to look forward to next time!
Critters
The one downside of this trip was that it was a little light on wildlife for my taste. I had hoped, for example, to get some really good bison sightings at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but the ones we saw were off in the distance, and there were only half a dozen or so. I had been spoiled by our experience at Custer State Park in South Dakota last year, when we found ourselves right in the middle of a bison herd crossing the road. If we had been able to go to Yellowstone, I suspect our experience would have been different.
We did see a condor perched on the Navajo Bridge near Page, AZ, though, which was a special treat. And we saw a number of ravens, which fascinated me with their bright, beady eyes. We also saw elk, mule deer, wild horses, one black and one brown (Grizzly?) bear, coyotes, elephant seals (in the distance), hundreds of prairie dogs, ground squirrels, bunnies, and a rattlesnake. Plus I got a tick bite in Texas. :-)
Camping Nuts & Bolts
1. It’s good to be handy and have the right tools! Right before we left, our fridge wouldn’t work, and Dave discovered that a wire wasn’t connected and fixed it. Then we were having a problem with our jack by the time we got to Texas, and Dave was able to get a new switch and install it himself. When he first called the local Camping World to see about getting it fixed, they said they were a week to 10 days out with repair work. Having to wait would have been a serious bummer.
2. We used our voltmeter (plug-in-the-outlet type to check voltage and polarity) a lot. In places where it was really hot, such as Mesa, AZ (108), we kept blowing a fuse. We finally just left the voltmeter plugged in all the time so we could see when the voltage was getting low and adjust accordingly (e.g., switch to fans, don’t use the microwave at the same time as the AC, etc.). In most campgrounds you can’t run the microwave and a hair dryer at the same time, for example. There just isn’t the capacity.
3. We were also really glad to have a sturdy surge protector, as there was reverse polarity on our hookup at the Airstream campground in Texas. We noticed a smell and the light blinking right away, and that could have ruined everyone’s day (or trip)!
4. It’s always important to keep an eye on the black (sewer) and gray (shower & sink) levels. Even if you have a full hookup with sewer, you keep the tanks closed until you’re ready to dump. It’s amazing how much water you can use even with a short shower and turning off the water while you soap up. If I do a quick 5-minute shower without washing my hair, it uses 7% of the tank capacity. Shampoo & conditioner take it up to 12%. You don't want any of that stuff coming back up through your shower drain!
Other Observations
1. Most campgrounds don’t have a recycling program. Sometimes we would carry around our stash of cans and cardboard hoping to find a recycling bin at the next stop, but we usually ended up throwing it out. That was hard.
2. Almost all campgrounds say they have WiFi. Ahem. While that may be technically true, it is usually woefully underpowered, and with everyone in the campground trying to use it, it is basically useless unless you go to the main office area. Even then it is impossible to do something like a blog post, for example. We went to Panera and Starbucks a few times when we needed to. Best WiFi award goes to the Red Trail Campground in Medora, ND!
3. Often when people think of camping they think of campfires under the stars. On our whole trip we had only one campfire, which was mainly due to fire restrictions in the west, as well as weather conditions (snow, for example). But we didn't miss it that much. After long, full days of sightseeing, we usually just wanted to crash at night.
4. We were sad to see a number of people living in vans and run-down campers out of necessity. There is a great book, Nomadland, that speaks to this phenomenon. But almost everywhere we went, our fellow campers were very friendly. We met some wonderful people on the road.
5. There are large swaths of the United States where WalMart is the only grocery store other than convenience stores. So that was our grocery store, too! Luckily they do have a few organic produce options, and we also discovered that we like their Great Value almond and coconut milks. Who knew? They are also the only place on the road likely to stock RV & boat toilet paper. (Yes, you need to have special toilet paper so you don’t clog the tanks.)
6. Speaking of food, there are some funny things for sale in other parts of the country! Here are a few:
7. It turns out elevation is important! When we visited the Moab area, the weather was fine there. But we were camped 45 minutes away and 2,000 feet up! That meant we were camping in the snow. And when we visited Point Imperial at the north rim of the Grand Canyon, it was about 2,000 feet higher than the rest of the area, which meant low 50s and windy. We were really glad we had packed our winter coats, as we used them fairly often. And I loved my waterproof Merrills.
8. Unlike last year, we really planned only a week or so ahead, aside from high-traffic areas like the Grand Canyon. In fact, that was the only reservation we had when we set out. For the most part it worked out fine, although I would reserve ahead for Moab next time, as well as Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. It was nice to have the flexibility to be able to change plans with the weather, which we did on several occasions. And if we found a place we liked, we could stay an extra day or two, which we did in Hot Springs.
9. We didn’t bring our dog with us because we wanted to visit the national parks and had read that many don’t allow dogs on the trails. While that is true, there are usually some dog-friendly trails, and Carlsbad Caverns, for example, has a kennel on site. I think we’ll risk it next time. We missed her! She was certainly happy to be back in the truck. She's a great traveler.
That’s all for now! Thanks for following along with us, and for sending us your good wishes along the way. We appreciated it.