Another cross country road trip
- Rachel
- Jun 8, 2023
- 5 min read
Last week, my boyfriend Brandon and I made our fourth trip across the country in less than two years.
Back in August 2021, we drove from Ohio to San Diego after making a somewhat impulsive decision to crash on our friends’ air mattress in Southern California (read my first blog post ever about that trip here).
The following spring, we made another impulsive decision to move to a town we had never been to in Washington State. (Sensing a pattern?)
After living on Whidbey Island for a year, we’re heading back to the Midwest to pursue some more exciting ventures.
Let’s get into the story of the drive.
Day 1: Saturday
The first day consisted of making a quick stop in Bend, Oregon to meet up with a friend. We camped on some Bureau of Land Management – or BLM – land outside of the city. This is undeveloped public land where you can camp for free. The downside is there are no facilities so I had to pee several times in an open field, but that keeps things interesting (and full coverage bug bites).
We got breakfast the next morning at The Original Pancake House. There's something about going to a diner on road trips that feels so right.
Day 2: Sunday
On day two, we drove to see the Redwoods in California. Unfortunately, we only spent about an hour among the mammoth trees because Brandon wanted to go back to our campsite and watch “Succession” we were tired from all the driving.
Nonetheless, getting to spend some time in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods was definitely worth it.
Day 3: Monday
Our short stint in the Redwoods added a couple days to the trip. Monday was spent driving across Northern California to a campsite in Tahoe National Forest. We saw a sign declaring we were in bear country which was met with an enthusiastic “yayyy” from both of us.
We fell asleep to the sounds of the rushing water of the Truckee River.
Day 4: Tuesday
Our campsite was only minutes away from Lake Tahoe which I didn’t know anything about but had definitely heard of several times. Plus, Brandon said he’d had owned a shirt from Lake Tahoe since he was five.
As poor people in a resort town, we parked in a public lot and walked to the waterfront to eat breakfast (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). I have to say, it was gorgeous. I love some blue water with mountain views.
We then left the mountains and pine trees of the west coast behind (sob) and traversed across the barren wasteland that is Nevada. All there was to see was desert and hills.
Predictably, our campsite was down the street from a large casino and a giant cowboy sign named “Wendover Will.”
Day 5: Wednesday
Our first stop on Wednesday morning was the Bonneville Salt Flat as they were only about fifteen minutes away from our campsite… or so we thought.
According to, ahem, a travel blog I glanced over the night before, it said for travelers coming from Wendover, Nev. to get off Highway 80 at an eastbound rest stop to access the flats. We pulled off and the flats seemed to be on the other side of the highway. I’m still kind of confused about this. It did look like our side of the flats might just have been flooded and unable to accommodate foot traffic.
I Googled how to get to the westbound rest area and it said it took over an hour even though we could literally see it, but there are scant exits on this highway.
Since we didn’t have to be anywhere and who knows if we'll ever be back, we decided to go for it. The area looked a lot smaller than it does in photos and is right next to the highway. There was quite a bit of water so we could not venture very far.
Was it worth the somewhat mediocre photos we got? Let me know in the comments. (Brandon said no.)
After our anticlimactic visit to the flats, we stopped to have another PB and J in Salt Lake City. I wanted to see the Temple Square as I find the history of Mormonism morbidly fascinating and I think the churches are strikingly beautiful.
Unfortunately, the temple was enveloped in scaffolding and the sidewalks to walk to the square were blocked off by even more construction. After walking by a bunch of white people in business casual wearing name tags, we stumbled upon a park dedicated to Brigham Young. Brandon said the place “gave him the creeps” so we left pretty quickly. Maybe because good ‘ol Brigham had 56 wives?
Day 6: Thursday
In lieu of going to Canyonlands in Utah, we decided to skip it and have more time in Rocky Mountain National Park. After leaving Utah, we stayed at a campsite in Wyoming. From there, we only had about a four hour drive to the Rocky Mountains.
We had reserved a campground so we didn't have a timed entry permit to enter the park. For those who are camping, you can enter starting at 1:00.
We arrived in Estes Park, the town right outside of the park, at about 11:30. We stopped at another diner aggressively named You Need Pie! (exclamation point included). I know I already waxed poetic about my love for diners, but tell me -- what's better than coffee and a breakfast sandwich followed by rhubarb pie?
By the time we got through the long line at the park’s entrance, it had started raining and thundering. We were also feeling the effect of the elevation gain (the park is at about 7,500 feet.) It felt like I couldn’t get a full breath in.
We stopped at the Moraine Park Discovery Center before setting up camp at Glacier Basin. This is one of the most spectacular campsites I’ve ever been to; it had amazing views of the Rocky Mountains. Signs in the bathroom let us know we were in Bear AND cougar country yay!
We visited Sprague Lake before taking a scene drive on Trail Ridge Road. This drive cemented the Rocky Mountains as one of my top five favorite national parks. The road rapidly gained elevation so by the time we reached the Alpine Visitor Center, it was cold and snowing despite it being June 1.
On the way back to the campsite, a cloud descended over the road and we couldn’t see anything but the car in front of us which added a little sprinkle of danger. As it was clearing, we caught a glimpse of two bighorn sheep.
Day 7-9: Friday to Sunday
We had one last morning in the park and hiked to Bear and Nymph Lake before taking off.
The rest of the trip was driving through all of the boring states. Nebraska (where Brandon lost his favorite jean jacket, rip), Missouri, Illinois and Indiana before finally arriving in Ohio on Sunday afternoon. I feel bad calling any state boring as I’m from an infamously boring state, and I know it’s not actually boring. However, I don’t know anything about the last states we drive through so they will be dubbed as ‘boring’ for the sake of this post.
My biggest tip for a trip like this is to stay in KOA’s along the way. KOA is a chain of campsites all across the United States. Most of the time they are located right off major highways and will always have showers and (usually) wifi and electric hookups.
See you next time!
-ZigZag
Comments