Plan the ultimate national parks road trip through the American West

A recent post from a fellow traveler got me thinking about the luxury of living in the western United States, the marvelous national parks we have such an abundance of — and how many of our friends have yet to visit many of them.

Hence, let’s consider the ultimate national parks road trip in the American West. Or, if you don’t have four-some weeks to do it in total, split it up into a northern parks route and a southern parks route. Prior planning is a must; with pent-up travel demand, iconic parks like Yellowstone hosted a record of almost 1 million visitors in June and Yosemite requires advance reservations during peak months. So, plan to book your campsites or your park lodging well in advance, or be left high and dry when it comes to a place to stay. And try to avoid summertime, when crowds are the largest. Fall and spring are some of the most spectacular times to visit, and winter trips to these parks are certainly in the realm of possibility.

Northern parks beckon; let’s head first to the San Francisco Bay Area, and north on California Highway 1 to Redwoods National and State Parks. Here the mighty coast redwoods reach over 300 feet skyward, and the moist climate means pleasant temperatures even in August.

We’ll then cut northwest through the green Cascade mountain range and stop at Crater Lake National Park, where the deep, azure blue waters of this collapsed monster volcano provide unforgettable memories. If time, continue north to Mount St. Helens National Monument, northeast of Portland, which preserves evidence of nature’s might when 1300 feet of the volcano was blown miles to the northeast, blanketing Yakima and Spokane in ash and killing 57 people in May 1980. Continue north to Olympic National Park, with lovely Pacific beaches and coastal rain forest and Mount Rainier National Park, both close to the lovely Seattle metropolitan area for provisioning.

Head east through eastern Washington (detour off Interstate 90 a bit to see Grand Cooley Dam, when built in the 1930s, the largest concrete project in the world), across the Idaho panhandle and north to Glacier National Park, where some of the loftiest Rocky Mountains frame Lake McDonald and the always memorable Going to the Sun Highway. Take the time to hike at the top of Going to the Sun, at Logan Pass, to see wildflowers, bighorn sheep and views to last a lifetime.

From Glacier, we head south through Western Montana, entering Yellowstone through the northern entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs and follow the lovely Loop Road, spending a few days at Bridge Bay Campground on Lake Yellowstone (or Lake Hotel), and, of course, a visit to the Old Faithful Area and the several geyser basins surrounding it. Wonderfully, Grand Teton National Park lies just south of Yellowstone, so we’ll spend several days exploring the mighty Teton range, rising 7,000 feet above Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Here, you have a choice, after covering well over 2,000 miles in about two weeks time, to call this the end of your northern parks swing and return to your starting point (if you are heading home, consider the “Loneliest Road in America,” historic, scenic US Highway 50, where Great Basin National Park lies just north, in eastern Nevada. 

Our southern park swing would include most of Utah’s memorable five national parks, including Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks and a stop on the north rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Camping in Bryce Canyon some years back, our first walk from the campground offered a panoramic view of the red rocks and eerie hoodoos, etched into our memory.

The Grand Canyon north rim offers the same gut-wrenching rim views as the south rim, but with only about 10% of the visitation (and, the 400 bison that roam the north rim are a special treat). From there, make a provisioning stop in Las Vegas, swing through the southern Sierra and plan your stop at Sequoia/Kings Canyon national parks and, by careful prearrangement, a visit to Yosemite National Park before returning to home.

To do this grand tour of national parks, and to do it right, you need about a month, or, split the grand circuit into two pieces, several weeks each. Pre-planning is imperative, whether you’re planning to camp, or stay in motels or a combination of both. Campgrounds in these national parks often book out up to six months in advance. Use recreation.gov, or several of the parks individual websites, to plan your camping outings in the most desirable park campgrounds. Or, do you like my brother, and plan to arrive at campgrounds at about 7 a.m., hoping to score a few of the vacated campsites. Same for motel bookings – plan early for some of the more popular destinations such as Whitefish, Montana, outside of Glacier, or the iconic lodges in parks like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon or Yosemite.

If you have plenty of vacation, or are retired, don’t shy away from late fall or early spring months, though weather should be a factor in your planning. If you’re truly hardy travelers, don’t discard the idea of traveling during winter months. Several of our most memorable park journeys have been to Crater Lake, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Yosemite in the dead of winter where visitors are scarce and animals can be seen by the scores, or hundreds.

For more information, go to individual parks’ websites, and check recreation.gov for camping reservations. Contact Tim at tviall@msn.com; happy travels in the west!