2018 Road Trip - Other Stops

Over 20 days our road trip covered 4500 miles, 7 states and 8 national parks. The parks were the primary goal of the trip so there wasn't much time for other sights. At the bookends of the trip we were able to fit a couple bonus excursions. On our second day of the drive we visited Antelope Island in Utah's Great Salt Lake. The lake though big wasn't that great. We learned that it had shrunk down over thousands of years. On our last day of the trip we took a diversion to Tillamook Creamery on the Oregon coast. They had a new visitors center, but the experience was the same as before with lots of cheese to sample, cheesy meals to eat and ice cream to indulge in.

The trip went well and we had no problems other than getting pulled over by a grouchy highway patrolman in Idaho. The girls did well on the drive thanks to an assortment of devices which Jamie and I never had in our childhood. Also, I provided a checklist of over 100 items which helped them look forward to what to see next. All but two items on the list got checked off. Access to the volcanic bubbling pools was closed off in Lassen Volcanic National Park and Mount Shasta couldn't be seen through the dense California wildfire smoke.

I could have gone longer on the trip, but there was only so much vacation time and money. We probably won't do such a big trip with the family again, but we're already making plans for smaller trips to visit more national parks in the future.