Epic Road Trip: National Parks Tour (Part 1)

Back in 2019 our family set out on our first ever cross-country road trip, traveling from Cleveland to Los Angeles and back. In the process we saw some of the United States most beautiful National Parks like Badlands, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, plus a variety of amusement parks.

In trying to decide where we wanted to travel for 2023, we went through various options and ultimately decided we really wanted to see all of the epic Utah National Parks, getting to see all new areas of the country. So in June 2022 we started planning.

Just like our trip in 2019, the ultimate tool we utilized was the Roadtrippers app. With such an epic scope and knowing our journey goal was Utah, we started routing the trip to determine how many days we wanted to do going there and back.

Just like any journey, one can quickly be overloaded with information with so many options to see along the route.

In addition to the Roadtrippers app, we also utilized our large pool of IHG points to try and get as many free nights as possible. This required tailoring the route to the hotels that could easily accommodate five of us.

Our three boys are no longer little and staying in a two queen room is no longer feasible. So at a minimum, we had to find rooms with a king bed to share with our youngest and a pullout couch. In some cases we were able to secure suites with three beds.

This quickly became the most important thing we could do a year out from the trip. Within a month or so of booking, many of the rooms on the route were booked and rates quickly started to rise as we price watched. We easily saw some of the rooms we secured for free with points double in points or cost, if they were even still available. Book early!

Using the Roadtrippers app and our hotel reward programs, we ultimately decided we would take June 10 to June 21 (12 days) to get from Cleveland to Los Angeles. Then to minimize my time off work and get back to Cleveland would take 4 days, returning June 25.

The tough part of planning such an epic road trip a year in advance is you are locked into your plans.
1) Changing hotels at any point could drastically increase costs
2) Many places like National Parks require a reservation and securing the limited supply could throw the entire trip off course
3) Should one have an emergency like vehicle repairs, etc. mid trip, it makes it hard to change course.

While of course we would make do with the cards we were dealt, we were lucky this trip and had no issues with our cross country travels.

Knowing we had the trip planned a year in advance, we traded in our Honda Odyssey for a newer model in late 2022, making sure we had something reliable for cross country travel.

Just like our 2019 National Park Road Trip, we will break down the trip each day in separate posts as highlighted below.

Epic Road Trip: National Park Tour (Part 1)
Epic Road Trip: Cleveland to St Louis (Part 2)
Epic Road Trip: Silver Dollar City (Part 3)
Epic Road Trip: Rt 66 to Texas (Part 4)
Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)
Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)
Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)
Epic Road Trip: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 8)
Epic Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park (Part 9)
Epic Road Trip: Zion National Park (Part 10)
Epic Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 11)
Epic Road Trip: Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 12)
Epic Road Trip: Meow Wolf Las Vegas (Part 13)
Epic Road Trip: Worlds of Fun (Part 14)
Epic Road Trip: Trip Wrap Up (Part 15)

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