2019 Great American Road Trip - Preparation

Last Christmas, I decided to give my littles that are still at home passports to the National Parks as part of their Christmas gifts along with an itinerary for us to travel across the United States from Georgia to California to see their marine brother.    It began as a 5-7 page itinerary that turned into 38 pages by the time we left in June.   I researched a lot to make this a successful adventure, and the Lord blessed us with some fabulous memories.  I'd love to share some tips for you to plan your next adventure whether it's visiting one park or 29 parks like we did!   Then I'll tell you a bit about our adventures in case you decide to visit the same parks, monuments, sites, etc. that we went to see.   It was so much fun, I hope to do something similar every year.  In fact, I have plans about once every other month to hike somewhere else on weekends.  

First thing I did was see what the most traveled routes were from my home to California.  Then I looked on a map that contained all the National Parks/Monuments/Recreation Areas to decide which ones I wanted to try to fit in each day.   Surprisingly. we squeezed a few extras in until the troops were ready to get home, then we took the last 3 off.   Be flexible.  You want this to be a trip of memories in the making.  You don't want everyone to feel like you dragged them from place to place with no time to enjoy the scenery, rest, and just be unplugged from the busyness of modern life.  

I mapped things out from place to place in Mapquest to see how much time and distance it would take to get from one location to another.  I also researched each destination online to decide what we would do, how much time we could spend there, things to watch ahead of time, and reminders to get our passports stamped.  

Give yourself some time to work on this until you are happy with the final agenda.  My agenda included the following items:

• Name of place we are going to followed by the address and the phone #
• If there was a book or documentary I wanted my family to look at before we left, that was listed in a different color.
• Each stop had a reminder to get our passport stamped
• Little history about the location, and options of things to do that we could decide on before we arrived. 
• Whether or not a Junior Ranger program was available. (More about this later.)
• If we were camping there for the night, the reservation #, camp site, etc. would be listed.  If you are staying at a hotel, or a lodge, just list your information at the end of that day for you to have on hand.
• We home school.  So if anything tied into our Memory work for Classical Conversations, I put it on the list.  I also counted our trip as school, because they worked on Junior Ranger books along the way.  They also listened to "The Hobbit" on Audible and read other books during the drive time.  They had to learn to set up camp, and take down camp, make meals on the fly, wash laundry at a camp site, hiked a lot of miles while identifying some trees, plants, and wildlife.   We learned a lot!
• In another color, I put page numbers from the National Park book I had so we could read about them before we got there.  It helped us enjoy the experience even more.  I even downloaded the Grand Canyon Audio Tour to listen to as well for when we went through the park.  It had some great information.  

Here's an example of one entry:

Day 14:  44^th stop ~ Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (June 20^th) {312-319}

Time: 3 hours 47 minutes.  Arrive at 12:00

Visitor Center 
11999 State Highway 150 
Mosca, CO 81146

Get stamped here and pick up & turn in Junior Ranger Book

WATCH:  Heart of the World:  Colorado National Parks (3 episodes) on Prime, America’s 58 National Parks Season 1 Episode 26✔.

Phone:

(719) 378-6395

The Great Sand Dunes, and most of the forests, lakes and peaks of Great Sand Dunes National Preserve, are designated wilderness. These areas can be explored by day hikes or overnight backpacking trips. 

View of the 30-square-mile dunefield and Sangre de Cristo Mountains from highest

Dunes Exploration

Explore any part of the 30 square mile dunefield you wish; there are no designated trails in the sand. A dunes-accessible wheelchair is available for free loan at the Visitor Center. Summer air temperatures are pleasant at this high elevation, but during afternoon hours the sand surface can reach 150F degrees, and dangerous thunderstorms can develop. Plan to hike the dunes in early morning or evening to avoid heat exhaustion, burned feet, or fatal lightning strikes.

When there's water in Medano Creek at the base of the dunes, adults and kids alike love to splash in the stream. Watch for waves in the water, a phenomenon called "surge flow." As mounds of sand form and fall in the creek bed, water surges, similar to the action of waves at a beach. Watch a video, get detailed tips for enjoying the creek, and find current conditions and forecast flow on the Medano Creek page.

High Dune on First Ridge

This is the most common for hikers.  There are five dunes over 700 feet tall. The high dune on the first ridge is neither the highest in elevation nor the tallest in the park, but it looks that way from the main parking lot. This is the most common destination in the dunefield, providing a great view of the entire dunefield. It is about 699 feet (198 m) from base to top. Cross a half-mile (1km) of the Medano Creek bed, then zigzag up along ridgelines to reach it. Average round trip hiking time is 2 hours. See as much as possible in an hour

Hope this helps you get started on planning your next adventure.   Can't wait to tell you about the whole trip, and what we plan to do next.   Stay tuned and sign up to follow the blog if you don't want to miss any updates to our travels.