Roadtrip: USA

I'm so glad we saved some time to also explore our own beautiful country- there is so much to see! We spent most of July-September road-tripping coast-to-coast, with some family and friend time mixed in.

Link to all USA pictures

Overview of Our Trip

The first portion of our trip took about a month and a half and was focused on the west coast. We explored lots of the national parks and also celebrated a wedding with friends in San Francisco. Then we spent a few weeks with family before taking off for the east coast portion where we spent time in Cleveland, New York City, and celebrated another wedding in Virginia. 

West Coast

After being home for less than 24 hours we loaded up the truck with all of our camping supplies and headed west. Our first major stop was at the Badlands National Park. Being there felt like being on the moon- it was so different! We also got to see Mount Rushmore. Then we spent a few days exploring the beautifully diverse Yellowstone National Park. The scenery was beautiful, the thermal pools and geysers were crazy, and we got to see lots of wildlife (including several bears!). As we headed west, we quickly stopped by Jackson Hole and camped near Lake Tahoe. Then we had a great weekend in San Francisco exploring and celebrating the wedding of some of our good friends. 

We continued our journey walking through Muir Woods on our way to Sonoma Valley for some wine tasting. We also spent a busy day in Yosemite National Park but unfortunately we were hardly able to get out of the truck since it was so crowded and no place to park. That night we found an amazing camping spot in Nelder Grove in the Sierra National Forest. The trees there were ginormous! Our next stops were Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. Kings Canyon seemed similar to Yosemite but much less crowded so that was really nice. There we were able to see General Sherman Tree- the largest tree in the world (by volume). The size of those trees is staggering!

Our next stop was a brief visit in LA where we camped on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Malibu and hit some of the major sites: Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Sign, etc. Then we drove south and walked across the border to Mexico to visit Tijuana, where we stayed with a couple that we met on safari in South Africa. They showed us a great time! They showed us around the town and took us to some of their favorite restaurants- my favorite was a seaside lunch of fresh lobster tacos!

Next we spent a few days in San Diego. We stayed near Little Italy and found a great pizza place where we went every night for dinner: Filippi's. While there we explored Coronado Island, Seaport Village, Mission Beach, and the Cabrillo National Monument.

Then we went back through LA and stayed with a friend there while checking out some more of the sights: Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and Northport Beach.

Next we spent some time in Las Vegas where we spent our time laying by the pool, gambling, drinking, and saw a Cirque du Soleil show. We had a really fun time and broke pretty even in gambling! We also visited the Hoover Dam while we were in the area. 

Then we had a big day exploring the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks. So Beautiful! Then we continued our week in Utah seeing some of the amazing national parks there including Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Natural Bridges. I was really impressed by Bryce Canyon! We also went to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks as well. We stayed in Moab which was a really cool place. Utah is a really beautiful state!

Then on to Colorado! We started at Colorado National Monument and then on to Grand Mesa. Then we spent a few nights camping near Frisco which was beautiful. Then we paused for a few weeks and spent several weeks with family both in Denver then in Kansas.

East Coast

We began our east coast adventure at the beginning of September after watching the season-opener Badger football game. Our first stop was to also watch the Notre Dame season-opener in South Bend before staying a few nights exploring Cleveland with one of our good friends where we got to catch an airshow.

Then we had the chance to stay in Brooklyn for a few nights and explore the Big Apple. I had never been before! So we did most of the typical tourist things: the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 memorial, Little Italy, Chinatown, caught a show in Times Square, Empire State building, the High Line, Carnegie Hall, Washington Square Park, and Central Park. We also had some typical NYC fare: NYC pizza, hot dog from a stand, cheesecake, and bagels.

Then we stopped at Coney Island on our way to Culpeper VA for our second wedding of the season. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time! Then we drove to Asheville, North Carolina but unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative for exploring since we were getting the end of Hurricane Irma. 

Our last stop of the trip was a few days in Nashville before heading home just in time for Matt's big 30th birthday!

Budget

I spent $4,210 total while road-tripping the US. This is per person and there were two of us traveling together so most things were split equally two ways.

Ground Transportation: $777. We drove the truck the whole way so this is just gas and a few various ubers, as well as all the public transportation we took in NYC.

Lodging: $1,509. We mostly camped on the west coast portion, but on the east coast we mostly did hotels and Airbnbs.

Activities: $650. This includes our National Park Pass which got us into all of the national parks (so worth it!) and also all the shows we saw while in Vegas, NYC, and Nashville.

Food: $1,189. We mostly made our own food when camping on the west coast, but we really enjoyed going out for food when in the major cities. 

Miscellaneous: $85. General necessities. 

Summary

So many people don't take the time to explore this huge diverse country of ours which is sad because there is SO much to see. We really enjoyed the freedom of driving our own vehicle and camping. We made it to each coast and saw so much in between. It was a great finale to our amazing adventure!