Westward Ho!

Sitting in Fredericksburg on this Father's Day afternoon, it's easy to look back on all the family vacations my family took when my brother and I were growing up. We were extremely fortunate. We've strolled the beaches and body-boarded the waves of Hawaii more times than can be counted on one hand, stared out across the Grand Canyon, walked in Yosemite, absorbed the majesty of Niagara Falls, drove across the Badlands and stared up at Mount Rushmore, stood at the Four Corners Monument, and gazed down at Crater Lake, and stayed at many a budget hotel along the way. There are few places in this country my brother and I haven't seen, often times arriving via minivan or occasionally a sporty rental car when Dad got feisty at an airport agency counter. 

There we are.

Those adventures, though, took place when we were young, and many of those memories have unfortunately faded with the passage of time. I detailed some of my most recent travel experiences in my last post and in the time since writing that, I've been able to add the New York City borough of Queens, and Annapolis, the state capital of Maryland and a supremely charming town to visit on a warm summer evening, to the list. It's been a while, probably since my time studying in Europe several years ago, that I went on an extended vacation. Certainly within the United States, it's been a very long time since my ever-present feeling of wanderlust has been satiated.  

Annapolis, you beauty.

That is all about to change, and some wonderful new memories will hopefully be created. In just eight short days, the meatball and I will be on a 5:00 AM flight out of Newark, leaving the East Coast behind for a couple weeks in the Rocky Mountains. For those interested, here is an abbreviated version of the absurdly detailed, nine-page itinerary we've crafted thus far:

Tuesday, June 30 
Fly from Newark to Denver (via Chicago). Pick up rental car and camping equipment. Take in the sunset over historic Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. Stay the night in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Wednesday, July 1 
Walk the campuses of Colorado State University in Fort Collins and the University of Wyoming in Laramie. See the state capitol building of Wyoming in Cheyenne. Drive along Snowy Range Road to Riverton, and stay the night there.

Thursday, July 2
Wake up early to claim campground in Grand Teton National Park, driving via Centennial Scenic Byway. Explore/hike Grand Teton.

Grand Teton National Park

Friday, July 3
Drive from Grand Teton to claim Grant Village Campground in Yellowstone National Park. Explore the South Loop of Yellowstone, including Old Faithful.

Saturday, July 4 (America!)
Wake up to claim Canyon Campground. Explore the North Loop of Yellowstone. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Hayden Valley, Storm Point Trail, and Mount Washburn are all possibilities on this day.

Yellowstone National Park

Sunday, July 5 
Leave Canyon Campground early and stop at Steamboat Geyser and Firehole Canyon swimming hole. Drive via US 89 and Livingston, Montana to Bozeman and hike the "M" of Montana State University up the Bridgers. Drive to Helena to see the state capitol building of Montana and the Cathedral of Saint Helena. Drive to Great Falls and finish the night at the famed Sip 'n' Dip Tiki Bar.

Apparently this is a must-stop.

Monday, July 6
Drive from Great Falls and cross the Canadian border into Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta via Chief Mountain Highway. Hike the Crypt Lake Trail or do the "Beauty and the Beasts" scavenger hunt in the park. Camp at Townsite Campground.

Waterton Lakes National Park

Tuesday, July 7
Leave Waterton and cross back over the border into Glacier National Park in Montana. Hike the Grinnell Glacier Trail. Camp at St. Mary Campground.

Glacier National Park

Wednesday, July 8
Spend the first half of the day driving along the Going-to-the-Sun Road through the heart of Glacier. Stop at nature trails, overlooks, and Logan Pass. Lunch in Kalispell, Montana. Drive to Missoula, and walk the campus of the University of Montana, hike the "M" up Mount Sentinel, and finish the evening at a brewery or bar.

Going-to-the-Sun Road

Thursday, July 9
Drive to Boise, Idaho via Grangeville and the Payette River Scenic Byway. Tube three miles of the Boise River starting at Barber Park. Walk the campus of Boise State University. See the state capitol building of Idaho.

Friday, July 10
Drive to Shoshone Falls (45 feet higher than Niagara Falls!) near Twin Falls, Idaho. Drive to Salt Lake City, Utah, via Antelope Island State Park and a potential stop in Ogden along the way. Meet up with Gina's old roommate Jamie and explore the city. See the state capitol building of Utah.

Shoshone Falls

Saturday, July 11
Drive to Provo, Utah and walk the campus of Brigham Young University. Hike the "Y" up Y Mountain. Drive to Colorado National Monument and hike the trails and overlooks along Historic Rim Rock Drive. Stay the night in Grand Junction, the largest city in western Colorado.

Sunday, July 12
Drive from Grand Junction to Denver and pick up key to Airbnb apartment downtown. Make way to Coors Field in LoDo for a Braves-Rockies afternoon game, and finish the evening at the bars and restaurants there. See the state capitol building of Colorado.

Too bad we won't see a night game...

Monday, July 13
Drive to Rocky Mountain National Park via Boulder and Bear Lake Road. Claim campsite at Moraine Park Campground. Hike along Bierstadt Lake or Glacier Gorge Junction.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Tuesday, July 14
Leave Rocky Mountain and drive back to Denver. Drop off rental car and camping equipment, and take cab back to airport. Arrive back in Newark at 11:01 PM (via Minneapolis/St. Paul). Back to reality...

...for a few days, at least. Then another international vacation is on deck. By July 22, the meatball and I will have been in three North American countries in 15 days. Not too shabby.

If anyone has any tips or has been to any of these places before and thinks there is something we absolutely need to see, please, we're all ears. There's only so much that guidebooks and websites can tell you, and there is no substitute for personal experience.

So that's the trip. We've been planning this since Thanksgiving, and that clichéd, surreal feeling is starting to set in. We hope to document our travels with short written blog posts, but more realistically, will annoy everyone we're associated with on various social media platforms by posting an inordinate amount of pictures. We also are trying to film short video clips every day, but we'll see how that goes.

Hope everyone has had a nice Father's Day.