Route Update

In April Gail and I spent a good chunk of time planning out more details and reserving campsites at national parks. It turns out that you can't reserve these sites too soon, since many choice spots were already taken, and we even had to shift our agenda a little. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado was to be our first stop, but due to limited campsite availability, the Black Hills and Badlands come first now.

We also decided that it was a bit much to try to reach our first park in three days, so we now have a much more civilized plan:

• Day 1 (July 1): Ithaca to Toledo, OH, 7 1/2 hours
• Day 2: Toledo to Iowa City, IA, 7 1/2 hours
• Day 3: Iowa City to Mitchell, SD (Corn Palace, here we come!), 7 1/2 hours
• Day 4: Mitchell, SD to Black Hills, SD, 5 1/2 hours

Even our motels are reserved for the first three nights. To make up for the fact that we will be putting in long days in the car, we have motels with pools for days 1-3. Day 4 will be our first night of camping,   and we chose the Black Hills rather than the Badlands so that we might get a little more shade and forest.

Lucky Toby got his cyclocross bike yesterday, which means that he'll be having a blast cycling in the national park. Leo is bringing his mountain bike, which should suit him just fine. I have racks for all bikes, as well as a couple of Thule rooftop wheel carriers to keep bulky wheels out of the van.

Our trip is tantalizingly close! It's hard to believe that we're hitting the road in only 1 1/2 months.

We have an itinerary!

This summer can't come soon enough! After several years of scheming and planning, we are closing in on our great summer western camping and hiking adventure. The boys are old enough to really appreciate the experience, and they are capable and strong hikers. Gail and I have been are fortunate enough to be educators, so we have the entire summer to explore some of the great destinations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. We leave on July 3rd and return on August 11th if all goes according to plan.

We have been puzzling over our possible destinations for weeks now, and we have made some tough choices that I think were for the best. Rather than take on too much, we decided to spend more days at fewer locations. It's shocking, yes, but we will not be visiting the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, or any of California for that matter. Instead, we will be exploring the Rockies almost exclusively, though we will also be visiting such spectacular places as Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park and Zion. Here's our itinerary, subject to change:

1. Joliet, IL (long drive and motel)
2. middle Nebraska (another long drive and motel stay)
3. Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
4. Arches National Park, UT
5. Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
6. Day trips to Zion National Park, UT
7. Wasatch State Park, UT
8. Tetons National Park, UT
9. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
10. Helena, MT
11. Glacier National Park, MT
12. Billings, MT
13. Rapid City, SD
14. Badlands National Park, SD
15. Rochester, MN
16. South Bend, IN
17. Home

It's unlikely that we will change the route too much or add on more destinations, but we appreciate all suggestions!

This trip will be a great learning opportunity for us all, and we will be blogging along the way. 

(11/25/12 Note: This itinerary changed substantially. Most notably we added the Black Hills and skipped Zion and Wasatch State Park in Utah. We cut our trip short by about one week and learned that spending more time at fewer parks was a better option for us.)