The Itinerary for our trip was planned and even color coded by Jeff. I swear planning is ingrained in his DNA, but I reap the benefits so I certainly cannot complain. I also posted our itinerary here but thought I’d make it easier to find for those of you who aren’t going to dig through every post on the blog. We left Raleigh on August 31st and returned on September 10th. We fit a ton of amazing things into one trip, and now we know which parks we can’t wait to go back to, and which parks we might skip on our next pass. Read our other posts to find out why!
National Parks Trip – September 2016
Wednesday, August 31
FLIGHT: Southwest #2975/2705 (RDU-DEN-PDX)
$206 or 12,282 points
Depart RDU 9:30am
Arrive PDX 1:25pm
DRIVE: 5.5 hours to Crater Lake National Park
SLEEP: Camp – Mazama Village Campground
Thursday, September 1
EXPLORE: Crater Lake National Park
DRIVE: 3 hours to Redwood National Park
SLEEP: Camp – Backcountry (free with permit)
Friday, September 2
EXPLORE: Redwood National Park
DRIVE: 5 hours 30 minutes to San Francisco
SLEEP: Hotel – Hyatt Centric Fishermen’s Wharf
Saturday, September 3
DRIVE: 3 hours to Yosemite National Park
EXPLORE: Yosemite National Park
SLEEP: Camp – Half Dome Village Tents ($142.68)
Sunday, September 4
EXPLORE: Yosemite National Park
DRIVE: 4 hours to Death Valley National Park
DRIVE: 2 hours 30 minutes to Las Vegas
SLEEP: Hotel – Residence Inn Las Vegas South (points)
Monday, September 5
DRIVE: 4 hours to Grand Canyon National Park
EXPLORE: Grand Canyon National Park
DRIVE: 2 hours to Zion National Park
SLEEP: Camp – Watchman Campground (Reservation)
Tuesday, September 6
EXPLORE: Zion National Park
DRIVE: 1 hour 30 minutes to Bryce Canyon National Park
EXPLORE: Bryce Canyon National Park
DRIVE: 4 hours 30 minutes to Moab
SLEEP: Camp – BLM
Wednesday, September 7
EXPLORE: Arches National Park / Corona Arch
DRIVE: 4 hours to Salt Lake City, UT
SLEEP: Hotel – Residence Inn Salt Lake City Downtown (points)
Thursday, September 8
DRIVE: 5 hours to Grand Teton National Park
EXPLORE: Grand Teton National Park
SLEEP: Camp – FCFS (Jenny Lake, Signal Mountain, or Colter Bay Campgrounds – $25)
Friday, September 9
DRIVE: 45 minutes to Yellowstone National Park
EXPLORE: Yellowstone National Park
SLEEP: Camp – Canyon Campground (Reservation $28)
Saturday, September 10
DRIVE: 6 hours to Salt Lake City, UT
FLIGHT: Southwest #1265/1557 (SLC-DEN-RDU)
$199 or 11,813 points
Depart SLC 3:25pm
Arrive RDU 10:45pm
~Adventure is out there!
Julia
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