national parks west

[flipskid]

hey this is my first post on this site. Guy i met in in fort bragg while ab diving informed me about the site. couldnt wait to check it out! Going to do the family road trip to Utah, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and back to home base bay area California. i want to hit as many of the national parks as possible. Any suggestions, recommendations, stay away froms, great trails, cool eating places, etc would be welcome. its a 2 week or a tad longer trip and starting from bay area to south utah first. We will have the kayaks and the bikes along. My old grandby pop up and my buddies lance(cheater) Want to travel lite and fast, not a lot of packing and unpacking at the camping places. just minimal stuff. i have mostly used the camper for family week trips to the north coast where i have loaded the camper to the gills, and for guy trips fishing, so this will be the first long range trip for me and the family. So any insights on lessons learned, etc would be great. Great site and I plan on being here for a while. J

 

[Ted]

Hi Flipskid, welcome to the forum. Sounds like a great trip. A lot of driving for two weeks. If you have a pretty good idea of the route you will be taking and which parks you will be visiting, check out the "Geographic Areas" and "National Parks" tabs above. Lots of members have posted photos and comments about favorite campsites, hikes, must see places and not worth it places. This will probably give you the most info in the short time before your trip. However, it comes at a price - we expect a trip report with photos when you get back. Have fun, Ted.

 

[ski3pin]

Hi Flipskid, welcome to the forum. Sounds like a great trip. A lot of driving for two weeks. If you have a pretty good idea of the route you will be taking and which parks you will be visiting, check out the "Geographic Areas" and "National Parks" tabs above. Lots of members have posted photos and comments above favorite campsites, hikes, must see places and not worth it places. This will probably give you the most info in the short time before your trip. However, it comes at a price - we expect a trip report with photos when you get back. Have fun, Ted.

X2 and welcome flipskid!

 

[Foy]

Hi flipskid,

From my own experience, it can be difficult to work "fast and light travel" into a National Park vacation. That is at least my experience in Glacier, Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Rocky Mountain National Park. At one time or another in the last dozen years I've visited each of the named NPs during the peak of summer travel season, the they're quite crowded. If you want to camp within the parks, consider going to Recreation.gov and seeing what can be booked. You may have some difficulty getting a reservation, and absent a reservation, the first come, first served is observed.

You might want to check out some of the vast National Forests surrounding the NPs. Pretty much any mountainous area in UT, WY, and SD is within a NF unit, and NFs are generally liberally sprinkled with NF campgrounds. It's commonplace for campers to overnight in NF campgrounds outside of the NPs, then enjoy daytime travel inside the NPs. There's even a couple of units of NF in north-central Nebraska! Those units hold the distinction of being entirely man-made, where the forests were planted in the early and mid- 20th century, reclaiming burned-over grasslands in the Sandhills.

Concerning Nebraska, I've found the Nebraska Sandhills to be a starkly beautiful and intriguing area. Not only are there some NF campgrounds in the Sandhills, but elsewhere within the Sandhills and in the areas outside of them there are some National Wildlife Refuges and state parks which have campgrounds. Strange as it may seem, Nebraska is home to some nice paddling: the Niobrara near Valentine holds National Wild and Scenic River status, and the Middle Loup and Dismal Rivers are routinely paddled.

And yes, you'll have to post reports and pics. I look forward to seeing both.

Foy

 

[Hittheroad]

I second Foy. National Forests are often next to National Parks and the campsites are much more suitable to Popup campers - fast and light.