Time: 9 hours, 15 min
Milage: 640 miles
Rest: Klamath Falls KOA
Dog Park: Lacey Off-Leash Dog Park, Alton Baker Dog Park, KOA dog park
Activities: Crater Lake National Park

We started our morning at our local dog park in Lacey, WA to give our dogs a good stretch before the start of the adventure. After exhausting them, we headed out to start our adventure. We drove a few hours down and made our second stop at the Alton Baker Dog Park near the University of Oregon. After this stop we headed directly for Crater Lake National Park. I had previously been to the park, but this was Ben’s first time. As we reached Crater Lake National Park, it was unfortunate that the smoke from the California Fires blocked the view of the lake. We followed the road along West Rim Drive and made stops along the way to give the dogs a break. After taking in the views (but not so fresh air), we headed to Klamath Falls for our first night of camping.

Time: 8+ hours (longer than predicted due to fires)
Milage: 455 miles
Rest: Coleville / Walker KOA
Dog Park: Dog Park KOA, Partner Dog Park (Sacramento, CA)
Dining: Gathering Grounds Roastery (Klamath Falls, OR), The Rind (Sacramento, OR)

Our second day of driving turned out to be much more dramatic than our first. After grabbing some coffee and morning pastries at Gathering Grounds Roastery, we began heading south to our next destination. Our route changed multiple times along the way due to severe forest fires in California. Our initial plan was to take I-139 down through the Modoc National Forest and the eastern side of California. However at the time of the trip, the Dixie Fire was raging in that area so we made a decision that morning to take I-5 through Sacramento, CA before crossing to the east side of the state. We made a stop in Sacramento to take the dogs to Partner  Dog Park. After the dog park, we headed into the city and ate some lunch outside with the dogs at The Rind. This restaurant was one of the best places we ate along the way. I had their roasted tomato soups and Ben had the T-Brie-D grilled cheese. Ben still talks about this sandwich to this day

After our lunch stop, we continued our journey east after lunch and ran into more problems as a result of the California fires. Throughout the day I had been keeping up with the status of various fires in the area. As we started driving down I-50 we began to notice the sky darkening. As I updated the website to track the status of fires, we noticed a fire slightly south of the highway in Grizzly Flats, CA (what would become the Caldor Fire). At that point, we were already deep into the route and were unable to turn around safely as surrounding towns were being evacuated. Turning around at that point would have potentially jeopardized our safety due to traffic, so we agreed to continue speeding forward. As we reached the California/Nevada border the sky was almost completely black. The Clador fire would go on to burn over 221,000 acres. 

Time: 6 hours
Milage: 237 miles
Rest: Sequoia KOA
Dog Park: Dog Park KOA
Activities: Yosemite National Park

After the crazy day of driving we had on Day Two, we were excited to get out and be active this day. We left the campsite early and made our way to Yosemite National Park (about 1 hour from the campsite). We unfortunately could not participate in most of the hikes around the park since we had the dogs with us, but we made the most of our situation! We got out at almost every viewpoint, had a picnic in the park, and took a longer walk near the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. Our first visit to Yosemite National Park was truly special and it’s on our wish list to return for more hiking & camping.

After finishing up at the park, we headed to our campsite outside of Sequoia National Park. This was probably one our least favorite campsites during the vacation, but we made the best of the situation.

Time: 8 hours, 45 min
Milage: 539 miles
Rest:TownPlace Suites by Marriott
Dog Park: Dog Park KOA, Kroll Park (Bakersfield, CA), Clark County Dog Park (Las Vegas, NV)
Activities: Death Valley National Park, Valley Of Fire*
Dining: Angelica’s Mexican Grill (St. George, UT)

We left early that next morning after grabbing some Chick-Fil-A breakfast with the plan of driving through Death Valley National Park. Before reaching the park, we made a stop in Bakersfield, CA at the Kroll Dog Park. The park was super busy that morning (very surprising given the fact it was a weekday morning). It was a great start to our day! Death Valley National Park was so different from any other parks we had visited as the hottest, driest and lowest point in America. The park gets as low as 282 feet BELOW sea level. Given the heat, we did not take the dogs out and made sure everyone (including ourselves) had plenty of water through the drive. To my surprise, the park only reached a peak temperature of 107 degrees (highest recorded temperature in the park is 134 degrees). 

Time: 13 hours
Milage: 825 miles
Rest: Monument Valley KOA
Dog Park: KOA dog park
Activities: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon National Park
Dining: Kahala Coffee (St. George, UT), North Rim Country Store (Grand Canyon, AZ)

We got up the next morning, excited for our adventure at TWO national parks. We picked up some coffee from Kahala Coffee and headed to the dog park. Our first excursion of the day was Zion National Park. This was another park where we were limited on our activities due to having our dogs accompanying us. Although we were only able to drive the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, Zion Park is truly one of the most breath-taking parks I have visited. As we exited the park through the East Entrance, we headed south towards our second national park: The Grand Canyon National Park. We were only able to visit the North Rim due to traveling and time limitations, but we still got to experience great views. On the drive down, we stopped at the North Rim Country Store for a sandwich and (more) coffee. When we reached the North Rim, we took a walk around the greenway with the dogs.

After walking through the area, we packed our bags back up and headed towards Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation Reservation. This was a fairly new campsite, but the crew managing the grounds did an amazing job! The campsite has one of the best views of the majority of the KOA facilities I have been to.

Time: 5 hours
Milage: 279 miles
Rest: La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndam
Dog Park: KOA dog park, Moab Bark Park (Moab, UT), Canyon View Dog Park (Grand Junction, CO)
Activities: Arches National Park
Dining: Spoon’s Bistro & Bakery (Grand Junction, CO)

Today was another exciting day of our trip as we headed towards Arches National Park. Before entering the park, we stopped at Moab’s dog park where the dogs got to play with several other dogs that morning. Afterwards, we headed towards the park. The structures and natural landscape were amazing to drive through. Surprisingly, this was the most crowded of the national parks we had been to (though in fairness, our 6th day of driving landed on a Saturday so that may not be true for weekdays). We drove to the end of the park, making sure to stop at all the viewpoints on the way. 

We continued our drive after finishing up at the national park to Grand Junction, CO. THis was another spot that we booked a hotel for the night to give us the opportunity to get adequate rest for the remainder of the trip. Before getting to the hotel, we stopped by the Canyon View Dog Park to exhaust the dogs for the rest of the evening. We also treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Spoon’s Bistro & Bakery.

Time: 23 hours
Milage: 1440 miles
Dog Park: Cherry Creek Dog Park (Denver, CO)
DIning: Octopus Coffee (Grand Junction, CO)
Activities: Rocky Mountain National Park

Don’t be deterred by the heading for this day. Originally our plan was to stop in Denver, CO on the evening of day seven (a much more reasonable drive). However, the drive had been extremely exhausting and draining for our larger dog, Lando. We ultimately decided at the last minute that the best thing for our family was to have Ben & I drive through the night. 

We started our morning at the Octopus Coffee to fuel our day. This was probably one of the best (and cutest) coffee places we went to during the trip! After we efficiently caffeinated ourselves, we hit the road again for the Rocky Mountain National Park. We took the Trail Ridge Drive through the park, making several stops along the way. One of our favorite stops along the drive was at the Alpine Visitor Center (and clearly our dogs favorite too from the photo).

Around the time we were leaving the park was when Ben & I first discussed potentially driving through the night. We ultimately decided this was the best option and changed our plans for the next two days. We headed towards Cherry Creek Dog Park in the Denver, CO area which included a huge 107 acre off-leash dog park. This definitely brightened our dogs’ moods, especially Lando’s. We spent approximately 1.5 hours there that evening, and could have easily spent more.