These trips always start with some grand statement that I make in a completely casual way. Almost 2 years ago now, I said something along the lines of “Maybe I’ll take the kids to Banff next year.” I’ve wanted to go there for SO long, but it’s not a short trip by any means. And then it was probably January or February last year where I decided I’d definitely take the kids to Banff for the summer of 2025 so I had time to save up. But then my tune changed – “well if I’m already going to Banff, I might as well do a big loop and make a whole thing out of it.” A whole thing it was.

This trip has been in the works for so long, and I spent SO much time planning, re-planning, researching, and saving up for this cross-country road trip with my kids. I played the long game for sure when it came to this trip, and I have 0 regrets. Z e r o. I’ve taken road trips with my children before but this is by far our biggest and longest one to date! Thinking back on this trip will always make me a little emotional – we DID it! I have soooo many stories tucked away in my heart and mind forever, that will always make me smile.

I’m going to break this trip into two posts. This post will be my usual sort of travel blog post, where I share photos, the overview, and the financial breakdown. I’ve also decided that I’m going to do a second blog post where I detail all the hotels and campgrounds we stayed in, the things that made a 31 day cross-country road trip with kids in a CR-V more than bearable, and other tidbits that were helpful to us along the way. It would just be way too much to cram into one post!

So without further ado….

The Overview

• We traveled 8,387 miles over the course of 31 days. Me, and my two children (ages 9 and 4.5) in my 2015 Honda CR-V.
• I wish I had kept track of how many hours we spent in the car, but I just didn’t.
• We logged 310 hours outside!!
• Our loop around the country took us through New York, and then down to Albuquerque, over to the Grand Canyon, and essentially a straight shot up to Banff, Canada before coming down through the north side of the United States. A total of 16 states we drove through – including my first ever sandstorm which I hope I never have to experience again. It was hands down the freakiest thing I’ve ever experienced while driving.
• We got an Annual Pass and saw so many national parks: Gateway Arch, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Arches, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore (national monument)
• Lily turned 9 during this trip! She LOVED spending her birthday in Banff!
• We saw license plates from EVERY single state in the US! Even Hawaii and Alaska!!! Those two were VERY exciting to see. Speaking of states, we drove through 16 of them.
• During our trip we kept track of the number of deer signs and the total ended up being somewhere in the neighborhood of 360 deer signs!
• We had no screens at all during this trip. After our first 1800 miles or so I pulled out the bluetooth headphones and on our long driving days (5+ hours) each kid got to have 1 hour of headphone time listening to a podcast or music of their choice. This was such an awesome tip from a friend of mine before we left!
• Lily and James really did an incredible job with all the time in the car, and all the setting up and tearing down of camp and all the things that come along with a cross-country road trip. I’m so proud of them and the travelers they are! We definitely had challenging and tense moments, but those were overshadowed greatly by everything else.

The Highlights

• I think one of my favorite memories will forever be the evening we sat on the edge of the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset together.
• We ended up meeting two awesome families (interestingly enough, they were both from Oregon) at each of the campgrounds we stayed in at Yellowstone. Mailing addresses were exchanged and the kids have already started writing letters to each other! Such a special experience!
• Lily and James were absolutely delighted at the number of times we saw deer or other wildlife in our campsites.
• The Sandia Peak Tram is an absolute must for anyone traveling to Albuquerque! It was so cool!
• I got a National Parks Passport for each of the kids and they loved stamping it with each stop. They also loved participating in the Junior Ranger program at each national park! We have so many Junior Ranger badges now 🙂
• The Badlands was the national park I was most surprised by and I loved it! Each national park had its own thing that made it so loveable and special!
• Getting a parking spot at Lake Louise at Banff and being there in the couple of hours before the sun set. I was so happy I could’ve cried. It was absolutely beautiful and the kids loved it too.
• Banff overall was a huge highlight for us! It ended up being super dreary, rainy and cold during the last two days we were there. But it was a nice reprieve from the first couple weeks of travel, where we spent most days in heat that was between 100 and 106 degrees. Once we reached Grand Teton we finally stopped sweating profusely just from breathing.
• Generally speaking, Banff was a super special and healing experience for me.
• Grand Teton was mesmerizing. That was our “rest” stop, and we just chilled out on the shore of Jackson Lake for most of the day!
• By the end of our trip I had improved greatly in my fire building skills haha. We had so many s’mores on our trip and it was awesome.
• Not necessarily a “highlight” but when we were at the Grand Canyon it was super hazy from the wildfires, and we could actually SEE the fires from across the canyon. It was so crazy.
• We were able to stay in Rochester to visit my friend Rebecca and it was SO awesome to just chill and catch up! I haven’t seen her in at least 6 years!
• James absolutely loved all the times we took public transit or a shuttle bus in the parks.
• Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone were so so cool! Seeing all the geysers and hot springs were so fun for me and the kids.
• When we left Yellowstone, we left pretty early, and it took us about 45 minutes to get out of the park. Driving through Yellowstone as the sun was rising was insanely beautiful and so peaceful.
• Trail of the Cedars in Glacier was so pretty! Everything was so lush and so green!
• We saw a surprising amount of waterfalls on this trip!
• Niagara Falls was a huge hit. I almost bailed on it because I was feeling a little stressed about finances (it was our last big stop of the road trip), but I’m so glad I didn’t! We saw it from both sides and the Canadian side definitely has the better views, but it’s still gorgeous no matter what. We also went to the Parks Power Station on the CA side and that was really fascinating! Taking the elevator down to the tunnel and then walking all the way through it and coming out to see a full panorama of the falls was incredible. Lily and James both really loved the independent audio tours as well while we were there.
• Staying in hotels never got old for the kids 🙂

Things I’d Do Differently

• Stay in Glacier for 2 nights. Once we got to New Mexico, we stayed in every place for two nights, so that there was a full day of exploring in between our travel days (which ranged from 1-10 hours). But for whatever reason I only did 1 night in Glacier. I think I was trying to make sure we weren’t actually traveling on Lily’s birthday, but that was the one park we really didn’t get to explore much because it ended up being much farther to our lodge in Canmore than I expected. What we DID see was beautiful, but I definitely wanted to see more.
• Pay extra attention to the travel times. There was a day that I had a 9 hour travel day before stops, and I do not know what I was thinking. I made a pretty conscious effort to space out our stops to be no more than 7 hours before breaks, but I fudged that one up. So, I had Brittany help me book a hotel about 3 hours north of the Arches so I would’ve been that much closer to Grand Teton the following day.
• If I had the flexibility, I’d do this trip in the fall. It was REALLY hot for those first 2.5 weeks. Lily and James did a great job tolerating it, but after Zion (literally 107 degrees on our full day there), I had about all I could handle so I bailed on camping entirely at the Arches and just booked us a hotel. I’m so glad we did because the few hours we spent exploring Arches National Park was so so hot, and our campground did not have any shade.
• Measure the height of my car with the roof bag before leaving haha. There were a few times where we had to park and I wasn’t actually sure we’d make the clearance so I had to find alternative parking solutions.
• At Niagara Falls, I would’ve left my car parked in the parking lot on the NY side (you HAVE to get there earlier in the morning or the easy parking lots fill up before you know it), and taken the pedestrian bridge to Canada. It would’ve been a bit of a walk for the kids, but I think we could’ve managed. I don’t know that it would’ve saved us time necessarily, but it would’ve saved a lot of money in parking and stress in finding a parking spot.

The Finances

It’s worth mentioning that I relied heavily on my tax return to help fund this trip. It took care of about 60% of our costs and then I funded the rest with what I saved up. I also knew that I’d be using my entire food and gas budget for July toward the trip and that it was a 3 paycheck month. So that helped while we were traveling for that month. I will say that I started the trip itself with less than I had planned to, because the prep work cost more than I anticipated. With that being said, what I was “short” is actually what I ended up being negative in that category for spending when I came back. So it was kind of nice to know that I had realistic notions of what it would cost for a month on the road. I just WAMed the money from other categories in my budget to cover that difference when I got back.

I also want to point out that (because I play the long game) I opened a new credit card in the spring of 2024 because it had a great bonus for hotel points, because I knew I had a large purchase coming up that would meet the bonus requirements. That choice covered all my hotels (which I’ll include in my second blog post) entirely EXCEPT for the the two that I booked last minute. This was a huge game changer in making this trip possible for this single mama.

• Campgrounds | $791.78
• Eating out | $433.03
• Experiences | $158.57
• Gas | $925.67
• Groceries | $865.23 (I did a huge grocery run of non perishables right before we left so we started the trip stocked with lots of options and then just bought perishables and other things as needed on the road)
• Accommodations | $1081.86 (Air BNB in Canada and the two extra hotel nights – the air BNB itself was just over $800)
• Ice for the cooler | $35.52 (probably more mixed in with groceries, but these were the specific ice purchases I made)
• Laundry | $22.75
• Miscellaneous | $235.53
• Parking | $61.41
• Prep in the 6 months leading up to the trip | $2847.60 (I had to buy EVERYTHING, because I was starting completely from scratch)
• Souvenirs | $743.78
• Weather Protection at the KOAs | $22.90
• Tolls | I don’t actually know, but most likely around $150 based on some of the bills I got after we got home, and the amount of times my ezpass re-filled

The Pictures

If you made it this far – thanks for following along 🙂 Stay tuned for my second blog post about going on a cross-country road trip with kids!

Linda is a Portland-based photographer specializing in weddings and creating family legacies from Portland to Boston and across New England. You can see more of her work online at lindabarryphotography.com, on Instagram, or on Facebook. If you want to reach out directly: linda@lindabarryphotography.com.

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