National Parks in an Eleven Day Road Trip from Phoenix, Arizona

National Parks in an Eleven Day Road Trip from Phoenix, Arizona Forever Sabbatical
Sawtooth Ridge, CA

Visit national parks, that’s what you do when you have 2 weeks of vacation. We made no reservations. Our goal was to visit Sequoia National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. The road map was packed in the 4×4 truck with camping gear, water, and a cooler of food. This is a flashback in time of October 2015.

Day 1- National Parks

Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park

This was a long day of driving from Phoenix, Arizona to Sequoia National Park. We like to visit the ranger stations where we go and ask the rangers for the best places to hike and camp. This day was our lucky day. The ranger asked what type of vehicle we had and if it had a trailer. We said just a 4×4 truck. They sent us back down the road we came in and around to an old-growth forest. The trees were huge, so big that a 4 person tent could be set up on a trunk of one of the cut-down trees. We set up camp in the Southwest portion of the park and hiked on multiple trails to waterfalls and walked along streams.

Day 2

Sequoia National Park

Woke up and as I crawled out of the tent, I saw 2 deer about 10 feet away from me. I watched them for a while until they ran off. That was a wonderful way to wake up in a forest. This day we hiked Sawtooth Mountain. We enjoyed the area so much that we decided to stay another night.

Sawtooth Ridge, CA

Day 3

sequoia-National-park-NW
Sequoia National Park

Packed up camp and headed to a campground on the Northwest side of Sequoia. Here is where you can drive under/through enormous trees. There were many short hikes that we enjoyed.

Day 4 – National Parks

Day 4 we drove through Yosemite National Park valley. I liked visiting the museum and ranger station. We took a bus for a hike. There were a lot of different hikes of different lengths (mileage) to go on. We choose to camp on top of Yosemite. It was very busy everywhere we went.

Day 5

lake-tahoe National Parks, Forever Sabbatical

Nice drive to camp in a forest south of Lake Tahoe. Each location we visited we would find a hike to explore the area.

Day 6

The forest ranger station was not crowded at all. When we went inside, the ranger was surprised to see us. We were her first visitors of the season. She let us know that there was a bike race in town that would cause us to have a 6-hour delay. She shared how to go around the race path. There was a nice campground on the Northside of Lake Tahoe that we stayed at.

Day 7

The Subway Lava Tube

Hunter found on the map a lava tube called The Subway, therefore we made our way to it. I like caves/ lava tubes that you can hike in. Remember to bring a really good flashlight and extra batteries because it is dark.

mcarthur-burney-falls National Parks, Forever Sabbatical
McArthur Falls

As we left The Subway, we saw signs for a pioneer day event at McArthur Falls. We did not know what McArthur Falls was. Hunter found it on the map and we decided to go check it out. Boy were we in for a wonderful surprise. We approached the entrance and the ranger came out to talk to us. We asked what was the event and the ranger shared with us the list of activates that included making candles, chili making, etc. Bonus, it was a free admission day. The ranger told us about the short hike to a waterfall. The waterfall was huge!!

McCloud Falls

Camped at McCloud Falls this was also beautiful.  As you can tell from past adventures like 8 Beautiful Waterfalls on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada that we like waterfalls.

Day 8

It was a long driving day because we drove across Oregon and into Idaho. The land looked very dry. We choose to stay in a hotel that night because there were a very bad forest fire and extreme smoke warnings.

Day 9

We headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The night temperatures had started to drop into the 20’s degrees Fahrenheit and windy. Hunter was nice and agreed to stay at an awesome ski resort. Since it was off-season, we got an amazing last-minute deal on a phone application that we tried out.

Day 10 – National Parks

The Grand Tetons

Day 10, we drove to the Grand Tetons and took some photos.

Yellowstone National Park

Next, we headed into Yellowstone National Park. We arrived early and stayed ahead of the many tour buses. FYI, bring a chair to wait for Old Faithful. It can take a while to see some action.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Also, stop at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. There are a lot of stairs. The stairs were grated and you could see down below your feet. I got a bit scared but I still made it to the bottom of the staircase to see the falls.

We opted to stay another night in Jackson Hole at the ski resort because they gave us another night at the same great rate. As an added note, it snowed that night. BRRRRRR….

Day 11

The Grand Tetons

Even though we had more time, we decided to head back to Phoenix, AZ and drive back that day. We used the extra days as recovery days.

National Parks Road Trip from Arizona

yellowstone
Yellowstone

Have you gotten back from a vacation and needed extra days to recover?

Unboxing of VENTURE 4TH New Black/Silver Compact Sleeping Bag

Are you ready for a sleeping bag that has a zipper so your feet can breathe?

VENTURE 4TH launched a new Black/Silver Compact Sleeping Bag. Join us as we unbox our order from Amazon.

Love ordering from Amazon? Use 25% discount coupon 25OFF263 for your VENTURE 4th sleeping bag.

38 thoughts on “National Parks in an Eleven Day Road Trip from Phoenix, Arizona
  1. I have a couple of friends that have made it their goal to travel and camp in every National Park in Canada and the US. Shared this with them.

    I’ve only checked out McArthur Falls on this list. There’s a few I’ve added for the future. Thanks!

  2. I would love to see McArthur Falls in person. They look amazing. These parks are on our list to visit when we get out west.

  3. What a fun and packed trip! You visited some of my most favorite places…Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, the Grand Tetons…such a fun adventure! Honestly, I am very impressed how much you managed to see in 11 short days! Great post! 🙂

  4. What a great road trip. We used to live in California and would do trips like that with the kids. Great pictures.

  5. I am really itching to visit more National Parks, so I love seeing all the ones y’all went to. I’ve been to Sequoia and Yosemite, but not the others. I really want to see Yellowstone, and thanks for the tip about bringing the chair to wait!

  6. This looks like an amazing trip. The National Parks out west are definitely on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing.

  7. What an adventure with great stops! We are planning to do Arizona and Utah in April for Payton’s birthday. I need to get with you and make sure we see all of the best! You guys are experts out there for sure!

Comments are closed.

Visit Us On FacebookVisit Us On PinterestVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On Instagram