On Tuesday we arrived back in Los Angeles after 3 months on the road! Our epic adventure took us up the west coast from LA to Vancouver, then east to Calgary before zigzagging down through Montana,Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado etc.
Our trip took us from dramatic coastline to rugged mountains, rivers and lakes, from cities to college towns to many national parks. I tried to map out our route but because Google Maps is terrible and limits the number of destinations you can input (and I had no luck with other apps) I’ve done two very rough outlines of our trip:
Map 1
Map 2 (obviously we didn’t finish in Palm Springs, please imagine that blue line extends to San Diego and then up to LA)
Quite a messy route!
Here are our vital stats:
Days in America/Canada: 105 (94 and 11 respectively)
Miles covered: 10,672 (that’s 17,075 kilometres!)
Congratulations to our borrowed car Goldie! And thanks for never letting us down.
States/provinces visited: 10 US States (California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada) and 2 Canadian provinces (British Columbia and Alberta)
Utah!
Colorado!
Seattle!
Big Sur!
Montana!
National Parks visited: 12 in America and 3 in Canada;Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mt Rainier, Revelstoke (Canada), Glacier (Canada), Banff (Canada), Glacier (US), Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Rocky Mountain, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon.
Yosemite National Park
Mt Rainier
Glacier National Park (Canada)
Yellowstone National Park
Lake Louise in Banff National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
Zion National Park
Arches National Park
Nights camping: 50
Nights at motels/hostels: 31
Nights with family/friends: 24
Our tent Cole, at Dinosaur National Monument
Cole again, at Crater Lake National Park
Burgers/beers/pancakes/ice creams consumed: god only knows!
My first burger of the trip (and still one of the best) at the Karl Strauss Brewery
Another hot contender for Best Burger at the Sandwich League in Eugene, Oregon
One of my favourite beers from the Deschutes Brewery in Oregon
The Fat Head Brewery in Portland, Oregon
Fried chicken and pancakes in Seattle
A diner meal in San Francisco
Ice cream from Tillamook Cheese in Oregon
Ice cream in Virginia City, Montana
Ugh looking at all some the food we’ve consumed is kind of shocking!
So what next? Well this weekend we are spending a couple of nights in Malibu and then on Monday we begin our next leg of the trip, which involves taking a month to drive from LA to Florida all along the south.
We will stop in Austin, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville and Charleston, just to name a few. I’m so excited!
Farewell West Coast, it’s been awesome.
My Bloggable Day 
Loving keeping up with your trip – so fascinating! This ’round up’ of the trip so far is particularly informative. Not sure if you would consider this a rude question but sometime along the way it would be interesting to know the costs involved – eg how much you have spent/budgeted for eating out, total cost of motels/hostels, car expenses, etc etc. A huge trip like you are undertaking seems way out of reach for many of us, but maybe with lots of careful planning like you have obviously done it is more attainable than we believe?!
Hey Skye, of course I can do that! I was going to put in a ‘funds spent’ category here but honestly I just ran out of time. This kind of trip is definitely not out of reach for most and that’s definitely a message I would like to spread! So I will work out a budget post ASAP. I will admit straight up though that we were extremely fortunate that Andrew’s grandad leant us his car and that we didn’t have to buy or rent one. That is a major cost that we avoided. Thanks for reading!
Awesome road trip!! Any insider tips for Yellowstone? We are heading down there this fall.
Umm I don’t think so! It should be much quieter in the fall than when we went at the height of summer. But still I like getting up early to beat the crowds! Also Hayden Valley is the best place to spot wildlife, just go up to someone sitting with a telescope & ask them what they can see! They were all so enthusiast and keen to show others when we were there 🙂