For most of our married life, free time came in small, carefully guarded pieces: a long weekend here, a nice cruise there, always squeezed in around work or school. So when the stars aligned in the summer of 2025 for us to finally take some real time, it felt a little strange.
We were sitting at dinner one night, talking about what to do with all that time. Our first thought was Florida. It’s beautiful and familiar, but if we’re honest, also a little boring, since we had lived there for years. Then Stefan said, “What if we go out West for a bit?” The whole family was on board immediately.
We started planning on a whim, just a couple of weeks before we left. We pulled out a map of the western U.S., started dreaming about the Badlands, Yellowstone and the red rocks of Utah, and within a few days we had a route and an email folder full of campground reservations. It was about as spontaneous as a month-long RV trip to popular destinations in peak season can get.
Trip at a Glance
- When: June to July 2025, 30 days
- Who: Stefan, me and our daughter Mack, plus the cats and the dog
- Route: Texas → Oklahoma → Nebraska → South Dakota → Wyoming → Idaho → Utah → Colorado → New Mexico → Texas
- States slept in: 9
- National parks: 5
- Rig: our Jayco Eagle fifth wheel and F-350
The Route (and Where to Read More)
The trip had a pretty simple shape. The first few days were all approach: long drives north across the Plains just to get within reach of the good stuff. Once we hit South Dakota, everything slowed down. From there we made a big counterclockwise loop through the West, over the mountains to Yellowstone, south into Utah’s red rock country, east through the Four Corners and New Mexico, and finally back across Texas toward home.
1. Norman, Oklahoma
Lake Thunderbird State Park
Our first long haul north from our home near Houston, with a tricky stretch of Dallas traffic. We spent a rainy birthday weekend at Lake Thunderbird State Park, wandered Norman’s historic Main Street, and learned how this little prairie town became a university town.
2. Ravenna Lake, Nebraska
A quick overnight at a quiet county park, with a surprise storm warning thrown in for good measure.
3. Badlands National Park, South Dakota
This is where the real adventure began, with striped canyons, jagged buttes and some of the best sunrise and sunset light of the whole trip.
→ Story coming soon
4. Custer, South Dakota
Our home base in the Black Hills for Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park.
→ Story coming soon
5. Devils Tower, Wyoming
We camped right in the shadow of America’s first national monument and walked the trail around its base.
→ Story coming soon
6. Sheridan, Wyoming
A short stop in a charming cowboy town, with time to restock and stretch our legs.
→ Story coming soon
7. Cody, Wyoming (Yellowstone East)
We explored Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon, waterfalls and Hayden Valley from the east side, and spent an evening at the Cody rodeo.
8. Island Park, Idaho (Yellowstone West)
Geyser basins, hot springs and Old Faithful, plus some beautiful Idaho countryside just outside the park.
→ Story coming soon
9. Victor, Idaho
We’d planned to explore Grand Teton National Park, but the pass road was closed. Instead, we saw the Tetons from “behind,” a view many visitors never get.
→ Story coming soon
10. Brigham City, Utah
A quick restock stop on the way south.
→ Story coming soon
11. Moab, Utah
Red rock everywhere. We visited two national parks, Arches and Canyonlands, and spent the Fourth of July in a small town.
→ Story coming soon
12. Mesa Verde, Colorado
Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings tucked into the canyon walls. One of the most fascinating stops of the trip.
→ Story coming soon
13. Santa Fe, New Mexico
Adobe, art, green chile and a few slower days. Our best friends from college live and run a business here, so this stop was really about them.
→ Story coming soon
14. Palo Duro Canyon, Texas
Our original plan was to head south to Carlsbad Caverns, but flooding on that route sent us home a different way. The detour turned out to be a happy accident: we hiked the Lighthouse Trail in the “Grand Canyon of Texas.”
→ Story coming soon
15. Fort Worth, Texas
One last stop before home, with a visit to the Fort Worth Stockyards for a final dose of cowboy culture.
→ Story coming soon
What We’d Do Differently
If there’s one thing we’d change, it’s simple: we’d have taken more time. We saw everything we really wanted to see, but some days felt rushed. Places like Yellowstone, Moab and Mesa Verde deserve more than a few days each.
Work wasn’t really what held us back. At the time, we still had a house back home, with a pool, a yard and a collection of indoor plants that all needed looking after. Looking back, that tug toward home was part of what got us thinking about a different way to live.
The Trip That Changed Everything
Somewhere between sunrise photo sessions in the Badlands and long scenic drives through Yellowstone, something shifted for us. We loved waking up somewhere new. We loved the simplicity of living in a small space with the people (and critters) we love most. It was during this trip that we decided we’d like to travel full-time. That December, we did: read about our first winter as full-time RVers on the Gulf Coast.
If you’re planning a similar trip, spend fewer nights on the “just passing through” stops and more on the major destinations. Your future self will thank you.
Free printable: The Simpler Way RV Trip Planner
The same 10-page planner we use for every trip in our fifth wheel: our planning rules, a hub planner, a campground scouting checklist, a budget sheet, a packing list and a travel day checklist.
More trips: see every road trip we’ve taken on our Where We Went page.
