Late last year we found out that my cousin was getting married in Big Bear, California this fall. He’s one of my favorite people on the planet so, of course, we were going to be there. We toyed with a handful of options ranging from flying out solo to an 18-day family road trip. Well, we landed on the 18-day family road trip. We mapped out a couple different options taking us to different national parks and finally landed on a pretty spectacular itinerary. When I get back from a trip that I know there will be a lot of posts from (like this 18-day road trip Out West) I try to do a bit of an intro to the trip just so you can get a peek at what’s coming. So, here’s a snippet of our road trip Out West and what’s to come here on the blog over the coming weeks!
We first made a couple stops in my beloved southwest region of the country. If you’re a regular around here, you know I have such an affinity for the desert landscapes of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. So, we stopped in Tucumcari, a desert town along Route 66 the first night. I greatly enjoyed seeing the neon signs adorning the classic motels all along Old 66. We tried to drive to Tucumcari Mountain until we realized it’s on private property.
En route to Flagstaff from Tucumcari, you essentially drive through Petrified Forest National Park. So we obviously had to stop there. Ironically this was Charleigh’s first national park back in 2021, and it was Liam’s first national park! We did the Blue Mesa hike – such a special, quick, and easy trail! Charleigh hiked it on her own and did a decent job!
We spent a full day at the Grand Canyon from 9am until after sunset. It was a beautiful day of bouncing around the Rim Trail, pulling into as many overlooks as we could. We found one that we completely fell in love with (Lipan Point, for anyone looking for a great overlook for sunset) and sat there for over an hour watching the sun dip beyond the horizon. We posted up there with snacks, Charleigh played in the dirt and Liam played with toys in his stroller. Although we didn’t get an insanely colorful sunset, it was still such a perfect day and checked “Golden Hour at the Grand Canyon” off Matt’s bucket list.
Up next was 9 days in the Sierra Nevadas spent between Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite national parks. I’m going to slightly breeze past this because I have some more in-depth posts on these parks coming up soon. But I can’t not say that it was so amazing to return to Sequoia + Kings Canyon and see so many new things. And Yosemite… There aren’t enough words for just how much I fell for this place, but I’m going to do my best.
Our last stop in California was to head back down south. We rented a really amazing cabin in Big Bear, California with my parents to see my cousin and the love of his life walk down the aisle together – it’s actually where we dreamt up this whole scheme for a major road trip.
While in Southern California, we took a morning trip down to Joshua Tree because it was right there. It was a super quick trip, but we still had a lot of fun. We drove through most of the park and stopped at the Cholla Garden to do that brief walk. We also stopped at the Crochet Museum in the town of Joshua Tree. It’s a teeny tiny little museum filled edge to edge with crochet projects. There’s a little shop beside it and art installations outside of it. It’s just a really fun little stop.
On the way back we pretty much just rushed back, but we did make a couple of stops little along the way. We stopped at Havasu Bridge with my parents, ate at In-N-Out one last time before we got too far east and we even managed to see the beginning of the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Albuquerque from the road right at sunset. We saw about 10 of them starting to float up in the air. It was so cool! In Oklahoma City, we ate at an Oklahoma pizza chain that Matt went to in college and made a stop at Trader Joes for things we can’t get back home.
We rolled in to our neighborhood about mid-day and I have to be honest, it was so good to get home. I was starting to feel a little under the weather, but I felt well enough to get all the suitcases unpacked, do all the laundry (5 loads!) and grocery shop! We were so excited to cook! In fact, we’ve cooked every meal since getting back. The cooler weather has ushered in soup season, which is one of my favorite eating seasons. Also, after living out of hotel rooms for 18 days, our house felt like a mansion!
But the road doesn’t leave us alone for long. We were back at it over the past two weekends, camping in Arkansas. Admittedly, though, the first weekend we did come back early because I wasn’t feeling well enough to spend another night, but we still had a lot of fun while we were down there. Last weekend, though, was just one of the best fall weekends you could imagine.
We can’t wait to share all about our amazing road trip over the coming weeks but, for now, we’re loving fall in the Ozarks and are all riding high off our adventures in the Sierra Nevadas + beyond.
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