Destination Trips

Some places are so special that you plan your whole vacation around them.

These destinations deserve a full week or more
just to take in all there is to see.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Such an amazing landscape! Stay in the park if you can get a reservation. Although the campsites have electrical hookups, there is no water hookup so make sure your fresh water tank is full! The campground is surrounded by rock formations and the stargazing is amazing. There is an archeology lab at the Visitors Center and it is worth some time to talk with the technicians as they excavate and clean fossils and dinosaur bones. They also have a very nice gift shop and restaurant.

Stargazing is also a “must-do” here. It is a ‘Dark Sky’ area so you’ll see an astounding number of stars! There was a ranger program about stargazing while we were there so you may want to check to see if there is one planned during your visit.

Stop at Wall Drug Store in nearby Wall, South Dakota - it is a huge complex of businesses and quirky items that make tourist attractions so much fun. We also stayed at an RV park just steps away from Wall Drug Store. It wasn’t anything special but certainly a convenient place just outside the National Park.

Within an hour’s drive, you can also visit Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument - both great stops on your way to Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks.

You can read about our stay in the Badlands here…

Yellowstone National Park

There are lots of RV parks in the Yellowstone area but it is worth the drive to camp at Henry’s Lake State Park just outside of West Yellowstone. The park is quiet and spacious hugging one end of the lake (good trout fishing too!). It is only a 10-15 minute drive into Yellowstone National Park from there. And, if you base at Henry’s Lake you are close to Mesa Falls, the Herriman Ranch, and Big Springs. Before you go, watch “Idaho, the Movie” to learn about this part of Idaho. You’ll be glad you did!

No matter where you camp, plan on hiring a tour guide for seeing Yellowstone if you go in the summer months. It is so crowded and parking is at a premium. The tours have special parking places and they know all the workarounds for road construction - which carries on throughout the summer. Yellowstone is spectacular with views like Artists Point (above) and the amazing Old Faithful geyser. All the thermal features are other-worldly and you’ll want to just stop and stare!

You can read about our stay in the Yellowstone area here…

Grand Teton National Park

A chance drive to Idaho Falls took us on a detour to Grand Teton. The road up to the city of Jackson Hole is spectacular but I don’t recommend it for an RV! We did drive our Unity and found the grades pretty steep and the road shoulder drop-offs a bit terrifying! A jeep or rental car would be far more comfortable with all the twists, turns, and steep grades.

That said, the Park is lovely and the Visitor Center is a work of art. Inside, you’ll see brass strips inlaid into the floors each with the name of one of the peaks. The strips carry your eye from the floor to a wall of windows where you can view all the peaks. There is a lot to see and do here. Because we visited serendipitously, we didn’t have a campground reservation at the park. We stayed at Juniper Campground - a municipal campground, back near Idaho Falls since we had business there anyway. Great campground on a reservoir.

You can read about our visit to Grand Teton here…

Arches National Park

Another terrific National Park! The rock formations and desert are awe-inspiring. Don’t miss Sand Dune Arch - it is hidden among tall, thin rock formations but is well worth the effort to hike in the short distance. It is a good idea to go to the furthest attraction site when you get there and work your way back toward the Visitor Center. That means fewer crowds, and, if you go early, the shadows give you some relief from the blazing sun.

If you’re traveling to Arches in the summer, plan your visit before 7 am. It gets really hot in the desert. We have a senior pass to the Parks, so we visited at 6 am before any crowds woke up! That meant we had no issues with parking or with the heat. By the time we were headed back to camp, the Visitor Center was open. KOA has a nice campground in Moab and Enterprise Rental Cars is nearby.

You can read about our visit to Arches here…

Cape Cod National Seashore

A hurricane chased us up the East coast during our trip to Cape Cod, but we managed to visit Provincetown at the very tip of the Cape. Quaint, artsy, with great restaurants, Provincetown has a lot to see. Plan on renting or bringing your own bikes. The streets are too narrow for an RV and parking is quite scarce for a car. With a bike, you can see almost everything from the harbor to the Pilgrim’s Monument.

We stayed at a Trustee’s Campground just outside the National Seashore entrance. There are miles of bike paths through the maritime forests and spectacular dunes. Beware of Great White Sharks! They seem to like the area and hunt for seals along the shoreline.

You can read about our stay on the Cape here…

Acadia National Park

We have made two trips to Maine and both times we visited Acadia National Park. It is a beautiful, and rugged landscape that invites you back. The park bus is a good way to get around in the summer months, but it is possible to drive a car - I don’t recommend driving the RV on the park roads. There are several tour operators that pick up at Bar Harbor, which is an attraction in and of itself!

Cadillac Mountain has a spectacular view of the whole area and, if you can manage it, sunrise is pretty amazing. An easy hike along Ocean Trail will reveal delightful scenes of waves crashing against the rock cliffs, the famous Thunder Hole, and a sandy crescent-shaped beach that seems to hold the sound of the waves. In summer the gardens are a cool respite to stroll around.

There are several RV campgrounds around the Park, but we have never been able to get reservations on either trip. So, we have stayed at KOA in Bucksport (it’s okay) and a quirky and very fun Oceanfront Campground in Searsport. I recommend the latter. We had a campsite right on Penobscot Bay and were able to launch our kayaks from the beach there. It is just a short drive to Belfast for a nice small-town experience.

You can read about our first visit to Acadia here