USA Winter West Coast Road Trip

When: February 2023

Where: Utah, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California

Miles: 2600

Days: 13 days

Family of 5: 2 adults, 3 kids

Starting Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Ending Location: San Francisco, California

Key Take-aways:

• 4-4.5 hours is a good travel time target

• Most days we ate breakfast before we left each morning and dinner when we got to our destination. Kept eating in the car to a minimum.

• We had booked nothing in advance. We didn’t want to be held to a schedule with the potential to hit bad weather then have to forfeit deposits. However, we were surprised how limited availability was for hotels/VRBOs due to President’s Day. In hindsight, I would make a few reservations in advance if it’s around a Holiday break.

• As much as I hate to admit it, tablets/Phones were a lifesaver. We took them away one day to let them charge and it wasn’t that the kids were being “naughty”, just LOUD, insanely distracting and bothering one another.

• Little white boards, one marker for each kid and post-it notes had the most use. We used them for homework and drawing games, seemed to be the least messy and most entertaining.

  • We had brought along card games, road trip bingo, books, coloring supplies… it was only used to make a mess and kept them busy for .2 seconds.

• Hooks that attached to the headrest and a garbage can are a must

  • Picked up the garbage each time we got out

  • Hang up the kids coats every time we got in the car

  • We also made sure shoes were off and put up by the passenger seat so we could locate them when we stopped

Day 1:

Flew from MSP to Salt Lake City, Utah

Picked up rental camper Van from Moterra

Drive Time: 4.5 hours, Salt Lake City, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Hotel: Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa, Two Bedroom Bi-Level Suite, hotel had a heated swimming pool on the roof!

Day 2:

Drive time: 4.5 hours, Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Pray, Montana

We should have made reservations because the ski hill was full or we would have tried to ski at Teton Village. We decided we’d make a separate trip for Yellowstone National Park because during the winter it’s a little more time consuming.

We checked out the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT.

Hotel: Chico Hot Spring Resort was a treasure! It has a HUGE pool and that is filled and drained daily with a natural hot spring. The resort is old and not huge on modern amenities but it’s history gives it a must see vibe.

Day 3:

Drive time: 5.25 hours, Pray, MT to Kellogg, ID

We mainly drove and pulled off on a few scenic views. Our destination was our entertainment.

Hotel: Silver Mountain Resort, it has a waterpark and ski lodge. Our kids LOVED the waterpark.

Day 4:

We stayed and went skiing and rode the gondola at Silver Mountain resort.

Visited an abandoned underground gold mine.

Took private surf lesson at the waterpark.

Day 5:

Drive Time: 5.5 hours, Kellogg, ID to White Salmon, WA

The river gorge in GORGEOUS, we drove to the Bridge of the Gods and stopped for some smoked salmon.

AirBNB: hotel options were limited but found a great river view AirBNB for the night.

DAY 6:

Drive Time: 5.5 hours, White Salmon, WA to Bandon, OR

VRBO: We wanted to have a view of the ocean so we found a rental with access to the beach and it was beautiful! Ate at a nice steak house for dinner and toured around the marina’s in the area.

Day 7:

Drive Time: 3.5 hours, Bandon, OR to Eureka, CA

We drove through the Redwood National and State Park, which was beautiful and indescribable in size.

Day 8-10:

Drive Time: 7 hours, Eureka, CA to South Lake Tahoe, NV/CA

We have family in the South Lake Tahoe area so we took the opportunity to stay a few days in this winter paradise! The weather was interesting for travel as well, we ran into “4x4 or chains only” roadways which we were prepared for; we live in Minnesota so this wasn’t a huge deterrent for us.

During this time the kids enjoyed the arcades, my husband I went to the casino, we tried snow tubing but it was put on high wind hold for day. The winter of 2023 was record setting for snowfall in this region.

Day 11-12:

Drive Time: 4 hours (took 6 due to snow and poor travel conditions), South Lake Tahoe, NV to San Francisco, CA

We had tickets booked for the PM tour for Alcatraz, we drove across the golden gate bridge, and ate some good food.

Day 13:

Flew back to Minneapolis from San Francisco.