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With Each Mile

We’re back from a 4,800+ mile road trip!

Published about 2 months ago • 2 min read

Hey there Reader,

We just made it back home from an awesome two-week, 4,800+ mile road trip, where we drove all the way from our home in Alabama to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming (plus a bunch of breathtaking places in between).

Since we just got back from our trip this past Sunday (I think I'm still riding the post-vacation high), we've been busy unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning the car and organizing.

We’ll be sharing our stories and experiences from this cross-country adventure on our blog over the next couple of months, and we’ll send out another newsletter when a few of those posts are live.

But before all of that, I wanted to share a few photos with you from what we’ll be writing about. We also tried to fit in as many dog-friendly adventures as we could along the way, so there’s plenty of Toby and Lily, too.

First Stop: Colorado Springs

After making the long drive west, our first real stop was Colorado Springs, where we spent two days exploring Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls. Both stops were stunning and were an awesome way to start our trip.

Five Days in Grand Teton National Park

From Colorado Springs, we continued the drive to Wyoming and spent five days camping at Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park. Having five days here gave us a lot of time to explore the park and see a bunch of wildlife like bison, elk, deer and moose.

A Day in Yellowstone

While we were camping in Grand Teton, we made the drive north for a day to explore Yellowstone National Park. One day is definitely not enough to see everything in this massive park, but we were able to pack a lot into our visit.

3 Days in Rocky Mountain National Park

After Yellowstone, we started our drive south toward home and decided to stop at Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent three days exploring the park, including hikes to Emerald Lake, Dream Lake and Lake Haiyaha.

Although Rocky Mountain National Park is not officially certified as an International Dark Sky Park, we were able to see the stars incredibly clearly at night and captured some amazing astrophotography shots.

One Last Stop: Hot Springs National Park

By this point, we were getting pretty close to home, but we decided to check off one more national park from our list. We stopped at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas for a day before spending the night at a KOA and continuing the drive back to Alabama.

And that's just the beginning.

We have a lot of stories, photos, trail tips and dog-friendly guides from this trip to share. We'll be publishing them on With Each Mile over the next couple of months, so keep an eye out!

Looking for a Fun National Park Community?

If you love all things National Park and are looking for a fun community to discuss things with, check out #ParkChat on Bluesky, held on the second Tuesday of every month.

#ParkChat is organized by 59nationalparks and Nature Tech Family. Each month, a member of the community hosts a one-hour, 12-question discussion about the national parks.

The topics can cover just about anything (history, personal experiences, park policies, conservation and more). It's really up to the host, so every month is a little different.

If you're already on Bluesky and love talking about national parks, it's definitely worth checking out!

Thank you for following along on our adventures,

Minerva & Sam

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246

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With Each Mile

Minerva & Sam

Hey, we’re Minerva & Sam! We both work full-time, but spend as much of our free time as we can road-tripping with our dogs, Toby & Lily. So far, that’s taken us 43,000+ miles across 37 states & 17 National Parks and we share our experiences along the way.

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