Disclaimer: Please don’t feel obligated to read the whole diary. I also plan on doing a shorter overview once we get home and I have some time to reflect! But if you want the nitty gritty deets, this is the place for you 😉 I borrowed my mom’s fancy camera for this trip (thanks, Mom!), so that post will also have more photos.
Day 1: Friday, July 3rd, 2026 – Today was actually not suppose to be day 1. We had intended to leave really early in the morning on July 4th. Nate’s mom agreed to watch our zoo while we are gone, and since we were leaving so early she came to spend the night tonight. Right as Nate was about to make dinner, our power went out. Not surprising, since we seem to lose power anytime the wind blows and there was a crazy storm going on. He cooked via candlelight and battery powered lanterns (and it was still delicious). When we were done, we decided since we would basically be camping at home anyway, we might as well get on the road. It was 6:31pm when we left. All across Michigan and Indiana, we got to see fireworks and some of the best lightening shows I’ve ever seen. At some point, we had crossed into the next time zone, so when it started raining around 10:30, it was 11:30 our time. We were in Hammond, IN and it was storming pretty bad. We found a Red Roof Inn to stay at. In the short run from the truck to the lobby, Nate was absolutely soaked. But we had somewhere safe to ride out the crazy storm.
Day 2: Saturday, July 4th, 2026 – Happy 250th birthday, America! 🇺🇸🎆 We left the hotel around 7:30am and got gas before we got back on the freeway. GPS said 16 hours to our first destination. As the day of driving went on, we made it thru Iowa and most of Nebraska. Iowa had lots of farmland with cute farms nestled into rolling hills, and lots of windmills (I LOVE windmills!). Nebraska is basically just farms, with the occasional herd of cows. There were some that were playing in a pond that was pretty cute. We stopped for a quick “lunch” at Liquid Sunshine Brewery after a morning of beef jerky and dried mango. The hummus was delish, as were the mozzarella sticks. Nate also had a jalapeño raspberry beer that was amazing! Between naps, starting a new book (Across the Vanishing Sky by Catherine Cowles) and taking pictures, I managed to keep myself entertained while Nate drove. We were in his truck, which is a manual, which I don’t know how to drive, so me driving wasn’t an option. We ended up stopping for the night around 6:30pm (different time zone) at a KOA around the corner from a gas station that literally said “You are Nowhere” in Ogallala, Nebraska 😂 we set up the truck bed tent and shared our MREs, for science of course. We watched fireworks all around us after dinner for almost 2 hours, and even now as we are laying in our tent can still hear and occasionally see them. HBD, America! 🧨🎇🎉
Day 3: Sunday, July 5th, 2026 – Today we made it to Nate’s hometown in Colorado! Nate picked up a hitch hiker about 25 minutes outside of town that rode in the bed of the truck. Later we found out he was coming from Mexico and heading to Canada. It was around 1pm when we got here, and we had plans to meet Nate’s friend when he got off work later in the day. We decided to go to Fish Creek Falls to get a hike in. I will admit, we didn’t get very far before the elevation got to me, so we went and played in the creek for a while. Then we met his friend for an appetizer and drinks before we went to find our campsite for the night. We stayed at Routt National Forest Seed house Campground. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what that means, but the camping spaces were spacious and private. We had a small fire and Nate actually cooked for us a bit. I had bought a Peak freeze dried stroganoff (highly recommend if your’e looking for camping meals!) and he bought fresh meat and mushrooms to add to it. Even if he hadn’t added his amazing cooking to it, the meal was really good!
Day 4: Monday, July 6th, 2026 – We froze our butts off all night. I woke up shivering several times. We cleaned up camp and headed higher up the mountain to reach the Gilpin Lake trailhead. I guess locals call it Zirkel Circle? We had intended to do the whole circle, but this hike kicked our butts 😅 I dropped my phone into one of the first rivers we had to cross, so I got very limited pictures on my phone, but I had my mom’s nice camera and got loads of pictures on that. During the first few miles, there were so many butterflies flying around, adding to the magic of such a place. Probably about halfway up, we stopped to catch our breath and have a snack, and a woman passed us and told us there had been a bear higher up on the trail, so that was something 😅 When we finally got to the lake (over 10,300ft elevation!) I actually cried. I had been really close to giving up and the lake itself was so beautiful. We hung out there for 40 minutes or so, getting our feet wet, boiling more water for us to drink on the way down, and just enjoying the fruits of our efforts. There were only 2 other couples there, so it was peaceful and quiet. The way down was way less eventful. It took us 6 hours to get to the lake, and only 2 hours to get back to the truck. There was a huge buck in the parking lot when we got there that Nate managed to get a picture of. From there, we went to his dad’s house for a bit. We were going to get dinner with him but the restaurant Nate wanted to go to (Hahn’s Peak Cafe, his favorite restaurant), was closed. After visiting with his dad, we headed back to Steamboat Springs and got a hotel room for the night so we could shower and be warm. We ordered Brooklyn’s Pizza to our room, soaked in the hot tub for a few minutes while I had some laundry going, and we both had a great night’s sleep.
Day 5: Tuesday, July 7th, 2026 – We headed to Arches National Park this morning! It was a 5ish hour drive through some beautiful country. I wanted to visit this park last year when we were in Salt Lake, but we didn’t have time, so this is the stop I was most excited for! It was about 2pm when we got there, and according to their paperwork, we missed needing reservations to enter the park by a day (lucky us!). We didn’t do any crazy trails since it was 103 degrees and we were both sore from our 10 mile hike the day before. We did the Windows trail, about a mile long and saw 3 different huge arches. It was thundering most of the time we were on this trail, and it did start raining a little bit, but it didn’t last long. It shared a parking lot with Double Arch trail, so we did that one too. This one was probably my favorite! The trail was short but Double Arch is amazing 😍 I wanted to do the famous Delicate Arch trail, but it was 3 miles and it was almost 6pm, so we decided to do the 1 mile overlook trail instead. Even though this wasn’t up close, we still got a great view of Delicate Arch! We stayed at River Canyon Lodge in Moab and ate at the Broken Oar. Nate and I split a salad and their Beast Burger with their signature sweet potato fries. Everything was delicious! When we got back to the hotel we went swimming in the rain before we went to bed.
Day 6: Wednesday, July 7th, 2026 – This morning we headed to the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands NP. I didn’t realize these parks out here were so huge 😳 We did about a mile hike to Mesa Arch and another mile to see Upheaval Dome. Both were incredible! There were very few people on the trails here and in Arches, so I really liked that. As we were sitting and admiring Upheaval Dome, I realized how small the landscape out here makes me feel, and that is actually something I love about it. It isn’t afraid to take up space to be exactly what Mother Nature intended and something about that brings me so much peace. When we were done in the park, Nate wanted to take Shafer Trail back to Moab. Not really knowing what this was, and also wanting to be a supportive girlfriend, I was totally down for whatever he wanted to do. Little did I know that this actually a road that goes down 1,500 ft into the canyon that we were just looking at via switchbacks 😅 Since my car accidents last year, being in the car makes me nervous on good roads, and when I saw the sign that said 4 wheel drive high clearance recommended, with an added “Please Buckle Up” sign behind it, I was NERVOUS. But Nate is one of the best drivers I know and I trusted him. Let me say, this road should definitely be a one-way, but it isn’t. Its pretty narrow and you are literally stuck between an upward facing cliff and a downward facing cliff for the first part of it. You have to be aware of people coming from the opposite direction, which sometimes requires you to look over the edge of the cliff while the vehicle is moving. Thankfully I think we only passed 3 or so vehicles going up on our way down, but I had a death grip on the handles in the truck for most of it. I’m glad we did this, because it was a lot of fun and has some incredible views, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend for the faint of heart 🥴 The really scary part actually didn’t last long, but from the start near the entrance of Canyonlands back to Moab actually took us about 3 hours to complete. From there, we decided that we had enough time before we had to start our trek home to head up to Yellowstone NP, so that’s what we did. We stopped at Jackass Joe’s Gas Station/Jerky/Souvenir shop (that is actually what it’s called, don’t come for me) to get some drinks and snacks, and started driving. It was about an 8 1/2 trip, but of course we hit Provo/Salt Lake City during rush hour. We stopped at Western Inn in Tremonton, UT for the night, and went out for sushi for dinner.
Day 7: Thursday, July 8th, 2026 – When we got up, we headed to Yellowstone. I finished the book I was reading, so I started the other book I brought called Wild Love by Elsie Silver. While we were driving through Idaho, I could actually see the Teton Mountains in the distance! Fun fact, the Teton’s are not in Yellowstone, and for some reason I thought they were. I also didn’t realize how huge this park is 😂 We went in the West Entrance, so we also got to be in Montana for a bit. Our first stop in the park was Old Faithful, and on our way there we saw some bison. Old faithful had just gone off when we got there, so we walked around the boardwalks to see the other geysers, which was cool. When we finished that loop, we had stopped in the perfect spot just in time for Old Faithful to do her thing! I was surprised how long it actually spews for, honestly. It was so cool to watch! After that, Nate wanted to see Grand Prismatic, so we headed that way. We knew the park was busy, but this spot actually put both of us on edge with how crowded it was and inconsiderate people actually can be. We waited a long time for a parking spot, and when we finally got to the viewing platform, people knew there were others waiting behind them and still were being selfish. Anyway, the bison we saw on the way in the park had moved to the clearing between the road and the Grand Prismatic Overlook trail by the time we got there, so I was able to get some cool pictures of them. There were other things we would have liked to see in the park, but had decided it would take too long with the crowds and started our way to the East exit. We stopped at the Lake Village store to use the bathroom and get t-shirts on our way out. Not intentionally, we ended up driving through Cody, Wyoming. A couple weeks ago I was watching a rodeo on TV that had taken place there, and had heard that it was the rodeo capital of the world. I’m not actually sure if that is true, but man, do they run with that title! 😂 I saw that they host rodeos every night June thru August, so we decided that would be a good place to stop for the night. We got a room at the Big Bear Motel, which is walking distance to the rodeo grounds, had a pool, and even a dummy for people to practice their roping skills! We went downtown for dinner. Nate originally wanted to go to the Cody Steakhouse, but they wouldn’t have a seat available until 8, when the rodeo started, so we decided to try Trailhead instead, which was able to get us in right away. I ordered Bison Bolognese (bison is my favorite) and Nate ordered a skirt steak, and both our meals were absolutely delicious! It was about 8:20 by the time we were done, but the waitress said the rodeo usually isn’t over until about 10, so we dropped the truck off at the motel and walked over. We got to watch some team roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. We had such a great time!
Day 8: Friday, July 9th, 2026 – We knew this would basically be a day full of driving. To break it up a bit, we stopped at Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota. It is a museum that is built around what used to be a quicksand pit that mammoths fell into and unfortunately died. It wasn’t something I would go out of my way to see, but it was a nice little stop. We drove until a little after 9pm, grabbed some fast food and found a room at Super 8 Motel in South Dakota. They actually had a kind of fun pool, with buckets that would fill and dump on you.
Day 9: Saturday, July 10th, 2026 – We were hoping today would be the home stretch, even though we still had 13 hours of driving to do. We finally got out of South Dakota and through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. I spent most of today reading. When we were in Indiana, with about 3 1/2 hours left to home, Nate was too tired to keep driving so we stopped in Hammond again for the night (kind of poetic how that worked out lol). The hotel was under construction, so we just relaxed in our room and watched a movie while we ate our wings from Wing Stop.
Day 10: Sunday, July 11th, 2026 – We were on the road by 6am today, which made for an easy drive home. I read some more. When we finally got home it was around 9:30. The dogs were so excited to see us! We talked with Nate’s mom about our trip a little bit and she told us what had been going on at home while we were gone. Our power had ended up being out for almost 3 days, so we lost a lot of the food we had in the freezer. When she left, I started a load of laundry and then went to the store to get a few days worth of groceries. I wanted to go sit in my tanning pool outside, but decided to take a nap first, and ended up sleeping for the better part of 5 hours 😅 I was just happy to be home and sad that our vacation was over.
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