90 days, 35 national parks: Retired State College employee reflects on ‘trip of a lifetime’

It’s been a year since my wife Beth and I embarked on our “trip of a lifetime” — a three month cross-country tent camping adventure to explore our nation’s national parks. We called the trip our great escapade. One of my close friends called it the ultimate marriage test. In a way, we were both right.

Having retired from 40 years of government service a few months before our trip, including 35 years working for State College Borough, I was ready to begin the next chapter in my life. Why not jump-start it with an epic journey seeing some of the most beautiful places the United States has to offer? Beth and I had the time now, so there was no reason not to.

In order to keep the cost in line with our budget, we decided to tent camp for the three months we would be on the road. Crazy idea? Maybe, but we had tent camped 40-plus years ago in the early years of our marriage and we were confident we could handle it now. Sure, we are now in our 60s and a lot older than we were the last time we spent a night in a tent, but it would not be something foreign to us. And besides, I’m a frugal (some would say cheap) man, and the thought of paying for 90 nights in a hotel was out of the question.

Since I had recently turned 62, I qualified for the lifetime Senior Access Pass from the National Parks service, which meant for a cost of $80, this pass would gain us admission to any national park or monument at no additional cost. An added benefit was the pass holder receives 50% off of all fees in national park campgrounds. Instead of having to pay upward of $75 or more for a hotel room per night, our average nightly cost for our campgrounds was only $17. A great deal.

January through April of 2024 were spent reserving campgrounds, planning our routes between destinations, identifying grocery stores at which we could replenish our food supply, locating laundromats for washing our clothes, finding churches near our camping spots for Sunday worship, and a myriad of other tasks necessary to ensure a successful trip. Oftentimes, planning an adventure is almost as much fun as the actual adventure.

While the planning process was fun, it in no way compared to the fun we had on our journey. Not even close. After four months, our plans and preparations were complete. Let the escapade begin.

May 1, 2024, departure day, dawned sunny and beautiful at our Nags Head, North Carolina home. Our Ford Escape was packed to maximum capacity with everything we thought we would need for the next three months of life on the road. Looking back a year later, we actually got it pretty close. If anything, we brought a little too much with us, but better to have it and not need it, than vice-versa.

As we pulled out that May Day morning, our neighbor Alice was there to wish us well and say goodbye. She would be the last familiar face we would see for over two months. As our home disappeared in the rearview mirror, we realized the great escapade had officially begun. We were filled with excitement and perhaps some trepidation as the road ahead was full of promise, but also the unknown.

Our plan was to visit the remaining national parks in the continental United States that we had not yet seen. That meant a total of 34 parks. We also added Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Mount Rushmore to our itinerary. We had seen Mount Rushmore before, but it was en route between destinations, so we added it on the fly. In the end, we actually made it to 35 parks, as we had to scratch Glacier off of our list because of heavy snows that hit the area during our planned visit, but we added Bryce Canyon and Zion to fill up the time we were to be at Glacier. While we had visited both parks in a previous trip, they are beautiful enough to warrant a return trip.

The first stop on our national parks hit parade was Congaree in South Carolina, arriving there on May 1. The last stop was Shenandoah in Virginia, departing there on July 29. Every place we visited had its own unique charm. Each also presented different challenges. Through it all, though, we had an absolutely remarkable trip. We spent 90 days on the road and saw the most amazing sites along the way. Time does not allow me to go into detail about each park as we could fill a book with stories of our travels, but suffice it to say, it was the experience of a lifetime.

During our 90 days on the road, we drove 15,000 miles, crossing through 29 states, and staying in 41 different campgrounds. We saw 37 different types of animals and birds, and we met people from 17 countries. We hiked 300 miles on 85 trails in the parks, and our elevation gain for all of the hikes combined was just shy of 36,000 feet, higher than Mount Everest.

The highest elevation we reached was 10,050 feet on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, and the lowest was 282 feet below sea level in Death Valley. The hottest temperature we experienced was 107 degrees in Death Valley and the lowest was 38 degrees in Pinnacles National Park in California. We visited 12 churches and washed our clothes in seven different laundromats.

The highest price we paid for a gallon of gas was $6.05 at a gas station near Sequoia National Park, while the lowest was $2.27 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We had to change the oil in our car twice in those 15,000 miles, and we spent $141 on ice over the three months to keep our food cold. Out of the 90 nights, the weather forced us to stay six random nights in a hotel. The cost for these six nights was more than a third of the cost for the 84 nights we spent in the campgrounds.

We ate 10 pounds of raisins, more than 3 pounds of cashews, dozens of Nature Valley granola bars, and we splurged for ice cream on eight different occasions. Beth cooked almost every meal we ate on our Coleman two burner camp stove. Our meals ranged from sloppy Joes, corned beef and hash, pasta, hot dogs, fish, instant potatoes, and plenty of squash, zucchini and fresh fruits. For various reasons, we ended up throwing away five articles of clothing.

We had the awesome experiences of seeing salt flats in Death Valley, condors in Pinnacles, Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite, the deep blue waters of Crater Lake in Oregon, giant cacti in Saguaro, towering redwoods in Redwoods National Park, 700 foot tall sand dunes in Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, and many other incredible sites. We took horseback rides near Bryce Canyon in Utah, and in Rocky Mountain park. We canoed the Rio Grande river at Big Bend in Texas, and rafted the New River in New River Gorge park. We glissaded down a snow-covered Mount Rainier in Washington, took an evening cruise on Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks, and walked on the whitest sand we have ever seen at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We saw and did so much more.

The memories we created in our three months on the road will stay with us forever. What we hoped would be the trip of a lifetime turned out to be even greater than we could have ever imagined. When we got back to Nags Head, some of our friends asked if we would do it all again. Without hesitating, our answer was a definite yes, without a doubt.

As for the ultimate marriage test, I am happy to report that Beth and I passed with flying colors! We returned home in the same car, still happily married, and ready for our next adventure.