When I first hit the road on June 19, 2019, I started in California. I’d grown up around friends saying how badly they’d want to drive to New York from our home City of Angels one day, but never did I imagine that I’d end up doing it the long way, and that I’d do it solo.
I started my first cross-country venture by journeying into the Southwest, leaving behind the roads I knew as I passed Vegas, and saying goodbye to the West for the rest of the summer. The desert is harsh, and driving the Southern route to the East coast in late June and early July was no exception.
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
My route East went a little like this:
I started with this weird North-bound loop that took me from the deep red Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada to the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon to what looked like another planet in Idaho’s Craters of the Moon. I explored Wyoming’s National Parks, and ended the first leg of my trip in Colorado, where I met my entire extended family for a few days in the high altitude, before heading straight South, through New Mexico, and deep into the deserts of Texas.
Texas is exactly how everyone describes it: huge. And while I loved Big Bend’s cacti and hot springs, by the time I entered my third day in the Lone Star State, I was more than ready to move on to my next destination. Traveling these distances solo in what feels like the middle of nowhere can be taxing, it can be tiring. You have to know the distances between stops, the amount of hours you’re able to stay on the road. You have to be honest with yourself about when you need breaks. But the journey will be so rewarding that these things feel insignificant.
Hot Springs National Park, AR
Leaving the desert behind for the humidity and general strangeness of the deep South was an interesting experience to say the least, and while there were plenty of beautiful and interesting places to explore (hello, Hot Springs National Park!), one of Louisiana’s famous storms pushed me East a little faster than I’d originally planned.
The thing about plans, though, is that really, everything is going to work out the way it’s meant to, and although I planned on spending more than an hour in Alabama, I was feeling drawn to the ocean anyway, so Florida felt like the right place for me to journey to next. The road will bring you to the places that are supposed to change your life, I think, and once you spent enough time letting highways guide you, you’ll start to realize this change taking place.
I landed in Florida at a time when my California soul was craving the ocean again. The Atlantic was a surreal experience, as I set foot on the sand and smelled the familiar ocean-salt air again after a month on the road, because being here meant that I’d done it. Well, one way. I’d driven from Pacific to Atlantic. Now, I just had to drive back, and to do that properly, I’d have to make my way to Maine up the coast.
Making my way from Florida to Maine felt like a breeze compared to driving through the hot, muggy, South, especially because the East coast is conveniently made up of a bunch of tiny states, instead of huge ones (I’m looking at you, Texas). So, once I finally made it to Maine, a milestone clearly marked by pine trees and “Caution: Moose Crossing” signs, I started making my way West, and began the second cross-country road trip I’d do in my life.
Starting in New England was a completely different experience when compared to starting in the Southwest. Instead of red rocks and cacti, picture pine trees, mountains, and very little cell service. On top of that, New England’s states are so compact that I found myself back in New York before I knew it, and ready to brave the section of the country I’d been worried about from the beginning, the Midwest.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, OH
While it’s hard to spend a lot of time in the Midwest as a traveler, especially a vanlifer (there just aren’t a ton of places to park for the night, but the spots I did choose were amazing), there are a few great hidden gems scattered around these “fly-over states.” From Cuyahoga Valley to the Great Lakes, there truly is something for everyone in every state in the country, even the ones people tend to avoid. My time in the Midwest ended in the beautiful Minnesota Northwoods, where I met a deer on a short, wooded trail and finally felt like I’d accomplished something grand for the first time in a while.
The northern route, in my humble traveler’s opinion, is far prettier and far more unique of a destination than the South. And yes, the route itself counts as a destination (more on this later). Making my way into the Dakotas, I didn’t know what to expect. Everyone told me they’re not worth it, and North Dakota actually has a reputation for being people’s 50th United State. However, North Dakota, to me, will forever be the home of the herd of bison that greeted me as I entered the state’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and the sunflower farms I passed on my way to its southern counterpart, South Dakota’s Badlands.
Badlands National Park, SD
The Northern United States is so full of wildlife, rolling grasslands, and towering mountains, and because of that, it felt like so much more of an adventure than my Southern route East I’d completed just a couple months prior. The North is home to a multitude of mountainous National Parks, from Glacier in Montana (aka my favorite place on Earth) to Washington’s Mount Rainier. And because of these vast destinations along the way, it’s almost impossible to get sick of these landscapes as you make your way West, toward the Pacific Ocean.
As someone who grew up near the Pacific, seeing it appear again through the trees as I drove toward Olympic’s Rialto Beach, after not seeing its waves for 2 and a half months, was an emotional experience. But, come to think of it, driving across the country twice, solo, is an emotional experience in itself.
Glacier National Park, MT
You’ll be tested against all odds, you’ll spend more time with yourself than you ever thought you would, and you’ll see things and experience places you can only reach via the open road. Planes don’t land here. And while it’s cliché to say that it’s about the journey, not the destination, that old saying is mostly right. While the destinations are going to be the things you post online or tell your friends about, it’s the journey that changes you, whether you want it to or not.