When we got our orders to Millington, TN, I got very excited for the cross-country road trip that would be in our near future. Leaving California and traveling over to Tennessee would allow us to travel near 10 national parks, and we were going to try our best and hit them all. I know there are many families who try to make money off of their PCS moves. But our family has taken a different view on it. We see the PCS as an opportunity to travel and spend some family time together. We have always extended our PCS moves just so we can make the most out of a travel trip partially paid for. For this move, I believe we were allotted 5 days for our move, and we extended it to 10. This PCS quickly became known as the “10 national parks in 10 days” move for our family.
California
Right before leaving (quite literally the day before we left), we finally made time to explore Channel Islands National Park. I wrote about our trip out there in this blog, but wanted to mention it here as a bonus national park if you are starting on the coast of California.
Day 1: Sequoia/Kings Canyon
Our first two national parks we visited on our PCS trip were Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The two parks sit right next to each other, so we decided to split our travel day in half and spend the first part of our day in Sequoia and the afternoon in Kings Canyon. I will note that we were traveling at the end of June, and Kings Canyon still had a lot of its park unopened due to the winter weather lingering. In Sequoia, we hiked the Sherman Tree Trail (I highly recommend it). It’s just over a mile long and completely paved. I will say that there was a decent hill to climb down/up and some stairs, so keep that in mind. Once you’re down in the loop, it’s beautiful. You get to see the massive General Sherman Tree. It reminded me a lot of walking in the redwoods—being next to the giants makes me and my worries feel small. We did get to see a bear enjoying a stroll through the forest, which was amazing. Once we finished exploring this trail, we drove to Kings Canyon and drove as far as we could on the main road before hitting the winter seasonal closing spot. After hitting the turnaround point (about 13 miles in), we stopped for one last hike, which was the General Grant Tree trail loop. Again, this is a very popular and short hike, but it’s popular for a reason. We loved finishing our day with this trail. The General Grant Tree is absolutely massive. But we all personally loved walking through the Fallen Monarch. It was so incredible to be inside this fallen tree and imagine how big it would be if it were still standing tall.
Day 2: Yosemite
We stayed the night in Oakhurst, CA, which meant the next day we only had about a 30-minute drive to Yosemite.
Unfortunately, we did not get an early start to the day, which was a big mistake for us. I would highly recommend getting up before 7am and getting into the park to find parking. Again, the winter seasonal roads were still closed, so visitors were pretty limited on where we could go. We went down into the valley and tried to find parking, and it took us almost an hour of driving around the loop before we finally snagged a spot. We were pretty upset that half of our day was wasted because we chose to sleep in, but lessons were learned!
You can read all about what our family did in Yosemite here. We loved exploring Yosemite. It’s still one of my favorite national parks. After a full day in Yosemite, we traveled to Fallon, NV, where we stayed the night.
Nevada
Day 3
From Fallon, NV, we drove to Kanab, UT. On our route, we drove right past Great Basin National Park. We were super bummed when we got there and saw that they didn’t have any tickets left for the day. We weren’t sure if we could make that stop work with the timing we had for the day, and didn’t purchase tickets ahead of time. Looking back, we would book the tickets and hope for the best instead of hoping to get lucky. We did visit the visitor center, and my boys loved the museum inside. There is a short trail near the visitor center that we decided to walk along to learn more about the area. We are hoping to go back and actually visit the caves at some point. But it was a beautiful area to stop for a quick visit and stretch our legs.
Utah
For three nights, we stayed in Kanab, UT. I cannot recommend this enough! Kanab was such a great middle spot to do quick trips to Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon (all right about an hour away). The town itself is rather small, but it has everything we needed for our stay.
Day 4: The Grand Canyon
We left our hotel shortly after 9 and arrived at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We immediately went to the visitor center so we could learn some things and, of course, pick up our souvenirs. The North Rim is not as popular, but it is still beautiful. We were able to walk through the village and admire the beautiful lodge. We chose to just stay along the rim, which offered some really great views and nice spots to sit and soak it all in. We stayed there for about 3 hours and then headed back to Kanab because I had found a really cool hike, the Belly of the Dragon trail, that I wanted us to try out. If you land in Kanab, I would also recommend hiking the trail because our family had an absolute blast there.
Day 5: Bryce Canyon
Our next day of adventuring took us to Bryce Canyon, which is one of my top 3 favorite parks. I loved this park because of the vibrant colors, the amazing hoodoo formations, and the trails we explored. After checking out the visitor center, we made our way to the Navajo Loop Trailhead, where we hiked counterclockwise. We loved descending into the canyon and being able to slowly climb up the other side while admiring Thor’s Hammer up close. My boys definitely got tired on this hike, but were able to complete it all by themselves. After hiking, we chose to do the scenic drive and stopped at a few spots along the way to take in the views. Again, we were there at the end of June, and it was a hot summer day. But the whole park was accessible.
Day 6: Zion
Our last day of adventuring in Utah was Zion. Due to staying in Kanab, we entered the park through the east entrance, and I highly recommend that. There wasn’t a line to get in, and being able to drive through the canyons, especially the Mount Carmel tunnel, was incredible. Zion doesn’t allow personal vehicles to drive to the hikes, so you have to use the bus system, or you can use bikes. We chose to utilize the bus and had no issues with it. I’ve heard and seen the bus line being outrageously long, but thankfully, we only had to wait about 15 minutes. We chose to do 3 different hikes, our favorite by far was the Narrows. I had done all the research on hikes and things to do in the parks, so I knew what to expect for the Narrows, but nobody else did, which was super fun. We all enjoyed the cooling water and the adventure of navigating up the Virgin River. We ended our day here because we knew we’d be a little wet, so we made our way back to the visitor center and enjoyed all of the sunset canyon views on our drive back to the hotel.
Colorado
Day 7: Mesa Verde
Leaving Kanab, UT, we traversed to Alamosa, CO. On our way there, we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park. The drive itself was around 8 hours, so our stop in Mesa Verde wasn’t terribly long, but we wanted to make sure we at least visited the visitor center and saw the cliff dwellings that it’s most famous for. The visitor center was beautiful and had a lot of great information—definitely recommend stopping and learning about the history and park features. We drove up to the Wetherill Mesa, which allowed for a handful of stops to see the Step House and Long House Overlook. I think if we had booked the tour to go in and hike within the cliff dwelling, we would’ve enjoyed the park more, but coming from Zion the day before, this national park wasn’t as impressive for us. Still very fun to visit, but we didn’t feel bad about having a short time to spend there.
Day 8: Great Sand Dunes
After checking out of our hotel in Alamosa, we drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Again, we always start our visits with the visitor center. I will note—I had read warnings that mosquitoes were gnarly, but we were SWARMED when we got out of the car at the visitor center. I am a mosquito magnet so I instantly was suffocating in bug spray, so be warned! The visitor center was very fun and interactive; my boys loved this one. We probably spent about 40 minutes walking through and learning what we could before setting off to play in the sand. As one might imagine, the park is a giant sand mound with mountains for the backdrop, and water down low. It was gorgeous, and again we lucked out with the weather. We all had so much fun sliding down and jumping into the sand. We spent 2-3 hours here before getting back in the car to continue our drive to Amarillo, TX.
Arkansas
Day 9
Day 9 was a full day of a road trip. It is just under 9 hours from Amarillo, TX to Hot Springs, AR, so we made a few quick stops, but no sightseeing on this day.
Day 10: Hot Springs
We woke up fairly early on our final day so we could spend a good chunk of the day exploring Hot Springs National Park before making the final trek to Millington, TN. We began by hiking up to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. We were here on July 1st, and it was quite humid and toasty—definitely recommend early morning for hiking in summer. We chose to ride the elevator to the top, and I would highly recommend this for any visitors. It was so beautiful at the top and amazing to see the panoramic views. For military, it was $12, and kids 5-11 were $6.50 to ride to the top, and tickets are sold right there in the tower. After the tower, we had a nic,e easy hike downhill straight to the bathhouses. The bathhouses are truly beautiful and amazing to walk through. I loved seeing the history and intricate details in the tilework. This national park was definitely an outlier compared to the others we visited on this road trip due to its features being buildings and not nature. My boys weren’t as impressed with this park, but I would definitely recommend visiting if you have the time.
The last part of day 10 was our drive into Tennessee, where we officially landed in Millington, TN.
And there you have it—10 national parks in 10 days! All 4 of us cherished our time together, and even now we all still talk about how fun that move was. It’s my goal to make each move an adventure and not just a task to get done.
Stay tuned for our next big move itinerary!
