11 Day Winter Cross Country Road Trip
We were on another cross country road trip.
It all started before Christmas 2021, when we flew to visit the kids’ grandma. It was her first Christmas after grandpa’s passing. We didn’t want her to be alone.
We bought one-way tickets to the east and chose to drive back west for a couple of reasons: less exposure to the holiday crowd, and more winter scenes in other states.
Before dawn, downtown Boise, Idaho
As a matter of fact, it was such a wise decision. There were thousands of canceled flights around Christmas and new year due to bad weather and soaring Omicron cases. Had we chosen to fly back, we could have been stuck in the airport or without flights.
As we planned our driving route, we realized we didn’t have that many options.
Our 6 yo needed to go back to school. Even with the fastest route, it would take us 12 days, a big contrast to our 30-day winter road trip in 2019. (When traveling with kids, we had the guiding principle to drive maximum 6 hours per day. Adding all the food, gas and bathroom stops in between, that usually meant 8 hours on the road.)
Snow scene at Colorado and Utah border
We wanted to see more national parks, but due to winter closure for many parks, and the limited time we had, we only included two for this trip.
So, here’s our small collection of sightseeing for a rushed cross country road trip.
Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis, Missouri
This is the smallest national park in the US. It’s the only national park we’ve visited that’s located in the downtown of a city.
I tried to photograph the Arch at different hours during our less than 24 hour stopover, and from as many angles as possible. We even stayed at Hyatt downtown St. Louis for one night, just to catch a corner view of the Arch from mid air.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Colorado
This was our first official visit. We stayed at Estes Park during our 72-day national park road trip 9 years ago, but weren’t able to get in due to government shutdown.
We arrived at Estes Park on new year’s eve, right after a big snow storm, and 2 days of long drive with 8 and 11 hours respectively.
STORY IN HINDSIGHT
Didn’t I mention we typically drove 6 hours maximum per day? Well, I lost my purse in a restaurant in St. Louis on Dec 29. When we found out, we were already in Kansas City 4 hours away. We spent 8 hours just to pick up my purse on the 30th. This clearly slowed us down.
In addition, we weren’t able to change our hotel bookings. So, we drove from Kansas City to Estes Park in one day on Dec 31. It felt like the longest day ever!
Ironically, that restaurant in St. Louis didn’t require mask indoors. Among all the states we crossed during this trip, this was the only place that was packed with people without masks. And it was very crowded! We had to line up there twice. In hindsight, this might be where we caught the virus.
OK back to Rocky Mountains.
It was 8°F (-13°C) on Jan 1. Nobody felt like going out. Only our 4 yo ventured to head out with me before sunset. We made a small stop near Mary’s Lake, where I photographed a fiery sunrise back in 2013.
I had to admit it wasn’t an easy task to watch a kid while taking photos in deep snow. Plus, my fingers felt frozen after just a few minutes. Nevertheless, it was a special beginning of the new year. We caught glimpse of our first sunset in 2022.
We snow hiked along the Alluvial Fan Trail in the Rocky Mountain National Park on day 2. It was one of the only trails available to us. More than 2/3 of the park was closed due to heavy snow plough tasks.
We stayed at Fawn Valley Inn, a convenient place within minutes’ drive to the park entrance. So we went back in the evening again, trying to photograph landscape during sunset.
I didn’t find an ideal vantage point, but did find an amazing cloud!
It was funny the entire sky only had one cloud that evening, and it looked so interesting! I had to make another stop at Horseshoe Park just to photograph this cloud until the sun set and the color completely faded.
In the morning of day 3, our last day at Estes Park, we tried our luck again. The park was completely open this time, so we finally explored the long anticipated Bear Lake area.
The lake was completely frozen, and the wind was whipping up the snow on the ground. The condition wasn’t kid friendly, so after a short walk around the lake we decided to move on.
It was apparent we had to save Rocky Mountain National Park for a future visit.
Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls, Idaho
Do you know there is a “Niagara of the West” in the US? That’s Shoshone Falls. OK, we heard of it for the first time in this trip, more precisely, after we entered Idaho.
The driveway to the Falls was closed due to heavy snow. Not knowing how slippery the road was, I took a walk by myself just to check it out. I didn’t see anyone during my entire 1 hour walk. You see? There’s obviously some benefit to travel in the winter.
As it turned out, the waterfall was mostly frozen. But I could imagine it would look amazing at its full size, perhaps in the spring. (See some of my favorite waterfalls)
Now, here are a few places we stopped by but wish we had more time to explore.
Salt Lake City, Utah
We spent one night in downtown Salt Lake City. Before that, we drove by Park City, a seemingly tech center with Silicon Valley vibe. We wish we had more time to see both places.
My husband seemed to have Covid symptoms, including a low grade fever, while we were at Salt Lake City, so we had to lay low.
Salt Lake City at dusk, Jan 2022.
Bend, Oregon
We first visited Bend on an Oregon road trip 6 years ago. It was our first long road trip after our first son was born. We probably spent more time learning to deal with a baby on that trip than sightseeing and taking photos. So Bend was a blur.
We enjoyed our 2-night Airbnb stay this time. There was a shuffleboard table, and the kids simply didn’t want to leave. It turned out that we spent more time in the house than outside, and would have to save another trip to enjoy this growing modern town in Central Oregon.
We eventually shortened the trip and drove straight home from Bend. My husband had occasional coughs and sneezes right next to me in the car, and perhaps that was how I got my covid.
Fast forward, we had quite an eventful January after the trip. Covid circulated in our family and hit us one by one. Fortunately, we all had mild symptoms and recovered within a week.
So this is the wrap up of our winter cross country road trip. Hope it will herald more exciting trips in 2022.
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