Escape from Quarantine: Craters, Yellowstone, and Bryce Canyon

One of the last things people would be thinking about while panicking and running out of hand sanitizer, is traveling. But after months of staying indoors and avoiding people, my family and I, for mental health, decided to escape from quarantine. Well, escape from the city. Actually, the state.

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Why Travel now?

With all of the craziness going on in the world right now, it doesn’t seem like the ideal time to travel. In fact, we had originally planed to go to Oregon and Washington for this trip, but because of the ongoing wildfire situation, we decided it would be safer to travel elsewhere. Amazingly, even though these fires were hundreds of miles away, the smoke from them was still a constant companion, but didn’t dampen our experience. So, between a severe need of sun and socialization, my family decided to go on a week long road trip to Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. This trip would include Craters of the Moon National Monument, Yellowstone, and Bryce Canyon.

We made sure to have an over abundance of food with us, and promptly filled the rental van with everything but the kitchen sink. We also decided, that for most of the trip, we would sleep in the van for safety and because our wallets were looking a bit skinny after Minnesota. So Saturday afternoon, after I washed some lotion out of my eyes, we began our escape from quarantine.

Heading to Idaho

When planning a trip, I tend to have an optimistic view of things. For example when I saw that Idaho was only 10 hours away, I thought, that’ll be an easy day’s drive. Well, no. Ten hours really truly was the max that my family could handle.

As we made out way through the deserts and plains of the United states we became more and more exhausted. I never thought that riding in a car could be so tiring. But as we made our way through Salt Lake City, we realized how tired we could really get. Sadly, I couldn’t help with the driving because of certain rental car laws, so it was my parent’s job to get us from point A to point B. However, because my dad is such an uneasy passenger, he happily assigned himself the role of driver for the majority of the trip.

Our Time in Idaho

My first impressions of Idaho? If Nevada and Minnesota had a baby. I had never been to this state before so seeing the rolling hills filled with farm equipment fascinated me. My mom and I took turns shouting out every animal we saw on the road side farms as we drove to Twin Falls. This beautiful city had the perfect mixture of nature with architecture that can be plainly seen when entering on the Perrine bridge.

Then for lunch we stopped at the beautiful Shoshone Falls. I will never doubt my dads travel destinations again.

The next day we drove to Craters of the Moon National Monument which gave a stark contrast to the lush valleys and waterfalls we had seen so far.

I never imagined somewhere like Idaho, would be so diverse! Between the stunning waterfalls and lava fields, this state is a true gem! The perfect escape from quarantine.

Making our way to Yellowstone

We got up at the crack of dawn, and made our way to Yellowstone National Park. I had never been to Yellowstone before but my parents had, and they were very excited to show me the stops they remembered with the most fondness. Places like the Grand Prismatic Springs and of course, Old Faithful. Getting there I was able to tick off the state of Montana from my travel bucket list. ‘It’s just the corner, but it still counts!” I yelled from the backseat.

We spent 10 hours driving around Yellowstone, before we drove through the Teton mountains to get to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we spent the night in an Albertson’s parking lot.

The Final Days of our Trip

The final days of our trip were spent driving through Jackson Hole with a friend of ours, and driving though Bryce Canyon. The entire trip was amazing, but I think Jackson Hole was my favorite city. It had such a glamour that caught me off guard. I couldn’t believe how nice everything was, or how expensive. As we came home, we found another gem in Logan, Utah. There were so many shops, it reminded me of a mini Vegas without the casinos.

Finally, we got to Bryce Canyon. While entering Yellowstone, they warned us about animals but unfortunately, we hardly saw any. Imagine our surprise then as we were driving through Bryce Canyon and nearly hit a deer racing across the road! The rock’s color and strange formations were burned into my mind and classified as an alien landscape. And we didn’t even have to drive off the beaten path to find these amazing pieces of nature!

That’s it!

We traveled across a good chunk of the U.S., stayed in good health, and got so many new adventures and stories to tell. I’m so glad I was able to go on this trip with my family and recharge after being cooped up for the past few months. Maybe someday soon we’ll finally be able to take our trip to Alaska!

Thank you so much for reading this addition to the Welcome To My Shoes blog! I hope you enjoys reading about our escape from quarantine as we traveled through the U.S. If you’re interested in reading more of my posts click here. Please share and comment on this post. And don’t forget to subscribe!