Copy of Southwest United States Road Trip!

Since we always head east to see family for Christmas, Thanksgiving became our time to travel wherever we want (just the five of us). Initially we took beach vacations to islands, but then we decided it was time to start exploring the different areas within the United States, more specifically the National Parks.

For this trip, we didn’t have a full week, so we decided to start with three parks that were relatively close to each other.

Also, since my youngest was in fourth grade, we wanted to take advantage of the US Government’s Every Kid Outdoors (everykidoutdoors.gov) program, which provides all fourth graders and their families free access to national parks, lands, and waters for a full year! This is an amazing program—increasing access to outdoor recreation for everyone!

Heard about it from a friend at a hostel in Florence, so we wanted to see it for ourselves

After a visit to Edinburgh with one day in the Highlands, we were dying to see more of the Scottish countryside! We decided we wanted to road trip for the freedom to visit smaller towns and to stop and take in the views whenever we felt like it.