If you have ever driven I-80 in Wyoming, you know that it can make the best amongst us want to cry… which is exactly what West did for a solid hour on our way to Jackson. It was a brutal start to our “great mountains of the west” road trip, a loop through Jackson, WY, Stanley, ID, Park City, UT, and Dinosaur, CO.
The plan: every few days we would drive 6-7 hours as we moved between these states in a giant loop. That didn’t intimate us. He’d already been on a number of road trips including some around the great state of Colorado as well as New Mexico.
Our ‘baby on the road’ philosophy was to get him out from the start and as often as possible. It seemed to pan out pretty well. West knew the car and slept well in many different places.
For five months, we had been “training” for this more epic multi-state journey. All the baby advice is routine, routine, routine! But our lives are often in motion so our only routine is daily outdoor excursions. That’s the best routine in our opinion, but it can be a little disruptive with a five month old who’s still figuring out the whole sleep thing.
Here are some lessons from this road trip, broken down by destination:
The Grand Tetons: Take the exit and find the good beer
We stayed in Jackson for just two nights to break up the long haul to Stanley. We love the Grand Tetons. We also love Jackson. I regularly have delicious things shipped to our house from local coffee shop, Persephone’s Bakery, and candy shop, Mursell’s.
Pre-kid we went on one of our top favorite hikes of all time in the Tetons, a 22 mile epic day trip. This time we took it slow Jackson. As I mentioned, West had his longest crying spree on the road in. Enter the first words of advice. Take the exit. The beauty of road trips is the total autonomy they offer with a baby. When the baby howls, go check out that little town off the highway. Take a breather. Eat some ice cream. This also leads into the second tip here. Pull into town and find the good beer or food. The point being, maybe the road seemed long, but vacation has begun and a patio awaits.
The Sawtooths: Go on the long hike
We devote a whole post to this, but don’t think for a second that you can’t do bold things with a baby in tow. We had one smoke free day in the Sawtooths. We were foiled on our attempt that day to hike to a lake with a scrambling move to access. A move we would have made pre-kid easy, but with a kid on our back, we felt unsure. So we detoured and ended up on a stunning 15 mile day hike. Babies don’t require much in the outdoors, some good sun coverage and food (often built in) so you can go much as you normally would. Did he nap great on that hike? No. But I don’t remember the fallout of his lack of sleep, I do remember the sapphire waters of Stanley Lake.
Wasatch Mountains: Let the road be the destination.
Okay, this is less about the Wasatch, which are lovely, and more about the road between the Wasatch and Colorado. We stopped at Dinosaur National Monument on our return. A lovely stop of amazing geology and incredible fossils. I mean, incredible! Think an entire wall covered floor to ceiling with fossils at the Quarry Exhibit. When we pulled in, we were doing the math every parent does. The how many hours to bedtime math and will we make it in time. Kids have a way of making you speed up and slow down all at once. Oftentimes, the difference between rushing and appreciating a moment is a choice. The choice we made at Dinosaur was to appreciate. Taking breaks is critical to long car rides with a baby, but those breaks can become parts of an epic adventure.
