If you haven’t heard about how much time I spent planning this road trip, here’s a rundown: in early summer of 2014, a friend and I chatted about wanting to go to Vancouver Island the following summer, and I thought it would be fun to road trip, and go through Banff as well. The more I looked, the bigger the trip became, until it morphed into something entirely different – an Epic Road Trip. I have always been a big planner and have enjoyed road trips, but I think this trip was really the beginning of my obsession with big, awesome road trips jam-packed with beautiful places and fun adventures. I gathered a group of friends for this road trip, and it was certainly full of both beauty and adventures.

After over a year and over a hundred hours of planning, “Day 0” had finally arrived! We were going on the road trip I had been looking forward to for AGES. Once we had our rental cars, played a little tetris to get everything in the cars, and everyone filled their water bottles and took one last pit stop, we were on our way!

We made our way up to my family’s cabin near Star Valley Wyoming, where my awesome mom had lasagna waiting for us. (Best mom ever!) It was awesome to be back at the cabin, even if it was only for a second (or at least what felt like only a second!)

In the morning my mom made us delicious breakfast (I told you, she’s the best) and we were off on our merry adventure. First stop: Grand Teton National Park, affectionately known as just ‘the Tetons.’

And we’re off! Thanks, mom, for the picture. 🙂

The first thing we did was, of course, take the obligatory sign picture.

The Tetons, of course, were spectacular as always, clouds and all.

After the Visitor Center, we headed to our perennial favorite String Lake for lunch.

After lunch, we headed on the Jenny Lake scenic drive. I’ll admit, this was probably a superfluous choice due to the clouds… but I was still very much in “stick to the plan” mode. I mean, I spent over a hundred hours planning that trip (seriously), and I wasn’t about to let plans start falling apart on DAY ONE.

Then it was off to our next stop – Yellowstone!

We headed first to Old Faithful and the main geyser basin to explore.

Once we got to Old Faithful, we all had the opportunity to split up and do our own thing. Most of the gang stayed to watch Old Faithful erupt, but Brady and I headed to the rest of the Geyser Basin and Morning Glory Pool.

After dinner, we all met up again, watched Old Faithful erupt one more time, and headed off to our camp.

Waiting for us at camp was a long wait to check in because something in the office dryer had caught on fire and they had to evacuate! Whoops. Once the fire department came and gave the all-clear they were able to check us in, and we headed to our site. After setting up our tents in the cold rainy night we hunkered in for a chilly night’s sleep! The main thing we learned that night is that Brady and I would really love to invest in a double sleeping bag. 😉 It got below 30 degrees… on July 27th! BRRRRRRRRRR.

Overall, it was a great start to a long-awaited trip!