Our three month, cross USA road trip route

Our USA road trip ended a month ago (a month already!) and it was incredible. We saw so much and we’ve pretty much been enjoying summer since mid-March. Which, if you ask me, is well deserved having converted our van in the freezing cold of a Home Depot car park in Toronto.

Below is the road trip route we took around the US (including the West Coast USA road trip section).

During the route, we covered over 20,000 km, 22 States, 11 National Parks, 1 lost passport mishap, a punctured tire, an expensive visit to the garage, one gun spotted in a restaurant, and 2 bear sightings.

AllTrails is my go-to hiking app for finding, planning, and navigating while I’m out on the trails. With offline maps on AllTrails+ you can be confident you’re still on the right track, even without mobile signal.

We covered a lot but it also looks like we really didn’t do all that much?!

I’ve still got SO much to write about our trip (even over a year after we finished). I also kept a diary full of my observations from on the road which I may share a bit of it here (if you’re lucky!).

If you’ve got any questions about our route, want advice on how to plan your own, or just want to say hi then please do 🙂

If you’re wondering how to pack for a USA road trip, I’ve shared some great trips in my road trip packing checklist.

Get a USA National Parks Pass for just $80 and save a tonne of money if you’re planning on visiting multiple National Parks in a year, or visiting the same one more than once!

US National Parks we visited

In the end, our road trip became more of a 3 month national park road trip. Sure, we visited some cities, but we preferred to be out in nature, exploring the beautiful national parks.

Arches National Park, UT

• How to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in one day
• Ultimate guide to Arches National Park (permits, must-sees & more!)
• A complete packing list for Arches National Park
• Things to do in Arches National Park in one day
• The arches you need to see in Arches National Park
• The best half day hikes in Arches National Park
• The ultimate adventurer’s Guide to Moab, Utah

Canyonlands National Park, UT

• The complete guide to Canyonlands National Park, Utah
• What to pack for Canyonlands National Park
• Best things to do in Canyonlands National Park
• The best hikes to do in Canyonlands National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

• A guide to Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
• The best things to do in Bryce Canyon National Park
• What to pack for Bryce Canyon National Park
• The best hikes in Bryce Canyon National Park

Zion National Park, UT

• 16 of the best things to do in Zion National Park (Including a SECRET hike!)
• Hiking the Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

• A guide to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim
• Grand Canyon South Rim best hikes
• 10 best things to do in the Grand Canyon National Park
• Hiking into the Grand Canyon on the South Kaibab Trail

The Everglades National Park, FL

• How to do a self guided Everglades tour

Redwoods national park, CA

• A guide to visiting Redwood National Park
• 9 Best hikes in Redwood National Park

Yosemite national park, CA

• The best things to do in Yosemite National Park
• How to hike Yosemite Falls

Death Valley, CA

• A guide to visiting Death Valley National Park, California
• The best day hikes and backpacking in Death Valley National Park, California!
• 9 things to see and do in Death Valley National Park

Mount Rainier, WA

• Guide to visiting Mt Rainier National Park, WA
• The best Mt Rainier day hikes & backpacking trails

Cascades National Park, WA

• Complete guide to visiting North Cascades National Park
• Some of the best North Cascades National Park hikes!

See all posts by state

If you use the map above, you can click on each state and see the blog posts and guides I have that relate to that state during our 3-month road trip USA itinerary.

This will show you posts such as the best things to do in Seattle, what to do with 48 hours in New York, and exploring Savannah Georgia amongst other cities and towns we visited during our 3 months in USA.

3 month road trip USA budget

This road trip was done in 2017 from March to June and we budgeted $50 US a day per person. This was to include all our fuel, any accommodation costs (though actually we only paid for accommodation twice in the whole three months), food, activities — everything.

We stuck to it pretty well and if anything were slightly under by the end.

Since we’d converted a van into a campervan and used that as our accommodation, we didn’t need to book any hotels or campsites while traveling.

The West Coast was definitely easier when it comes to finding free places to sleep since there are more national parks and national forests, and BLM land. On the east coast, it was mostly Walmart and Home Depot parking lots.

Final thoughts on this 3 month road trip USA route

Our 3 month road trip around America was one of the best trips I’ve ever done. We didn’t really have any American road trip routes in mind. It was very much a case of down one coast, along the bottom, and up the other side.

3 months isn’t really enough time to do everything we did. You have to be prepared to move quite fast and there are definitely places we missed that I’d love to go back and see. I actually include some of them in my USA bucket list post.

They include seeing more of Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, perhaps visiting places like Iowa and Cleveland in Ohio or more of California since we missed places like Joshua Tree and Los Angeles.

But, this USA trip was still a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I feel very lucky to have had. Maybe one day we’ll get to plan another 3 month road trip USA itinerary, who knows?!

If you love road trips be sure to check out this guide to the best places to visit on an East Coast road trip USA as well as trip this awesome New England fall foliage road trip itinerary.

Last Updated on July 31, 2023 by Hannah