First Road Trip Out West - advice?

I did a similar trip several years ago without the camping part. We flew to Denver, rented a car and hit the road. We did CO, WY, ID, MT, and SD. The one thing I would advise is to not let your gas tank get too low. There are places out there where you will drive for hours without a gas station. It’s not like the eastern US where you can’t go 5 miles without seeing several stations.

 

I live on Open Range. It gets DARK. Black Cattle and Brown Elk! LIGHT BAR. Even though my Headlights work well in lighting the road for hundreds of yard, those big critters are almost invisible. My kid is an Outdoor Professional. WE put Rigid Light Bar on the big diesel pick up and it SAVES our bacon.

 

Great advice given so far. I'll plus 4 on the light bar. And I'll add either the fog light on anytime mod or the BriteBox fogster. You will need more light just driving at night. Also, a cell booster. There will be spots where there is no signal to boost, but plenty of spots where you have 1 bar and having a hard time connecting for directions, food, gas etc.
Definitely the bear spray also which can sell out during the summer, so start looking now.
Buy the National Parks Pass. It's only $80 and will get you in all National Parks. You can download park maps for free and get them printed at Kinkos for under a buck. super helpful to see all of Yellowstone on one page and can gauge locations of multiple attractions at once.
Binoculars, consider adding the "static chalk bags as a cup holder mod" if you use large containers like hydro flasks. Tire chains and ice scraper for the windshield. We got caught in a surprise snow storm in September last year on one of our journeys -- It was Labor Day weekend just outside of Mount Rushmore.

Have fun!!

 

If you go through Flagstaff az def get out to east pocket for free camping at the edge of the world you won't get a better view but get a site before 5 pm if it's a weekend

 

Better yet, head to the North Rim, NO Crowds. If you stay outside of Park Boundaries, head South and West. Just about every road ends at the Canyon. Pick a spot and almost bet you will not see a light once it gets dark.

Plus Jacob Lake has the best ice cream. It is the ONLY place for gas up there so leave Chock-A-Block.

 

Just arrived in Bend today. Spent the last week and a half+ on the road driving from Virginia Beach. Drove through Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and spent nights in Arapaho and Routt Nat'l Forests. Camped outside of Arches on BLM land and at the Wedge in Utah. A few more days camping in Idaho and Eastern Oregon on the way. In the truck had my wife and our two dogs so was fairly constrained on space.

At the end of the day, planning out your trip well and being realistic about what you need to have done to say you had a good time are going to inform what you should bring more than anyone else's packing list based on much different desires.

For us, I wanted to make sure to have the gear with me that would make me feel comfortable enough to get 15-20 miles offroad and away from everyone. I brought a compressor (used a ton), Maxtrax (only used to level out the truck twice), a jack (didn't use), jumpstart battery pack (didn't use), shovel (didn't use for recovery), and a small toolkit (didn't use) and a few more small things. I didn't have a winch or extra lights. On the maxtrax, specifically, they were for emergency use only. With my wife and two dogs, I would have opted for a different route if I thought there was a decent chance I would get stuck.

Hope this helps. Definitely learned a lot and there are better setups than what I had but you can always use this one as a learning opportunity for the next trip. No harm in staying extra safe if there's any question.

 

Let us know how your trip went, meaning did any of the tips help make it more enjoyable. It will help others.