beauty that the parks could hold. We then moved on to camp at Devil’s Tower, where we had an almost sleepless night due to the strong gales off of the 5,000-foot-high isolated rock formation, straight towards our campsite, only about a mile away. The wind was so powerful that it noisily blew over our tent, pushing down the top so far that it touched our faces as we lay awake. Looking back on the moment, it could have been incredibly annoying and tiring, but my whole family simply laid in our sleeping bags laughing about it all.
and a half there, slept in a motel, and left for Badlands National Park in SD the next morning. It was stiflingly hot when we arrived at Badlands in the afternoon. The sun glared on the desolate landscape where trees couldn’t grow due to the dry, infertile land. With no glimpse of shade in sight, other than the standalone visitor’s center and bathrooms, my f irst impressions about national parks were not so good. As we drove through the large western states to reach Wyoming’s three National Parks, music, once a uniting force, became an issue. The driving days began to extend past three, four, or five hour increments, and I began to grow tired of certain iPod music. My mom was the head commander of the minivan and had first choice in music. So we most often listened to Janet Jackson, Pat Benatar, and Madonna. While the iPod on aux had some tracks that my whole family enjoyed, like the Cranberries, Adele, and Nelly Furtado, we could only listen to the MP3s my parents downloaded so many times. Thus, we began to radio station surf endlessly, and the tune that we most frequently heard was ear-scraping static.
Following our time in Wyoming, we entered one of my favorite places on the trip: Yellowstone National Park. We entered the park through Wyoming and after crossing into the Utah quarter of the park, we prepared to set up camp. After we found a camping spot early enough in the afternoon and pitched our tent, we prepared to make our delicious dinner of campfire rice noodles and tomato sauce (rice noodles due to my father’s gluten allergy). We had set our camping pot over the stove with the noodles and water, and it was just beginning to boil when dark gray rain clouds covered the sky in a matter of seconds. We cautiously tried to continue making our dinner, and as soon as the noodles finished cooking and we strained them, the sky opened up. We ran with our precious noodles to the minivan. Without the space or energy to portion out the noodles onto four plates, we dumped the sauce into the pot that my mom held in the middle of the car, and all ate crouched over it. Thus, my fifth piece of advice: consistently check the weather to watch out for any strong wind or rain showers heading your way, and of course, ALWAYS put a tarp over your tent.
Here, I’d like to give my advice on another road trip must: the music. During a road trip, it is vital to set station-surfing parameters. For example, our family rule was to only surf for three minutes to find a station the whole family agreed upon. Another aspect of auditory entertainment to consider is how you want to compose the selection—I think having a joint streaming service between you and your road tripping companions is a great way to start so that you can all contribute to one collaborative playlist. However, you could also consider a fun audiobook, or educational podcast episodes about a topic that everyone enjoys.
From Yellowstone, we drove through Nevada to reach the Grand Canyon. It was a truly monumental sight. Breathtakingly rust red, it expanded for miles and miles in front of me. I hadn’t felt so small in a very long time, even while peering out the car window, watching wide open fields time and time again. We made a couple of stops in California to visit family and friends before we entered Arizona.
My family and I settled on rereading A Series of Unfortunate Events novels on our way to Grand Teton National Park. There I finally began to see more of the appeal of the magnificent
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