Suggestions for PNW road trip.

[Dalton]

Hello!
I'm planning a road trip for the end of October / early November. roughly 2 weeks, maybe more if we feel like it.. we have a well equipped ram 1500..still debating on if we should take our 15' travel trailer or just use the RTT. I know with the fall weather a trailer might be nice if its to wet and cold.
We are leaving from Vancouver, BC and going to be heading towards Yellowstone , Devils tower , Grand Teton , Pillars of Rome and many more stops of course , but I would love more suggestions from people who have actually done a trip like this or have must see places that I don't want to miss out on!


So if you could give some tips on places to stop and maybe some pros/cons to my trailer or just the RTT that I might not be thinking of haha! It will be our first large trip and expecting around 6000kms

also, items I should have in the truck for a trip this "big" would be great advice as well! thanks!!

 

[OTH Overland]

Sounds like an awesome trip! Not sure if you are looking to do backcountry travel or mainly stick with the highways? Keep in mind that lots of places will be closed or inaccessible the later you go. Yellowstone closes all roads to travel in the winter except for the North Entrance road from Mammoth to Cooke City which is open all year. (You have to come back the way you went as the road past cook city is closed in winter. This years closure is schedules for November 7th this year but can happen early with heavy snow. That being said Yellowstone is a great place to visit in the winter, hardly any people and plenty to see on the road that is open. The animals are still very plentiful., or you can take a snow coach or snowmobile tour into the closed part of the park. We go almost every winter. Many campgrounds in the PNW close by end of september, and you can not get to far up most of the forest service roads due to snow so finding dispersed campsites can be fun, especially with it getting dark early. Having done this trip in ground tent, RTT and RV, I can say its awful nice to have a warm dry place to sleep, and not having to deal with a wet or snow covered tent. Also opens up a lot more places to stay in a pinch, never fun putting up a RTT in a rest area or Walmart..lol Grand Teton is open with very little camping and a bit of a drive in the winter as you can't get to it from the north thru Yellowstone and have to drop down thru Idaho.

 

[OTH Overland]

Looking at the list of places you have, it seems like Devils Tower is a bit of an outlier with not a lot of stuff for off season around there, pretty good drive out and back. If you want to do Teton, you could head to Bozeman and to the north end of Yellowstone, then back thru Bozeman and down thru Big Sky to West Yellowstone and further down thru Idaho to swing into south end of Teton, Then head down to Moab / San Rafael Swell in Utah. (We did that area last Thanksgiving, a bit cold, but snow free and dry. we were in our Ram with a ground tent with night time temps at 10f (5c) had a blast exploring the swell and goblin valley. Return trip through Salt Lake City and north into Oregon would catch the pillars of Rome (have not been there yet, added to our to do list, thank you) and maybe back thru Bend, out to coast and up around the Olympic peninsula toward home.

Just realized you are only about 40 miles to the north of us as the crow flies, so pretty much neighbors from different countries...lol

As far as what extra to stuff in the truck, We do not really bring that much extra gear then we typically take for an overland adventure, mainly just adding tire chains, cold weather gear, extra food and fuel in case we are stuck somewhere waiting for roads to clear etc. We already always carry plenty of emergency gear, but make extra sure we have safety vests, flashlights, gloves and electronic flares in an easy to reach place since its often dark, bad weather, or low visibility.

 

[Dalton]

Looking at the list of places you have, it seems like Devils Tower is a bit of an outlier with not a lot of stuff for off season around there, pretty good drive out and back. If you want to do Teton, you could head to Bozeman and to the north end of Yellowstone, then back thru Bozeman and down thru Big Sky to West Yellowstone and further down thru Idaho to swing into south end of Teton, Then head down to Moab / San Rafael Swell in Utah. (We did that area last Thanksgiving, a bit cold, but snow free and dry. we were in our Ram with a ground tent with night time temps at 10f (5c) had a blast exploring the swell and goblin valley. Return trip through Salt Lake City and north into Oregon would catch the pillars of Rome (have not been there yet, added to our to do list, thank you) and maybe back thru Bend, out to coast and up around the Olympic peninsula toward home.

Just realized you are only about 40 miles to the north of us as the crow flies, so pretty much neighbors from different countries...lol

As far as what extra to stuff in the truck, We do not really bring that much extra gear then we typically take for an overland adventure, mainly just adding tire chains, cold weather gear, extra food and fuel in case we are stuck somewhere waiting for roads to clear etc. We already always carry plenty of emergency gear, but make extra sure we have safety vests, flashlights, gloves and electronic flares in an easy to reach place since its often dark, bad weather, or low visibility.

Well this info makes me double think if its worth doing at this time of year... I am not worried about winter driving, but if roads are closed that can definitely change the trip without some extra planning.
I would love to go to MOAB...and have just looked at it and maybe i just quickly dip through yellowstone, then head to moab then the grand canyon and back up through oregon coast way...... damn this is harder then i thought especially with wanting to go by end of october haha! I appreciate all your info! makes my head think of so many things really appreciate the notice of road closures.. would not have thought that at all.
also we are definitely ok with less highways! but also to make up some ground we understand it might be best to take them for the most part.

 

[OTH Overland]

Capital Reef and Grand Canyon are great to visit, North Rim of the Grand Canyon has some great backcountry camping and is open until Dec 1st, We are planning on two weeks around Christmas and will most likely head down the coast then across southern California up thru Utah and back thru Montana to home, pretty much reverse direction from you, we will be in colder and darker weather of course and a RTT