Call us crazy, but we took a 28-hour car ride from Atlanta, GA, to the Grand Tetons for a summer family trip. We loved our car ride and had a blast driving out west.
Why Drive?
We decided to drive when we saw the prices for flights to Jackson, Wyoming, and Salt Lake City. The average flight cost to Jackson was about $750 round trip per person or $1,500 total.
We thought it would be cheaper to drive. And we both grew up in families that took road trips, not plane trips, so we were not scared of the hours.
Here are the expenses to drive out west:
- Gas: $240
- Food: $100
- Hotel: $66
- Total: $560
So driving saved us about $940! And we got some quality time together.
Packing for the Drive
We decided that we wanted to spend as little money as possible on the drive, so we packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner with us so we wouldn’t need to buy any food on the road.
We had the luxury of bringing a cooler and had lots of room for snacks in our car. Our car road essentials are sandwiches, sour gummy worms, yogurt, chocolate, chips, trail mix, and our personal favorite, homemade popcorn.
We pre-made three sandwiches each for easy grab-and-go lunches and dinners.
The other thing I love about driving is you can bring so many extra goodies! We packed four of our inflatable kayaks to kayak in the Grand Tetons. We also packed extra clothes that we could have probably left behind (this may not be a good thing…).
But if we had flown to the Grand Tetons, we would not have been able to bring our kayaks, and one of the most fun days was kayaking on Lake Jenny. Just another pro for taking the car ride!
The Drive
We started Thursday night around 8 p.m. from Atlanta, GA. Starting this late was not the ideal time to leave, but I had to tutor till 7 p.m., so we didn’t have much of an option, but leaving at this time gave us the most beautiful sunset! We aimed to make it to Paducah, Kentucky, about 6 hours away, with a time change for our first leg of the drive.
We weren’t sure if we were going to stay all the nights in hotels, but for our first night, we stayed at the Pear Tree Inn and used our $50 annual hotel credit from our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, so the room only cost $66 and it was a pretty nice hotel, except for the morning.
There must have been construction or something going on because at 5:00 a.m. we were awoken to loud equipment that seemed to last forever. It made us a little sad because we wanted to get some good rest for the drive. Unfortunately, we both got around 4 hours of sleep and left the hotel around 7:30 a.m.
We continued our journey through Illinois and part of Missouri before stopping to have a little picnic at a rest area, where we enjoyed one of our sandwiches and went on a pleasant stroll to stretch our legs.
We were fortunate to have nice weather during our drive out west. It became overcast in the afternoon, which was great to avoid the sun shining directly in our eyes for sunset.
By dinner time, we still had yet to decide whether or not to get a hotel room for the night. We were so disappointed about the previous night’s stay that we didn’t want to spend more money on another hotel, but the other part of us wanted to sleep horizontally for the night, so we just kept driving.
To save time, we didn’t stop for a picnic dinner but ate while driving, enjoying each other’s company and the views from the car. We even had red velvet bundt cake for dessert.
Eventually, late into the night, we decided to power through and not get a hotel room. Brandon took on the last leg of the night by getting to Tipton, Wyoming, putting our total driving time at 18 hours and 40 minutes for day two. We pulled over at a rest stop and tried to get some sleep for the night.
Honestly, I felt like I slept better at the rest stop than at a hotel, and we got to wake up to prairie dogs outside our car window and see the sunrise.
The next day we refreshed ourselves in the restroom and hit the road. We only had four more hours to get to the Grand Tetons!
These four hours were the best four hours ever!! The mountains began to appear, and we continued to get closer and closer to them. We were amazed by the landscape and how much it changed over a few hours.
We quickly stopped at Pine Coffee Supply in Pinedale, Wyoming, to get some coffee and charge our phones. We were so giddy to get to the mountains that we did not stay for long.
We finished our 28-hour car ride in awe, driving through all the valleys surrounded by the towering peaks, which made us so happy that we made the road trip to the Grand Tetons. There was so much we would not have seen taking a flight across the U.S.
Ten out of ten, we would do it again!! Hopefully, with more time to make additional pit stops and random adventures!
