5 Best Family RV Trips for Summer
Do you love the freedom of stopping whenever and wherever you can and enjoy the beauty of nature? You can do both by renting an RV and going road-tripping across America or by taking a short road trip to a national park near you. We have five best family RV trips for summer that you may want to consider.
1. Wyoming
Wyoming is known for its wide-open plains and national parks. Bordering Colorado and Utah in the south, Nebraska and South Dakota in the east, Montana in the north and Montana and Idaho in the west, Wyoming is the best state to go RVing this summer. Wyoming’s capital Cheyenne is
961 miles from Chicago,
438 miles from Jackson Hole, and
678 miles from Cooke City Montana.
Road trippers have so many options and places to park their RV in Wyoming. It's best to book in advance if you plan to camp in Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. For a list of campgrounds and RV parks, check out Travel Wyoming, the official travel website of
Wyoming Tourism Board.
Get the best of Wyoming by combining a road trip to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Start in Jackson Hole (also known as Jackson), through Grand Teton National Park and use the south entrance to Yellowstone Park. It’s about
97 miles from Jackson to the Old Faithful in Yellowstone.
2. Colorado
Mountains, canyons, rivers, hot springs, forests, and plateaus are some of the landscapes Colorado is known for. Nature lovers will enjoy Colorado’s many scenic roadways and breathtaking vistas.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Garden of the Gods, Grand Sand Dunes National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison are fantastic destinations for your summer RV trip. However, the
Colorado tourism board highlighted three RV vacations for the family:
1. Los Caminos Antiguos Scenic Byway, starting at Alamosa, a town
230 miles from Boulder and
165 miles from Colorado Springs.
2. Dinosaur Diamond Scenic and Historic Byway, starting at Grand Junction.
3. Santa Fe Trail Scenic and Historic Byway, starting at Trinidad.
For a list of campgrounds and RV parks, check out
Colorado’s tourism website.
3. South Dakota
The sparsely populated state of South Dakota has open roads that stretch out to the forests, prairie lands, and rivers. Sandwiched between Montana and Wyoming in the west, Nebraska in the south, Iowa and Minnesota in the east, and North Dakota in the north, South Dakota is home to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Badlands National Park, and Wind Cave National Park.
Camp in Badlands National Park’s Cedar Pass, and you may have the opportunity to see bison, bighorn sheep, and prairie dogs. But a trip to South Dakota is not complete without a stopover at Mount Rushmore, located about
98 miles from Badlands National Park. Mount Rushmore has an RV campsite, the
Rush No More Campground.
4. Alaska
For the ultimate RV road trip, drive to Alaska, America’s Last Frontier. The drive to Anchorage from Seattle is
2261 miles and
2192 miles from Vancouver. Alaska offers plenty of outdoor activities and beautiful
RV parks and campgrounds. And if you’re driving from the US through Canada, you must bring your passports and valid documents for the RV.
This long journey is not for the faint-hearted. You’ll need to drive a long distance, and gas stations are fewer in between. But the good news is, once you arrive, there are ample opportunities to spot moose, bears, and caribou in Denali National Park and Katmai National Park. And you can go hiking at
Matanuska Glacier, one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska.
5. Florida
Florida is easy to get to year-round. We suggest an RV road trip to Florida if summer is the only time you can take a vacation with your family. There are theme parks, a space center, wildlife, beaches, and quaint seaside towns to explore.
Visit Florida listed 10 great RV parks to check out:
- Florida Caverns State Park, Marianna
- Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, Santa Rosa Beach
- Anastasia State Park, St Augustine
- Fort Pickens Campground, Pensacola
- St. George Island State Park
- Juniper Springs National Recreation Center, Ocala
- Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
- Fort de Soto Park, St. Petersburg
- Lion Country Safari KOA, Loxahatchee
- Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys
Plan your RV trip using this list and read
RVing: A Way to Travel in America, and you’ll have a blast.