As a family, we embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. You might think that we are crazy to drive 2500 miles to explore five national parks; traveling through five states in ten days but that's a challenge we accepted. Our adventure took us through Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada, where we made a pit stop in Las Vegas. We looked at each destination as an opportunity to learn and explore nature, be active and spend quality time as a family while enjoying the sheer beauty and awe-inspiring backdrops of national parks.

Our adventure started as we flew into Salt Lake City on a Friday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Early morning after breakfast, we drove to Yellowstone National Park. At Yellowstone, our reservations were inside the park at Canyon Lodge and Cabins. Yellowstone is one of the biggest national parks with so much to offer and therefore we planned to stay at Yellowstone for two and a half-days.

After seeing as much of Yellowstone as we could, including the infamous Old Faithful, we drove towards Grand Teton National Park. Once again chose to stay inside the park at the Jackson Lake Lodge with plans to stay for two full days. While a day and a half were spent at the park, we spent half a day white water rafting in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Exploring the Jackson Hole and Tetons through the river was an excellent choice and the children loved going on such a thrilling adventure!

Next up on the plan is a long drive from Grand Teton National Park to Arches National Park located in Moab Utah. We debated about breaking the drive in two days but eventually, saving time was paramount and we went ahead with the long drive. The scenery was gorgeous, so we quickly forgot about the time on the road! There are no hotels inside Arches NP so we made reservations in a hotel right outside the park.

After spending a day and a half at Arches, we are off to Bryce Canyon National Park. Once we arrived at Bryce Canyon NP, we spent a day and a half exploring and marveling at how different Bryce Canyon is. Once again, we stayed at a hotel just outside the park and we were happy with the arrangement.

Finally, it was time to make the drive to Zion National Park. At Zion, we took some risks with lodging and made reservations with a company called Under Canvas. Under Canvas offered great camping options without the stress. Their luxurious camping is more commonly known as glamping and I highly recommend families to give it a try, even if you have never been camping before.

Glamping with Under Canvas Zion was an amazing experience and I can say that we all loved it. Our favorite parts were that we did not have to set up anything or take it down but we enjoyed all the comforts of home, including a bathroom! We would do a glamping trip again. The two nights with Under Canvas Zion flew by just like the two days inside the Zion National Park.

The reality that our crazy adventure through the national parks was coming to an end started to sink in at the end of two full days in Zion. It was time now to make our final drive, which had us arriving in Las Vegas. We walked around a little before dining at Bellagio for lunch. After lunch, we went to the airport for our flight back home, so the kids could go back to school.

This was an amazing and whirlwind type of trip that I would do again in a heartbeat! It just goes to show that you can see numerous destinations within a short amount of time, as long as you plan carefully. My children survived and so did us, the parents, although we would all love to be back out in the national parks right now!