Planning a Trip: Step 2 – Fix Most Restrictive Parts

Last week I wrote about Step 1 in my planning process, grabbing a map and a calendar. In planning for our big trip out west, I had already collected a long list of potential stops, either recommendations or places I already had in mind.

I plotted all of spots on a map, eliminating quite a few that were just not feasible (like Glacier National Park) for this trip. From this collection of pins, I started a spreadsheet for our itinerary, taking into account drive time and sightseeing time, as well as working in (hopefully) adequate downtime.

Once equipped with a tentative plan, I found the “problem spots”. Knowing that the national park campgrounds can fill early, they were marked as problem spots. Noticing that we will be traveling over Memorial Day weekend, the days around that were marked as problem spots. Saturday night on the beach in California? Yep, another problem spot.

And then the booking began. KOA over Memorial Day weekend? Got it. Yellowstone? No problem. Morro Bay? Site booked. Yosemite? Argh, Yosemite. Not only couldn’t I get a site in the park (no surprise there), I couldn’t even get one just outside for the dates I wanted. Shift and wiggle the itinerary, and yes, we do have two nights at Yosemite (or just outside, at least). Yellowstone? Booked. Hooray!!

Our trip now has some structure and I’ve booked what I hope are the most restrictive parts. Next step? More reservations and add more details into the plan. While I love having flexibility, I also appreciate having a very good plan in hand!