The Great American Road Trip // Part 1

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may know this already, but during the month of September, I went on a two-week long cross-country road trip with my family! I honestly didn't think I would be able to go, what with college and all, but at the very last minute (literally two days before we left!), God worked everything out so perfectly.

It was an absolutely amazing trip. We drove all the way from Virginia to Oregon and back, visiting a total of eighteen new-to-me states and four national parks along the way. It was very exhausting, but completely, 100% worth it! I loved seeing God's amazing creativity as displayed through nature, and I made so many fun memories and hilarious inside jokes with my parents, siblings, aunt, uncle, and grandparents along the way. I was also able to binge-watch Victoria during our daily car rides! Because what else are you going to do on a twelve-hour drive once you've already finished with your schoolwork? ;P

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to share some of the photos I took while on this trip! There are quite a few of them, so I'm going to split this up into a few separate posts. Otherwise, you'd be reading this post like this:

So without further ado, let's get into it!

Day One - West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois

We didn't do much on this day since we had a rather long drive from Virginia to our hotel in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, but I managed to snap a few photos of the beautiful scenery as we drove along.

Day Two - Missouri, Iowa, and South Dakota

We stopped at the St. Louis Arch early in the morning to take a few photos, and the weather gave the city a slightly abandoned feel. It was chilly, drizzly, and misty, and there was hardly anyone else around! Of course, it was also rather early on Sunday morning, so maybe that could have also contributed to it feeling like a post-apocalyptic city? Haha. ;P

After a long day of driving, we made it to South Dakota, where we would be staying for the night. The sunset that night was so beautiful!

Day Three - South Dakota and Wyoming

This was one of my favorite days from the trip. We spent the majority of it in South Dakota, which is an incredibly beautiful state! 

We got to feed some adorable little Prairie Dogs! Seriously, how cute is this?!

Our first stop of the day was Badlands National Park, which I actually hadn't been aware of before. This place was like nothing I had ever seen before! It had such a rugged, striking beauty about it. My family kept saying that it looked like something out of Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, haha.

After the Badlands, we stopped at Wall Drug, South Dakota. While there, I stumbled upon a lovely little bookshop called "Hole in the Wall Bookstore." It even had a Laura Ingalls Wilder display, which I of course bought a book from! It was really neat seeing so many things about her while in South Dakota, since she lived there for quite some time.

After Wall Drug, we visited Mount Rushmore! It was so amazing to see this in person.

Unfortunately, we lingered a bit too long at Mount Rushmore; we didn't leave until after seven and still had a five-hour drive through huge, pitch-black mountain ranges to our hotel in Wyoming! But hey, it made for some awesome memories. ;P

Well, that's all for now! Check back soon for the next post in this series; I'll be sharing photos from our time at Yellowstone National Park and, our main destination, Oregon!

Much love,

Molly