4 National Parks, 10 states, and 2800 miles in a Budget BMW

I had always heard that visiting the red rocks in Utah’s several national parks can be a life-changing experience. When I got the offer to relocate from Chicago to Los Angeles for work, I knew immediately that I had to design an epic roadtrip, with red rocks on the itinerary. Over the course of 6 days, I was able to experience plenty of picturesque landscape and so much more. I also explored some charming cities that most would consider “flyover country.” And here I am, telling you to reconsider South Dakota.

I planned the trip in April, aiming to arrive in SoCal by June 1st. In doing so, I made sure to have as little of my stuff in TeaEye as possible, so that I could really enjoy the drive and not worry about my net worth sloshing back and forth behind the front seats. This plan worked out well - besides all of my tools and a spare tire, the only things in the hatch were my guitars. When it came time to choose routes, I consulted the Google machine, knowing that I wanted to visit Badlands National Park (at the recommendation of my manager, strangely).

The route it spat out took me north, more north than I had ever been, through Wisconsin and Minnesota (instead of Nebraska). The entire route in total mapped out to be 2800 miles - more than any roadtrip I had ever done. While I would normally have reservations about embarking on a journey of this length in a car over 20 years old, I had just had the cooling system and clutch assembly refurbished by Ben Thongsai, who really knows his shit about BMWs.

May 24th was the 23rd anniversary of when the car came off of the line. 104,000 miles and a day later, I pointed it north on I-90 in Illinois and departed towards Madison, WI. After stopping for some of Stella’s famous cheesy bread at the Madison Farmers’ Market, and a stop for coffee in Winona, MN, I rolled into Sioux Falls, SD around 10 PM - a 10 hour day of driving.

Lovely downtown Madison, WI

The actual Sioux Falls, in South Dakota

Day 2 was a shorter drive, straight across South Dakota. Since I got another late start that morning I made sure to not make any errant stops until I got to Badlands National Park. I didn’t really know much about the park or why it was special, but knew that I had to make the stop since it was on the way. Thank goodness I did - I got to the first lookout point and immediately got verklempt. It was like I was staring at another grand canyon, except this one was more pale and defined in texture, and you could DRIVE a twisty road through it! (Insanely enough, this is some people’s version of heaven).

It was difficult to not stop at every viewing overlook for photos; the conical limestone spires, formed by millions of years of erosion, exemplified fossilized gothic towers that looked straight out a medieval village. They went on for miles and miles, and every apex revealed a new angle from which to view them. During this drive, I realized that this was just the beginning of the trip - there were still 3 more national parks to see!

The Badlands, SD

These Bison were YUGE

Upon exiting the park, I was in for an even bigger surprise (literally): BISON. I had never encountered one of these massive creatures, so I was elated to see a couple of them roaming near the ranger booth. A line of cars had formed, yet most people were okay with sitting in line to view of these majestic mammals quite literally “crossing the road.” At one point, one of them was about 5 feet behind the bumper of my car - I got a neat picture of it from my window. It was also BIGGER than the TeaEye.

Bison behind the TeaEye

I cruised into Rapid City, SD, that evening and promptly had a beer. While there was plenty of Bison burger on the menu at the Firehouse Restaurant, I couldn’t bring myself to try it after I had just witnessed some in the (living) flesh. Downtown Rapid city is cute and quaint, with a bustling area for shopping and eating. The next morning I went back downtown to Harriet and Oak, a beautiful café with a VW bus that was converted for even more seating.

Harriet & Oak in Rapid City, SD

I left there and cruised towards the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, through a thick fog. I read that if the fog was thick enough, the view of Mt. Rushmore would be obstructed, and sure enough, the internet was right. I did get a great selfie of me in front of some fog though. The fog persisted for Crazy Horse as well. I did have a lovely drive through Custer State Park though, and was able to eat a Beyond burger in downtown Custer, SD. I headed off towards Denver, for perhaps the most treacherous drive I’ve ever been on.

I say treacherous because Route 85 through Eastern Wyoming was devoid of services for the majority of the ride, and most of it didn’t contain cell signal either. I was also tracking a storm that was apparently going to cross my route, and the storm was reported to have hail. With my parents tracking the radar for me in California, I acquiesced their request and pulled off in a small town and parked under shelter at an abandoned gas station and waited out the storm. This was probably smart, because when I continued on south, I crossed a 100 ft section of highway that was surrounded by fresh snow and hail. Other than that, it was a fairly sunny ride into Cheyenne. I stopped in Cheyenne to meet another 318ti enthusiast, who was another stranger from the internet (I swear it’s not weird), and then outran another storm as I arrived in Denver.

I spent 2 lovely days with my friends Erin and Jordan, who graciously offered to have me stay with them while I was there. Hanging with them, Bailey the lab, and Jim the panther (huge black housecat) was a nice highlight. I of course fell in love with Boulder and its bike friendliness. The 3rd night in Denver, I headed to the airport (which was almost in Kansas) to pick up my father, who I flew in for the remainder of the drive. We got to rest as soon as we could that night, in preparation for an early start in the morning.

Before leaving for Utah, we naturally stopped to look at a car for sale. It was a 1995 BMW 318ti Clubsport - basically the same car I have, but another limited edition of which only 300 examples came off of the production line. It was cool to see two limited edition 318tis next to each other, 23 years after they were together in Germany. We unfortunately didn’t leave with the car, but I did learn later that it sold to someone in Maine.

We headed west through the Mountains, stopping in Vail, CO for lunch. The scenery continued to be more epic was we made our way to Grand Junction and into Utah. The constant switchbacks danced with the bends in the Colorado River, with the grassy cliffs looming above our heads. It was a truly stunning piece of road. Once we got to Utah the road straightened out, providing us with endless views of the myriad of red rock plateaus on all sides of us. We eventually got to Arches National Park just before dusk, which proved to be a perfect time as the sun fired up the red rock formations. Since it wasn’t as windy, we were able to open the sunroof and take it in with a 360 degree view.

After a surprisingly delicious dinner at a taco truck in Green River, UT, we continued on through the darkness of southern Utah on I-70, until we reached The Monroe Inn, the BNB I had booked for the night. The next morning, we were greeted with farm to table “Eggs in Purgatory,” which is kind of like a southwestern version of Shakshuka. The host let us know about the natural hot springs about a mile away, so we scarfed down breakfast so that we could take advantage before our long journey to Vegas.

Since these hot springs are an amazing hidden gem, I won’t be sharing their location unless asked, but the experience was unlike any I’ve ever had. With views of snowcapped peaks in every direction, we sunk into the algae lined red clay and pondered many existential questions, with nary a soul in sight. When the water was too hot, we exercised some “caveman engineering,” by using some stray rocks to control the length of the stream. It was a magical experience that I’ll never forget, and I’m so fortunate I was able to share it with my father.

After washing up and leaving the Inn, we headed off towards Bryce Canyon slightly behind my desired schedule. This worked out fairly well, however, since Bryce is not a “drive through” park in the same way that Arches was; it was more of a “pull over and look at the view when you want” park (this is of course, excluding any hikes that people may do). We pulled over at a couple of vistas and marveled in the vastness of the red rock, and then continued down route 89 towards Zion National Park, which I was most excited for.

We pulled into Zion about an hour before dusk, just like we had at Arches. This was apparently the perfect time to drive through the parks, as the sun didn’t beat down on us through the sunroof, but it still lit up the rocks like wildfire. The week prior to this adventure, someone had told me that Zion makes Sedona look like an amusement park. I’ve always loved the red rocks in Sedona, but damn, Zion took them and their vastness to a whole different level. The view becomes really emotional when you emerge from the tunnel midway through the park - the tunnel must have been at least a mile long, burrowing its way through the bottom of a mountain. When you exit, you are greeted by vast and sweeping red canyon views. The juxtaposition between that view and the dark tunnel made for quite a response from dad. We pulled over for a few photo ops before stopping in Springdale, the cute little town at the bottom of the park, for a pit stop. We then sailed on towards Vegas for the night.

After some great conversation, doggy cuddles, and an amazing Israeli breakfast provided by our gracious Vegas hosts (shoutout to the Shahmoons!), we sped off towards the Hoover Dam, since dad had never seen it (I had visited it once before). This was definitely a “since you’re there you might as well” kind of visit. The dam is a monumental engineering feat with some breathtaking views. Being there made me wonder why modern projects like these don’t get as much attention, or does our society not even accomplish endeavors like this anymore?

The last 5 hours to LA were relatively uneventful. As we pulled into the driveway, I realized that the TeaEye spent its “formative” years in LA - 1996-2014. The 5 years it was out of the state were extremely meaningful to me, as it took me over 40,000 miles of roads through 25 different states. It also somehow stayed in good shape, never giving me any big issue, or frustrating me to the point of selling it.

Out of all of the insane roadtrips I’ve been fortunate to take, this one may have been the most significant. I got to experience and wander more of the country with my father - importantly, areas that we both hadn’t seen before. The time we got to bond was priceless, and was undoubtedly my favorite part of the trip. The conclusion of the trip also means that I start a new chapter of life back in LA, except this time, I’ll be an adult. I still plan on continuing to wander, it’s just that this time, there will be a little less road salt, and not as many state line crossings.