So glad you had a good time on your trip! Your descriptions of Coeur d’Alene made me want to move there as well! The grandma you mentioned earlier in your trip reminded me of an elderly woman I met on one of my trips that told me something very similar! One of favorite parts of trips are the people I meet along the way, it’s really fun hearing their stories.

Congrats on a successful cross country trip. I enjoyed reading it with being a traveler myself. Gave me some ideas for future trips in the coming few years. If you get back to the Pacific NW again, highly recommend going to Mt. Saint Helens in Washington. The hiking there is amazing in the foothills of the volcano, but go there late morning. By then, the morning fog burns off that heavy cloud cover over the volcano. Sodona, AZ is also highly recommended too. Valley of Fire in NV is really good hiking too. Red Rock outside Las Vegas is another awesome park to hike. Glad you mentioned the volume of visitors issue, that will definitely affect my decision to visit some parks. That yearly National Park System card is well worth the money for trips like this. I justified it with 6 parks out west alone, and more to come here in the coming months. Death Valley, CA is one of my favorite parks, just not during a storm as I found out in February. Being hit by a dirt devil is not fun. Lake Mead area also a really nice area too. (I'm Aaron's uncle from IN). Good job on the pictures too. If you like history, visit all the different forts along the east coast. Each one is different and has it's own history. Fort Pulaski was one of the better ones.

I loved reading this!!! It sounded like an awesome trip, thanks for taking all of us along for the ride.

Sounds like an excellent trip, all in all. Thanks for taking the time to write this all out, it was a lovely read, and it's great to know what you've been up to over the summer!