One Month on the Road: Our Rockies Road Trip Itinerary
This is an overview of our one month road trip itinerary through the Rockies Mountains, including National Parks in British Columbia, Montana, and Colorado.
In this road trip, we combined tent camping with short-term vacation rental stays.
One Month Rockies Road Trip Itinerary
Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington – 175 miles, ~3 hours driving time
Seattle to Vancouver, BC – 145 miles, ~2.5 hours plus border crossing
Vancouver, BC to Kelowna, Canada – 24o miles, ~4 hours
Kelowna to Banff National Park, Alberta – 300 miles, ~5.5 hours (scenic route)
Banff to Glacier National Park, Montana – 260 miles, ~4.5 hours plus border crossing
Glacier to Salt Lake City, Utah – 650 miles, ~9.5 hours
Salt Lake City to Fort Collins, Colorado – 455 miles, ~7 hours
Fort Collins to Rocky Mountain National Park – 45 miles, ~1 hour
Rocky Mountain National Park to Denver, Colorado – 70 miles, ~1.5 hours
Denver to Salt Lake City – 520 miles, ~7 hours
Salt Lake City to Boise, Idaho – 340 miles, ~5 hours
Boise to Portland, Oregon – 430 miles, ~6.5 hours
Total driving days: 12
Total miles: 3650 miles
Total drive time: 57 hours
* Get our free Rockies Road Trip guide *
We started planning this trip in the midst of our two-year Peace Corps service in Jamaica. I think that’s why I was compelled to this part of the country for our trip.
After two years on a small island in the Caribbean, I was nostalgic for that familiar, crisp, green wilderness; the open road; and epic mountains. Exploring the Rockies seemed the perfect answer.
Last updated: 2023. Originally published: July 2014.
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Our Rockies Road Trip Report
Here’s where to find more detailed destination guides from the various stops on our Rockies Road Trip itinerary:
Washington Vancouver Kelowna Banff Glacier Fort Collins Rocky Mountain N.P. Denver
* Get our free Rockies Road Trip guide *
Power in Portland
We kicked off the journey after spending four days serving as volunteer Ambassadors at the World Domination Summit. WDS is basically a conference about Community, Adventure, and Service.
It brought together almost 3,000 world changers, entrepreneurs, travelers, bloggers, and non-conformists from around the world to downtown Portland. Listening to the speakers and other attendees’ stories gave us a lot to discuss while on the road.
Read: A Local’s Guide to the Top Things to Do in Portland Oregon
Win Win in Washington
Our journey began with visiting a number of friends in Washington state. Two of our friends (a couple) proposed an unofficial “help exchange”.
They wanted some help planting native plants in their backyard and learning some new recipes, so they hosted us for the week and also loaned us a lot of camping gear to use on the rest of our trip.
This is exactly the kind of creative, unconventional thinking that we’re about. We get to travel and keep costs low, they get our help on things they need. We all get to hang out with each other. It’s a win, win, win!
Beautiful British Columbia
We would have loved to spend more time in Vancouver and Victoria. Instead, we hit up the Richmond night market – a truly extraordinary cultural experience. Then drove to Kelowna, BC.
This is the only part where we paid a little extra ($50/night) to stay with locals through AirBnB.
Next, we continued up to Banff National Park to camp for four nights. We did a lot of hiking and biking around there, as well as Jasper and Lake Louise.
Read: The Best of Banff on a Budget
More Mountains in Montana
Glacier National Park is one everyone was surprised we skipped over on our first month-long Epic ‘National Parks of the West’ Road Trip. It was a high priority on this trip. We snagged a first-come first-serve campsite and explored the park for several days.
From there, we stayed with friends overnight in Salt Lake City.
Colorado Rockies
This part of the trip we joined up with family on vacation in Fort Collins, Estes Park, and Boulder. We also got to visit and stay with some fellow Peace Corps Jamaica Volunteers in Denver.
Read: Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park
On our way home to Oregon, we made quick stops in Salt Lake City and Boise at friends’ houses.
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We hope our US and Canadian Rockies Mountains trip gives you some ideas for your own road trip itinerary.
You might also like:
Car Camping Road Trip Packing List
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