Winter 2026 Road Trip Planning

How The Heck Do You Plan A Seven Week Road Trip???

Well after weeks and weeks, we still don't know exactly what we are doing, but here is what we have targeted so for...

1. Stay flexible??? We really want to stay flexible so we are planning our route, but so far not making any reservations. 
2. We have laid out our route with the main areas we want to see, main attractions and potential campgrounds/rv parks. But again we have not made any reservations until we actually hit the road. In Bend it can snow at any time during January when we are leaving, so that is the main                  hurdle to jump before making any reservations. Once we know that, we can go for it at least a week ahead at a time.
3. Planning Resources. So far we have a subscription to RV Life with their trip planner, we have joined Harvest Hosts, and also Passport America. Another MUST have is Google Maps to help move forward from where RV Life trip planner is currently at your last stop.
4. Google Maps. We always have either RV Life trip planner running, and Google Maps in the background, or visa versa. Between the two, and then multiple windows open (like 10 it seems), I can jump back and forth between all the prior mentioned programs and bringing up campgrounds, state parks, attractions etc. So far we are good for the first 3-4 weeks, from Bend to Big Bend (how crazy is that?) and now trying to retrace our path if cold, or heading north a little and back through Flagstaff if no snow is in the forecast. 
5. The street view in Google Maps is absolutely GREAT!

As you can see below, I have all my windows running at the same time and can switch between them easy peasy just by clicking on a tab! This is the street view of the Rio Grande Village Campground running in Google Maps where we can check out every campsite we might be interested in. A forewarn for you, the coverage of Google Maps does not always cover these types of spots, but it is getting better all the time! When we were wondering about smaller back country highways, it was a help to see what shape the roadway was in before deciding on the route. 

Now with a click of a tab we can see our RV Life Trip Planner with the stops and route planned to this point. As you can see, Big Bend National Park is not the end of the list as we are heading back towards El Paso with a stop at Fort Davis Campground, and then on to El Paso.

Now a screen shot of Harvest Host with the actual host we are going to stay with. Notice on the trip planner it has the stop listed as a Loves Travel Center stop. The Harvest Host place does not show up with details, so I leave a note in the Trip Planner with all the actual info including address and contact information for where we are actually going to stay. In this case it is only about a 1/2 mile away. So two birds killed here with one stone. A PRIMARY place to stay, with a SECONDARY place just in case. Hey hey, I guess the old gray haired dude isn't so stupid after all.... (spell check sure helps this claim as well)...