Packing for a National Park Road Trip – SD, WY, MT

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The mountains called and, this past June, we went.

As we’ve said before, and as many of you know, packing isn’t everyone’s favorite activity. It can be stressful deciding what to pack, especially when traveling to new destinations. And traveling on the heels of COVID can add an extra layer of doubt. So we’re here to help you out. We recently returned from a two week national park road trip through the North/Midwest United States (South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana), and we’ve got a few packing tips to share with you.

Prepare to mask up

If you are flying to any destination, plan to wear a mask. As of today, you are still required to wear masks at most airports and on airplanes (at least with Delta and American Airlines). So don’t forget your mask and be prepared to wear it for the duration of your flight. Many people have been asked to leave planes (and even been arrested for refusing to leave) for not wearing masks. Don’t be one of those people.

We flew into Sioux Falls, SD and home from Kalispell, MT with layovers both ways, so we spent a good amount of time in our masks. We also had to take Ubers/Lyfts our first day because we didn’t pick up our rental until the second day of the trip and they require masks as well. (We will talk more about our car rental crisis in an upcoming blog.)

There is also still a national park mask mandate in place that requires all unvaccinated visitors to wear a mask while in the parks. Honestly, no one was checking vaccine cards or anything so it’s really on the honor system. Full disclosure, we didn’t wear masks for most of this trip, with the exception of the airport/airplane, ride shares, and a few establishments that kindly requested all customers wear one. Since we’d both been fully vaccinated and were feeling healthy and well, we felt safe without them.

Pack those layers

We visited parks in SD, WY and MT in late May/early June. And let us tell you, the weather at Yellowstone National Park is not the same as the weather at Glacier National Park. Make sure to do a bit of research to find out what the temperatures are likely to be, but also be prepared to layer. We ran into situations where it was both hot and cold in the same day. It rained the day we visited the Badlands and it actually made it a bit cool up on the mountains.

We always recommend packing a light rain jacket (it did rain on us a few days of the trip). These are easily packable and don’t take up much extra space. We also both took a sweatshirt for the cooler days (you will need one in Glacier, even in the summer, trust us). Also, make sure to pack more breathable fabrics, like cotton, for those warm days.

Don’t pack an excess of nice outfits or jeans

Comfortable clothes are a must. No matter how active you plan to be, you will likely be at least somewhat active when visiting national parks so you need clothes you can move around in easily. We saw a few people hiking in jeans and could not for the life of us figure out why someone would want to subject themselves to that kind of torture. Even jeggings, which are much more flexible, are not typically great fabrics for excessive physical activity. Jean shorts are usually a travel staple of ours, but not so much on this trip. There were very few days where we wore them since we did so much hiking.

Our advice? Leave most of those jeans at home. Take one pair of regular jeans/jeggings and no more than two pairs of jean shorts. If you are planning on hiking a lot like we did, this is more than enough. And even if you aren’t a hiker per se, consider more soft fabrics like these linen shorts from Old Navy. It really helps with chafing.

Several of the parks we visited had places within the park to eat, or you could find a restaurant nearby. But that was not always the case. It is somewhat difficult to plan out your meals easily ahead of time since, if you’re like us, you can’t be sure what time you will be getting somewhere and how close restaurants will be. (One night we ate frozen pot pies at our Airbnb because the closest restaurant was half an hour away and Burger King.) We really didn’t eat at too many nice places, so the clothes we wore into the park were generally also the clothes we ate our meal in. We honestly thought we would change clothes more in between these activities and took more non-hiking clothes than we really needed.

Basically, you probably won’t need more than a few casual outfits so we recommend taking 1-2 pairs of non-workout shorts or pants and 2-3 tops. Preferably, take pieces that are all interchangeable. Neutral colors work best.

Chose your footwear wisely

Even more so than comfortable clothes, the biggest must is comfortable and relatively non-slip shoes. If you’re like us, you will walk A LOT. We like to hike but we also tend to walk to and from a lot of places on our trips. We took both good sandals and hiking boots with us (along with other shoes, like flats, that we did not wear in the parks).

Investing in a good pair of waterproof/resistant hiking boots is a must if you plan to do a lot of the trails, especially in Glacier. It rained quite a bit when we were there and there was still snow on the ground. There were also several trails in the Badlands and Grand Teton that recommended good hiking boots to even do the trail. We both have Merrell hiking boots and they have been great so far. They kept our feet nice and dry on those wet and muddy days and helped keep us on our feet on those uphill climbs.

And though we definitely recommend hiking boots, we actually wore our sandals most of the time on this trip and found ourselves wishing we had brought two pair instead of just one (one for hiking and one for everyday wear since your feet and shoes do tend to get dirty on hikes). They worked out well because they kept our feet from getting too hot and were also fairly non-slip. They are good quality sandals with good foot and arch support. These are sandals you invest in (ours were about $75) because they are well-made, durable, and very supportive. We love Merrell’s sandals and have found we can walk lots of miles and even hike in them with minimal foot pain compared to other shoes. We have the Merrell J55318 sandals. They don’t have those on the Merrell website, but you can find them on Amazon.

Right now you can earn 3.5% cash back when you use Rakuten on Merrell’s website.

Don’t forget your H20

Like we’ve said before, we always take water bottles with us when we travel. It is so important to stay hydrated when you’re spending a lot of time outside. And the whole point of a national park road trip is to be outside. So make sure you take a water bottle of some description with you. We actually purchased two gallon jugs of water at Walmart when we arrived in South Dakota and kept them refilled at our hotels and Airbnb’s. That way, we could take them with us in the car and refill our smaller water bottles when needed throughout the day. We also found it helpful to buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler and a few ice pack blankets to keep the jugs nice and cool. That supplied us with cold water throughout the trip. If you don’t want to carry a cooler, most parks also have water bottle filling stations in or around the visitor centers you can use. TIP- Do not put ice in Styrofoam coolers. We did this our first day and it melted and leaked all over the trunk. Ice packs are the way to go. Also, the lids do not like to stay on these coolers very well, so we used a towel to secure it while driving.

Hydration packs are also handy to take on trips like these because they save you from having to constantly dig your water bottle out to get a drink on a hike. They also make hydration packs with additional pockets that you can keep small items like keys, money, etc. in.

Sunscreen is a must

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to use sunscreen. Even when it is cloudy, the sun’s rays will get you. And don’t forget your feet! After day 1 of wearing sandals and ending up with sunburnt feet, we sprayed those suckers down each and every day. If you don’t want to fly with sunscreen in your bag, do like we did and purchase it when you get to your first destination. And if you’re spending a lot of time in the car, or leaving your stuff in a hot car, consider getting a cooler and ice packs to leave items like sunscreen in if you don’t want to carry them in your day bag.

We also recommend bug spray, as we did encounter bugs in a lot of the parks. Our car window was covered for most of the trip. We would squeegee it every time we got gas and within a day, the bugs were back!

Be ready to take photos

Trust us when we say that you will be taking photos on this trip. There is so much beautiful scenery here that you will want to capture, so consider taking a good camera. (Mal- I carried my Fujifilm X-T30 and was able to take some rather stunning photos, if I do say so myself.) We saw many people with their DSLR cameras. But don’t worry, you don’t have to invest in an expensive camera to take good photos. Most of us carry a camera around everywhere we go, and phones have improved their built in cameras over the years. iPhones actually take really good photos, especially for the Gram.

Also, think about how you want to look in those photos. Court- I feel like I just look better in pics when I have earrings in, so I packed a pair of cheap fake pearl earrings and wore them almost every day. Pearls go with anything so they are great to take on any vacation. I also feel like aviator sunglasses look the best on me and you will be wearing sunglasses in a lot of photos so make sure you have ones that you like. That being said, just always remember that the best thing you can wear in a pic is a happy smile. How sweaty you are, how dirty you may look, and whether or not you look your very best are irrelevant if you are having an awesome adventure and capture those moments.

You don’t have to pack everything

Like we said previously, we stopped in at Walmart when we arrived in South Dakota. We purchased several items like the cooler, ice packs, sunscreen, bug spray, and snacks. Some of these we couldn’t easily fly with nor did we really want to bring back (like the cooler and jugs of water). And some we didn’t want taking up space in our suitcases. So don’t worry about cramming every single thing you might need into your suitcase. Depending on where you start your trip, you should easily be able to find a store to purchase your “road trip essentials”. I mean, you have to have snacks right?

It should also be noted that if you are visiting parks such as Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier, it is highly recommended you purchase bear spray. We bought ours at Grand Teton for around $50. Some local shops on the outskirts of the parks also sold it for a little cheaper (maybe $40) and our hotel at Glacier actually rented it out for $15 for the duration of your stay. You can also purchase bear spray online but note that you cannot take it on airplanes as it is considered an explosive material, much like pepper spray. It was worth it for us to purchase just for peace of mind while hiking. Though we were with other hikers a good portion of the time, sometimes it was just the two of us and we were not looking to take on a bear (even though we totally could have *flexes muscles*).

We hope this helped you prepare for your own national park road trip. Let us know in the comments if you have any other recommendations.