Texas to
Washington

Up through the Hill Country to the Panhandle

• The longest stretch of open road on the whole trip: north through the Hill Country, then up onto the flat Panhandle plains.
• A night at Hyatt Place Amarillo West, on old Route 66.
• The only Buc-ee's on the entire route is on the east side of Amarillo, off I-40. After that, there are none in New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Montana or Washington.

Cadillac Ranch is right off I-40 west of town: ten half-buried Cadillacs in a field, free and open all the time. Bring a can of spray paint, or use one someone left behind.

Route 66 west into New Mexico

• West on I-40 across the state line, where the clock jumps forward an hour. Tucumcari and Santa Rosa are the classic Route 66 stops for neon signs and a stretch.
• We pulled into Hyatt Regency Tamaya around 5, on Santa Ana Pueblo land between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

A rest day with goats and horses

• Tamaya feels more like a state park than a resort: cottonwood bosque trails along the Rio Grande, free bikes, and the Sandia Mountains on the horizon.
• Around midday we walked over to the Tamaya Horse Rescue stables on the property. You can visit the horses and goats, donate, or book a slow trail ride.
• In the evening, with the heat gone, we walked the dog back down to the corrals to say hi to the horses again.

Dogs up to 50 lb are welcome at Tamaya in ground-floor rooms, but not in the restaurants or pools. The bosque trails are the best dog walk of the first few days, early in the morning before it hits 90.

Across the Four Corners to Moab

• North through the Navajo Nation and Cortez, Colorado, roughly the halfway point and a good lunch stop, then into Utah.
• Wilson Arch sits right beside US-191 about 25 miles south of Moab, a free five-minute scramble up from the road.
• Two nights at Hyatt Place Moab, ten minutes from the Arches gate.

Corona Arch, off UT-279 along the Colorado River, is one of the few big arches you can hike to with a dog, since it's on BLM land rather than in the park. Go at sunset or first thing; the slickrock gets hot.

Devils Garden in the morning, Canyonlands at golden hour

• An early start on the Devils Garden trail at the far end of Arches. Landscape Arch, one of the longest natural arches in the world, is an easy flat mile in. Past it the trail climbs onto sandstone fins to Double O Arch, about 2 miles from the trailhead, with a short spur on to Dark Angel, a lone sandstone spire.
• We were back at the car around noon, ahead of the 94°F afternoon, and spent the hot hours back in town with the dog.
• Around 7, out to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands, 40 minutes away: the short loop to Mesa Arch, then Grand View Point at the end of the road as the canyons turned orange.

The fin section past Landscape Arch means some scrambling up tilted rock with drop-offs on the sides. Wear shoes with real grip and carry more water than you think; there's no shade.

The long one, up to Jackson Hole

• Past Salt Lake City on I-15 and into Idaho, then over the pass into Wyoming. With stops it's a full day; the Idaho Falls riverwalk is the best leg stretch on the way.
• Two nights at Teton Mountain Lodge in Teton Village. It's 30°F cooler than Moab.

Buy bear spray in Jackson, not before. From here to Glacier you're in grizzly country, and canisters shouldn't sit in a hot car through the desert.

Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point and String Lake

• Jenny Lake is the classic Grand Teton hike. Across the lake, Hidden Falls was roaring with June snowmelt, and Inspiration Point is a short, steep climb above it with a view back over the lake.
• In the afternoon, String Lake, the shallow, clear lake just north, with the peaks right above it. It's the best place in the park to paddle on a calm day.
• An evening bike ride on the paved pathway outside Teton Village, with light until about 9.

The Jenny Lake shuttle boat cuts about two miles off each way. Lower trails were clear in early June, but anything much above Inspiration Point still had snow.

Old Faithful on the way through

• North through Grand Teton and in at the South Entrance, then the Grand Loop to Old Faithful. The dog came along for this one, so we took turns on the boardwalk.
• Then north along the Firehole and Gibbon rivers, where the meadows are good for bison and elk from the car.
• One night in a safari tent at Under Canvas West Yellowstone. Nights in early June drop to the low 40s, and the tents have wood stoves.

Old Faithful goes off roughly every 60 to 110 minutes. Check the predicted time at the visitor center or in the NPS app before you park, then walk out about 15 minutes early for a spot on the benches.

Up the length of Montana

• The scenic way north runs past Quake Lake, made when a 1959 earthquake dropped a mountainside into the Madison River, then north toward Missoula and up to the Flathead Valley.
• A week at Hyatt Studios Kalispell.

A normal work week begins

• Kalispell is an hour behind Central time, so the workday started early and finished early. With sunset around 9:35, every evening was long.
• Lone Pine State Park, on the bluff right above town, has a short dog-friendly trail to an overlook of the whole Flathead Valley.

A regular workday; the long evenings were the reward.

Whitefish after work

• Downtown Whitefish is about 25 minutes north: a walkable main street with dog-friendly patios, and Sweet Peaks for huckleberry ice cream.
• The Whitefish Trail is a long network of forest trails around Whitefish Lake where leashed dogs are welcome.

Rain most of the day, the wettest of the week.

Flathead Lake

• Bigfork, about 35 minutes away, is a small village on the north shore of Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi in the lower 48.
• Wayfarers, the state park unit just outside Bigfork, is an easy spot for an evening walk by the water.

A cool, grey day that stayed in the 50s.

Lake McDonald in the evening

• West Glacier is about 45 minutes from Kalispell, close enough for an after-work drive to Apgar at the foot of Lake McDonald.
• The colored stones on the shore show best when the water is calm, which is often in the evening.

The sunniest evening of the work week.

The end of the work week

• Downtown Kalispell has Moose's Saloon, a sawdust-floor pizza and beer institution since 1957.

Showers on and off, then a clear forecast for Saturday.

The west side of Glacier

• Going-to-the-Sun Road was still closed over Logan Pass; in 2026 it fully opened on June 22. The west side was open past Lake McDonald and up along McDonald Creek.
• We were along McDonald Creek by 10:30, where the snowmelt runs bright green and turquoise over the rocks.

The last leg home

• West on I-90 through the Idaho Panhandle and Coeur d'Alene, which has a lakefront and floating boardwalk worth a stretch, across Washington and over Snoqualmie Pass.
• We rolled into the Seattle area on an 86°F evening, a warm welcome to the Pacific Northwest.

Snoqualmie Falls is about 30 minutes before Seattle, a 270-foot waterfall with a short leashed-dog-friendly path to the overlook. A good last stop when everyone needs out of the car.