The Hall Family Travels Blog

A quick-paced, week-long road trip to Minnesota is how our full-time RV journey began.

Living full-time on the road had been a dream we were working toward for years, and on June 7, 2026, that dream finally became reality.

I have so many pins saved on Google Maps of places I want to explore across the United States, but for the beginning of our journey, we decided to keep things simple and head straight to Minnesota with minimal stops. Dustin has family there, including elderly grandparents we wanted to spend time with while we still could, so Minnesota became our very first destination.

Of course, being over 2,000 miles away, we couldn’t get there in a single day—which brings me to the whole point of this story: our week-long road trip to Minnesota.

From California’s Central Coast to Minnesota is more than 2,000 miles. I planned our route with five stops along the way, staying two nights at each location and driving roughly 400 miles between destinations. This kept most driving days between six and eight hours, depending on stops, and gave us time to settle in rather than constantly packing up and moving. It also got us to Minnesota in just over a week.

At a glance: 9-Day Itinerary from CA to MN

Stop 1: Las Vegas Thousand Trails
– Seven Magic Mountains
– Fremont Street
– The Strip

Stop 2: Green River, Utah
– Little Mount Rushmore- Mesquite, NV
– Fremont Indian State Park

Stop 3: Gypsum, Colorado
– Dinosaur Journey Museum

Stop 4: Jackson Lake State Park, Colorado
– Dinosaur Ridge

Stop 5: Wahoo, Nebraska

Stop 6: Monticello, Minnesota

Stop #1: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas was definitely not a bucket-list destination for us, but it happened to have a Thousand Trails campground—which meant a free stay—and it fit perfectly within our planned driving distance.

On the way, we stopped at Seven Magic Mountains, an art installation made up of brightly painted boulders stacked into seven colorful towers. We’d visited before, but it’s such a unique landmark that we wanted to see it again. After stretching our legs for a bit, we hopped back in the truck and continued the drive to camp.

The campground itself wasn’t in the greatest part of town and certainly wasn’t anything fancy, but it worked for a quick two-night stay.

After arriving around 6:00 p.m. and getting set up, we made a quick dinner and decided to give the boys the full Las Vegas experience by heading to Fremont Street.

By the end of the evening, they’d seen a large-bottomed woman wearing no pants, multiple loud street performers, half-naked women dancing on tables, a giant dancing pink gorilla, and more intoxicated people than we could count.

Safe to say, the boys were not fans of Las Vegas. But we weren’t done yet.

Dustin and I had visited Vegas years earlier and remembered the incredible nighttime view from the top of the Stratosphere. We decided to walk there from Fremont Street.

About halfway there, we realized that was probably a poor decision.

We hadn’t realized the Strat was nearly two miles away. The Strip doesn’t really begin until after the Strat, which meant we were walking through downtown Las Vegas after dark, in 90-degree weather, with no water.

We eventually stopped at a 7-Eleven and bought a gallon of water before continuing down Las Vegas Boulevard. When we finally arrived, we discovered that tickets were required to access the observation deck—something we had apparently forgotten from our previous visit.

At $43 per person, we quickly decided we did not need to pay that much to look out a window.

Instead, we sat on a bench inside and rested after our unnecessarily long walk through a sketchy town.

At that point, there was no chance we were walking back through that area at 9:00 p.m., so we called an Uber and safely returned to our truck and campground. Phew!

The next day, we spent about four hours walking nearly six miles up and down the Strip in 90-degree heat, exploring hotels, casinos, and shopping centers.

By the end of the day, none of us were any more impressed with Vegas than we had been the night before.

We cooled off with a swim back at the camp pool and finished the evening having dinner with some of Dustin’s family who live in the area—the highlight of our stay!

The next morning, we packed up and headed toward Utah.

Stop #2: Green River, Utah

We like making stops during long driving days to break up the trip, stretch our legs, and see places we would otherwise drive right past.

Our first stop was in Mesquite, Nevada, where we visited Little Mount Rushmore. This area has several short hiking trails and numerous carvings in the mountainside, including the Mount Rushmore faces, the Statue of Liberty, and a variety of other creations. We didn’t do any hikes since we had a long drive ahead of us, but it was a nice break to stretch our legs.

A few hours later, we stopped at Fremont Indian State Park- one of our favorite stops of the drive.

We took a short hike where we saw numerous petroglyphs and pictographs dating back roughly 600 to 1,700 years. The carvings were fascinating, the hike was enjoyable, and the boys completed a Junior Ranger booklet and earned another badge.

After celebrating with ice cream, we finished the drive to Green River.

Green River isn’t a large town, and aside from the actual river corridor, much of the surrounding landscape is desert. We boondocked near the Athena Mountain Bike Trail, sharing the area with only a handful of other campers spread far apart.

While we were there, we explored the desert on foot, picked up a few groceries, spotted pronghorn antelope and a speedy long-tailed lizard, admired the layered rock formations, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Originally, we planned to stay two nights, but the heat and lack of activities convinced us to move on after one.

Stop #3: Colorado

On our way out of Utah, we stopped at the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, Colorado. The museum had lots of dinosaur exhibits, fossils, and cool information and made for a fun stop for the kids.

From there, we continued to a boondocking spot near Gypsum, Colorado, where we camped in a large turnout above the Colorado River.

The weather was much more comfortable here, with highs around 80 degrees instead of 90. Unfortunately, there wasn’t easy river access or many nearby walking trails, so we simply enjoyed a quiet evening before getting back on the road the following day.

The drive through Colorado was stunning. For much of the route, a river followed alongside us while the Rocky Mountains towered overhead on both sides.

Before arriving at our next campsite, we made another dinosaur-themed stop at Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison. Can you tell we like dinosaurs?

Rather than paying for the visitor center exhibits, we opted for the free two-mile hike. While the hike itself was simply walking along a road in the heat, seeing real dinosaur tracks and fossils embedded in the hillside was incredibly cool.

We’re certainly no paleontologists, and some of the fossils required a little imagination, but the large footprints were easy to spot and made the stop worthwhile.

It was also nice to get out of the truck and move around before continuing to our next destination.

Stop #4: Jackson Lake State Park, Colorado

Jackson Lake State Park wasn’t bad, but it definitely could have been better.

Unfortunately, signs posted around the lake warned of a toxic algae bloom, making swimming and full-body water contact unsafe.

With temperatures reaching 92 degrees, swimming sounded pretty appealing, so it was disappointing not being able to go in.

The lake itself was impressive, though. Its sandy shoreline felt surprisingly similar to an ocean beach, something we weren’t expecting in eastern Colorado.

Since it was a state park, the boys completed yet another Junior Ranger program and earned another badge while we explored the area.

The next morning, we got a very early start on the drive to Nebraska. And when I say early, I mean early.

We awoke sometime during the 5:00 a.m. hour, but because we were still mentally on California time, it felt more like 4:00 a.m.

Between the time changes, constant movement, and long driving days, we were all pretty exhausted.

Stop #5: Wahoo, Nebraska

The drive through Nebraska was, without question, the most boring drive yet.

At one point, our GPS cheerfully informed us that we would remain on the same flat, straight road for the next 180 miles.

To stay awake, we listened to Crime Junkie podcasts and eventually pulled over in an empty parking lot just to walk around for thirty minutes.

Thankfully, arriving at our campsite in Wahoo made up for the drive.

The lush green landscape was a welcome change from the desert scenery we’d been traveling through. The campground was clean, surrounded by beautiful grass fields, and had a fantastic playground for the kids.

Plus, we all got a kick out of the name. Lake Wannahoo in Wahoo. That’s just fun to say!

Stop #6: Monticello, Minnesota

We were finally on the last long driving day of our journey to Minnesota.

It was another early morning start, with breakfast packed to go, coffee in hand, and a podcast queued up before the sun was fully awake. By this point, the constant moving and long driving days had definitely caught up with us, so we decided not to make the trip any longer than necessary. Aside from fuel stops, we only made one detour along the way—and it was an important one: Fireworks.

We stopped at a fireworks tent in Iowa, where the boys (all three of them, including Dustin) loaded up on enough fireworks to keep themselves entertained for quite some time.

A few more hours on the road and we finally crossed into Minnesota.

Our home for the next four nights would be Bertram Chain of Lakes Campground. After a week of driving, it felt good to stay somewhere for more than a night or two. The campground was beautiful, with spacious campsites, full hookups, multiple lakes nearby, and miles of trails winding through the forest. Everything felt incredibly green, fresh, and alive!

After more than 2,000 miles, countless hours in the truck, several Junior Ranger badges, and one very long week on the road, we had finally arrived.

It had been exhausting, exciting, and occasionally chaotic—but we made it.

And now, it’s time to slow down, and let the real adventures begins.