Article was previously posted to ChaskaHerald.com on August 18, 2022.
Road-tripping has made quite the resurgence in recent years, with traveling by car providing the safest way to vacation with the ever-present pandemic. Even as national gas prices average around $4/gallon, travelers have not been deterred — including me.
Around the Fourth of July weekend, I ventured out to Salt Lake City, Utah, to visit some college friends. At the time of this trip, gas averaged around $4.63/gallon. On day one of my road trip, I left with my car packed, miniature dachshund in the passenger seat and a full tank of gas in my 2021 Ford Escape — a vehicle that gets around 30 miles per gallon.
There are surely other ways I could have trekked out to the Beehive State, but I truly enjoy road-tripping! I like hiking when I can. It’s an easy mode of transportation with my dog, it makes for some great photo opportunities and I get to travel on my own terms.
THE ROUTE
The first overnight stay of my trip was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota — a common destination for road-trippers who are gliding along I-90.
For the road-tripper with a tiny dog and an even tinier bladder, scoping out decent rest stops is a must. On this trip, I came across the best one I have ever been to in Chamberlain, South Dakota. The stop features clean bathrooms, great views, and the Dignity Statue — a 50-foot-tall, stainless steel statue of an Indigenous woman that honors South Dakota’s Lakota and Dakota people.
After spending the night in Sioux Falls, my next destination was Casper, Wyoming. With a population of about 60,000, it’s a little less than half the size of Sioux Falls. In driving through, it’s evident that this is a common rest stop for weary travelers as the roads are lined with hotels and a small assortment of fast-food restaurants.
Throughout Wyoming, and later Montana, I ran into little bouts of rain, which my buggy windshield certainly appreciated. One of the things I like most about moving further out West is that you can always tell when it’s going to rain. The sky seems so much bigger when there are fewer trees to obstruct your view, making it easy to pinpoint when a dark cloud rolls in.
After Casper, I reached Salt Lake City, where I spent a few days catching up with friends and taking in the mountain views.
DON’T SETTLE FOR BAD VIEWS
When leaving Salt Lake City, Google Maps will tell you that the fastest way to get back to the Twin Cities is to drive through Wyoming and South Dakota (AKA, the way I drove in); or if I wanted to tack on an extra 30 minutes or so, I could have driven through Nebraska and Iowa.
As tempting as the prospect of looking at flat farmland for 18-19 hours is, I opted to take a more northern and scenic route through Montana and North Dakota. Even though it ended up being about 22 total hours of driving to get home this way, I got to experience two states I had never visited.
My couple of days in Montana ended up providing some of the best views and photos for the memory books.
As I made my way through North Dakota, I ended up driving shorter distances to accommodate my work schedule and inevitable exhaustion from the busy days. I ended up spending a night in Dickinson and one in Fargo before making my final four-hour trek back to the Twin Cities.
While some may avoid smaller towns like Dickinson and opt for larger cities when road-tripping, I find stops in towns like this to be quite peaceful. Slightly smaller towns provide cheaper overnight options and a more truthful experience. While they may not have the glitz and glamor of larger towns like Bismarck or Fargo, they certainly have a charm worth stopping for.
When I arrived home, I calculated that I had driven a total of 2,715.6 miles over the nine days. If I hadn’t opted to take a more scenic way home through Montana, I could have saved myself some driving cramps and extra miles on my car — but where’s the fun in that?
GAS PRICES
I knew that as I drove out west, gas would gradually get more expensive. Over my nine days away, I spent $430.05 on gas over seven stops in total. Meaning that each stop cost me an average of $61.44/gallon.
- Hartford, South Dakota: $4.599/gallon
- Wall, South Dakota: $4.799/gallon
- Rawlins, Wyoming: $4.949/gallon
- Chubbuck, Idaho: $5.399/gallon
- Livingston, Montana: $4.899/gallon
- Glendive, Montana: $4.629/gallon
- Jamestown, North Dakota: $4.499/gallon
Road-tripping isn’t necessarily the cheapest and best time-saving option, but worth it for a myriad of reasons beyond the monetary.
AUDRA GRIGUS 