A winter Escape: A van life National Park Road Trip w/ Escape Camper vans
When Matt and I graduated college, I truly thought someday we would take a year and live my dream of van life. With other projects, a full-time jobs, specifically Matt’s job that we didn’t want him to have to give up and more it just wasn’t in the cards for us to go a full year in a van.
Then we shifted to maybe someday buying a van and just doing the weekend warrior thing, but then we ended up buying a camper and had our daughter, and my dreams of taking a van trip seemed to be fading fast. That was until January of 2023 when I had the opportunity to work with Escape Campervans on our winter national park road trip to our 30th-34th national park. It was an adventure, and we learned a lot but the moral of the story: is we would do it again.
If you don’t know Matt and I, we love getting out of our comfort zone and exploring new places. So when Escape Campervans came to us with an opportunity to take their campervan on a road trip through four new national parks in Texas and New Mexico, we were all in!
We only had about three weeks to plan our trip. We had known the general outline of this trip, as we've been trying to make the loop through the four parks for almost three years now, but never really solidified the details so we jumped right in. We made a list of all the things we wanted to do and see, but it was even easier with the van because it meant we could be flexible with our time, explore as much as we needed, or head off to the next park if we felt like it was time to move on.
For those who may not know, Escape Camper Vans is a campervan rental company that allows you to rent a van with a bed, kitchen, dining area, and plenty of seating for the whole family. The one thing to note, they do not have a bathroom like some other vans, so in that sense it’s more like a car where you will need to utlize gas stations, camp spots etc for the facitility. Please remember to leave no trace if you’re camping on BLM or Dispersed land.
We rented the Big Sur which is one of the biggest vans you can rent and can hold up to 5 people. I would never sleep with five people in the van even with the rooftop tent, but they do offer an additional tent add-on and have enough dining room seating for five which is doable. For our little family, this was exactly what we needed. With our daughter's car seat and porta crib, she needed extra space for her gear, so it worked out perfectly.
If you're wondering our daughter is a year and a half, and yes she had an absolute blast on this trip.
National Park Road TriP: New Mexico & Texas National Parks
We're on a mission to visit all the national parks in the United States, this trip put us at 34 national parks total- over halfway there!
White Sands National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Big Bend National Park
We picked up our van in Denver, but Escape has locations all over the country. You can find them all here.
Here was our route:
Denver, CO -> Las Vegas, NM (4.5 hours & 327 miles)
Las Vegas, NM -> White Sands National Park (4 hours & 238 miles)
White Sands National Park -> Carlsbad Caverns National Park (3 hours 43 minutes & 235 miles)
Carlsbad Caverns National Park -> Guadalupe Mountains National Park (45 minutes, 42 miles)
Guadalupe Mountains National Park -> Big Bend National Park (4 hours, 262 miles)
& then we went back to Denver from Big Bend, spending the night just outside of Roswell, New Mexico, no worries, no alien sightings for this crew.
Overall we spent about 30 hours driving 1,888 miles round trip, visited four new national parks, and had one epic trip.
White Sands National Park
White Sands National Park is one of the newer national parks in the United States. It is located in southern New Mexico, about 95.8 miles northwest of El Paso and about 52 miles from Las Cruces. The park contains the largest natural dune field in the world.
Hikes: There isn’t a lot of “formal” hiking in White Sands, there’s plenty to explore and dunes to climb. Bonus: check out a sled and spend an hour or two sledding on the dunes.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in the southern tip of New Mexico near El Paso, Texas. It's known for its diverse landscape and notable features, including the highest point in Texas (Guadalupe Peak).
The park offers many hiking trails ranging from easy to difficult, so you can choose one that fits your skill level and fitness goals. You can also camp overnight at one of their campsites! We stayed at the RV park with the van. It was windy the night we slept there, we didn't even venture outside because it was so bad, but that was okay because the sites are so close to each other and don't give much wiggle room either. They are located next to many trails and have amazing views.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park, located in southeastern New Mexico. The park covers 46,965 acres and contains Carlsbad Cavern, the third-longest cave system in the world.
Carlsbad Cavern includes a natural limestone chamber with rooms ranging from massive halls to tiny holes; it also has many colorful speleothems such as stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone. Carlsbad Caverns was designated as a national park on November 10th, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt during his tour of the southwest United States.
We chose to hike the 750 feet down into the cave, I highly recommend this for anyone who is physically able. You can also hike out or take the elevator. While it was amazing, it is fairly dark and at times I creeped myself out (but I do that in my own house too). My husband and daughter both loved it and would have stayed for another hour if we could have.
Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is one of the most remote and least-visited national parks in the country. It boasts more than 1,000 miles of rugged wilderness, including mountains, canyons, and rivers.
Hiking is a great way to see the park. Big Bend has trails that range from easy to difficult, and there are also plenty of opportunities for backpacking. If you want to get away from it all, take a hike into the backcountry! We only had one day in the park, so we hiked The Window trail and went to the hot springs (go at sunrise for your best chance of having it alone.)
We also camped at Rio Grande Village in the park, and it was amazing the amount of wildlife we saw from the van. From wild horses to coyotes it was such a unique experience. Note: there is no service in most of the park but there is wifi available at the Village and the Visitor center.
Van Life, Family Road Trip
If you're planning a family road trip, camping trip, or vacation, it can be overwhelming to figure out what to pack. That's why traveling with Escape Campervans was so nice, they truly provided everything we needed, and what you don't have you can rent to take along on your trip with you. For example, since we were flying we couldn't bring propane for the camp stove, but you can get it from Escape Campervans saving you the stop, and they have a whole list of suggested items, so you don't forget anything!
Wondering what else we packed on our road trip with our year old + how we kept her entertained on long drive days (without screen time)
Bring plenty of snacks. Pack healthy snacks that are easy for kids to eat like fruit, granola bars, or yogurt tubes. This will keep them from getting hungry and cranky during the drive and give them something healthy to munch on when they arrive at their destination. Our favorite packaged snacks for Adayla are all linked here.
Bring toys + books: throughout all our adventures we've learned quickly what toys and books will be a hit on those long car trips and which ones to skip. Again we've linked all our favorites to our Amazon Storefront.
Pack extras and layers when you are making long road trips the weather can be so drastically different. You could leave one location in the morning with it being in the teens and arrive at your next destination and have it in the high 70s. Having your whole day's worth of outfits prepared and ready makes it easy to make a quick switch during a diaper change so there's no rummaging around through your suitcase once you arrive at your next destination.
We hope you enjoyed our guide to living the van life. We know it's not for everyone, but we think that if you give it a try you'll find it as rewarding as we do!
This trip was hosted by Escape Campervans but the trip was planned by me and my opinions are my own. Want to see more from the trip? Be sure to give my Instagram & Tiktok a follow for more photo & video content.
