April 23, 2023

Planning A Remote Working National Park Trip

With 63 national parks in the US, there is so much out there to be explored! If you’re like us and need to be strategic on how to use your vacation days, it’s tough to fit in multiple national park trips. The rise of remote working options during the pandemic opened new possibilities for us and planning our travels. We’ve now taken 4 remote working national park trips and have another coming up soon. Here is what we’ve learned along the way that can help you plan your own remote working national park trip.

Where To Go

Our goal when planning a trip has been to hit multiple parks along the way. We recommend researching a map of national parks and planning a driving loop that hits the most parks with the least amount of driving. Sticking to one region is the most ideal option. We highly recommend visiting the southwest states to get the most parks in. Starting from our home in Iowa, here are the driving loops that we’ve done (with some national monuments mixed in):

Badlands -> Black Hills -> Colorado National Monument -> Arches -> Bryce Canyon -> Grand Staircase-Escalante -> Grand Canyon -> Great Sand Dunes
Arches -> Canyonlands -> Zion -> Rocky Mountain
Gateway Arch -> Congaree -> Shenandoah -> New River Gorge -> Indiana Dunes
Hot Springs -> Carlsbad Caverns -> Guadalupe Mountains -> White Sands
Upcoming Trip: Wind Cave -> Grand Teton -> Yellowstone -> Glacier -> Theodore Roosevelt

Choosing Accommodations

To make your remote working national park trip enjoyable, you need to plan appropriate accommodations. One key factor is being as close to the parks as possible, but here are some other things to consider.

Internet Access

Assuming you need the internet to do your job, this can play an important factor in choosing where to stay. These are the most common options we’ve used or looked into:

If you’re staying in a location like an Airbnb or hotel, do your research to confirm what the internet speed and reliability is. With the remote nature of many of these locations, it may not be guaranteed. We search reviews looking for specific comments about the internet and will reach out to the host/location if needed to confirm internet speeds.
- If you’re traveling by RV put in extra research if you plan to use WiFi offered by the RV park you’re staying at. We found that internet speed and coverage was generally not very good even if the location advertised their free WiFi. The best we found was at more developed places like KOAs. You may be able to ask for a campsite closer to the main office or wherever the WiFi is broadcasted from.
Most cellular carriers offer some version of stand-alone mobile hotspot or allows you to run a hotspot off of your phone. We’ve used both of these options and have had varying degrees of success. You need to do your research to see what coverage your carrier has for the locations you’re visiting as this often gets spotty as you get more remote. Also consider factors that may impact your cellular coverage such as staying in a valley or in a forested area.
There are satellite internet options now available with the most prominent one for travel being Starlink. We haven’t used Starlink while traveling but we have used it for home internet. The idea of satellite internet really opens up travel options as it doesn’t have the cellular coverage limitations mentioned above. Starlink is still in its early stages, though, so make sure to research its coverage prior to using it.

Workstation Setup

This one isn’t as obvious as internet, but having a comfortable place to setup your workstation can really go a long way to improve your remote working experience. When we are researching Airbnbs we look closely through photos for things like kitchen tables, desks to work from. Our goal is to be able to get fully setup with our monitors and have a normal chair to sit in during the day.

If traveling in an RV you may want to make some modifications or bring additional items like a compact desk. Staying in an RV gives you the added benefit of moving your workstation to an outdoor location like a picnic table on nice days!

Time Management

Planning a detailed schedule ahead of time is key to maximizing your time on a remote working national park trip while minimizing the use of vacation time. This is what we’ve found to be helpful:

We try to stay at each main stop along the way at least 3 days. Not only does this help you not have to setup and teardown your remote working equipment as often but it also helps you plan your driving strategy. We aim to have longer drives on the weekend while doing more manageable drives during the weekday evenings.
The beauty of staying close to a national park is that you can work during the day and still get several hours of exploring in after you’ve signed off. Our goal is to have an evening plan prepared to hit the road as soon as we’re done with work. Parks are less crowded in the evenings and you can often catch some great sunset views.
Timezone changes is another thing to consider when working remotely. We’ve enjoyed traveling west from Iowa as we’re able to end our workday earlier allowing more time for exploring the parks!