What to pack for a month-long road trip? That’s what this post is about!

My boyfriend, Cody, and I went on a four-week cross-country road trip from Delaware to Utah and back again. Both of our jobs allowed us to work remotely, so we would work during the day and then see National Parks in the evenings and on weekends. We stayed in campgrounds about 80% of the time, and essentially lived out of my 2019 Jeep Cherokee for a month.

Here’s a comprehensive list of everything we brought with us!

Most of the items are linked, but you can find a lot of this gear on my Amazon lists.

Clothing

We packed clothing to be prepared for hiking long distances in both deserts and mountains, sleeping in cold weather down to about 45 degrees F, and driving up to 9 hours at a time. We did laundry at campgrounds twice in four weeks. Here’s what I brought!

• 8 tank tops. This is my favorite tank top for hiking
• 5 pairs of hiking shorts
• 1 pair of denim shorts
• 12 pairs of underwear
• 3 sports bras
• 1 sports bra top
• 4 pairs of wool hiking socks
• 2 pairs of casual socks
• 1 swimsuit
• 1 pair of regular leggings
• 1 pair of fleece-lined thermal leggings (I slept in these)
• 1 pair of wool base layer leggings
• 1 flannel
• 1 Smartwool pullover
• 1 Patagonia puffy jacket
• 1 raincoat
• 2 buffs
• 1 sun hat
• 1 beanie
• 4 cloth masks
• 1 set of packing cubes. These are great for keeping your clothes organized within your main bag or suitcase. I love this 8-piece set from Well Traveled!

In this photo, I’m wearing my sun hat, Oboz hiking shoes, sports bra top, and hiking shorts. This was a typical outfit for hot weather hiking.

Shoes

I got by with just three pairs of shoes. One for hiking, one for everyday, and one for swimming or walking through water. I used all of them on the trip.

• Oboz Women’s Sawtooth Low BDry Hiking Shoe-These are my go-to shoes for hiking
• Birkenstock sandals-comfy everyday shoes
• Teva strap on sandals-for walking through water or swimming

I wore my Teva sandals (pictured here) to hike in water and swim in lakes/streams.

Toiletries

• GoToob travel tubes of soap, shampoo, and conditioner-I love these so much and take them on every trip. I keep my own soap, shampoo, and conditioner in these
• REI multi-purpose washcloth
• Battery-powered electric toothbrush
• Flex menstrual cup
• Shower wipes (for when a shower wasn’t available)
• Face scrubbing brush -this isn’t completely necessary, but it makes my face feel so clean.
• Hair ties
• Deodorant
• Floss
• Toothpaste
• Razor
• Medicine bag with emergency medication like Advil, bandages, anti-nausea, cold medicine, etc.

Camping

We tent camped almost every night. It’s important to have a good set of sleeping gear so that you’re comfortable. I get cold when I sleep, so I usually work leggings and a pullover every night.

• REI Half Dome 2 Plus We have the Plus version because Cody is tall. This tent is awesome.
• Thermarest sleeping pad. This pad is bulky, but SO comfortable.
• MalloMe Camping Sleeping Bag – 3 Season. Note-this sleeping bag is cheap and comfortable, but I do NOT recommend it if you sleep cold or you will be camping when it’s around 55 degrees or below. I got cold and will be getting a new sleeping bag.
• Merino Wool Mummy Liner-I bought this during the trip to add extra warmth to my sleeping bag.
• Regular pillow and pillowcase

This is the REI Half Dome 2 Plus tent that we used every night.

Food and Cooking

We ate a lot of sandwiches and dehydrated backpacking meals. We limited eating out to save both time and money. We went grocery shopping throughout the trip, but here is what we started with.

• Mountain House Classic Bucket of dehydrated meals. These are great because they are fast, easy meals that you can make anywhere. They taste great and don’t need to be refrigerated.
• Clif Bars-we ate these for breakfast. Mint is our favorite flavor
• MSR PocketRocket Stove
• MSR IsoPro Fuel (x2)
• GSI Outdoors Boiler Pot
• Sawyer Products Squeeze Water Filtration System
• Sporks
• 3 gallon jugs of water that stayed in the car at all times
• Large 55 gallon cooler to keep food

Cody sitting in the parking lot of Rocky Mountain National Park making a dehydrated meal for dinner after a day of hiking.

Technology

Since we were working remotely throughout the trip, technology was super important!

• Two laptops each
• Phones
• Eternal power banks for our phones
• 300W Power Inverter so that we could charge our laptops in the car. This thing is a game changer.
• LaCie 4TB Harddrive

Camera Equipment

• Nikon D750 as my primary body
• NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G
• Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 for Nikon
• Rokinon Series II 14mm F2.8 (I use this for Astrophotography)
• Sony A7RIII
• Sony 24-70 mm F2.8 G Master
• 8 64GB SD Cards
• Vanguard Tripod

Backpacks and Storage

• 2 large plastic totes. These are awesome for keeping things organized in the car!
• Peak Design Everyday Backpack-I kept my electronics in here
• REI Flash 18 backpack (I used this for my everyday hiking backpack)
• Travelpro Maxlite carry-on suitcase. I use this suitcase for all my trips and I love it. For the road trip, I kept all my clothes and toiletries in this suitcase.
• Roof rack for my Jeep

Other

• 2 towels-one for showering, one for swimming. Probably could have gotten away with one towel for both
• Packing cubes. I mentioned this earlier, but these are so nice for keeping your stuff organized. I recommend this 8-piece set from Well Traveled.
• Bear Spray
• National Parks America the Beautiful Pass-this will get you into all Federally operated parks across the country
• Sunscreen
• Bug spray
• Garbage bags
• 1-litre water bottles (we literally used Smart Water bottles). It’s helpful to have bottles that hold 1-litre because on a lot of hikes, it is recommended to bring at least 2 litres of water per person. 
• Strapping tape-for blisters
• Sunglasses
• Rechargeable headlamps
• Trowel (for if you need to go #2 in the woods)
• Hand sanitizer
• Cash

 

That’s everything! If you have anything else you can’t live without on a road trip, let me know!