How we traveled to National Parks during COVID-19 Pandemic with new habits

This is by no means an article to encourage travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. One should stay home, stay safe, and follow the expert guidelines. I’m sharing our experience and more importantly the precautions we took to be safe during our national parks trip during the pandemic. We certainly formed some new travel habits during the pandemic, one micro-habit at a time.

We visited Yellowstone Lamar Valley, Canyons, Geysers and Mammoth, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks in July 2020 so many friends have been curious about what precautions we took during our travels. Since coronavirus was spreading aggressively across the US, we took every precaution we found in our research. I’m sharing our new-found personal travel habits during the pandemic.

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Check our Photo Galleries of North West National Parks, Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley, Canyons, Geysers and Mammoth, Grand Teton NP, and Glacier National Parks

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Our trip to the amazing National Parks was our first overnight stay outside of the home in 2020. So essentially we’ve been sheltering at home since March 5th, except for day trips near home such as a day trip to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon. At those parks, all facilities and activities were closed except for the entrance pay stations and restrooms. But one could do all the hikes and visit vista points. It gave us a sense of how parks operate during the pandemic which was somewhat different from how national parks operated during a government shutdown.

We took the following precautions in an attempt to stay safe and keep others safe when traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no guarantee that these precautions are sufficient or excessive but it’s a compilation of all we’ve learned so far. We’ve been vigilant because we personally have friends and family that have suffered, recovered, and even passed away as a result of contracting this virus.

Pre-Trip Planning for National Parks Trip during Coronavirus

Our safety planning started well before our trip to Yellowstone during this COVID-19 pandemic. Here are our experiences, learnings, and our thought process.

RV or Car Road-trip during the COVID-19 pandemic?

RV trips are super popular these days, mostly because they offer an opportunity to travel with minimum exposure and because we are constrained to domestic travel this year. My friend Pronob did an RV trip through many states and the pictures look absolutely awesome! We have to try that sometime.

We chose the more familiar option of renting a car at the airport, sanitizing it thoroughly, and using it for the road trip in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks. More on that later.

Accommodation Reservations in Coronavirus Days

In normal times, it’s hard to find any accommodations within the park unless we reserve many months in advance. A silver lining with the pandemic is the large availability of all accommodation types. Before booking accommodations, we debated between Airbnb, hotels, cabins, etc. We discovered that national park cabins were readily available despite the reduced capacity. That’s awesome because staying within the national parks can be an immense time saver. Also, Xanterra was allowing free cancellations all the way up to the 7-day window prior to check-in.

We opted for Xanterra’s official Yellowstone National Park cabins where possible because –

• National Parks had accommodation availability.
• The Xanterra-run lodges have great locations.
• We feel cabins will reduce potential interactions and be safer than hotel-style rooms along a corridor.
• One can never be sure if rooms are adequately disinfected but National Park cabins may be more likely to follow protocol. I’m not sure how thoroughly the individual Airbnb owners are cleaning the rooms. Some may be great and others not so much.

It would have been safer to have one cabin for the entire stay but the distances are large in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks so we stayed in 4 different lodges.

Flight Reservations, an Evolving Norm in the Pandemic

We had visited SFO for a drop-off in May and it was completely deserted at that time. There was only one other car and we saw SFO mandate of wearing facial coverings was working. That gave us hope for the potential for safe travel.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many flights were grounded for weeks and no one was traveling. As flights resumed, airlines continued to make it very easy to make, change or cancel reservations, many a time without additional fees. We made many plans and canceled them, maybe even a dozen times. In normal times, it wouldn’t have been possible to find flight reservations so easily.

As an extra precaution, we flew business class to avoid having to be too close to fellow passengers (it’s best because I’m constantly talking with everyone). The good news is that flights are quite empty and business class is easily upgradable if you a frequent flyer status.

Transportation Reservations

We reserved a rental car for pickup at Bozeman airport in Montana and return at the same location. The airport was so quiet when we arrived that one may have been able to rent a car without reservations. However, ten days later when we returned to BZN, the rental pickup line was huge and the airport was as busy as can be. It was obvious that travel was picking up. I would highly recommend picking your vehicle and making reservations upfront.

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We extended our trip after arriving at Yellowstone and were able to extend the car rental fairly easily. We also tried to rent a camper van or RV for the additional days but none of the places we called picked our call or returned our messages. My guess is that they were too busy.

Procuring Sanitizers and Disinfectant Wipes During Shortages

When we were getting ready for our national parks trip, all the sanitizing supplies were in extremely short supply. The traditional brand name sanitizing supplies were nowhere to be found.

To travel confidently during the COVID-19 pandemic having an adequate supply of disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizers, and disinfectant spray were crucial. So we checked in all the major stores without overdoing shopping trips. We found the following –

1. Surgical disinfectant wipes at our local New Seasons. They were small packs and somewhat expensive but very good quality.
2. A bottle of disinfectant/hand-sanitizing liquid at Costco which we filled in a spray bottle.
3. Hand sanitizer bottles at Target. Their website showed lots of Clorox wipes and Purell hand sanitizer in stores. But stores had received none of them for weeks. So I got alternate brands from Target.

Mask up – Facial Coverings

We had sewed cloth masks at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which is very comfortable, breathable, and high thread count fabric. They’ve been our go-to for the entire time. We have two of those each but I wish we have one for each day.

We bought some disposable masks as a backup from Amazon. There were too many choices and it’s hard to trust all the products on Amazon so we picked the brand Costco had carried for a short time and run out since then.

We had an N-95 mask each from a friend who bought many before the COVID-19 pandemic started. We took those for when we would be in high traffic areas like airports or national park stores etc.

Food Planning for COVID-19 Pandemic Travels

Culinary experiences are a huge part of our travels. Every place has its unique local, gourmet, and exotic foods that we absolutely love to try. We usually start food research and curate a restaurant list on a shared Notes document. Food planning during the COVID-19 was completely different! The trip in general posed many chances of exposure, so our goal was to minimize any exposure. Also, all past accounts on Trip Advisor said that the takeouts had very long lines and long wait times. Standing in long lines indoors and in close proximity with travelers from everywhere didn’t sound like a good idea. So, we planned to be self-sufficient as much as possible. Couple that with our minimalist and travel-light style, food preparation required careful planning. We had to pack all our meals and snacks for 7 days in one suitcase (which got extended to 10 days). We planned to do a grocery trip if needed.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the steps we used (in retrospect).

Weeks before Travel: Meal Planning

Create a rough menu that covers all meals. On this trip it was just the two of us so we could keep it simple with mostly Indian cuisine so I didn’t have to carry my whole international pantry. Our high-level menu looked something like this –

• 3 breakfasts of bagel, Nutzoo, avocado, and apples.
• 3 breakfasts of oatmeal with apples and bananas.
• 1 breakfast of poha in a cup.
• 2-3 meals cooked at home – parathas, okra, achar, and some veggies that last without refrigeration.
• 2 one-pot pasta dinners.
• 2-4 khidi dinners or one-pot rice & lentil meals.
• Sandwiches for lunch.
• Snacks for munching in the car and on hikes. Here are a few of our favorite –
  • Home dehydrated fruit like apples, peaches, mangoes from last season.
  • Dehydrated fruit – figs, prunes, dates, raisins.
  • Nuts & seeds – cashews, almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, chia, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.
  • Indian khankra – millet, moth, flour for variety, and Indian pickles.
  • Homemade granola, energy bars, and besan-methi khankra.

Days Before Travel: Procure Groceries

Convert the menu into two lists – one for grocery shopping and one for packing things from home. I use the Grocery List app for all my shopping and this time I also used it for the packing list too.

Don’t forget to include utensils. We took a couple of camping plates, cups, forks, knives, and spoons, along with a knife, mini chopping board, some napkins.

A Day Before Travel: Assemble Food and Prepare non Perishables

I laid out all the food on a table so we could see everything together and figure out what to prioritize in the limited space. It was quite a challenge to optimize for space, but who doesn’t love a challenge!

We prepared the dry foods, parathas, and veggies listed above. The preparation took 2-4 hours.

During the Trip: Eating and Loving the Food

All our planning came is extremely handy during the trip. We had all the spices, condiments, seasoning, and all the ingredients needed in one suitcase. We had sufficient flexibility to change the menus and we also bought some perishables at the National Park grocery store.

We made one trip to the grocery store in the park. We never went back because it was a mess. Many people refused to wear a mask. The store was absolutely packed with shoppers. There was even a sick looking person who kept a cough and had no mask.

We added Glacier National Park to our trip so we needed more groceries for 3 more days. So, on our 10-hour drive from Yellowstone to Glacier NP, we stopped at a Safeway in Bozeman to pick additional groceries.

Overall meal times became a lot of fun as we exercised more creativity and new ways of eating meals. during pandemic travels! The results were absolutely delicious.

Safety Precautions DURING Travel in COVID-19 pandemic

This leads us into how to stay safe during the trip, beyond food. All the preparations and clear plan came in very handy during our trip. Plus, we had already formed many of the COVID habits with grocery trips at home. Such as –

• Always keep the face mask on when there is another person in sight, even on outdoor hikes, even when others don’t wear masks.
• Avoid shared indoor spaces and if it’s necessary to go indoors, always wear a mask. Most places have a hand sanitizers stand next to the entrance, use them. Carry a small bottle, just in case.
• Don’t touch anything. If you must touch something, clean up with hand sanitizer or wipes immediately.
• Wash hands frequently with soap and water for 20+ seconds (the handwashing app on Apple Watch with iOS14 is so cool).

Sanitizing at the Airport and Airline Seats

Luckily SFO was fairly quiet and we could find a place away from crowds where we could take off our N-95s and change in cloth masks. Some restaurants were open and people could get food before their flight. We refilled water bottles and waited for the plane to board.

We were in row #1, but we didn’t want to board first while everyone walked by exchanging some breath with us. Here are few things we did differently during the COVID-19 travels and I can see these as new travel habits

• We boarded the airplane last.
• As soon as came abort, the flight attendant handed wipes.
• We wiped down the already disinfected seats, seat belts, armrests, and every other thing we could touch.
• During the flight, the flight attendant brought the shrink-wrapped snack boxes instead of plates with nicely served meals, steel utensils, and drinks.
• The flights were deplaned by seat number starting from the front of the plane, so passengers don’t all crowd together. This might be a good way to de-place beyond the pandemic.

Sanitizing the Rental Car

The first indoor space we enter after the travel is the rental car. Here are a few things we did with the car –

• Ask the rental agent to give a car that was sanitized the day before, where possible. The longer the better.
• Once at the car, open all doors and windows to allow air circulation.
• Using the sanitizer spray and wipes to wipe down all parts of the vehicle you’ll likely touch. For example – all door handles (outside and inside), dashboard and all knobs, steering wheel with all the handles and buttons, seats with any buttons, middle section, etc.
• If possible, drive with the windows down for a while to allow for air circulation. Its harder because most rental car pickups are near a freeway.

From then on, the vehicle is good to go for the entire road-trip through the National Parks.

Sanitizing Accommodations in National Parks

Check with the accommodations on their sanitizing and disinfecting practices. The National Parks had been sending us continuous emails on precautions they were following and what we should do. Clearly they were being extremely mindful of the risks to travelers and their employees. They were also operating at reduced capacity.

When we entered the lobbies to check-in, we saw that the staff was constantly wiping all surfaces. All reception desks had clear plastic barriers, the floors had 6-feet markers, there were many Purell dispensers, and everyone was wearing masks. Clearly they were practicing extra measures as the emails described.

Once in the room, we used our handy spray bottle to spray and wiped everything we would touch – doorknobs, door edges, tables, chairs, curtain openers, window knobs, bathroom fixtures, etc. It took a couple of minutes max. Then we opened all the windows for air circulation.

Additionally, I checked with a Xenterra lodge cleaning person and he explained that after a check-out, he removes everything and puts on fresh sheets, towels, etc. After he is done, the special desensitizing crew comes in to make sure all is double sanitized.

Another thing we noticed what that – the rooms were barer. They were no longer providing little non-essentials such as writing pads, pens, folders, etc. The accommodations were functional but the National Parks was being thoughtful and removed sources of potential contamination. This also reduced sanitizing time.

Grocery Shopping during Pandemic Travel to National Parks

Thoughtful planning can substantially reduce the need for grocery trips. We’ve become used to this since shelter-in-place started on March 5th 2020 in the SF Bay Area tech giants. During the trip we did 2 grocery store visits – once in the national park store which was crazy and once in Safeway (my first visit to a big grocery store in 2020). As always we practiced steps that have become a pandemic shopping lifestyle at home.

• Always wear a mask in indoor common spaces.
• Wipe down the grocery cart, at least the handlebars.
• Keep a couple of wipes on the handlebar to wipe hands as we go.
• After checkout and loading the car, wipe your hands again.
• Before taking the groceries into the room (or home), wipe down each item.
• At home, we leave the groceries to quarantine in a different room for as long as possible. We tried the same during the trip but for less time.

All of the precautions seem like a lot of work but we’ve been slowly getting used to them since the pandemic started. It mostly comes naturally at this point with a little extra mindfulness when going out of the house.

Taking Pictures during the Pandemic

In normal times, if you want your picture, you can simply ask someone to take it for you. You return the favor and its a win-win situation. Along the way, we make new friends.

Getting your own pictures while being careful not to spread the coronavirus is something we have to be intentional and careful. Following are a few ways to be in the picture

• Carry a selfie stick. They were all the rage a decade ago but we never got into selfie sticks back then. But, for our travel during COVID-19 times, we dusted an old selfie stick and took tons of our own pictures.
• Mount on a tripod. Tripods are not just for the awesome shots with high-end cameras. They are also perfect for pictures of our selves. Our tripod has an attachment for our iPhone, which turned out to be super handy on this trip.
• Ask someone. It’s certainly not a smart idea to touch the same surfaces as others because one is infections before symptoms appear. So, if you give your camera to a fellow traveler, be sure to wipe it before handing it and after you take the camera back. That way both remain safe.

Post-Trip Quarantine

Post-trip quarantine is just as important as being careful during pandemic travels. So, we’ve been isolating more than usual. It’s been exactly a week and we’ll keep it that way, irrespective of any signs of symptoms. It can only help to be vigilant.

Gone are those days when we guessed what would happen in San Francisco the pandemic. Now we this is the new normal and we are forming new habits during the pandemic which may last for a long time.

In Summary

This seems like a massive preparation but by now we’re used to many of these behaviors in our daily lives so it felt like an incremental change. Essentially these are new travel habits during the pandemic. The precautions seem pretty minor if you think about the alternative. We have no idea if or when we will encounter the invisible virus. If it does infect us, we’ve no idea how our bodies will respond.

Keeping that in mind, I feel no amount of preparation is too much. All we can do is try our best and make new travel habits during coronavirus times. Some of these will help in the long run.

Incredible Travel Stories from 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Travel stories from the 2020 pandemic were epic! Travel stories this year were so dramatic that every other year pales in comparison. I’ve curated a few collection of short stories for your leisure reading. You’ll surely enjoy them and please do share with others.

• Stories of travelers stranded during coronavirus lockdowns
• Travels Stories from Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Travels Stories from USA during COVID-19 pandemic
• Travel stories from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean
• Heartwarming travel stories from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
• 30 things that will happen in San Francisco when shelter-in-place is lifted

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Have fun and stay healthy. 2020 will pass too.