Wisdom of the road

Here are some of the lessons we learned from the trip:

• National Park campgrounds are beautiful, and inexpensive, but almost impossible to get during the busy season (summer?). What to do?
• Some spots/campgrounds are reservable. These may be more expensive - like in Yellowstone, the reservable campgrounds were run by a concession company. Make your reservations WELL in advance.
• For Glacier and Yellowstone, you can see the times that the campgrounds filled each day on a website. These all seemed to be morning times, some quite early. So you could stay overnight at a hotel very near the park, and be in line early; or you could drive through the night and time it to arrive in the park in the early morning. Neither of these was very feasible for us on this trip.
• Try going in the off season. I don't know when you can find a good combination of nice weather and smaller crowds, but I know it isn't in July!
• Utilize National Forest camping. The national parks are surrounded by national forests, which offer campgrounds (often primitive). Apparently one can also pull off and camp by the side of the road in most national forest areas - be sure you bring your own water. A small RV or camper van would make this much more feasible.
• Pick up "Official State Maps" whenever you can - at rest areas/welcome centers, and sometimes at hotel or campground check-in. AAA maps and google maps are great for navigating, but the official state maps let you plan the big picture, and often give more detail on the areas you're passing through. 
• Small cooler wasn't enough.  It couldn't hold ice for more than a day.  Need a medium, well insulated cooler for future trips.
• Car top carrier was essential for us.  Carried all the soft goods - sleeping bags, pillows, pads, etc. Probably could use a slightly bigger one - 16cuft perhaps.
• Audio books are great for passing the time
• Sprint/Virgin Mobile phones are useless in the Northwest states.
• A vehicle with more ground clearance than a mini-van is probably a good idea if you want to access primitive campgrounds in national forests.
• You need more than a day to see the parks.  I would say 4 days minimum (Paul).