The Ultimate JET Road Trip

America turns 250 this summer. Two and a half centuries of westward trails, open rivers, mountain passes, rodeo dust, blue-ribbon trout water, and skies so big they don’t fit in a photograph. The best way to celebrate it? Drive it.

Nine JET properties. Five states. A route that begins at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and ends in the red rock canyons of southern Utah — passing through some of the most historically charged, wildly beautiful, genuinely untouched country in North America.

Memorial Day to Labor Day, there is something happening at every stop on this map. Book one night or all nine. Start anywhere. Go in any direction. This summer, the road is the point.

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1. Pacific Dunes Resort

Copalis Beach, Washington
Where the Road Begins, and the Ocean Ends.

Start at the water. The Pacific at Copalis Beach is wide, gray-green, and indifferent to your itinerary — which is exactly right. Surf it. Paddleboard it. Fly a kite on the beach while the wind does the work. Sit at a beach bonfire while the sun drops into the water. Pacific Dunes is the kind of place that resets you before you even know you needed it. Griffiths-Priday State Park is right next door — sand dunes, estuary, and a mile and a half of vehicle-free beach where the Copalis River meets the ocean. And when you’re ready to go bigger, Olympic National Park is a worthwhile day trip north: rainforest, alpine meadow, and wild coastline all inside one park.

🇺🇸 America 250
This is where the continent ends and the Pacific begins — the same edge explorers stood at when the country was still being mapped. Olympic National Park preserves the wildest stretch of it.

2. Columbia Point Resort

Kettle Falls, Washington
Heart of the Inland Northwest.

Drive east through the Cascades and the world changes. By the time you reach Kettle Falls, you’re deep in Colville National Forest country — lake water, pine, and the broad Columbia River system spread out below you. Lake Roosevelt is one of the most underrated recreation lakes in the Pacific Northwest. Walleye, kokanee, boating, kayaking, paddleboarding — it’s a summer basecamp that delivers big without the crowds. Grand Coulee Dam is a day trip south, one of America’s great engineering landmarks.

🇺🇸 America 250
The original Kettle Falls — a thundering Columbia River salmon fishery that fed this region for thousands of years — is underwater now, beneath Lake Roosevelt. Grand Coulee Dam, about an hour south, holds it all back. It’s worth the drive.

3. Sacajawea Inn

Salmon, Idaho
Following Lewis & Clark Into the Wild

Cross into Idaho and follow the Salmon River south into one of the most historically significant stretches of ground in the American West. Salmon, Idaho is where Sacajawea was born — the Shoshone woman who guided Lewis and Clark through the unknown interior of a new nation. The Sacajawea Inn sits in the valley where that journey changed direction. The Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness starts at the edge of town — the largest contiguous wilderness in the lower 48. Raft it. Fish it. Drive the scenic byway and understand why this place never changed.

🇺🇸 America 250
In the summer of 1805, Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery came through this valley looking for a way over the Rockies. Sacajawea found it for them. The wilderness they crossed is still here — unchanged, enormous, and worth every mile to reach it.

4. Teton Peaks Resort

Tetonia, Idaho
The Quiet Side of the Greatest Mountains in America

Cross the Divide into Teton Valley and feel the mountains arrive. The Tetons are one of the youngest, sharpest ranges on the continent — and from the west side at Teton Peaks, the view is unobstructed and the prices are sane. Grand Teton National Park is a short drive east. Yellowstone is just beyond that. The Teton Valley Balloon Fest floats over the valley on the 4th of July weekend — one of the most uniquely American summer scenes you’ll find anywhere. Rodeo every Friday all summer. Huckleberry season in July. The Teton River runs blue-ribbon trout through the whole valley floor.

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Grand Teton National Park was established in 1929 on the idea that the most spectacular landscapes in the world should belong to everyone. Hot air balloons over those peaks on the 4th of July is about as American as it gets.

5. JET Motor Inn – Powell

Powell, Wyoming
Yellowstone Gateway — Near Cody

Drop south into Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin. Powell is the quiet neighbor to Cody’s cowboy spectacle — 15 minutes from one of the West’s most authentic rodeo towns, about an hour from Yellowstone’s East Entrance. The Cody Nite Rodeo runs almost every night all summer. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody is one of the great Western history museums in America. Yellowstone doesn’t need an introduction. The Park County Fair in late July brings the entire basin together. JET Motor Inn Powell is the smart base for doing all of it — without the Cody markup.

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Yellowstone was the world’s first national park — the idea that a place could be set aside for everyone, forever. That was 1872. You’re an hour from the gate.

6. Cottonwood Camp

Fort Smith, Montana
On the Bighorn — One of North America’s Premier Trout Fisheries

Push north into Montana. The land opens into big sky country and the Bighorn Canyon rises out of the plains like something from another planet. Fort Smith sits at the foot of Yellowtail Dam, and the river running out of it is about as good as trout fishing gets anywhere on the continent. Year-round. Trophy browns and rainbows. Guided drift boats through Cottonwood’s 3 Mile Fly Shop. This is the stop that serious anglers plan entire trips around.

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About 45 miles from this river, in 1876, the Lakota and Cheyenne stopped the U.S. Army cold at the Little Bighorn. The battlefield is preserved exactly as it was. It’s worth the drive.

7. JET Motor Inn – Buffalo

Buffalo, Wyoming
At the Foot of the Bighorns on I-90

Head east to Buffalo, where the Bighorn Mountains rise straight out of the plains and the historic Occidental Saloon has been the center of town since the frontier era. Buffalo isn’t a gateway to somewhere else — it exists in its own right. Bluegrass and western music every Thursday at the Occidental. The Range War Rodeo Series all summer. Longmire Days July 16–19. Clear Creek runs trout water right through town. The Bighorn National Forest is right up the mountain, and the Johnson County Fair & Rodeo in late July is a legitimate bucket-list summer event.

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The Bighorns above town were Crow Nation territory for centuries before the range wars wrote the next chapter. Both stories are still here — in the land, and in the music at the Occidental on Thursday nights.

8. Historic Virginian Hotel

Medicine Bow, Wyoming
Pearl of the Plains — Built 1911

Drive south across Wyoming’s high plains — pronghorn country, open sky, the Snowy Range rising blue on the western horizon. Medicine Bow is a one-stoplight town with a hotel that has no business being as beautiful as it is. Built in 1911, the Virginian is fully restored — Shiloh Saloon, Owen Wister Dining Room, and rooms that feel like sleeping inside a Western novel. Because you essentially are. The Woodchoppers Jamboree & Rodeo in June draws people from across the region. The Carbon County Fair & Rodeo in August is eight days of the real Wyoming.

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Owen Wister wrote The Virginian from this country — the novel that invented the American cowboy as a cultural idea. The Snowy Range is out the window. The pronghorn are still running the same plains.

9. Escalante Grand Resort

Escalante, Utah
Red Rock. Blue Sky. Full Stop.

Drop south from Wyoming into Utah and the landscape does something extraordinary. The earth turns red. The canyons go deep. The sky gets enormous in an entirely different way. Escalante Grand sits on 25 acres between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks — the Grand Staircase below you, slot canyons in every direction. The 4th of July here is Independence Day under a dark sky that contains more stars than you’ve ever seen. The Escalante Canyons Art Festival fills September. Moqui Motor Madness in August. Pioneer Days in late July. End the road trip exactly right: red-rocked, wide open, and staring at the most stars you’ve seen all year.

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Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef sit on either side of this town — two national parks protecting 250 million years of geology. The dark sky above Escalante on July 4th is the same one every generation of Americans has looked up at. The stars haven’t changed.

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Three More JET Road Trips

Every JET property is a basecamp. Every road between them is part of a bigger trip. Here are three more ways to use the network this summer.

Hit the road. Find the rodeo.

This summer, four JET Hospitality properties put you right in the heart of real rodeo country — from dusty arenas under Friday night lights to small-town traditions that still draw a crowd. You pick the nights. We’ll handle the beds, the parking, and the hot shower after the dust settles.

Read the Full Trip → LINK

The Bighorn River. The Salmon River steelhead. The Teton River’s blue-ribbon stretch. Clear Creek in Buffalo. The Shoshone near Cody. Five properties, five world-class fisheries, one drift that covers the entire American West.

Read the Full Trip → LINK

Olympic Peninsula. Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef. One road trip through four of America’s most iconic national parks — with a JET property at the gate of every one.

Read the Full Trip → LINK