This post covers a road trip we did in late January, early February 2017 from Los Angeles, California to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, across six states, where we visited nine national parks and reserves, including classics such as Death Valley, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.

We weren’t sure if doing the trip in winter would present a problem – would we have trouble with snow blocked roads, would the parks we wanted to visit be open in January? Here is how we approached the challenge.