This was by far the longest trip of my life, both in time and in driving distance. I spent almost a year planning it. It would have been great to just "wing it", showing up at places whenever I got there. Unfortunately this is not possible when visiting breweries, because each one is open only at certain times. Some are open 7 days a week, but others as few as 3 days. Some open in the morning every day, while others might open early on weekends but not until late afternoon during the week. Plus, sometimes the hours listed on a brewery's website differ from those listed on its Facebook page, so I had to contact some places to get the correct hours. These factors made this trip require lots of detailed planning.

Even after I'd planned everything out, I had to keep checking my preferred breweries' websites in the ensuing months to make sure things hadn't changed. Sure enough, at least 5 of them closed, one changed which days it was open, and another changed location. The closings were not surprising since the craft brewery market had reached its saturation point and many breweries were closing. After the number of craft breweries skyrocketed from about 1500 in 2010 to well over 9500 in early 2024, more breweries closed than opened throughout 2024 for the first time since 2005, and the trend was continuing into 2025.

I traveled in the spring because some of the national parks I would be visiting get very busy in summer, not to mention hot.

There are more than 2 gigabytes of photos in this story, which is too much for some devices to load. So, I have broken it up into 5 segments. You can click on each individually and your device should be able to handle it. Or, if you think your device can handle all the photos at once, click here to get the entire story on a single page.

Segment 1: Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico

Segment 2: Arizona

Segment 3: California

Segment 4: Nevada, Utah, Colorado

Segment 5: South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio