With a love for road trips, Sheri Wallace and her family decided to drive the Top 10 Scenic Drives in the Northern Rockies for their summer vacation. They stopped in Bonners Ferry on July 22, while traveling the International Selkirk Loop.

“We are addicted to road trips,” said Wallace. “It always is a big adventure.”

As a way to escape the heat in Tucson, Ariz., the Wallace family goes on a big road trip every summer. This year it was the Northern Rockies and they have enjoyed every day.

“It is about the journey, not necessarily the destination, since that may be half the trip,” said Chuck House, Wallace’s husband.

They have enjoyed fishing in the Snake River, watching a rodeo in Cody, Wyoming, learning to kayak in Metaline Falls, Wash., and seeing their first caribou on Kootenay Pass in British Columbia.

The trip is about looking out the window, unplugging the kids and kicking back. Wallace is an advocate for letting kids unplug and entertaining themselves, which she promotes  on her website www.roadtripforfamilies.com. Wallace mentioned that if you let kids be kids, they will make up their own games when they don’t have access to electronics.

Wallace is a writer whose website is a resource for other families on what works on road trips. While there are boring places along the way, Wallace explains that parents and kids shouldn’t devalue the place but instead try to find something interesting about it.

She is also chronicling their trip on her website with daily posts, depending on internet access. Internet access isn’t as accessible in Canada as it is here according to Wallace.

“I’m writing to encourage tourism to the whole region,” said Wallace. Wallace had high praise for the helpfulness of the Top 10 Scenic Drives partnerships, which includes 650 partners in five states and two provinces. “They were a tremendous resource. To be able to do this is unprecedented for a writer.”

Partnerships have helped make the vacation go smooth with numerous suggestions on where to go and stay. “There are days and days of stuff to do if you kicked back,” said Wallace. “Anyone could do one to two drives for a vacation.”

One activity that has allowed them to kickback is geocaching. “Geocaching lets you stop the car at places you normally wouldn’t see,” says Wallace.

Morgan, Wallace’s daughter, has been their geocaching ambassador on the trip by introducing people to the activity wherever they stop.

They will continue geocaching as they head towards Glacier National Park and then back to Arizona completing their 47 day trip. While they are traveling 10,000 miles, Wallace’s family reminds themselves that: “Making the journey is part of the vacation.”

To learn more about the Top 10 Scenic Drives in the Northern Rockies, visit www.drivethetop10.com. To learn more about geocaching, visit www.geocaching.com.