A two-week loop through the Southwest sounds expensive until you actually break down the receipts. We tracked every dollar across a trip through Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and landed under $80 a day per person, including gas, camping and food. Here's exactly how.

The biggest lever: camping over hotels

National park campgrounds run $20–35 a night versus $150+ for a hotel room near the same park. Book campsites through the park reservation system as early as it opens, and have a backup list of first-come, first-served sites for the nights you couldn't reserve ahead.

Where the money actually went

• Gas: About $22/day, split two ways across a fuel-efficient rental.
• Camping: Averaged $28/night across a mix of park campgrounds and a few free dispersed sites.
• Food: Roughly $18/day per person, cooking most breakfasts and dinners at camp and saving restaurants for lunch stops in towns.
• Park entry: A single annual national parks pass ($80 total) paid for itself by the third park.

The annual parks pass is the best $80 you'll spend on a Southwest road trip — it pays for itself faster than people expect.

What we'd do differently

We over-packed food for the first few days out of nervousness — a mid-trip grocery stop in a larger town works fine and keeps produce fresher. Otherwise, the budget held up almost exactly as planned, even with a few splurge meals along the way.