You're getting real good advice about making your trip more efficient by concentrating on the southwest. OTOH I will put in a word for Lake Superior, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is my absolute favorite place in the world, and you've got Isle Royale NP as well as Pictured Rocks National Seashore and other areas to visit. If you come in the summer it will be nice and warm and all accessible. The downside of visiting places like Arches in the summer (which I've done several times) is the heat. Of course it's what they like to call "a dry heat" but the temps will daily crack 100 deg F with no relief in sight. March/April would be good for the southwest but may make the Lake Superior stops questionable as there will still be plenty of ice on the lakes in March, April would be better for that. Anyway. I'd allow a good 4-6 weeks for this kind of trip, but if you have to do it in 3 weeks I suppose it can be done. My brother visited from France several years ago and rented a camper van for his cross-country drive from California to New York City. That's another possibility rather than flying and could be more relaxing that dealing with airports and separate rental cars for each stage of the trip. Keep us posted on your trip planning!! and don't listen to DD.
Why? Lake Superior is beautiful but it really isn't worth going out of the way to see. Also, I cannot stress the sheer size of the USA and something like Lake Superior. It is so large that seeing it at one point of the lake is nothing like viewing the lake from the opposite direction. The weather, natural vegetation and even rock formations will be completely different. Not a must see, but it is beautiful. I would say this is more worth seeing than Bells. It is good to see, because it shows the stark contrast within the United States. It is worth seeing. One of my 10 favorite parks in the world, but probably only 4th or 5th in the USA. It is amazing. A must see before you die. You are going to have a hard time seeing all of these, because they are so spread out. There is some value to driving because you get to see so much scenery. However, you are going to be spending 80% of your time driving unless you intend to spend months in the USA. Yellowstone .... it is special. There are many parks that are as good as those you listed that are worth seeing..... Zion, Olympia, Teton, Glacier, Pinnacles... Denali.... Lake Superior is the one I would cut out. I personally would concentrate on a smaller geographic area than you have. You could do a trip from Washington State to Montana and see many different and amazing things. Honestly, you could just do a trip to California and see a whole lot. It varies, places like Yellowstone, Yosemite and parks of that size and diversity require more time than a place like the Grand Canyon. Go and do research and try to avoid the busy season. It will be cool in most those places in March/April. The geography and bio diversity in the USA is far more impressive than the people or the cities. Don't sacrifice or modify your trip to see the Rockets. Also, Austin isn't as nice as the hill country and areas outside of Austin. Since you don't really like cities, I wouldn't make it a priority. Very hard to organize, other than having a basic blueprint. Some areas will impress you more than others, and it is very likely you are going to get sick of driving so much.
Thank you so much for the advice guys, it's super helpful. I'm actually putting it all together based on the recommendations, I just haven't been at a laptop for a couple of days and writing long replies on a smartphone is not my thing! Ok so I wanted to do Lake Superior because it's the biggest freshwater lake in the world. That sounds awesome and the pictures look awesome but I take it it's not as impressive as it seems and it's out of the way so I'll put that aside maybe for a later Eastern trip. So I won't have months to do this. I may be able to stretch it to a month but even that's tough. I want to fly more just to save time and I don't want to DUI. Some driving inevitable and that's fine but I don't want to spend half my vacation driving. Not really into historical stuff although Mesa Verde looks amazing. Prefer more earth p*rn and unique people type of thing. I've cut out Yosemite in favor of Yellow Stone. Just trying to be efficient, and I think I'll have a chance to visit Yosemite in the future. @JayZ750 I'm preparing for the hiking from now haha. Haven't properly hiked in ages. @eddiewassnubber I've done Nevada/Vegas before. Here's my new plan, tell me what you think: 1) 20 April 2017 fly to Dallas. Check out Houston and Austin for 2 days total. Houston is very similar to Dubai it seems, and I dislike Dubai life frankly. But I HAVE to catch one Rockets game and I really want to meet some of the people from clutchfans for a beer. I gotta check it off the bucket list. Might be able to arrange it for playoffs as @heypartner suggested. I'll be flying back home from Houston. It doesn't hurt my timing either cause I can catch a direct flight there. 2) Fly to Denver. Take 1 week for sand dunes, rocky national park, maroon bells snowmass, denver 420 fest. If I can squeeze in a trip to Boulder I wanna do that, a friend of mine lives there and he says it's a great town. 3) Drive to Yellowstone/Teton. Stay there 2 days in a cabin exploring. 4) Fly to Reno airport. Visit Lake Tahoe. Drive to San Francisco, stay there 2 days. Head to Big Sur, stay there 3 days. 5) Then I need to get to the grand canyon. Should I fly to vegas or drive straight to AZ? I feel like driving would eat up a lot of time. Will try to hit Sedona as well. 6) Visit Tucson for a day. 7) Fly back to Houston, fly back home. There are some things in between I'd love to do especially in Utah and would like to explore CA more but in the interest of keeping this under 3 weeks (taking into consideration we're very lazy people on vacation and won't stick strictly to schedule) how does this sound? Looking more doable now, right? Almost late April. Don't mind camping or cabins, I'm a super experienced camper. Wifey is feeling a bit unsure about it, she is seriously worried a bear will eat us lol.
Just a note about Yellowstone: it will be cold and the weather will be unpredictable. Prepare for winter driving conditions. In san fran, i know it's very touristy, but Alcatraz is awesome.
I second Alcatraz at San Francisco. I really enjoyed it. If you have any interest in space or history at all. You should spend few hours visiting NASA John Space Center. There aren't many unique attractions in Houston, but NASA is definitely worth going. Seeing the Saturn V rocket in person is quite something. I would just drive from BIg Sur to Grand Canyon. If you add up the time that will take you from BIg Sur to SF or LA, you won't save that much time flying. Consider making a stop at Monterey to see the aquarium or do a whale watching boat tour. If you drive to Grand Canyon instead of flying, you can make a detour to Death Valley as well. I haven't been, but it should be pretty neat. I would skip Tucson unless there's something specific you want to see. Add that day to Yellowstone. I would also recommend you 'reversing' the order so you get to yellowstone near the end of your trip. There will be more lodging options in May as the weather warms up.
That sounds like a workable plan. If you plan to back and visit Yosemite, I guess cutting it out won't kill you (though I would put it on top of Sand Dunes/Snowmass). The only other thing I would say is that you may not need 3 days at Big Sur. Really, unless you are staying a little north of their at Carmel, 1 day would be fine. There is some good camping there, but not compared to other locations on your list. The main thing is that coast line, and viewing that can be done in one day. I've camped at a few different spots there, and there are some cool hikes and fun things to see. But the coastline is by far the star attraction. Again that can be done in long driving day. You might be be better served adding a day to Yellowstone etc.
I know it will be busy in July, but is Yellowstone worth it?......... which entrance and how many days?
Just so you know, Maroon Bells/Snowmass is basically Aspen. NOTE: THIS IS ONLY IF THERE IS NO SNOW AND THE ROAD IS CLEAR, OTHERWISE YOU HAVE TO TAKE A SNOW MOBILE TOUR: You can drive up to the Maroon Bells park only if you have a pass from the park service, otherwise you take a bus. It is then about a 30 minute hike up to Maroon Bells from the lake/river park. The whole park is beautiful, but unless you are camping, it is barely a day worth of activity. I recommend taking the bus from Aspen with a packed lunch and your hiking shoes. Don't forget your camera. Take the hike up (its up hill at like 9,000 feet, so take your time). The Aspen/Snowmass area is awesome. I don't know if you'll be in offseason for skiing. If you are, the hotels become great deals. The Little Nell, the St. Regis, The Gant, Hotel Jerome, are all awesome. If its offseason, you can get good airBNB deals too. If you want to save some money, stay in Snowmass (about 20 minutes around the mountain from Aspen. I like the Viceroy hotel in Snowmass...the rooms are apartments, basically, so you can go shopping and have groceries, but its still a hotel with maid service. In Snowmass, there is a super easy trail called the Ditch Trail (you can drive up to it and park or get the hotel to drop you off). It is perfect for a morning stroll and the view at the end of it is worth it. When my wife and I go in the summer, we take our morning walk at the Ditch Trail and then go get lunch in Aspen. In Aspen, the food is awesome. There is a 5 star restaurant on every corner downtown, but there are some good gems too. We liked the Wild Fig. We also splurged at Matsuhisa (awesome sushi in the mountains? That's Aspen) In Snowmass, we liked Il Poggio ( a little italian place with a home cooking feel). Good for wine and pasta. 8K is a cool bar in the Viceroy.
Of course you should dislike Dubai. Dubai is completely fake and has no soul - the exact opposite of Houston. Sure, Houston is pretty boring in some ways, but certainly not for the reasons people dislike Dubai.
Can we keep the thread on topic? I'm not really interested in hearing you **** on a place whose actual real society/residents you probably know little to nothing about. If you feel the need to do that, feel free to start a D&D thread.
If you do Jackson Hole/Tetons with Yellowstone it's worth it. Choose whatever entrance is closest to where you are staying. The south is most direct from the Tetons, but some people stay in West Yellowstone because it's cheap, so the West entrance would be best for them. It really depends where you are flying in to. If you are new to the Western States, I would do the Utah parks/Grand Canyon before Yellowstone. If you have already done Utah, Yellowstone is worth seeing. Although, I would have a hard time finding a week's worth of activities there.
This reminded me that another way of doing this might be to stay in Crested Butte rather than Aspen, and do the West Maroon Trail hike from Crested Butte to Aspen. Crested Butte is just a great town and much more 'normal' than Aspen, and you can get a shuttle at the end of the day back to Crested Butte when you're done with the hike. Another option but probably has to be a little closer to the warm weather months I suppose. We have relatives in Crested Butte and have visited several times, I can get you lots more info if that's of interest. https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/whiteriver/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=40549&actid=50
