Starting April 1st, I will be embarking on a massive road trip through the USA! Here is the tentative route, although obviously things can and will change depending on whims and what looks cool at the time. The target time for this trip is 2 months, but we realize it may take longer. Here are the tentative stopping points. We will be camping probably 85% of the time to save money. Any comments or suggestions? 1. Starting point 2. New York City (Yankee Stadium!) 3. Shennanoah National Park, VA (Skyline Drive) 4. Fayetteville, WV (River rafting on the New River!) 5. Mammoth Cave, KY (Spelunking) 6. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN 7. Myrtle Beach, SC 8. Brookgreen Gardens, SC (near Myrtle Beach) 9. Savannah, GA 10. Miami, FL 11. Drive out to Key West 12. Everglades National Park, FL (gators!) 13. Tampa, FL (to take in a TB Devil Rays game... lol) 14. New Orleans, LA 15. San Antonio, TX (everyone says to visit the Alamo... is it really that great?) 16. Big Bend National Park, TX 17. El Paso, TX (walk across the border into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to eat/shop) 18. Santa Fe, NM 19. Mesa Verde National Park, CO 20. The Grand Canyon, AZ (the quintessential USA attraction) 21. Mt. Zion National Park, UT (BBS members say it rocks, so I added it to the route!) 22. Las Vegas (Cirque De Soliel "O") 23. Death Valley, CA 24. Los Angeles (Disneyland) 25. Sequoia National Park (The Giant Forest with the world's largest tree) 26. Yosemite National Park 27. San Francisco (gotta see Timmy Lincecum pitch... lol) 28. Eureka, CA 29. Six Rivers National Forest, CA 30. Crater Lake, OR 31. Mt. St. Helens, WA 32. Seattle, WA (have family there) 33. Victoria, BC (have a friend here... been here before) 34. Coeur d'Alene National Forest (a good place to stop for the night on the way to Yellowstone) 35. Yellowstone National Park, WY 36. Wind Cave National Park, SD 37. Badlands National Park, SD (looks awesome!) 38. Sioux City, IO (convenient location to stop) 39. Chicago, IL (Cubs, White Sox and deep dish pizza, baby!) 40. Return home Stats according to MapPoint Total Distance: 18,926 km (11,760 miles) Driving Time: 220 hours Gas Cost: $1,255.81 P.S. If I happen to reach Houston in time, I will definitely try to see the Rockets play the Clippers on April 16th. Is it difficult to get tickets? It will be the last game of the regular season. I don't want to book in advance because there's a chance we won't make it down by then.
Awesome trip! The one real highlight that you're missing (and not by much) is Pike's Peak. You'll be really close in Santa Fe, and you shouldn't miss it.
i think the river walk in san antonio is more interesting than the alamo. but theyre pretty close so you can check out both. ive been to big bend national park. not that great. i thought az is way more beautiful and scenic. careful as you approach el paso. they have a lot of ranches. youll know youre getting close to el paso by the smell of cow dung. if youre in the dakotas, you might want to check out mount rushmore. sounds like an awesome trip. you must have a lot of clams bc gas isnt going to be cheap.
wow sounds like a lot of fun i wish i could do that one day dunno if i ever will that sort of time though. should have done it in school! argh
Looks like an awesome trip. My mom and dad owned a motor home back in 70's we took a similar route (with the exception of the Florida leg of your trip). We spent a whole summer on the road. I will never forget that and neither will you forget your trip. You've got a lot of nice things planned. Have a great trip.
sounds awesome. maybe by some cheap seats now for the rox game. you'd only lose like $25 if you cant make it. and could probably find a board member willing to take them off your hands.
Have a backup plan for Mt St Helens, because it could be pretty cloudy in April and you might not be able to see much. It also takes a lot longer to get there than it looks like on the map. I would recommend driving out to the gorge on I84 east of Portland- it's around 30 miles. Go to the exit after Multnomah falls (or even stop here) exit 35 and get on the old highway coming back towards the falls. Go left to Elowah falls then back the way you came to Horsetail falls. Then take the same road back to the Crown Point observatory. This will be a good side trip even if it's rainy or cloudy. Also, don't drive down I-5 from Portland to Crater Lake. Drive on 26 west to Seaside and take the coast all the way down to Florence, then cut back east over to I-5. Stop at several of the beaches (Hug Point especially- if the tide is low walk north around the headlands to another beach (with a waterfall) and further north to the headlands where there's an old road carved into the rock). Also stop at oceanside (west of tillamook) and go through the tunnel and look for agates on the beach. Lots of other great beaches to stop at- any of them are OK. I could go on, but this is enough to get you started. The Oregon coast is one of the highlights of the west coast, so don't miss it.
Death Valley really isn't worth it. I went there in August of 06 and it was not very impressive. Just a hot desolate place, and its a really dry heat, so 110 doesn't feel very hot. My suggestion would be to skip that and go up the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) in California (Santa Barabara to Monterey). There are some great places along the way (Watch the movie Sideways) and the drive is along the beaches is worth it. Zion is awesome though, I took a little western US sight seeing road trip and I liked Zion more than Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, or Bryce Canyon.
two of my buddies did this last year. They blogged most of it. just a warning, the blog is more coherent at the beginning of the trip than at the end. But regardless might give you some ideas. I'm with sam
