Road Trippin'
So my brother graduates from college this year, and while we originally were thinking of doing a backpacking trip through Europe, I think our collective budgets are going to nix that for now. I was thinking a road trip from Chicago to the west coast and back would be a fun, and more budget friendly alternative. I've been trying to brainstorm of places to go and things to do to make it interesting. Any and all suggestions would be welcome of places not to be missed, off-the-beaten-path type of things, etc. I'm thinking we will drive and probably camp out most of the time with a few hotels thrown in (probably in major cities where it would probably be necessary).
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Jennifer - "Out West" is a big place! My sister and I, after growing up in Ohio, and going to college in St. Louis (she) and CT (me) did much the same thing. She never got past Sun Valley, where she stayed for 15 years. I spent the summer of '72 (actually 2 yrs after college) driving the West in my Dodge Charger, sleeping in the back (it was a hatchback type car then), and following a route which enabled me to try "climbing" to the highest point in many of the 13 Western States. A lot of those peaks are actually just high altitude hikes: California, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and a few others. For extra $, going up Mt Hood and Rainier (OR & WA) in organized groups are also possible. Planning a road trip route to hike up a number of those peaks was a good way for me to (a) get out in the woods, (b) drive to some out of the places and (c) feel like I had accomplished something.
Stay outta the cities - what's Phoenix or Denver got that Chicago doesn't? Although everyone loves San Francisco and Seattle and Portland. And if you don't mind being driven mad by concrete and traffic, and have a place to stay, LA is worth a visit.
Not sure where you are originally from (meaning maybe you went here on family vacation as a kid) but I think the Black Hills of South Dakota deserve a look. It 'can' be a tourist trap or a great beautiful desolate vacation, you could also bring your bike and ride some of the most over looked cycling roads around. Plenty of camping, black hills national forest is open everywhere for camping as well as custer st. park. Pretty easy ride on I90 from Chicago.
I am curious to see what you come up w/ my wife and I have been brainstorming something similar since we saw the PBS Ken Burns National Parks documentary. Unfortunately, she doesn't have crazy fireman time off like me yet.
Jennifer,
I've moto'd all over the west over the last 20yrs and can give you lots of options, roads off the beaten path, great places to buy pie and more
. How long do you have?
Rich's Rules for Eating on the Road:
What 'bout the Waffle Haus???
WH is the exception. However, if you do eat there, you must deposit $2 in quarters in the jukebox and play the Waffle House songs. The staff luvs that stuff
Not sure if you will do a loop or an out and back, but all of the NPs in the 4 corners region deserve extra time.
I was thinking it would be great to do some kind of a loop from Chicago. Very preliminary research had me looking at going out toward Portland/Seattle through the "upper half" and then down the CA coast and back through the "lower half" or from the northwest up into Canada and back down through Minnesota. Likely we will stay in the states, since I think going into Canada will be a lot of hiking-type stuff, and knowing my brother he will have a limit for that especially if we are doing a lot of camping. Obviously this is a lot of area to cover in two weeks, so I'm sure we will miss some stuff, especially since there's so many awesome places that you could spend days in.
Trying to get a good flavor of every aspect of the road trip (all different landscapes, towns, a little of the "must see on trip West stuff," and random cool stuff that might be relatively unknown but awesome. Oh and good pie of course
Oh and if anyone has good resources for ideas or good places to check for discounts that would be appreciated too!
@ Dan- I'm from Chicago originally, though I've never been to the Black Hills. I will definitely check it out and keep you posted as to what we end up doing!
@ Chuck- Yellowstone is definitely gonna be on that list. Don't think you're allowed to go west without seeing something there!
@ Rich- You've pretty much just identified how I plan trips- "What am I going to eat!"
@ Michele- I was reading about the coastal highway on some website today, and I'm thinking that's going to be the way to go to round out the loop. Will definitely be a nice change from the camping on the trip coming out.
Driving to Vegas from California (ala Swingers movie) is pretty cool at night. For some reason driving to Vegas is a must do.
Hahaha! Swingers is totally my inspiration for that desire. And definitely how I'll be selling it to my brother
Big sights and terrain are doable in two weeks if you're willing to pay for it with some monster driving days to get to where you want to go.
I suggest you plan for areas/things you want to see, then plan for big admin days to connect them.
You mentioned the Grand Canyon. I recommend you go to the North Rim vs South and hit southern UT on your way. The square from St George to Cedar City to Moab to Monument Valley and back to SG is just...stoopid. Maybe consider getting a cheep flight to Vegas, rent an RV there, and drive that loop and more, using the RV as your basecamp? Not sure how the $$ shakes out but I gotta think it's cheaper than hotels, etc?
Hwy 93, Great Basin Hwy from outside Vegas all the way up to Canada is fantastic.
Eastern NorCal (east side of the Sierras) from Bishop up to Oregon (hwy 395 and 89) is fantastic. Pop over Tioga Pass and drop into Yosemite. Or come in the other way after having driven down the Cali coast to SFO.
Anyway.....sooooo much to see. I scheme daily how I can do stuff like this full time
Rich is correct on this one, best road trip I have ever had was vegas to salt lake via southern utah. Rich is also right on the waffle house jukebox rule but that is another thing.
Important thing about utah (and most western states) is get a national park pass (used to be called golden passes, now I think they are America the beautiful, the pass) you can then camp legally on any blm land. Usually this is literally driving down the road, your tired and you see a little BLM marker on the side of the road. Pull off and poof you can camp. You can't build new firerings but often there are established rings you can use. This makes it SUPER cheap, the pass also gets you into any national park (which there are tons out there).
I have friends that have done the RV method, when I did it I just rented a town car (you can sleep in it easily if needed). Lots to see, moab is a ball as are all the slot canyons out by lake powell. Just the coolest part of the world I have seen so far.
Also agree with everyone else, stay out of cities (phoenix, vegas etc).
Take lots of pictures and share
-Dave
I never realized that you can camp on public lands as long as there was a marker. My plan was to camp as many nights as possible to save money (plus I have a ton of car camping and backpacking gear, so no expense there). I was planning on the Annual Pass for the parks, but the fact that you can camp anywhere it's not restricted makes it even better.
Everytime I look I find another cool thing to check out, I'm having a ton of fun just planning the trip. There is just so much cool stuff to see!
Hi Jennifer! - To save time you might want to consider flying to connect places/destinations. This is what my buddies and I did on our road trip following college graduation: we drove from Montreal to Las Vegas with Vegas serving as "base camp". Then, drove to Grand Canyon; drove to Death Valley N.P. (Zabriskie Point is awesome). Hopped on Southwest Airlines (SWA) to San Diego; rented car and drove to Tijuana; back on SWA to San Francisco; then Pasedena and finally back to Vegas. Back in our car, drove to Four Corners, Utah and back to Montreal. Flying with SWA was inexpensive and allowed us to cover a lot more ground.