I would like to go next summer, but not sure where exactly. Can anyone give me some cool places to visit? I'm looking to spend about 2-3 weeks on the trip.

Thx

10/19/2006 10:23:57 AM

badlands south dakota.

10/19/2006 10:31:38 AM

when i did mine, the best part was coming through Colorado on 70, proceeding to North Rim of Grand Canyon, then Zion Natl Park, on to Vegas, and ending in San Diego...then you could drive up PCH and come back more North...like Yosemite, et cetera

10/19/2006 10:40:09 AM

Quote :

"badlands south dakota."

And the Black Hills

10/19/2006 10:49:22 AM

I recommend any and all of those places.

10/19/2006 11:03:09 AM

how many miles is that? ^

10/19/2006 11:45:38 AM

I felt like 70 was the most boring ride of my life, except for colorado. That was pretty. Take 40 out, theres tons of cool stuff along it, go up to vegas, go to mexico, see the grand canyon and the painted desert. I really liked San Diego, but if LA is your thing, go for it. If I had changed our trip, I would have gone up the coast of California to the redwood forests and to Seattle and stuff. And then flown home. By that time,( about 2 and a half week) its worth the plane ticket home. Unless you REALLY like looking at flat grain fields, middle america sucks. And after that long in a car, you are ready to go. Also make sure you get a AAA membership and look at all the books they give you , you can get discounts on EVERYTHING. PM me if you want any more tips. We went from the end of June to mid July... It was the most amazing experience of my life.

10/19/2006 11:45:38 AM

oh yeah 70 sucks till you get to CO

10/19/2006 11:46:24 AM

^^^Thats the combination of 3 sets of trips. All totalled up I think its about 25K because a lot of the places I looped back on different trips

[Edited on October 19, 2006 at 12:28 PM. Reason : .]

10/19/2006 12:27:54 PM

i have already been to LA and was not that impressed so I would like San Diego. I could rent a car and fly back. I wonder how much it would cost for unlimited miles for 2 weeks.

10/19/2006 3:11:45 PM

i drove from DC to San Diego back in January and it was one of the best times of my life

pm me if you want specifics

10/19/2006 3:56:55 PM

make sure one of your stops is jackson hole, wy. awesome place.

10/19/2006 5:26:18 PM

Quote :

"badlands south dakota."

Doing some dinosaur digging?

10/19/2006 8:10:56 PM

very interested in this. some friends and i have been toying the idea of making this trip next summer.

10/19/2006 8:37:52 PM

I graduate next december. I am a teacher, so starting a job then isn't really an option in most cases. I plan on taking 2 months in order to drive a giant cirlce around the US.

10/19/2006 8:41:00 PM

I'm going to help you plan it, ready?

get in your car

get on 40 west

...

profit

10/19/2006 9:09:57 PM

I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to road trips; I've been on several, quite a few cross country, and love helping other people plan them, too. Of course, it all depends on what you're interested in seeing; I usually focus on going to national parks, and do a lot of lesser known stuff along the way and in-between.

Just so you can get in as much as possible, I would head out along a southern route, then head back along a northern route. Or vice versa, it doesn't really matter so long as you plan to hit the northern route later in the summer--particularly in national parks, a lot of interesting roads won't be open until May or on up in June.

Somebody mentioned the Badlands in South Dakota, which is great, but not just because of the Badlands. There's a lot of cool stuff nearby, too, like Devil's Tower, the Black Hills (Custer State Park in particular), Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood, and Wall Drug (if you like tourist trap kitsch like South of the Border).

If you're that close on this long a trip, you gotta go to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons/Jackson Hole.

One of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken was through Hells Canyon on the ID/OR border. I can't remember offhand what highway I entered it on (I can look it up later, if you like), but we came in through ID. The road goes through a narrow crack in the mountains, then opens out into a narrow canyon sandwiching a lake on the Snake River. It's actually the deepest canyon in the country--about 8,000 feet (but the road doesn't go through that part).

Check out Olympic NP and the rain forest in WA. Drive along the west coast some, but you gotta cut inland to see Yosemite; quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been.

I generally tend to avoid big cities on my trips; the traffic just slows you down, but Vegas is definitely worth a trip. And not far from there you got the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Death Valley. (I actually think it's worth a trip to drive 30-50 miles east of Las Vegas on I-15 just to see the city lit up at night from a distance).

There are a lot of great national parks in Utah. Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef; all of those are near or on UT-12, which is a great drive. The Moab area is cool, too; Arches, Canyonlands, and Dead Horse Point state park are all right there.

I-70 through the Colorado Rockies is a great drive. If you're into Oregon Trail history, you should stop at Scottsbluff, NE.

Of course, there's lots more, these are just some off the top of my head along a general route around the country. There are a lot of lesser known places in between worth a stop, too, of course (and some well known ones that I just neglected to mention). If you want some more suggestions for any particular area of the country (or things other than state and national parks), just ask.

Have fun!

10/19/2006 9:43:19 PM

when i moved to San Diego, six of us took a good trip during the winter. went from MD (my parents at xmas) to NC...then New Orleans (Burbon St), Memphis (Beale St), St Louis (Bud Brewery), Denver, Vegas (3 nights at new years), grand canyon, and San Diego...was a total of 10 days, so you could have more time with less long drives than we did. when i moved back east we took I-10 pretty much the whole way...and it sucked balls...nothing between san diego and N.O that I could have given two shits about

we looked at renting a van - was going to be about 1600 for 10 days...so I bought my parent's old toyota previa mini-van for about a grand and still have it as a backup when the porsche is in the shop

[Edited on October 19, 2006 at 10:36 PM. Reason : .]

10/19/2006 10:35:47 PM

two basic ways to make this trip from my experience, spend alittle at alot of places or spend more at afew places.


I drove out west this last summer with my buddies took the way southern root on the way out and took 70 on the way back across the middle.

on my trip I tried to hit everything which was fun but damn it was alot of driving took me over 5000 miles to get to sanfrancisco, did alot of weaving.
I suggest Utah and arizona, and camping at the navaho travel park at monument vally aint nothing like watchin the sun come up there at the mittens.,, and both the seqioia national park and yosemite are all must.

10/23/2006 6:51:56 PM

http://www.randmcnally.com/rmc/road/rtgHome.jsp

This road trip tool will let you enter in all your cities, and do directions & calculate mileage...if you want to have some shorter driving days and some longer driving days, you can move different locations around in the list until you get a mix you like and it'll keep revising the directions. Has other features to show hotels, points of interest, food etc around your route.

10/27/2006 9:35:59 PM

Quote :

"I felt like 70 was the most boring ride of my life, except for colorado. "

i took 70 to Boulder my freshman year, and I thought I was going to kill myself driving through Kansas on 70. monotonous as hell

btw, I'm flying out to san diego tomorrow, renting a car, and my brother and I are driving up the coast to Seattle. I'll post something here about how it went when we get back. With Southwest flying out of RDU, you could just fly somewhere, rent a car (for me, its only $250, unlimited mileage) and then fly back out of another SW airport.

[Edited on October 31, 2006 at 10:23 AM. Reason : asdf]

10/31/2006 10:20:05 AM

40 goes from NC to CA, but I think I'd go up the east coast before making a turn west. Seems like theres plenty of interesting places to visit up there.

10/31/2006 11:31:56 AM

Whne we did, we took 70 there and 10 back, it was pretty good. St. Louis is on 70, i think, so it's not that bad before CO, of course we were going to LA, so we eventually ended up on 40. I would not recommend 40, the only thing on it is the Grand Canyon, as far as I can tell.

Taking 10 back was great, there is a lot to see, although I would recommend going through Pheonix rather than Touscon (sp?). The worst part is West Texas, which is pretty much empty and kinda creepy, but you go through San Antonio, Houston, and New Orleans, which should be fun.

10/31/2006 1:08:08 PM