USA Road Trip About This Page:

[B.M.]

A year from now we will be dancing across the U.S.A for our next "big" family vacation.... I have already gotten to work on this adventure; there have been a few similar threads lately that were a wealth of information- but I thought I might get more information about the places we plan to visit specifically by starting my own thread.... This is our attentative plan: (any and all advice is appreciated) I am going to list the cities we are visiting in the order we are visiting and what we have planned for those cities.... In some cities we have nothing and in some cases I'm even willing to change the city we stay in if someone has a better idea.... Here it goes:

(1)- Memphis, TN (Graceland mansion)

(2)- Little Rock, Arkansas (walk of the ducks at the Peabody Hotel)

(3)- Oklahoma City, OK (nothing planned here)

(4)- Amarillo, TX ( cadillac ranch and we will switch to driving old route 66 vs interstate and see the giant boot)

(5)- Roswell, NM (alien museum) This was originally to be Alburquerque, but we couldn't go to NM w/out seeing area 51, right?

(6)- Williams, AZ (Grand Canyon) **we will spend a few days here)

**Also flinstones bedrock city in Williams**

**would like to work in the painted desert atleast as a stop**

**hope to stay in wigwam hotel while in AZ at some point**

**also plan to see cool springs gas station on orig route 66)

(7)- Anaheim, CA (Disneyland and Huntington beach) **spending several days here

(8)- San Francisco, CA (Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, and Alcatraz)

(9)- Bakersfield, CA (see the "big shoe")

(10)- Death Valley (only stopping and driving through, not staying overnight)

(11)- Beatty, Nevada (rhyolite ghost town)

(12)- Las Vegas, Nevada (volcano at mirage, ride the strip, Hoover Dam)

(13)- Richfield, Utah (no plans here)

(14)- Idaho Springs, Colorado (mount evans scenic byway)

(15)- Hays, Kansas (no plans here)

**hoping to see the "original" Tow Mater in Galena, KS on way

(16)- Kansas City, Kansas (no plans here)

(17)- St. Louis, Missouri (Six Flags, Gateway Arch, and maybe stay at Jellystone Park/Yogi Bear)

(18)- Hopkinsville, Kentucky (Trail of Tears Commemarative Park and literary park/king author's round table)

(19)- Home/ GA

That is it. We are looking at a minimum of 25 days, probably 30, but hopefully not more than that....

I'm open to doing things in a different order, different routes, different things to see in these towns, or different towns to see along the way all together... I hope to leave out the last week of May 2012... Right now I'm looking at all my options, but hope to have a firm plan so I can start booking things by January Lot's of time; but never too early to get started....

Thanks for any input!

[Colexis Mom]

I don't have any input, but looks like a great time!

[chezp]

It looks like an amazing time!

[Carousel96]

No advice here -- I either haven't been to those places or you have the highlights covered.
But it looks like a great trip!

[B.M.]

OK, so no sooner than I posted this I am re-considering California. This trip originally did not include California- it was GA to Vegas & Grand Canyon and back... But I convinced myself that we were going to be so close to CA that I should just go for it.... But CA easily adds a week onto the trip and a lot of expence due to DL, so as of this second I am considering keeping the trip the way it was originally planned and save CA for another time... I'm pretty wishy washy on it though....

As for the rest of it/the original plan.... I was hoping someone would have some ideas for things to do in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Utah.... and maybe something else or better to do in Arkansas....

[Huntermom]

I don't know if you are going for the whole summer or how long you plan to stay in each place. If you have the summer, your trip looks doable to me. If you have less than a month, that's a lot of driving. We did LA to San Francisco with a stop in Monterey one year in ten days and I felt it was pressed especially considering the amount of time we were in the car. I don't think you can do what you planned in CA in a week-maybe two.

How much driving will you kids tolerate? Remember day after day it gets less and less exciting.

Can you say how long you have to travel and what your kids like?

[B.M.]

Originally Posted by Huntermom

I don't know if you are going for the whole summer or how long you plan to stay in each place. If you have the summer, your trip looks doable to me. If you have less than a month, that's a lot of driving. We did LA to San Francisco with a stop in Monterey one year in ten days and I felt it was pressed especially considering the amount of time we were in the car. I don't think you can do what you planned in CA in a week-maybe two.

How much driving will you kids tolerate? Remember day after day it gets less and less exciting.

Can you say how long you have to travel and what your kids like?

I technically have the whole summer; but was hoping to make it about a month long trip... The plans were orginally for Las Vegas, Nevada And Arizona/Grand Canyon to be the main goal and did not include California- I added in CA simply because we were going to be soo close and it seemed a good idea; but now I'm thinking I need to take CA back off the trip.
Like you said I could easily spend a few weeks in CA alone...
The way I'm looking at it right now is most days we will drive 5 hours or less, with many days only being 3 or less hours... I only have two days that I'm looking at being over 5 hours when I remove the CA part of the trip...
The other thing I'm wishy washy on is weather or not to rent an RV. At first I thought it was the best thing to do; but now I'm not sure. If we rent an RV, we will also be sleeping in it each night- I think I would prefer a regular hotel each night.... I have lots of details to sort out...

[GoofyMom]

Near Amarillo is a beautiful canyon called Palo Duro. If you have enough time, I consider it a must-see. Too bad Carlsbad Cavern would be so far off your route because it's pretty amazing. A bit south of Richfield UT is Bryce Canyon and I highly recommend it. I liked Bryce twice as much as I liked the Grand Canyon and Bryce is on the way between Vegas and Richfield.

We're taking a 7500 mile road trip this fall that should be about 40 days long. I debated renting an RV, but I ruled it out for a few reasons:
1) it's expensive to rent an RV for a long time!
2) gas mileage. May as well just bring your own gas station...
3) driving through large cities. RVs are generally more difficult to maneuver, especially if you start getting into the 30' lengths.
4) if you want to go anywhere, like when you set up camp in Williams AZ or if you go to Anaheim, you have to break camp to drive to whatever you want to go to
5) RVs may not fit under all the underpasses or even road signs in cities and your GPS will not tell you that in time to change your route to one that it will fit under (I saw my father in law chop the top off the air conditioner on his RV going under a street sign warning of a low underpass ahead)
6) Parking. Parking lots aren't really made large enough for regular sized vehicles anymore, let alone RVs.

[B.M.]

Originally Posted by GoofyMom

Near Amarillo is a beautiful canyon called Palo Duro. If you have enough time, I consider it a must-see. Too bad Carlsbad Cavern would be so far off your route because it's pretty amazing. A bit south of Richfield UT is Bryce Canyon and I highly recommend it. I liked Bryce twice as much as I liked the Grand Canyon and Bryce is on the way between Vegas and Richfield.

We're taking a 7500 mile road trip this fall that should be about 40 days long. I debated renting an RV, but I ruled it out for a few reasons:
1) it's expensive to rent an RV for a long time!
2) gas mileage. May as well just bring your own gas station...
3) driving through large cities. RVs are generally more difficult to maneuver, especially if you start getting into the 30' lengths.
4) if you want to go anywhere, like when you set up camp in Williams AZ or if you go to Anaheim, you have to break camp to drive to whatever you want to go to
5) RVs may not fit under all the underpasses or even road signs in cities and your GPS will not tell you that in time to change your route to one that it will fit under (I saw my father in law chop the top off the air conditioner on his RV going under a street sign warning of a low underpass ahead)
6) Parking. Parking lots aren't really made large enough for regular sized vehicles anymore, let alone RVs.

Thanks for the great information!

I looked up Palo Duro and it looks like it is only about 30 minutes from Amarillo- so definately doable and the pictures look amazing- it actually looks like the pics I've been looking at of the painted desert.
And Bryce Canyon looks beautiful also, since we had nothing planned to do in Richfield, I think we may just change our stay to stay close to Bryce Canyon (I looked on a map and the nearest town I see is Ruby's Inn). We would likely need to find another city in UT to spend the night also because it would be too far to travel in one day between Bryce Canyon and our next "offical" stop Idaho Springs, Colorado. So, I'll just need to research a half way point between the two...

And you definately make some good points about the RV; some I had considered and some I had not.... I had thought about it being difficult to drive and the gas mileage and that is why I was pulling away from the idea; but I had not really thought about the inability to park most places..... I started out with a pro/con list for renting an RV vs driving a van and the con list seems to be growing longer and longer.

[mechurchlady]

There was this cool western museum in Oklahoma City but that was years ago. Dad and I loved it. I love your trip plans.

Bakersfield is home to a large population of Basque who came to herd sheep. There are some really good restaurants and you should try at least one of them. Read up on the Basque as the one I met was very nice.

Death Valley has Scotty's Castle and Bodie the ghost town.
We did Fantastic Caverns in Missouri maybe. If you are near the Carolinas try Cherokee and the area around Guilford.

[Huntermom]

If you can get rooms at any of the parks, go for it. There's nothing better than waking up in the parks although some of the accommodations are a bit rustic.

We could not get a room in the park at Bryce and stayed at the Canyon Livery Bed and Breakfast. We thought it was great an enjoyed the breakfasts, but I just checked Trip Advisor and there were lots of complaints about breakfast in 2008.

We also stayed at the Desert Pearl Inn in Springdale when we went to Zion and it was absolutely wonderful.

[Starbright]

Wow!! That sounds like a fantastic trip Too bad you couldn't add Oregon. We went there for our honeymoon and loved it. We want to go back again but don't think the kids are as interested in the scenery as we were back then.

Donna: Where are you going and can you tell me how it goes when you come back. Are you going in Canada or the USA????

[B.M.]

Originally Posted by Huntermom

If you can get rooms at any of the parks, go for it. There's nothing better than waking up in the parks although some of the accommodations are a bit rustic.

We could not get a room in the park at Bryce and stayed at the Canyon Livery Bed and Breakfast. We thought it was great an enjoyed the breakfasts, but I just checked Trip Advisor and there were lots of complaints about breakfast in 2008.

We also stayed at the Desert Pearl Inn in Springdale when we went to Zion and it was absolutely wonderful.

I definately hope to stay at some of the parks; the pictures on the Palo Duro state park website of their 4 cabins are breathtaking. As soon as I seen that, I gasped and said I MUST stay here! The lodging is very limited, so I hope to have my plans perfected by January at the latest so I can start making reservations... It probably would not hurt to start sooner if possible....

Originally Posted by Starbright

Wow!! That sounds like a fantastic trip Too bad you couldn't add Oregon. We went there for our honeymoon and loved it. We want to go back again but don't think the kids are as interested in the scenery as we were back then.

Donna: Where are you going and can you tell me how it goes when you come back. Are you going in Canada or the USA????

I hope to make it to Oregon eventually; just not this trip.

And, Donna- I would also like to know where your headed on your long trip!

[GoofyMom]

Our trip is taking us throughout basically the entire eastern part of the USA, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic and back. We will visit 26 states and 1, possibly 3 provinces along the way.

[B.M.]

Originally Posted by GoofyMom

Our trip is taking us throughout basically the entire eastern part of the USA, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic and back. We will visit 26 states and 1, possibly 3 provinces along the way.

That sounds like quite an adventure!! I seriously hope you will do a TR when you return! Out of curiosity- have you/are you booking all your hotel rooms (if your staying in hotels?) in advance or are you allowing for some flexibility? This is something I debated; but I'm thinking the trip will go smoother if I book everything in advance, but I'd be curious as to how your handling this.....