Summer Cross Country Road Trip...UPDATE page 3

[marthachick]

If you’re going to Yellowstone, you will be very close to Grand Teton National Park. I would add that too. We loved it.

 

[HeatherC]

, I did a 6 week 11,500 miles road trip two years ago with my 15 year old daughter- we went from NY across the top of the US to Washington, then down through California, across to Vegas, down to Arizona, over to Texas then cut up through West Virginia Pa and back to NY- I don't recommend getting hotels, half the fun of it was no schedules! If you want to stay in Yellowstone though you would have to make reservations. If you are going to be in Arizona then do NOT miss Antelope Canyon. This year we are doing a much shorter trip, we are actually flying into Salt Lake City and then road tripping around the state of Utah and Arizona but just for 2 weeks.
So far on our list for this trip is:
Arches
Monument Valley
Camp Verde
Horseshoe Bend
Bryce
Zion
Kolob Canyon Road
Lake Powell

For our 6 week road trip we rented a mini van for 2 months for 1900.00 (that was a steal!), it cost us about 1200 in gas, 6,000 in food, tours, activities etc, and 6500 in hotels. There were other things like souvenirs, oil changes, and other things I don't recall price of but that is what we spent for 6 weeks - we also started the trip with 250.00 in cracker barrel gift cards I had gotten at my retirement party before we left LOL. It was an expensive trip but it was a trip my daughter and I had been talking about, saving and planning for since she was a toddler! Also on that trip we didn't stay in places like Motel 6's which would have saved us a ton- we stayed in ONE in South Dakota and it was so bad we wouldn't chance them again but this trip coming up is more "budget" trip so wont be Marriotts and Hiltons, more like La Quinta and Motel 6's LOL. I obviously did all the driving since she was only 15- our longest driving day was 16 hours when we left South Dakota and were heading to Yellowstone. South Dakota was one of my favorite places on the trip. Oh and if you are going to Nashville a great hotel was the Gaylord Orpyland Hotel!
We stayed in the cabins by Old Faithful in Yellowstone- I wouldn't have been able to handle that for more than the one night. Ours had a bathroom in it but the cabin is really broken down into 2 cabins and there is like a thin wall between you and the people next door, half the night was spent yelling at the guy next door to stop snoring! It was like he was in bed with us it was so loud!

 

[HeatherC]

Aprilgail...Sounds like you had an amazing time! I am sure your daughter will always remember that trip as an adventure of a lifetime!

So you didn't book hotels ahead of time? I guess my fear in not doing so is that things fill up obviously, but more that they always seem to cost more last minute during prime tourist season. I have pre booked some with liberal cancellation policies. They either have to be cancelled by 6 pm the day before or 6 pm the day of arrival. I figure that gives me some sense of having a tentative place lined up that we can always switch last minute.

Plus, I HATE disgusting motels. I am more of a Marriott girl myself. but for this trip I am pretty much going by TripAdvisor reviews and price and have booked some La Quintas, Days Inn, MyPlace hotels etc..

I do have Grand Teton on the list too! Looks like a very worthwhile stop. And I will also check out Antelope Canyon in AZ. Thanks for the tip!

Luckily, we are used to road trips. We drive every year from Mass. to Hilton Head, SC which is 16 1/2 hours each way along with some other long trips we have done over the years. But I realize this is on a scale far greater than we can imagine until we actually do it.

We have also been thinking of getting another car for a while now and passing my car down to my son who needs a reliable car, so we may wind up buying a year or two old minivan and use that instead of renting. The downside, of course, is putting 10,000 miles on it pretty quickly so we will see. But then it is ours and we will have it for other trips which we do take frequently.

I am trying not to get overwhelmed by too much planning. I want it to be a flexible, fun adventure with a little peace of mind built in too.. It also is great because dh is as excited as we are.

 

[clutter]

I'd love to follow you! In fact, I will next year. I HIGHLY recommend adding Sequoia National Park. It's no where nearly as crowded as Yosemite, and the trees are so far beyond what you will see in Muir Woods on the coast.

 

[aprilgail]

Aprilgail...Sounds like you had an amazing time! I am sure your daughter will always remember that trip as an adventure of a lifetime!

So you didn't book hotels ahead of time? I guess my fear in not doing so is that things fill up obviously, but more that they always seem to cost more last minute during prime tourist season. I have pre booked some with liberal cancellation policies. They either have to be cancelled by 6 pm the day before or 6 pm the day of arrival. I figure that gives me some sense of having a tentative place lined up that we can always switch last minute.

Plus, I HATE disgusting motels. I am more of a Marriott girl myself. but for this trip I am pretty much going by TripAdvisor reviews and price and have booked some La Quintas, Days Inn, MyPlace hotels etc..

I do have Grand Teton on the list too! Looks like a very worthwhile stop. And I will also check out Antelope Canyon in AZ. Thanks for the tip!

Luckily, we are used to road trips. We drive every year from Mass. to Hilton Head, SC which is 16 1/2 hours each way along with some other long trips we have done over the years. But I realize this is on a scale far greater than we can imagine until we actually do it.

We have also been thinking of getting another car for a while now and passing my car down to my son who needs a reliable car, so we may wind up buying a year or two old minivan and use that instead of renting. The downside, of course, is putting 10,000 miles on it pretty quickly so we will see. But then it is ours and we will have it for other trips which we do take frequently.

I am trying not to get overwhelmed by too much planning. I want it to be a flexible, fun adventure with a little peace of mind built in too.. It also is great because dh is as excited as we are.

Grand Teton was really nice. No we didn't book hotels ahead of time- we would be driving and when it got near time to call it a day I would tell my daughter to start looking at hotels say 50-100 miles ahead of us, she would go online and look up hotels and trip advisor reviews and then book one online- I tried to stay with Marriott hotels to get the points since I was a gold member, and if not she would go through hotels.com because you got a free night for every 10. We stayed in South Dakota an extra day so I am glad we didn't book anything or we could not have- plus we stayed an extra 2 days in Washington (we were visiting family there) and an extra day in Oregon more than we had though we would have stayed. The best part of staying in Marriotts is that being a gold member we would get the breakfast free and also they had free food at dinner time, sometimes just wings, eggrolls, fruit platter, salad and desserts but it was enough to make a dinner out of for us more of the time!

 

[Lynne G]

I did that when I was a teen. It's a great ride. We went from PA to Ohio, then across to Idaho, down to Arizona, and back the Southern route. Took a month in the summer. We camped in the Grand Tetons, and woke up to find we had been in a meadow where a herd of buffaloes surrounded us. No one wanted to move. LOL They eventually left. We also camped in Yellowstone, and again, did not put tents in a good place, we woke up to being in a rain river. Needless to say, all was soaked. We also stayed in hotels/motels, and family and friends' homes. We also rented a van, so miles were not on anyone's cars.

Have fun, the country is so neat to see. Everything from mountains to deserts, and roads that seem to go on forever.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

We are thinking of doing a cross country road trip this summer and I am kind of lost on planning it. Our summer vacations are usually a two week beach vacation, so this is a bit different for sure and will take a lot more planning...or much less if we decide to just "go".

It will be myself and my two daughters ages 21 and 17. DH will probably fly in somewhere and join us for two weeks. We have about six weeks to travel.

Sooo...have you ever done something like this? Should I pre book lodging? Planning to use some hotel points to keep the costs down and will even consider bringing a tent and some camping mats for a few nights.

I have a minivan tentatively rented in case we decide to not take one of our cars. It's an added expense, but having the extra space would be great and we wouldn't have the wear and tear on our cars. Plus three of us could "probably" sleep in it if we had to one or two nights if we were between places and decided to stop.

Planning on getting a plug in cooler for the car so we don't have to worry about ice.
Planning on getting a National Parks Pass and maybe city passes for a few places as well.

Haven't done something like this since I backpacked across Europe after college! Part of me thinks I'm nuts, but the other part is that a trip like this has been on my bucket list and I have two great kids who want me to go with them, so I am determined to make it happen!

Any suggestions are welcome!

Wow, you will have an amazing time!!

We have done four western trips, all different and all awesome!! We have never had more than 2 1/2 weeks. We live in NH, so we always fly out to where we are starting the trip, rent a van, and off we go. We return the van in a different state at the end of our trip.

I always make all of our reservations before we go. We love to stay in the National Parks, so most of those reservations I make a year in advance. However, on our trip in August 2016, I made the reservations 7-8 months in advance and was able to get reservations inside of Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon. For us, we need those reservations so that our vacation is stress free. I just don't want to be trying to find places as I am traveling. BUT, we pretty much stick to a schedule/plan, because we always have less than 3 weeks. If, I was like you, and had 6 weeks, I can see where you would like to have some wiggle room, so I might leave some nights open in your case. But, I have to say, that in our experience, the hotels even outside the National Parks fill up months in advance. So, I would want a solid plan for a place to stay near any National Park. We have never camped on our trips, so I cant speak for that, although a friend of mine did a big trip west last summer in their motor home and she did say that it was harder than she thought it would to get a site at the campgrounds near the National Parks.

Our cooler is priceless!! I bring our own and just check it with our luggage when we fly out. Every three days or so, we stock up on deli meat, bread, fruit, cases of water etc. It has been much easier for us to do what we want if we aren't trying to find a place to eat a few times a day. We have always been able to get all of the ice we need at the hotels we stay at, including the National Park Lodges for the most part. Last summer at Bryce, I was directed to go into the restaurant and have our ice bucket filled up a few times, because their was no ice machine for guests and that's the way they do it there.

We have another trip planned for this summer and our boys, ages 22 and 24 are both going with us! I am so excited about that!! They have loved all of our western trips, so they wanted to go, but it took some good luck that we can all go together, with college and work schedules for all of us!

We are flying into Seattle and going to Olympic National Park and Mount Rainier National Park. I made reservations at both for two night each last August. From there we are going to Crater Lake National Park, a place we visited 6 years ago. On that trip, I was able to make reservation to stay in the park, but I couldn't get us a spot in their Lodge on the rim, so that was my goal this time. Happily I was able to get a reservation, but even a year out, pretty much every night in August was fully booked! I was able to get one of two rooms left for the night we needed. Then onto San Francisco and the Big Sur, before spending 4 days at Disneyland.

If you are on Facebook, be "friends" with all of the National Parks that you think that you may go. I have learned a lot that way too!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

This is my wife's blog that hasn't been updated since 2013, but it tells the story of my family's cross-country road trip over the course of 3 weeks:

http://havefamilywilldrive.blogspot.com/

We were originally going to drive out west in a rental car and fly back. Eventually that turned into a round-trip adventure. We planned most of this out in advance, with when we needed to be where, etc.

In hindsight, be should have made it a longer trip to cut down some of the driving, especially at the end. The drive from Flagstaff, AZ to Amarillo, TX was particularly rough.

Sunday, July 7 - Drive to Pokagon State Park in Indiana for a night of camping.
Monday, July 8 - Drive to Chicago. See the Field Museum and Adler Planetarium. Drive to Great Bluffs State Park in Minnesota to camp for the night overlooking the Mississippi River.
Tuesday, July 9 - Drive to Mount Rushmore. Stay in cabins.
Wednesday, July 10 - Sightsee at Mount Rushmore and the surrounding area. Stay in cabins.
Thursday, July 11 - Drive to Yellowstone. Camp, and see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Friday, July 12 - See Old Faithful, Hayden Valley, and the rest of the lower loop. Camp.
Saturday, July 13 - See Tower Fall and Mammoth Hot Springs on the way to Missoula, Montana. Stay in a hotel.
Sunday, July 14 - Drive to Bremerton, WA for a visit with my sister.
Monday, July 15 - More visiting with my sister.
Tuesday, July 16 - Drive to Patrick's Point State Park, and camp overlooking the Pacific.
Wednesday, July 17 - Make the impossibly long drive to Anaheim, stopping halfway to visit the Jelly Belly Factory. Camp at Anaheim RV Village - apparently an urban campground.
Thursday, July 18 - Go to Disneyland. Camp.
Friday, July 19 - Go to California Adventure. Camp.
Saturday, July 20 - See the California Science Center (with the Space Shuttle Endeavor) and the Hollywood area. Camp.
Sunday, July 21 - Attend San Diego Comic Con. Stay at a hotel.
Monday, July 22 - See the USS Midway and go to Coronado beach. Stay at a hotel.
Tuesday, July 23 - Drive to the Grand Canyon, and sightsee for an hour or two. Drive further to Flagstaff, AZ and stay at a hotel.
Wednesday, July 24 - Drive to Amarillo, TX. See various Route 66 attractions. Go to the Texas! show at Palo Duro State Park. Stay at a hotel.
Thursday, July 25 - Drive to St. Louis, Missouri. See the Gateway Arch and the Westward Expansion museum. Stay at a hotel.
Friday, July 26 - Drive to Dayton, Ohio. See Gaelic Storm at the Irish Fest. Stay at a hotel.
Saturday, July 27 - Drive home.

Also, we ended up staying in a motel in Anaheim instead of camping.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco
Portland, Oregon
Glacier National Park....so far out of the way, but it is THE one place both kids want to see apparently.
Yellowstone

After that will probably have to seriously do some driving to head back home. Those are the "must sees".

As far as camping, I am kind of re thinking that. Most campgrounds I have seen fill up quickly and some can be almost as much as a budget hotel. And it will be HOT in July and we are not sure we will want to set up camp after driving all day. So that part is flexible. Will bring a tent and some gear, but will play that part by ear.

A couple more comments!

You have Glacier on your list. I have to say that Glacier and Yosemite are my two favorite National Parks!! Its tough to even say that as there are SO many that I love!! But, Glacier was AMAZING!!! I saw that you are from Mass. and I am your neighbor in NH, and I can say that we have NOTHING as far as mountains compared to Glacier NP!!! We also loved the Going to the Sun road that cuts through the park. We visited Glacier 6 years ago when my kids were 18 and 16 and they loved it too! We spent two nights there and had three full days which was great, but next trip I may do three nights. We stayed at the Lake McDonald Lodge and the Glacier Park Lodge. I loved them both. The Glacier Park Lodge is a bit out of the way and as much as I loved it, I probably wouldn't stay there again, but I would stop for a visit for sure. The lobby is AMAZING!!! (I went through cancer treatment 7 years ago and one afternoon as I was laying on the couch feeling pretty ill from chemo, I was watching a show about National Park Lodges and when I saw the Glacier Park Lodge, I vowed to get better and stay there!! And I did!!) Next trip, I plan to spend a night at the Lake McDonald Lodge again and then a night at the Many Glacier Lodge.

As far as the camping. We love to tent camp, BUT, I wouldn't want to do it on a western vacation. We camp quite a bit in NH for a weekend or long weekend and love that, but on our western trips, after a day of touring or hiking, I just want to go to my hotel room, have a shower and lay down in a bed, without having to lift a finger to set up camp. But, of course that's just me!

Maybe we will pass you on the Pacific Coast highway this summer!! Ha, ha!! Even with the road closure, we are going to visit Big Sur and then have to backtrack. Unless of course everything is open by August, but I am not planning on that!

 

[ctinct]

Totally agree with AorilGail that the cabins at Old Faithful were not good. Our carpet was so dirty we complained, and since there was no place available to move us, they gave us a discount. The cabin we had at canyon was much nicer. Also agree with Antelope Canyon if you get up that way in Arizona.

On booking hotels—with the exception of the national parks, you should be alright booking a few hours ahead. One trick we learned we’ve learned is that it is usually cheaper to book online. We generally drive by for a look-see and then go to dinner, and reserve the hotel while we eat. We had one place that refused to match the online price when we walked in. They know you are a captive audience. Oh, and just check for big events in the places you are going. We realized last year that we would have been trying to stop in the path of the eclopise last year. We adjusted our schedule slightly, and as a bonus, saw the eclipse!

TripAdvisor is your friend. I’ve always found very helpful people on the forums. Never would have done Antelope Canyon without the urging of peopl3 there, nor stayed in the Old House at Old Faithful. Both of those would have been huge mistakes to miss.

I’m ever so slightly jealous of your trip.

 

[HeatherC]

Went to Barnes and Noble today and picked up a good old fashioned Atlas and a book on "Secrets of the National Parks". So excited about this adventure!

 

[sasywtch]

We use to drive from OK to northern CA twice a year and then to traveling softball tournaments out of state. Around 4pm, we'd start looking for motels within the next 100 mile range. I don't know if Holiday Inn's are ok for you but there always seemed to be one wherever we were. In our younger days, my now x and I would lower the back seats down and take pillows and a blanket and sleep in the back of the van at a rest stop for a night on our way to DL. The only time we messed up was not getting a room in St Louis back in the day Mark McGuire was hot and there was a game.

 

[Nayan]

I did one in 2016, Florida to Grand Canyon, Albuquerque, San Antonio, New Orleans, home. Some tips:

• Map out your route and make hotel reservations early. Nothing will put a damper on your trip then saying "We'll stop when we get *here*", only to find out that *here* has something big going on and no rooms are available. National Parks fill up quick, so book those first.
• Pad an extra hour or two into your drive from point to point. Slow traffic, accidents and road construction (I'm looking at you, Texas) can turn a 30 minute drive into two hours or more. Make sure you have a couple apps that the kids can keep an eye on for traffic reports.
• Pack plenty of snacks and drinks. Having someone being hangry doesn't make a good trip .
• Research weather for the places you'll be going/driving through. Do not be like myself and the other Floridians I met at the GC, shivering in light jackets in the snow (it snowed heavily the last day we were there). Keep an eye out for severe weather as well. Don't be stuck on a highway if there's a threat of tornados!
• Pack towels. They can be used as makeshift blankets/pillows, wiping up spills, etc. I found that riding in the passenger seat that my lap got very hot from the sun coming in the window, so I put a towel across my lap and it helped quite a bit.

 

[HeatherC]

Well as an update we have decided to cut out Glacier National Park after all. We decided it was sooo far out of the route that we would prefer to spend more time in some other places instead of four extra days just driving. Plus, the budget was getting strained!

Still researching and trying to cut hotel costs and maximize hotel points. We are open to camping some nights, but almost every place I have looked at was almost the same price as a basic motel with shower and beds.

If anyone has any places to recommend, I would love to hear them. Anyone else planning a road trip this year?

 

[mom2rtk]

Well as an update we have decided to cut out Glacier National Park after all. We decided it was sooo far out of the route that we would prefer to spend more time in some other places instead of four extra days just driving. Plus, the budget was getting strained!

Still researching and trying to cut hotel costs and maximize hotel points. We are open to camping some nights, but almost every place I have looked at was almost the same price as a basic motel with shower and beds.

If anyone has any places to recommend, I would love to hear them. Anyone else planning a road trip this year?

We haven't been to Glacier yet, so don't know what you're missing. But I strongly agree that it's better to pick less destinations and make sure you have time to do them well rather than race from one location to another.

 

[clutter]

Well as an update we have decided to cut out Glacier National Park after all. We decided it was sooo far out of the route that we would prefer to spend more time in some other places instead of four extra days just driving. Plus, the budget was getting strained!

Still researching and trying to cut hotel costs and maximize hotel points. We are open to camping some nights, but almost every place I have looked at was almost the same price as a basic motel with shower and beds.

If anyone has any places to recommend, I would love to hear them. Anyone else planning a road trip this year?

NO! I was counting on you to make it work so I could follow next year!!!!

What your plan so far?

 

[Lilacs4Me]

We have been doing some more driving vacations, rather than flying. We drove from the midwest to Colorado. Over Christmas we drove from Wi to NH, down to NYC then back. Please realize that there are some very aggressive drivers out there. Me and my dh had the conversion how highways were built 2 wide out of cities, but in the cities it can go as far as 6-8 wide. If you get caught in rush hour traffic, it can be brutal too. Out in the country traffic can also be very heavy. We both agreed our highway system should be 3-4 wide, there really is a lot of traffic, add road construction traffic and we saw a lot of back ups 20-50 miles long- I am not kidding.

But have lots of patience. Keep a good distance between vehicles, stay with the traffic flow, which can be as high as 80-85 mph. Don't be shocked when someone squeezes in front of you. Yes they expect you to let them in.

Get off the highway for lunch breaks, find the small town parks and take a cat nap. 20 minutes will revive you.

LOL

You have described Chicago traffic perfectly, no matter where or what time of day or night.

If you don't "squeeze in", you won't get it. Nobody bats an eye at it around here, it's expected. We watch for it, and adjust accordingly.

OP - please keep us updated! I would love to hear more from you as your trip progresses....DH and I are starting to plan our own cross-country trip (well, Chicago to Arizona to visit my dad and his wife, so maybe that is more of a 1/2 cross-country trip!), but we are taking at least 2 teenagers, possibly 3 if everything works out with DS17's first year of college schedule, and we are so up in the air with all of our plans and have many of the same questions as you!

Good luck!

 

[aprilgail]

Well as an update we have decided to cut out Glacier National Park after all. We decided it was sooo far out of the route that we would prefer to spend more time in some other places instead of four extra days just driving. Plus, the budget was getting strained!

Exact reason we also cancelled glacier on our road trip!

 

[HeatherC]

NO! I was counting on you to make it work so I could follow next year!!!!

What your plan so far?

So far this is the plan...

Mass. to Cleveland overnight
Cleveland to St Charles, MO
St. Charles to Junction City, KS
Junction City to Westminster, CO
Colorado to Utah...Arches, Bryce, etc
Utah to AZ..Antelope Canyon and Grand Canyon
To Vegas
Vegas to LA
LA to San Fran
San Fran to Idaho
Idaho to Montana...Yellowstone
Yellowstone to Grand Tetons
Grand Tetons to Mt Rushmore and BAdlands

Then we may head to Minneapolis where my husband and son would fly home...they are planning two weeks with us and will fly in to LA or San Fran

After that work our way home stopping either in Niagara Falls or Hershey the last two days. Will see how we feel because either of them are weekend trips for us we can always do another time.

Now I am working on how many days in each place and realizing we need more time in Colorado and Utah. So re working things to see if we can squeeze a couple extra days each place.

Oh yeah! And we bought a Kia Sedona Minivan this past weekend! It's a 2016 so MUCH cheaper than a new one and we have been looking to buy a car for a while. So it's really happening! Which I still can't believe actually.

 

[HeatherC]

LOL

You have described Chicago traffic perfectly, no matter where or what time of day or night.

If you don't "squeeze in", you won't get it. Nobody bats an eye at it around here, it's expected. We watch for it, and adjust accordingly.

OP - please keep us updated! I would love to hear more from you as your trip progresses....DH and I are starting to plan our own cross-country trip (well, Chicago to Arizona to visit my dad and his wife, so maybe that is more of a 1/2 cross-country trip!), but we are taking at least 2 teenagers, possibly 3 if everything works out with DS17's first year of college schedule, and we are so up in the air with all of our plans and have many of the same questions as you!

Good luck!

I have found that the forums on TripAdvisor have been awesome for help in planning. Highly recommend them.