Now that we’re staying at a hotel with broadband access I figured I’d post our route in case people have recommendations. We’ve been adding sites as we go along so this schedule is not rigid. I will put the added sites in italics so you can see how much we’ve already added. Also, the original plan was not to drive more than 200/300 miles a day so if it seems we are covering very little ground per day, that’s the reason. We’ve also gotten more flexible on that so I’ll try to show those changes, too. The days are not dated since we didn’t want to be locked into a date in case we chose to stay somewhere longer.
Day 1: Boston to Pennsylvania – driving through New Haven for some banking needs
Day 2: Pennsylvania to Louisville, KY
Day 3: Kentucky to St. Louis, MO – we ended up making it to St. Louis in two days and spent the fourth of July weekend in town with good friends.
Day 4: St. Louis to Oklahoma City, OK
Day 5: Oklahoma City to Dallas, TX
Day 6: Dallas to New Mexico Border Big Spring, TX
Day 7: Big Spring to Carlsbad Caverns, NM – that day we also did White Sands and ended up spending the night by Valley of Fires
Day 8: Carlsbad to Santa Fe – we also visited Valley of Fires
Day 9: Santa Fe to Great Sand Dunes, CO – we ended up driving all the way to Colorado on Day 8 and spent the night at the Grand Sand Dunes so we ended up saving one more day
Day 10: Great Sand Dunes to Rocky Mountains – we also saw Black Canyon and drove to Fort Collins, CO for the night instead.
Day 11: Colorado to Badlands/Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse Memorial, SD – this is a bit ambitious so we might take two days, especially since we won’t get on the road until noon. It turned out that we camped at Custer State Park that night and saw all of the above the next morning.
Day 12: South Dakota to Devil’s Tower/Yellowstone, WY – we thought this might take two days as well. We ended up spending the night in Gilette after the Devil’s Tower and drove to Yellowstone the next day spent the night and drove around the park the day after. We also visited the Grand Teton National Park.
Day 13: Wyoming to Missoula, MT – we also wanted to add the Great Falls (I’m not sure that’s what they are called) We skipped Missoula, went to Glacier National Park instead, camped, and visited the park the next day. We did also get to stop by Great Falls.
Day 14: Missoula to Spokane or Seattle, WA – depends on how much driving we can do that day. We made it to Seattle and are planning to visit the Olympic National Park and Mt. Ranier National Park so we will probably take an extra day here.
Day 15: Seattle to Portland, OR
Day 16: Portland to Boise, ID
Day 17: Boise to Craters of the Moon Nat. Park – we were also told to visit Red River along the way.
Day 18: Idaho to Salt Lake City Vicinity, UT – we decided to add on the Bonneville Salt Flats and we were told to stay in St. George in Zion National Park for the night.
Day 19: Utah to Four Corners/Canyons of the Ancients/Canyon De Chelly, AZ – we were told to go through Sedona on our way.
Day 20: Canyon de Chelly – Grand Canyon – we may take an extra day here, depending how tired we are and how much of the canyon we get to see.
Day 21: Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, NV – we added Hoover Dam on the way
Day 22: Las Vegas to San Diego, CA – our new home!
There you have it. This is the plan as it stands now. I am sure there will be changes and additions but we’ve been having a blast and we think we’ll end up seeing almost every great site in the country. The one thing we left out was the Pacific Coast Highway which we decided would be a trip of its own once we settle down in San Diego.
Including the trip in May, the states we will have not visited at all will be: Vermont, Maine, Nebraska, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota.
Did we miss anything? Are we seeing something that’s not worthwhile? All comments are very appreciated. Our method of choosing the sites was opening a US AAA map and looking carefully so we may have easily missed some amazing places.
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