Two weeks of driving in the USA - where though?

[YetiMan]

Hi guys, having had a look through the forum its clear a few of you have done some superb US trips, driving some pretty nice American muscle.

Im heading off for two weeks at the end of March and wondered if anyone had any recomendations. Initially, my mate joining me suggested driving old Route 66 (where possible, and the modern roads where not) from Chicago to LA. The main PITA with this idea is that as we wont be returning the car to the orignal place, or even state, so theres a big fee payable. Hence, I was wondering if anyone knew of a 'loop' that we could do, taking in some nice places. Scenery and good food are what mainly appeal - as well as friendly locals. We loved the national parks we saw and wouldnt mind more of that, this time round! Or is the old Route 66 worth doing and swallowing that cost?

This year I did my first trip to the States. We drove a Camaro SS convertible around California, drove up the pacific coast highway heading north and taking in Monterey, San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas etc. We did this in 8 days! This time we have slightly longer; 14 days but we have no problem covering a lot of ground in that time. Car is likely to be a Grand Cherokee having looked at size and costs.

Any general advice or specific recomendations would be greatly appreciated,

Many thanks.

[Geoff Stilwell]

firstly try www.usrentacar.com they are based in Aldershot and are brilliant . Can't recommend them highly enough. As to the route....try looking at flying into Denver, then up through Estes Park, to Yellowstone, then out to Billings and down through Cheyanne, Deadwood, Little Big Horn..or fly to LA..drive down to Oceanside then across to Phoenix..the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Death Valley, Sacremento, San Francisco. All great route.

[ViperDave]

Just be aware that in the mountains, march is still very much winter, so winter road closures are still in effect and will probably stay that way into may or June. Doesn't mean you cant do a great route and drawing a loop on nearly any of the roads in South Utah and NW Arizona will guarantee great sights.

Plenty of info on winter trips here

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Personally I wouldn't bother with route 66 one way, but that may be just me and to be honest i have only done short sections in the SW so cant comment on the full experience. It seems to me that anything east of Denver is just fields of corn and west of Denver there are plenty of circular routes that show you more, so i consider route 66 to me more of a pilgrimage box ticking exercise on a bucket list rather than a map of the best of the SW states.

[JONSCZ]

Hi matey.
I'm sure more will be along with their ideas, but in the meantime, here's a suggested itinerary taking in some great National Parks.

http://goo.gl/maps/5qQSW

We go 2 or 3 times a year to US National Parks, and love Arizona.
If you are going in March, then the climate will be lovely (not too hot - and in some places even a little cool).

This suggested route will take in -
The great drive from Phoenix /Mesa to Payson (BTW, this next bit is copied and pasted from my post a couple of years back and covers the 1st part of the drive -

[- we've been loads of times - I love Arizona. If you are into the outdoors - hiking and general scenery, then you simply MUST go to Sedona. It's not too far from Phoenix and you could easily spend a few days walking there. Then you could go (via Winslow, Az if you are an old git like me who loves "The Eagles" and "stand on the corner" - re the song "Take it Easy") to Petrified National Park (East Az) and Canyon de Chelly ( N.E. Az). Obvious place to go is Grand Canyon in the North and one of my favourite places I have ever been to is the Antelope Canyon and other slot Canyons near Page (on Az/Utah border - we went a few years ago before it became a big tourist attraction - but it's still worth seeing). There are other slot canyons off the main Hwy 89 south of Page that are kind of free to visit (you need a Navajo pass to park on the road for a few $) - check at Tourist Info centre in Page - these other slot canyons are great as they are a little known secret - you would never know they were there.
Anyway, if this is too far north, then just do Sedona then on the way back south to Phoenix area, go back via Tonto Natural Bridge S.P. nr Payson (on Hwy 87) then after this go via Hwy 260 onto Hwy 188 to Roosevelt Lake and then drive the most amazing road in Arizona - the Hwy 88 (called the Apache Trail) from Roosevelt to Apache Junction via the Superstion Mountains (East of Phoenix). Honestly, if you only do one good driving road in Az., then this is it - it's a slow going road full of hairpins and sheer drops and great scenery, about 45 miles long.
If you go south to Tucson, the the aircraft graveyard is amazing, as is the scenery around the Mount Lemmon area (just North of Tucson).]


Then onto Sedona as mentioned above. Then along the old Hwy route 66 to Winslow and Petrified National Park. Then onto Canyon de Chelly then onto Moab for the Arches National Park then Capitol Reef Park then onto Bryce Canyon National Park (Fantastic place!!) then onto Zion National Park, then onto Page and Lake Powell area then to the Grand Canyon and back down to Flagstaff and Phoenix and if time permits go onto Tucson where there's some great walking in the Mt Lemmon area - North of Tucson and onto the aircraft graveyard at Davis Monthan air force base.

As I said, just a few ideas, but this would make a great road trip with a few stops to do some walking / see the National Parks. It'd need a bit of motel organising, but very do-able in a couple of weeks. You may get a bit National Park-ed out in the end, though!!

Hope you get a few more ideas from others and hope you didn't mind the copy/paste section above - easier than typing everything out again, even if it did repeat a lot of the other stuff I added...

Cheers,
Jon

eta - oops,whilst I was sorting out the map route, it looks like others beat me to it.....

Edited by JONSCZ on Thursday 15th November 19:46

[davepoth]

I'd go east of the Mississippi if you don't want lots of long, boring drives. The distances are a lot easier to deal with and there's a lot more to do.

I've just done a two week loop, NY-DC-Nashville-Memphis and back again, with a few stops in between. Loads of National parks that side, museums, civil war battlefields, hills, skiing, you name it.

[ViperDave]

JONSCZ said:

http://goo.gl/maps/5qQSW

That's a pretty good route, alternatives i would suggest though are SR12 from Bryce to escalante and capital reef, and maybe consider cutting back to page from moab through monument valley et al, But that's not to say canyon de chelly, petrified and painted desert aren't worthy, research them and pick the one you fancy best. Like i said pick any road in that area and you will have a great drive.

[ViperDave]

JONSCZ said:

Hi matey.
drive the most amazing road in Arizona - the Hwy 88 (called the Apache Trail) from Roosevelt to Apache Junction via the Superstion Mountains (East of Phoenix). Honestly, if you only do one good driving road in Az., then this is it - it's a slow going road full of hairpins and sheer drops and great scenery, about 45 miles long.

Bugger we took 87 from payson to Phoenix, but to be fair it was the last leg of two week that took in the boarder states all the way to big bend tx and back so we were pretty sceneried out by that stage anyway. May now plan it in for another day, ta.

[YetiMan]

Guys - WOW!!! A great thanks for the above posts. I haven't yet read through in detail but I'll be taking the iPad up for a bit of detailed reading of the above once I've finished off working on a few bits. I'll reply back with my thoughts in the morning but please keep any further ideas coming. Thanks again. :-)

[YetiMan]

Again, thanks to everyone for the detailed info, its really been a help so far.

I think 'Viper' sums up what I was thinking about the original Route 66 trip idea when he says "so i consider route 66 to me more of a pilgrimage box ticking exercise on a bucket list rather than a map of the best of the SW states".


JONCZ - particularly like the ideas, it'll be an interesting few months of planning now.