Trying to follow rte 66 to LA then San Francisco

Hi everyone. I'm traveling with 2 other women in 2 weeks from NY to San Francisco. We have a definite stopover in Urbana, IL to stay with friends and then the trip is open. We are definitely going to Santa Fe, NM, Winslow AZ, obviously to stand on a corner, the Grand Canyon, LA and then the Pacific Coast HWY north to San Francisco.

Our big question is whether we should change our route a bit to go to Denver, CO and then Zion, UT. We have 9-10 full days of travel ahead of us and are anxious to figure out where we're going.

A few questions- should we try and book hotel rooms in advance? Or is it better to be really flexible and show up and find rooms? Should we avoid camping because of the heat in August, or stay in motels/ hostels along the way?

Our plan is to fly through the eastern part of the country and really enjoy New Mexico, AZ and Cali. But are we missing anything major in MO and OK?

Thanks so much for your help!

Welcome to the Forum!

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Our big question is whether we should change our route a bit to go to Denver, CO and then Zion, UT.

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I'm sorry, but I'm puzzled here. Where would you work these stops into your route? Denver is basically a full days drive north of Santa Fe/Route 66. Did you have something specific in mind or can you explain what you were thinking here?

As far as reservations go, its an oft asked question on the forum, and the subject of this article.

Camping will be up to you, the specific weather conditions, and your tolerance for heat. It doesn't look like you'd be in any desert areas that would be particularly worrysome, but if its hot and you consider A/C important, then camping probably wouldn't be the right choice for you.

I guess I phrased that poorly, is it worth changing the rte and not following rte 66 West, to include Denver and Zion? We'd still want to see the Grand Canyon, go to LA and then back up north to San Francisco. I've heard Zion is worth the extra mileage, so I wanted to get another opinion.

If we stay with the rte 66 idea, should we just race through to Texas and New Mexico, or will we really be missing any major sites in MO and Oklahoma? Thanks!

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Originally Posted by udelsteph

I guess I phrased that poorly, is it worth changing the rte and not following rte 66 West, to include Denver and Zion?

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I would certainly suggest that you use I-70 (scenic in its own right) and then you could see Arches NP, Bryce NP and Zion NP on your way to the Grand Canyon NP and then go to Las Vegas and Death Valley NP and over Tioga Pass to Yosemite NP and San Francisco.

Mark

The minimum distance required to hit all the places you've said that you must see is already creeping up on 3500 miles which is starting to be all that one can comfortably handle even in 10 days. If you start adding things which are significantly off-route such as Denver and Zion, you're going to be doing little more than driving into some great National Parks, going ooh-ahh, snapping a picture, and driving on. I think you and your friends would be much better served by keeping the number of stops to the ones you've already laid out and spending some quality time at those. This also lets you actually visit your friends in Urbana. You should also factor in some time for the three of you have some alone time during your trip, a necessity that I rank right up there with food, but which is often overlooked when planning long group RoadTrips.

And you're probably aware of this, but US-66 has been decommissioned and replaced nearly entirely with interstates, but that doesn't mean that much of the old architecture and landscape isn't still there.

AZBuck

Ok then, Well, personally, yes, I would probably take I-70 via Denver then if following the path of 66 isn't essential. The views are really amazing in CO and UT. After seeing Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon, you could still get a feel for 66 the rest of the way out to LA in towns like Williams, AZ and Barstow, CA.

It's not often that Moderators differ this badly, so I will simply point out that using I-70 is certainly lovely, will get you to Denver and Zion, and eventually get you around to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. But it will clearly miss Santa Fe, which you said you were difinitely going to, and make Winslow a difficult backtrack. Every addition comes at a price.

AZBuck

I understand the peril of trying to do/see too much. Thank you for all of your sound advice, we went ahead and ordered aaa trip tiks for both the rte 66 trip and the Colorado/Utah route. Maybe we'll flip a coin to see which route we take, thanks for your help!