From Nola to CA

My name is Kevin and I'm new to this site...

my friends and I are planning to make a road trip to california in the summer of 08. i've been trying to find out how much the trip will cost so we can start saving up. I used the gas calculator to find out how much gas should cost. I was hoping to figure out some good stops along the way, good landmarks and things to do. were also thinking about renting a car so not to put 4000 miles on one of our cars in a matter of 2 week :-p

I know we want to stop at the grand canyon but besides that were not sure of the route etc. any help or ideas would be great.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forum.

A while back, one of our regular contributors wrote a post that laid out the basic costs associated with road travel. I've still seen no better summation of what to expect and the range of options open to you. You should also have a look at this article on ways to keep costs down. Finally, before you start making concrete plans, you and your friends should sit down together and go over the RoadTrip Compatibility Quiz to make sure you're all on the same page about how you want to travel and what you want to accomplish.

Depending on exactly where you're headed in California, your basic route across the southern US will be I-10 one way, with an alternative route that uses I-49/I-20/US-287/I-40 to take you by the Grand Canyon area. As a first cut, try using the 'Search' function on the toolbar above to look for places along your route and read up on what people recommend. There are many, many posts about this general route, and particularly about the Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles region. Once you've got a slightly better idea of what you're in for, let us know what you've got and what your particular interests are, and we can start getting a bit more specific.

AZBuck

so we talked a lil more and we decided on a few stops so far

Roswell, nm
grand canyon
las Vegas
los Angeles area
Yosemite
San Fransisco area
(if we decided to fly back)
salt lake city
Yellowstone


were not looking to go clubbing or to bars, more history, cool cultural stuff

i looked up that the wigwam hotel outside of LA and that looks cool along with the McDonald's museum near there. any other good stop suggestions would be greatly appreciated... esp. things to do in the national parks things that woudl seem cool that aren't ect.

we've done some more talking and figured out that out side of LA we want to stay a the wigwam motel and go to the route 66 museum. also see the Hollywood blvd stars and the Hollywood sign. i want to know of some other "must see" things in LA

I also want to go to Yosemite park and drive through the tree and see the telescope tree any other suggestions of what to see in Yosemite? maybe walk to the lower Yosemite falls..

any suggestions for San Francisco or any of the other locations listed.

were looking for history/natural wonder/ things you see in postcards as wells things that are exciting please post any ideas

Depending upon the route and time of year you're traveling you do have the option of seeing some amazing natural sights..

Just off the top of my head, not too far from your route from Roswell NM (why Roswell???)
-- White Sands National Monument (NM)
-- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM
-- Canyons de Chelley National Monument
-- Petrified Forest/ Painted Dessert National Park
-- Monument Valley (Arizona/ utah)
-- Mesa Verde
-- Meteor Crater Arizona
-- Sunset Volcanic Crater National Monument
-- Mojave National Preserve (including Kelso Dunes)
-- Death Valley National Park
-- Joshua Tree National Park
-- Mount Whitney/ The Sierrra Mountains (most spectacular from the East)
-- Devil's Postpile National Monument/ Mammoth Lakes (California)
-- Big Sur, California
-- Hearst Castle
-- Carrizo Plain, National Monument
-- Lake Tahoe (California/ Nevada -- a bit more out of the way, but very beautiful)
-- Hoover Dam (Arizona/ Nevada)
-- Sagauro National Park (near Tucson -- depends upon the route you take from NM to Grand Canyon)
-- Sequoia National Park/ Kings Canyon (near Yosemite)
-- California Wine Country (there are several regions)
-- California Spanish Missions (some of which are quite scenic)
-- LA area surfing, hiking, movie studios etc, sailing, snorkling, and the like

And along with this are more "exciting" options you can consider -- white water rafting, bungee jumping, offroad adventures (from backpacking to mule trips to 4 wheel drive expeditions), etc.

if you head more north, there are a different selection of sights to see and things to do -- Natural Arches, Escalante, Moab, etc.

And a couple of final notes

- There's also a Wigwam Hotel in Holbrook NM I've driven by

- Depending upon your interest, you can spend days in Yosemite -- but you'll need to do some walking. There's some absolutely wonderful hiking trails you can take, but some of them are at least a half day long or more.

i like that list of things i will definably check out some of those things.... i just remembered one of my friends suggested going to see some ghost towns somewhere on the route, although he's not sure where are are. if ya'll know of any interesting ones post them...

"why Roswell" no real reason its 16 hours from where were starting so we will be tired and ready to stop... and thought it would be cool to see some of the alien stuff as a quick stop along the way

You aren't planning on driving straight from NOLA to Roswell in one day, are you?

Its nearly 1100 miles, and not something that should even be considered for any multi-day trip. Its also not going to take you 16 hours - 19 hours is far more likely. Even in the extremely unlikely event you were able to safely cover that distance in one day, it becomes counter productive, as you'll need a full day just to recover before you continue on.

I can understand wanting to cover some extra miles on the first day, but 600-700 miles is a very long day on the road, anything more than that just can't be advised.

As far as ghost towns go, I don't have a lot of information, but the topic comes up pretty frequently. Try searching the forum, and you should find quite a few possibilities.

we were thinking Roswell in one day... there will be 4 of us driving so i figured shifts... a stop in Houston then onward to Roswell... do ya'll really think this will be too hard to drive in one day?

Look, pretty much every one of the regular contributors to these forums has done a 1000 mile drive at one time or another. And pretty much none of them recommends it as an enjoyable or even efficient way to travel. That alone ought to tell you something. The basic problem is that no matter how many drivers share the load, you will all be cooped up in the car getting no exercise or useful sleep. Neither will you be enjoying any of the wonderful country you'll be driving through. The Mercury 7 referred to this as "spam in a can". Yes you can get where you're going (Roswell) in a day, but then you will, I guarantee you, spend the next day in semi-zombie like state, and will do nothing of interest. So, if it's going to be two days anyway before you can start actually delving into your destination, why not take those two days and actually do something with them to make the trip more enjoyable. 500-550 mile days are still an effort, but at least they leave time to get out of the car a couple of times and walk around an interesting venue or two each day and you'll feel like you actually experienced something during your drive rather than just looked out the window groggily as the world passed by.

AZBuck

On my first ever "real" road trip I made it from Shreveport to Carlsbad Caverns in one day. Watched the bats, did the tour the next morning and made it to Roswell. I think we spent all of two hours looking through Roswell before we decided that we needed a nap. We didn't wake up until well after supper time and missed a good bit of Roswell.

Anyway - stalk my posts I done a few similar trips starting from Shreveport so they should be of use to you.

Laura