Check out our trip from IL to Ca and back

First off, theres 4 of us going and we got money so where staying hotels and eating good and looking to do whatever. I want suggestions and ideas from everyone because im planning all of it for the group.

Day 1 is a 16 hour drive from IL to glenwood springs colorado, we plan on leaving the night before (8pm) and getting to GS about 2pm and relaxing the rest of the day.

Day 2 will be 3 hours to moab utah where we are hitting arches and canyonlands national parks, no other plans

Day 3,4 we going to vegas and staying at the luxor

Day 5 is 6 hours to the sequoia national park to see the giant trees (were hippies lol)

Day 6 I believe will be a 3 hour drive to L.A none of us has seen the pacific ocean and im currently trying to figure out the best viewing area near L.A because also we are checking out hollywood for a few hours.

Day 7 is going to be about 7-8 hours from L.A to the grand canyon with a detour through sedonna, we are staying at a lodge on the canyon rim, bright angel i think. Canyon viewing in the evening followed by star gazing at night and catching the sunrise at the canyon.

Day 8 is going from the grand canyon to roswell NM (we believe aliens crashed here) on the way we are driving through the painted desert to I-40 and hitting the meteor crater going to albuquerque and cutting down to NM 380 to roswell it cuts through lincoln where the story of billy the kid happened also there was nuclear testing out there, so we think of the movie the hills have eyes.

Day 9 in roswell we just want to go to the ufo museum and the crash site cafe, soon as we do that we are going to carlsbad caverns and then heading to amarillo for a hotel and BBQ

Day 10 is amarillo to hellinois about 13 hours getting home late sunday night

Rate this trip, offer any ideas, thanks

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I've got some big concerns about your plans, most notably in the time managment areas.

First off, starting off with an overnight 16 hour trip just isn't a great way to get a trip started on the right foot. Once you arrive at Glenwood Springs, you wouldn't be relaxing, you would be crashing. Its one thing to try and bit a larger than normal chunk in your first day, its quite another to bite off way more than is safe and realistic and then spend the rest of your trip trying to recover from exhaustion.

Its also quite obvious that you've relyed on internet map sites for your time estimates, because most of them just aren't in touch with the real world where you have to make stops for fuel, food, restrooms, etc. Even if you are starting from East St. Louis or Moline, the shortest possible starting points in IL from Glenwood Springs, you are looking at a trip that is more than 1000 miles. If you started there, you'd be looking at 18 hours in the car, plus whatever time it takes you to get to the Mississippi River.

The same basic problem can be found throughout your itinerary. Vegas to Sequoia, 7-8 hours, minimum. Sequoia to LA, 5 hours plus whatever traffic you hit in LA (that could easily add another hour or more), plus additional travel time to the beach. LA to the Grand Canyon, 9 hours without a detour to Sedona, 11 hours through Sedona (not including time to actually stop there)

Basically, you've got a trip where you would have time to do basically nothing but drive, drive, and drive. By the time you get to your "destinations" you simply won't be in any condition to do the exploring and checking out things that you say you want to see.

thanks for the imput, the reason we are driving 16-18 hours the first day is to get out of the midwest and cental plains lol. Kinda maximize the enjoyment in colorado taking turns driving i think would help. As far as the time i'm guessing it would be longer, but mapquest is usually close from other trips ive made using it. In 11 days and all we want to do i expected alot of driving. I forgot to mention we are hitting zion and bryce national parks. If you got any other ideas to make this better please feel free to post it. I'm planning this for a group and i dont want to dissapoint. Oh yeah after that long drive we are hitting a spa in GS for a rub down and maybe a mudbath

How exactly do you think you'll be able to fit Zion and or Bryce into this already overambitious trip? I'm guessing you want to do this on your day from Moab to Vegas - which means you'll be looking at yet another 12+ hour day before you even get to Vegas?

There comes a point where you need to decide if you want to do everything you've got on a list or if you want to have a fun trip that is memorable for all the right reasons. (As opposed to a trip the you remember as being a miserable slog that puts sigificant strains on your friendships with your fellow travelers.)

You've mentioned that you are planning this trip all by yourself. That too raises some major red flags. If your friends are committed to this roadtrip, then why aren't they sharing in the responsiblities (and quite frankly the fun) of developing a plan for this trip? Do they understand you are looking at a trip where you are going to be in the car an average of 10+ hours a day for the duration of your trip? You don't want to disappoint them, so you've listed off a great itinerary of places to visit, but how will they feel when they learn you'll barely have enough time to stop and take a picture at these places? I would strongly encourage you and your friends to take the Roadtrip Compatability Quiz and make sure you are all on the same page with this pretty extraordinary task.

I will also say that I'm sorry if I sound overly pessamistic, but everyone here wants you to have a good trip. We've seen people attempt these kinds of trips before, and the results are rarely good. At the very least, I would strongly encourage you to keep your entire plans flexible so if/when you discover that you've bitten off too much, you can start scaling back and worry about enjoying your trip even at the risk of not getting to everything you've listed before your departure.

Thanks for your concerns, but mapquest is usually accurate. We went to albuquerque and did it 18 hours, mapquest said 18 hours. We all have to to gatlinburg tn, little rock ar, and the mall of america mn. Us four travel well together.

"You can take a horse to the pond, but you can't MAKE him drink."

Ha funny but I'm roadtrip king in these parts. At 27 ive been a tons places in the car. [Edited as per the RTA Good Neighbor Policy] For example we went to Albuquerque, mapquest said it would be 18 hours of driving. We got there in 19 on the clock and that included a one hour time change going back. It took exactly the right time.