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hello, were doing a road trip from Rocklin, Ca just above Sacramento, to the grand canyon. We are river rafting and going to the moaning caverns first. After that we will have about 5 days to hit the road towards the canyon. We (my father, my son & I) are looking for a must see somewhere in between. My son is 12 and loves Military stuff so i would love to find an airshow or museum. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Tom
Hmm... not sure exactly what route you are taking, but here are some interesting aviation or military places that are sort of between Sacramento and Las Vegas, with a bit of detour...
- Palm Springs has a pretty good aviation musuem at the airport
- LA has several. There's one at Santa Monica airport, focusing on the Douglas aircraft (DC-3s to Cosairs, etc.) There's an aviation and space musuem at Exposition Park in downtown LA, near the LA colliseum, in conjunction with several other musuems (Including the excellent Natural History Musuem, and a Science & Math Musuem).
- One of the largest collection of vintage military aircraft in the west is at Planes of Fame in Chino California, betwen the 60 and 10 freeways. This is not well known, but last time I was there they had some really interesting planes, and a nice capper of the day as one of the pilots took a restored B-24 our of the field for a flight.
- Mojave/ Palmdale area. This is the home of Edwards Air Force Base, Lockheed Skunk Works, Burt Rutan and a bunch of other aviation pioneers. Mojave has an interesting set of planes available, and Edwards AFB, which is right next door, does offer base tours and has a small base musuem (call and check on their availability). NASA also has an aviation research facility at Edwards, called Dryden Research Center, and they also have a small musuem. Palmdale, about 30 minutes south, is where a lot of advanced space and aircraft stuff was build -- from Space Shuttle to the SR-71 to the B-2 to etc.... Blackbird Park in Palmdale has a SR-71 and U2 on display.
- There's also (or at least used to be) a good base musuem at March Air Force base near Riverside. Last time I was there they had B-52 on display as well as several other military aircraft.
For more general military musuems, I know of the General Patton Musuem at Characo Summit east of Joshua Tree National Park, and Palm Springs on the I-10 heading east towards Phoenix.
I would also check out the National Training Center at Fort Irwin. Most military bases have a base musuem that is open to the public -- you just need to call ahead and confirm when its open and its availability. But I've visited many. On your path there is also China Lake Naval Aviation Research Center (west of Death Valley), Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, and the Marine Corp training base at 29 Palms. All are worth checking out to see if they have a display area or base musuem.
tunabiss--
perhaps a bit out of your way, but as an e-military aviator, I recommend the military graveyard-bone yard at Davis Mothan Air Force Base. It is to aviation what moth ball fleets are to the Navy, but bigger!
Also, if you have the time, I would highly recommend HWY 395 for either going or coming back. It is a beautiful route.
Hope you have a great trip.