Asheville, NC to San Fran- camping along the way!

Hello! I will be driving from Asheville, North Carolina to San Francisco in mid September. This will be my first time driving across the country alone, and I would very much like to stay in parks/ camp along the way. I would like to make the trip in 5 days, and my primary goals are:
1. saving money
2. beautiful roads and glorious sights
3. safe places to set up camp (although I am a tough cookie and will have my dog, sophie.... I am, in fact, a young woman traveling alone).
Any advice about routes and/or good camp sights would be much appreciated!
Thanks!

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

My approach for finding campsites is quite simple: I pull out my trusty atlas and look for State Parks that are near my route roughly where I'd want to stop for the night. Since most every state park is listed on a good atlas, and it will say if it has camping, I've yet to find a more efficiant way to find what I'm looking for.

I'd find a campground guidebook such as the venerable Woodall's to be indespensible. The last Woodall's I purchased many years ago had listings and descriptions of commercial, national park, state park, and county park campsites. Where applicable, telephone numbers were listed, useful to you since some will close at or soon after Labor Day.

Also, be aware of the multitude of campgrounds available in National Forests. They'll be listed in a good guidebook, too, but it's helpful to know most any forested mountain range from the Rocky Mountain Front Range to the Pacific will be peppered with NF campgrounds.

Have fun planning and taking your RoadTrip!

Foy

The 3 primary routes would be I40, I80 or I70 but either one will mean travelling between 9 and 10 hours a day to do the journey in 5 days allowing time for short stops for food, gas, bathroom breaks and to allow you and your dog a little time to stretch your legs. Here is a good list of places just off each Interstate to do just that. If you could get a couple more days for your journey I am sure it would be a lot more enjoyable and at least give you chance to explore a couple of those "beautiful roads and glorious sights".