Cross Country Road Trip (east to west, and back)

Hey There!

My name is Buck and I am planning a roadtrip for 6 friends and myself, who just graduated college. 2 of us are Photographers who are looking for good material to photograph. We have an RV to travel in, and we were planning on stopping at National Parks and Camp Grounds to sleep. We will be Leaving August 1st and plan on returning in mid-late September. I was hoping to get a little help planning.

Our trip will start in Connecticut in the beginning of August. We want to head south from CT along the coast and start heading west around the Carolinas. Trying to get through the midwest in good time, we want to stay in Las Vegas, then Lake Tahoe and spend a little time there, then take the Coastline up to stop in Eugene Oregon to stay with a friend. From Eugene we would heat to Mt. Hood to visit my uncle. From Mt Hood we would travel to Seattle to the Home of one of our roadtrippers.

On our way back east we would like to stop in/drive thru Idaho, Montana, Jackson Hole/Tetons, Colorado and then eventually back across the midwest finishing our trip at CT where we started. Do you think this is a reasonable amount of time to fit this trip? Any other ideas of national parks and great places to stop to take photographs would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so Much!

Welcome aboard RTA!

Any of our national parks are prime photography spots, as are the rest of the places you mentioned.

Two months is a nice amount of time for traveling a loop like you suggested. If you are planning to camp out in the national park campgrounds, you will definitely want a more definite plan. That's because many of the NP CG's are on reservation systems and they FILL EARLY.

In an RV, make sure that you have enough seatbelts for all 6 people planning to travel. You will also want to make sure that you stop often, because sitting at the RV's dinette or gaucho (sofa) will not be as comfortable as sitting in the driver or passenger seats up front. They have a tendency to gulp down fuel, so you'll have to budget for plenty of fuel. You will also want to plan some "alone time". The six of you may be good friends now, but after 2 months cooped up together in a motorhome, you may be at each other's throats.

When my husband and I had an RV, we tried not to travel more than 450 miles per day. (In a car, he thinks nothing of 600-625 miles. But we are very seasoned travelers and he is now an ex-tractor/trailer driver.) 450 miles seemed almost ideal when we were trying to get from one place to another with the trailer in tow.


Donna