DC to LA, 7 days, 3 22 y/o's

Hey RTA,

I just took a job in LA and will need to move my stuff from Washington DC to LA. 2 of my friends have agreed to make the drive with me (the three of us have traveled the east coast together on various road trips). We'd like to leave the morning of May 17th and get to LA by May 23rd.

We'd like to stay in cheap hotels and would be open to camping if the weather permits. The cities/things we definitely want to hit are Vegas, Denver, Zion or Joshua Tree, and the Grand Canyons. We'll get our 'partying/drinking' done in Vegas so we'd just like to get their in a cost efficient manor (and see some cool sites on the way).

Would someone mind posting a day by day break down of what cities (or spots) we should aim to be in each night? Considering the places we want to go to is that a realistic time frame?

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

You should plan to cover no more than 550-600 miles on any days you don't want to sight see, it would equate to 9-11 hours on the road with enough time for short breaks to get gas and food etc but no major sight seeing. Given what you want to see and that it is a 5 day drive cross country drive, you really have to reach Denver in 3 days. That would put you around Indianapolis on night 1, or between Lexington and Louisville, depending on route and Topeka KS on night 2 and Denver on night 3. I would then consider heading to Moab and visiting Arches [4]NP rather than Zion and then you could head down US191 to 163 through Monument valley to the Grand canyon [5] and then detour to Vegas [6] before continuing to LA.

It's not going to leave you much time in any one place and your 'partying' will be restricted if you need to drive next day. An extra day would make quite a difference, but if that's all you got.................