MidWest Adventure

Well, I live in Stockton, CA, and I've never been out of Cali, I wanted to take myself and my mother on a "MidWest Adventure" seeing the major spots of the midwest for some great photo ops. I'd like to go east passing through part of Death Valley, then passing along the southern border of area 51 and into Utah, then maybe from there go down into the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Vegas, up to Reno, then through Donner pass down back to Stockton. This is a very rough idea, does anybody have any suggestions of some scenic places/routes around the areas I'm going? Thanks for the help.

Ben,

Just an observation -- the "MidWest" is usually considered to be in states like Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, etc. Your route never actually passes the Rockies and therefore you still in the "west".

I am guessing that the road you are referring to as "passing the sourthern border of area 51" is US-95 -- but that won't get you to Utah unless you go through Las Vegas and pick-up I-15. And then since you want to go to see Hoover Dam -- I would go there first (since it is only 40 miles or so away) and then go Grand Canyon.

It is a longish trip from the Grand to Reno and I-80 over the Donner Pass and back home. How long are you envisioning this trip to be?

Yeah, I guess I didn't think it out all the way, I just wanted to see the major sites in the area, and thanks for clarifying the "west" rather than "midwest" maybe i can make it up by going midwest, lol, I'm not sure, about the time frame, maybe 2 weeks or a month, along those lnes, I'm not exactly sure how long it will take to drive that far and back.

These are some of my favorites -- if you get over this way, you might try to include some of them. I limited the list to roads in the northern parts of the state (AZ) as that is where you said you'd be traveling. Bob

Utah:
SR14 and 143 east of Cedar City;
SR12 from Bryce to Torrey;
SR24 from I-70 to Hanksville;
SR95 from Hanksville to Mexican Hat (using SR261 cut-off);
US191 south from I-70;
Be sure to see as many of the southern Utah parks as you can.

Arizona:
US191 Chambers(I-40) to US160;
US89A Fredonia to Marble Canyon;
US89 Flagstaff north to the Utah border;
US160 Tuba City to Four Corners (Teec Nos Pos);
SR264 Window Rock to Tuba City;
US180 Flagstaff to Grand Canyon;
SSR89 and SR89A Ash Fork-Prescott-Flagstaff (a loop);
Old (SR)66 from Seligman to Kingman;

hmmm, that sounds pretty good, thanks for the help, now i'm just gonna start mapping it all out, lol