Chicago to LA in two weeks

Hi All!
I'm an irish student in Chicago for the summer planning a roadtrip for the end of september, early october. We're planning to drive from Chicago to LA in 14 days, and want to take in as much as we can along the way.
We have a few ideas of the general path we want to take but just want some advice on what to see along the way, and how long we should spend in certain places, and travel times between places.
We're thinking first destination from chicago would be South Dakota to see 'Badlands National Park' and Mount Rushmore, then south to Denver through Colorado, into Arizona to see Grand Canyon. Then onto Vegas. From Vegas we want to go north to San Francisco and do the coastal drive south to Los Angeles.

Is this too much to take on in 2 weeks?? Any alternate suggestions are welcomed. But I would like to know any highlights to be seen along the way.

Thankyou for your time
Paul

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Originally Posted by Paul O'Byrne

I'm an irish student in Chicago for the summer planning a roadtrip for the end of september, early october. We're planning to drive from Chicago to LA in 14 days, and want to take in as much as we can along the way.

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Welcome to the Forum! It is perfectly possible to drive to all of the places you have outlined in two weeks, but I hope you have a couple of co-drivers because it will be fatiguing, especially if you take the time to do some walking and exploring at these various parks and places.

What kinds of things interest you about these places? Higher priority on hiking, photography, night life, shopping, etc.?

Mark

hey!
thankyou for your reply. The main aim of this trip is too see as much as we can for as little money as we can! so scenery and activities like hiking would be our main interests. As for night life the only places we really plan on going out would be Vegas possibly, and San Francisco, possibly L.A. time permitting.
As for drivers we're fine there as we have 5 available drivers!
Also it's looking like there is going to be 7 of us going on the trip. would you suggest getting one large vehicle, or two smaller vehicles, bareing in mind we will have quite alot of luggage.

Thankyou for your time
Paul

Hi Paul,
Sounds like a great trip with a big group! That gives you some challenges. And, because of those potential challenges, I would tend to want to take two different vehicles on a trip like this. First, you can rotate amongst the different cars so people who are starting to get on each other's nerves can split up and ride in separate cars for awhile. Second, if some folks are interested in doing something different than the other group for a day, you can split up and rendezvous later. Of course, you might also end up spending a more in fuel for two small vehicles than one big one. But this will also depend on the vehicles. If your budget is an issue, you might want to consider this.

If you take two cars, you can communicate with each other using FRS or CB radios and/or cellphones. FRS radios are the cheapest option and work pretty good as long as you don't get too far from each other (usually 1-1.5 miles). I would also ensure that each car has a working cellphone as well in case you get seperated for longer distances than that or simply want to rendezous later.