Texas to Eugene via California

Hi-
I am trying to drive from austin texas to Eugene oregon and stop in Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, LA, San Fran, Eugene and then back. I can leave austin as early as 9/26th and would like to be in Las Vegas by sept 30th. I would then like to get to San Fran by Oct 3 or 4 and explore san fran until Oct 14 (I am meeting friends there) and then head to Eugene on Oct 14th.

I have never really driven by myself and am trying to figure out the following:
1. What route is the best to take so I don't get too tired and still see things?
2. Is there a way to guesstimate the gas costs and compare that to flying?
3. How long should I plan for the trip?
4. What is the best order to see the sites in? How long to spend at the grand canyon?

Thanks for any information you can provide. Am also not opposed to sharing some of the trip if anyone is interested...
Carla

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ckieffer

2. Is there a way to guesstimate the gas costs and compare that to flying?

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Carla, Welcome to the Forum. We have created a fuel cost calculator that is free and easy to use. Once you have the gasoline costs determined you can look at any airline booking service (Orbitz for example and quickly obtain some comparable flight information.

Mark

I think you can meet the schedule you've set for yourself, but my advice is to keep things as loose as possible so you are not pushing yourself beyond what you really want to do on any given day. You will get fatigued more than once -- when that happens, have the flexibility to be able to adjust accordingly.

Make the trip to Flagstaff, AZ over two days, then spend your third day exploring Grand Canyon. You could spend more than that there if you like -- there is certainly plenty to see and do over two or even three days. But you can see the basics with one day. On 9/29, go on to Las Vegas. I'd spend 9/30 exploring the wonders of that city. On 10/1, go on to Los Angeles -- you didn't say what you wanted to do there but there's plenty to choose from (one of my favorites is to take the ferry to Santa Catalina Island) -- to make it San Francisco on your schedule though, you'll need to limit LA to one day.

Drive up the coast highway to San Francisco, take two days to do this -- the coast road deserves your time! One day at GC, one day at Las Vegas, one day at LA, and two days to get to San Francsico from LA gets you there on 10/4. If you are going to sight-see from San Francisco during the time you spend there, then you might save the coast highway for that time and just drive up the interstate from LA to San Francisco, in one day, arriving on 10/3 instead.

From Eugene, drive back home via Boise, Salt Lake City, Durango, Santa Fe, and Roswell. This will take a minimum of 4 days -- stretch it to 6 or 7 and you'll have plenty of time for meandering on that portion of your trip too -- see things like Canyonlands, Arches, Mesa Verde, etc.

This route is close to 5000 miles, so figure your gas costs accordingly. If your vehicle gets about 27 on the highway, and IF gas is still in the neighborhood of $2.65 per gallon -- that'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 for the entire trip, according to the handy-dandy RTA fuel estimating tool Mark mentions in his post!