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Okay newbie I looked though threads- I have got aaa ap not much help - we would like to see the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains, MT Rushmore, but we also don't want to miss anything unique but not add tones of hours as we have lil ones - our destination is outside Madison WI. Looking for anything awesome
Welcome to RTA!
How much time do you have? LA to WI is about a 4 day drive, roughly 2000 miles driving 500 miles per day. Start adding Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore or other sites, and you will need to add both driving days and sightseeing days.
Is this a round trip or one-way? If a round trip, consider going north first, through the Rockies and up to Mount Rushmore, then return via the southern way and the Grand Canyon, in a loop.
Donna
Time really is the big question here.
You really could hit any one of the attractions you've listed on a pretty direct route between LA and Madison, but to get to all 3, you're basically going to need close to a full extra day, just for the driving - that's before factoring time to actually see these places.
The other big question is what do you consider to be "awesome," because the list of potentially awesome and unique things between California and Wisconsin is in the millions.
We planned for about that time frame - I will be staying a month maybe more in Wi to visit familyQuote:
Originally Posted by DonnaR57
So coming back we probably visit folks in VA and return a different route.
Well the Grand Canyon is beautiful just looking for any hidden gems for us to see - like in Cali we have calico a ghost town things that most people wouldn't know about just looking on a map - also we have been looking at the maps and the route options to travel and looking for suggestionsQuote:
Originally Posted by Midwest Michael
Thank you both!
If you're only planning 4 days for this trip, then that really doesn't give you enough time to see the 3 things you've already said are on your list. In fact, it will be tough to even visit one of them. You're basically only giving yourself enough time to cover the miles - with very little extra for "fun" stops along the way.
We plan on camping so for us a few hours of sleep and hit the road - we are not trying to spend days at a location we just looking to see something while we drive. Thank for your help.Quote:
Originally Posted by Midwest Michael
If you're driving I-70, you'll see a bit of the Rocky Mountains as that is about the most gorgeous interstate highway possible. Mount Rushmore is at least an hour off of I-90 (one way) and just getting to park and walk to see it will take another hour or so. Then another hour to get back to the interstate. Mount Rushmore is not on the most direct route, so you'd need to add a day of travel in order to include it. That's what Michael is trying to tell you.
Camping takes a little bit of extra time, too -- first, to find the campsite, then to set it up, and then tear it down the next morning. When we were tent-campers, we tried not to travel more than 400 miles in a day.
Donna
With little ones???Quote:
Originally Posted by Cperry82
Lifey
Camping, per se, is another issue. Are you talking about tent-camping, or in an RV? With a tent, young kids get filthy -- and the "best" campgrounds for tents may not have facilities for cleaning them up. These types of campgrounds also are not located right next to the freeway. Most of them are off the road a few miles. When we tent-camped, we often went 20 miles off the highway to get to a decent national forest or state park campground.
If you're in a travel trailer or other type RV, you can find commercial parks a lot closer to the freeway and they'll have more facilities, too. (Some commercial parks can handle tents but quite a few specifically say "no tents".)
In either case, though, you need more time than you're giving yourself. Kids won't want to be cooped up in the car for more than 10 hours in a day, which is about 500 miles with little kids.
Really, if I were going to Madison, I'd go I-10 to I-15, north to I-70 in Utah. You could stop at Zion National Park or Bryce Canyon NP *if* you allowed yourself a little extra time (neither one are drive-throughs). Along I-70, you'll be going through the San Rafael Swell (you will enjoy) and then the Rocky mountains west of Denver, including the famous hanging highway through Glenwood Canyon. There are lots of stopping possibilities along there.
Donna