Central Florida to Cody Wyoming And Back to Florida

I'm in the early stages of planning a road trip from Central Florida to Cody Wyoming for September. We are a retired couple in our 60's. I'd like to plan a trip of about 5-6 days so that we don't have to kill it each day and can take time to do some sightseeing along the way. I'm tentatively thinking of a route that includes Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis Tennessee (we have friends there); Kansas City; Sioux City; Rapid City SD; Cody Wyoming. What say you fellow travelers? Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

The trip you have laid out is 4 comfortable days on the road and if you plan on staying a whole day with your friends it leaves you a little 'wiggle' room for sightseeing. Have you any particular interests ? You could choose to do several quick stops close to the highway and take a steady pace or you could pick it up along the way and (for example) spend a day or 2 checking out Badlands NP and/or the Black hills, Custer SP, Mt Rushmore and the like. You will find many ideas by searching the forums and checking out other areas of RTA such as the Maps in the green tool bar above which is loaded with Roadtrip attractions reviewed by RTA members from personal experiences. At this stage in your planning there are too many options to list so once you have moved forward we can help with finer detail and answer specific questions. If this is a round trip I would certainly recommend looking for an alternative route on the way back.

Enjoy the planning !

(I have moved your thread to a more appropriate location)

We usually don't disagree much with each other, but I'm going to take issue with Dave here a bit. With the route you've laid out, the fact that you "don't [want to] have to kill it each day", and since you plan on visiting friends in Memphis, I think you're going to use up the great majority of your 6 days (forget 5) just driving. You'd have time for only a short (far less than an hour) stop or two each day at venues just off the highways. You certainly won't have time to detour to and enjoy national parks, scenic wonders, or anything else. That's a hard-earned lesson: simply ignore any drive time estimates you're getting from mapping programs. They're sheer fantasy. So my first, and so far only, suggestion would be to find more time for this trip.

AZBuck

Perhaps more info would help. Where exactly are you starting out from and whats your idea of not "Killing it each day". I roughly laid the route out at a little under 2400 miles, 6 days of 400 miles which to me is nowhere near killing it. I was figuring you could make it on day 1 to either Atlanta or push on to Birmingham (again depending on where you start) so that day 2 you could arrive in Memphis at a reasonable enough time to visit your friends for the rest of the day/evening. Memphis to Cody is a little over 1500 miles, 3 days of driving roughly 9 hours a day or 4 days of driving for 6.5 hours per day. A day somewhere resting/sightseeing or a short stop each day. (You certainly won't have 2 free days though)

I fully understand where Buck is coming from, you haven't got a whole bunch of time but I do think you can adjust to have some time to youselves without killing it, but extra days would be a more relaxed affair. If your main goal is to to get to Cody (how I interpreted it) at a (reasonably) relaxed pace, I think you are OK but if it's meant to be a relaxing holiday roadtrip, then yes I fully agree you need more time.

Southwest Dave - you are correct. Our main goal is to get to Cody. We start a ~ three week planned tour of National Parks in Wyoming and Utah the day after arriving in Cody. We'll end that trip in Springdale Utah and then drive back to Central Florida. So the goal is getting there at a reasonably relaxed pace but not meander along. The suggestion to speed up a bit in the earlier part of the trip to leave a little more time to explore the Badlands in SD is a good suggestion. Day 1 we can definitely push past Atlanta -- we make the trip to Western NY from here fairly regularly (or did before Covid) and so are used to making a ~ 1,200 mile trip in two days. On that trip we generally plan on about 650 miles the first day and 550 the second. So anyway -- I'll be looking to refine the route and planning on interesting short detours/places to visit along the way to break up the monotony of driving. Happily my husband likes long road trips and doesn't mind the driving.

On a multi day trip we recommend sticking to a limit of around 550 miles per day so it doesn't become a complete chore and that the 'silent killer' fatigue doesn't creep up and get a hold of you.

It sounds like a fun trip in some amazing places !! If you haven't already, I would recommend booking lodgings in (or around) the National parks as they are very popular and if things go well with vaccines and recovery from Covid, things could be busier than normal. (Yellowstone is a must) If you plan to visit 4 or more National parks then it's worth purchasing the annual pass to save some money.

Hi -- re the National Parks -- that part of our trip is all planned out with reservations made. We were supposed to make the trip last year -- it is a custom trip planned by a National Park expert travel agent at Mt Sobek (they do adventure trips mostly for groups). With COVID we had to cancel but we were able to apply our deposit towards this year's trip and they re-booked everything for this September. We're doing Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Bryce Canyon, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, ending up at Zion National Park. Then we're driving back from Springdale, Utah. So that's another road trip I'm starting to plan. After a year of "house arrest" we're looking forward to getting out and about again. :-)

And yes, I agree with you re multi day trips. My tentative itineraries have daily mileage that ranges from 230 to 555 -- mostly around 400-450 miles per day.

Quote:

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Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Bryce Canyon,

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One of my favourite drives is UT24/scenic 12. It's well worth getting on the road at a reasonable time from the Moab area and spending a little time at Capitol reef NP on the way. It's a lovely little park thats often overlooked.

I agree!

The words “scenic drive” just don’t do it justice. It is arguably one of the most beautiful and spectacular canyon drives you’ll ever experience. It is not really out of your way heading into Moab; just a lot slower; but you WON’T be in any hurry!

I don’t know if you’d have the time to visit Capitol Reef, but if you do, don’t miss out on the spur road to the Goosenecks Overlook. The view from there feels like you are looking over the edge of the earth. I found it terrifying, even though I was safe behind a pipe and fence barrier.

Thanks for the suggestions -- just checked our itinerary and driving UT RT24 is part of the plan, including an afternoon private guided tour of Capitol Reef National Park. :-)

What about UT-12 from Capitol Reef to Bryce?

We are planning a long road trip end summer/early fall and will end a tour of national parks in Springdale Utah - then head back to Central Florida. We'll take 2 days to get to Santa Fe, NM (I love Santa Fe). From there I want to plan a route home in about 4 days. The two main choices appear to be a more northern route via I40 which would take us to Atlanta and then south on I75. OR a more southern route where we'd get off I40 in Amarillo and head towards I20 via Wichita Falls then somehow make it through (around) Ft Worth/Dallas then I20 to Jackson then cut down to I10, then I10 to I75. Overnight in Wichita Falls, Texas; Shreveport LA; Pensacola FL and then home. My main concern is the Ft Worth/Dallas area. Is this bad enough to do the more northern route?? The Southern route would cover more "new" territory for us but I'd prefer to avoid killer traffic if possible enroute. Of course Atlanta is always bad but its a known quantity for us as we make the drive from Florida to northern Ohio to visit family/friends. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks

Moderator Note: This post looked to be the same trip that you posted earlier. So, the threads were merged.

They are two different topics. The first was Florida to Wyoming. The one I posted today is Utah to Florida. !! Please unmerge.

You are clearly asking for information about the return home of the same trip. As the context of how you are getting out there - as well as other information about how you are planning to travel for this trip- is all relevant to the return portion of this same trip, having this as part of one thread is clearly appropriate. Sorry, but per forum policies, the merge needs to stand.

Well you've just made my posted question useless as the title of the thread doesn't relate to my current question. Silly!

Would welcome any suggestions for routing for a drive from Santa Fe NM to Ocala FL. Currently planning on 4 days with stops in Oklahoma City, Memphis, and Montgomery Alabama. What say you experienced travelers? Let me know if you have suggestions for more efficient routing. Goal is for routing of ~ 400-500 miles daily and avoiding known construction/slow down areas. Timing would be late summer / early fall so no worries about winter weather.

Moderator Note: This is the second time you have started a new thread for the same roadtrip. If you persist with making new threads instead of new posts within this thread, you may lose your posting privileges.

As a user of the forum, the rule helps me figure out that you are working the same trip but the return trip. If it's a separate message, I might suggest going back the way you came out -- useless, probably. This way, I know you're planning to go out one way and do this-that-the-other in that direction, and come back using a different route doing other things. We can see the whole picture in this way, which is the way most of us experienced roadtrippers do our planning. It helps us give you more pertinent advice, and avoids the need to jump back and forth between threads.


Donna

The two routes you laid out are indeed the 'best' routes available to you, but they are not equivalent. In particular, the i-40/Atlanta/I-75 route would chew up the vast majority of the four days you've allotted for this portion of your trip just driving. It would leave very little time for any sightseeing at all. If the route through DFW is 'new territory', that's the way I'd go. Most heavy traffic problems, even around/through large metropolitan areas can be ameliorated simply by strategic timing and/or meal breaks.

AZbuck