LA to Arkansas

[Marilyn1]

We are two Kiwis, one is my 84 yr old Mum arriving in LA 3rd September. We will be travelling by car - would like to see San Fransico. Thought we would take the Pacific Coast Highway. Would appreciate any highlights to see on the way. Then we will be making our way to Arkansas. What would be an interesting route to take? We are interested in seeing the scenic landscapes and anything else of interest on the way. We thought we would have 7 -10 days to do the trip. Is this reasonable??
Would really appreciate any help for itinerary.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

You've got a few options, and this trip certainly can be done, but your time is also going to fly by very quickly.

If you start with 7-10 days from LA, remember you'll probably want one day just so your mom can recover from the flight/jetlag. From there, its a 2 day trip up the Coast to SF. Now you're down to 4-7 days, and you're actually farther away from Arkansas than when you started!

That's still doable, but you're starting to push it. Driving directly, going down I-5 towards Bakersfield, then CA-58 and I-40 across to Arkansas, its 2000 miles, which is 4 full days on the road, in the car for 8-10 hours a day, leaving very little time for stops. That's certainly within what we recommend for the average trip, however, the average traveler isn't 84 years old, and you'll have to figure out how many hours in a car is comfortable for her.

If you can stay on the longer side of your timeline 10 or maybe even more days, you'd have several options, such as going across Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, and the Grand Canyon as you head towards I-40, or you could go across I-80 or US-50 to Utah, and then take I-70 for a great trip across the Rockies. Both could be good options, but they'll take a bit more time than going directly, so you need to plan accordingly.

[RoadDog]

It's the Mother Road and you can see a nice slice of the US, and go near the Grand Canyon and by the Painted Desert.

It's a trip back in times as well.

[Marilyn1]

Thanks Midwest Michael and Road Dog for your suggestions. However we have had a slight change of plans now. We now have 11 days to spend, arriving and departing LA. We have decided to fly to Arkansas, so in the 11days - would love to see San Fran, and were thinking of Yellowstone National Park and then return to LA for the flight out. We need to return to LA as we will have a rental car to be returned there.
Any suggestions????

[Southwest Dave]

You certainly have time to go to Yellowstone but keep in mind that it is just under 1000 miles from SF and just over 1000 back to LA. If you wanted to take a couple of days to enjoy the coast road to SF and then explore the city for another couple of days you will have 6 days [after mum's day to recover from tiredness in LA] to travel the 2000 miles and see Yellowstone, so to get a couple of days around the park mum would then have to be in the car for around 9 hours a day for two days either side of it.
This is only an example of how time can disappear quicker than we think and of course you can adjust things accordingly but I would suggest you look at the possibility Michael referred to earlier in the thread and consider going to Yosemite from San Fran and places you 'could' add to this loop would include Death valley, Zion, Bryce and Grand canyon NP's and would still be 400 miles or so less in distance, "all in".

[Midwest Michael]

I very much agree with Dave that while Yellowstone could be done, you care looking at a very long trip to get there. In the end, you're going to end up doing more driving than if you just drove to Little Rock.

For some perspective, its 1000 miles from LA to Yellowstone, and its 1600 miles from LA to Little Rock.

From a total trip perspective, a LA/SF/Yellowstone/LA trip would involve almost the exact same number of miles as traveling from LA to SF to Arkansas, except then you'd also have to include time for a flight.

If you want to see Yellowstone and that is a mjajor priority, there's nothing wrong with that, we just want you to understand how much distance there is between these points.

I will also mention that driving to Arkansas from Yellowstone instead of driving back to LA would only add 500 miles to your trip. That's a full day on the road, but when you figure that you'll end up losing most of a day flying from LA to Arkansas, your total travel time wouldn't change that much.