San Francisco to New York

[Bryan Garrick]

Me and my partner are currently planning a road trip for September. We arrive in San Francisco on the 4th of September and fly back to London on the 30th of September from New York. We are planning on spending the 1st 2 nights in San Francisco and have also chosen to spend 3 nights in New York.
Our plan is to travel from San Francisco-Yosemite National Park-Vegas for probably 2 nights-Grand Canyon-Monument Valley-Santa Fe-Carlsbad Caverns-Amarillo-Ohio-Niagra Falls-New York
Does this route seem a bit ambitious or do you think it could be easily done in the timescale with enough time to spend sightseeing? Or can anyone recommend a better route to take?

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

With a week accounted for in SF,LV and NY you still have a nice amount of time to complete your journey and do some sight seeing along the way. Your route is going to be around 4000 miles plus the driving around your destinations and little detours which adds up to approx 8 full days dedicated to driving.

The 'best' route is the one that has the most appeal to you and that's the joy and freedom the Roadtrip brings. I would urge you to look around at the various threads in the forums, you can use the search function and scroll to the bottom of this page where you will find 'Similar threads' click on one of those and repeat as necessary. You can also use the map centre and other planning tools above to help you find what you are looking for.

Of a personal opinion, I would recommend that from Monument valley, you look at some of the great National parks and scenic drives in Southern Utah and Colorado. Zion, Bryce canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Black canyon, Rocky mountain NP are just a few of the major highlights you could enjoy in this area.

Do a little digging around [I find the planning half the fun] and when you have other questions just ask away, Enjoy !

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Having nearly a month is a very nice time to make a one way trip across country. There is no "best route" other than one that covers the places you want to see. If you've done that, then you've got the best route.

I will note that Amarillo to anywhere in Ohio is at least a 2 day drive, but there are lots of places you could fit in between. Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, or Nashville would be a few cities with plenty of more nature based options in there as well.

[Bryan Garrick]

Hi there after doing a bit more research and advice from our travel agent we have decided to do the following.

2 nights in San Francisco
1 Night in Furnace Creek
2 Nights in Vegas
2 Nights at The Grand Canyon

The above is already booked and we leave the Grand Canyon on The 13th of September.
We have arranged tickets to see The Foo Fighters in Cleveland on the 20th. We are also keen to see Chicago, Detroit and maybe Niagra Falls then after the gig in Cleveland we were thinking to maybe head to the east coast and visit Washington, Boston and possibly New Jersey before we end our adventure in New York on The 27th!
Does this seem a bit unrealistic? Also do you have any advice on possible routes to get us to this places in the timescale.
Thanks!

[glc]

If you are planning on driving from SF to Furnace Creek in 1 day, you will not have time to see Yosemite.

[Southwest Dave]

Furnace creek is pretty close to Vegas which means a day of rushing from San Fran through incredible scenery [via Tioga pass] followed by a short trek to Vegas where you have 2 nights. I would reconsider and perhaps stop around Bishop for the night giving you a little time in Yosemite and time to cross DV next day.

[Bryan Garrick]

Sorry My mistake, its 2 nights in San Francisco followed by 2 nights in Yosemite then onto Furncace Creek

[Lifemagician]

Get a good map of the country, and have a look at what there is between those two places. The options are into the thousands, and varied. Only you can decide which you prefer.

On RTA (and the wider webb) you will find a lot of information on all the National Parks, State Parks, National Monuments and the many other attractions.

Lifey

[Bryan Garrick]

Thanks GLC, we did some more research over the weekend and that sounds like an amazing road trip to Chicago and very manageable at the same time.

Our road trip is now looking like this:-

4th sept- San Francisco
5th- San Francisco
6th-Yosemite
7th- Yosemite
8th- Furnace Creek
9th- Grand Canyon
10th- Grand Canyon
13th-18th (Travel from Grand canyon to Chicago most probably using GLC`s route)
18th- Chicago
19th -Chicago
20th- Cleveland
21st- Cleveland
22nd- Niagra Falls (Canada)
23rd- Niagra Falls (Canada)
24th- ?
25th- ?
26th- Possibly Boston
27th- New York
28th- New York
29th- New York
30th- Fly Home

Is there a route anybody would advise to take from Niagra Falls to Boston? Again the scenic route would be what we`re looking for.

[Southwest Dave]

Following on from glc's route. Instead of going up to Monticello you could take the 'short cut' through Montezuma creek and Aneth to Cortez or Durango, perhaps add a detour to Four corners for the obligatory photo of hands and feet in each of the Four states. If you are doing OK for time when you get on I70 after Leadville, you could 'hop off' again at Dillon onto US 6 through Keystone and drive across the continental divide over the spectacular Loveland pass at close to 12000ft.

An alternative to the suggested route would be to continue north on 191 through Monticello to Moab, home to Arches and Canyonlands NP's. You could then head on 128 through Castle valley to I70 where you will be close to Colorado NM when you near Fruita CO.

Both are pretty spectacular !