SoCal to Rochester, NY

[PhillipsFamTravels]

Hello! We’re taking a cross country family road trip to attend our sons college graduation near Rochester, NY. We’ve already decided to take I-15 East to Eagle, CO for our 1st stop. I’m trying to decide what is the better route to take across the Midwest.. up to I-80 through Nebraska & Iowa or I-70 through Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, etc? We’re traveling with 8 year old twins that do love to road trip. I-80 is showing as faster... however while we are wanting to get there in a decent amount of time we would also like to have some nice scenery and possibly some nice quick places to stop along the way too. Any recommendations or ideas?

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

How much time are you considering to take for the trip and where in SoCal are you starting out from ? I have a feeling you could be getting misled by electronic mapping programs time estimates, as there is nowhere in SoCal you could set out from and make it to Eagle CO for your "first stop" without fatigue putting you at real risk on the road and drive your 8 year olds crazy and then get up the next day and start all over. A full day on the road with stops for rest, food, fuel, bathroom breaks and to let the Kids run around a bit will mean covering around 550 miles in 9 to 10 hours and is around the area that professional drivers are permitted to drive by law for those very same safety limits, that equates to a minimum of 4 overnight stops for your journey.

[DonnaR57]

You can't beat I-70 through Utah and Colorado for the scenery, as it's about the most scenic stretch of interstate. My husband, a former trucker, has made the comment many times that 70 is gorgeous and 80 seemed to always be windy. You may have less truckers to deal with on 70 through UT and CO because some trucking companies have new drivers with little experience going down that long 6% grade into Denver (going east).

Depending on where in SoCal you're departing from, your first stop should be either Beaver, UT, or Richfield, UT. We start in the north county San Diego area, and our first stop is usually Richfield, but we also drive 600 miles. Beaver will cut that a little shorter.


Donna