Central Florida to Cody Wyoming And Back to Florida

[schneidepc]

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?

[Southwest Dave]

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)

[AZBuck]

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

[Southwest Dave]

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.

[schneidepc]

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.

[Southwest Dave]

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.

[schneidepc]

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.

[Southwest Dave]

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

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.

[travelingman]

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.

[schneidepc]

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. :-)