Michigan to California

[Stacie B]

Road trip in my Jeep to Cali and back.

Anyone ever do this trip before? Tips on places I should see along the way??? Don't want to do any heavy off roading in the fear of breaking something and not being able to get home. Which depending on where I was, may not be a bad idea.

Also how do I go about planning this? Looking to go September or October 2005

[Robert Schaller]

First, get yourself an atlas or a set of maps for the states along the way -- study them and see what roads look like they might be interesting to you. Look for roads that pass lakes, or follow rivers or streams! Take your fishing gear and ... Oh, never mind, I got sidetracked there for a minute.

You might want to do a combination of interstate highways (I-70 or I-40, for example) and federal two-lane roads, for a little variety. If you use the two-lane roads, remember that the more towns found along them, the longer they take to drive -- you have to slow down when going through towns, and this costs you more time than you'd think. Sometimes, those little places can be the best part of the trip though, so don't avoid doing SOME of that kind of driving.

Another planning tool is MS Streets and Trips software -- worth its weight in gold (my opinion) for playing with routing, figuring mileages and times, etc. Decide how many miles you want to cover each day, and don't overdo it -- or, simply keep an overall timeframe in mind, and drive each day with a "see how far I can get today, and what will I find along the way" mentality. Good luck and have fun planning! Bob

[Syv]

Where to start! Need more details before we can give you specifics.

Check out www.nps.gov/parks.html

This will show you on a map where all of the National Parks are. That's a good guideline to start planning your route. All are amazing, well-run, and will give you a good outlook of the varying scenery across the country.

For example:

Depending on your route, you could go across the BADLANDS of South Dakota, to YELLOWSTONE Nat'l Pk, Wyoming, & across to the coastal drive down through Oregon, REDWOOD Nat'l Pk, California, etc.

OR you could go through the mountains of Denver area, the spectacular OURAY / SILVERTON area (hwy #550) MESA VERDE Nat'l Pk, Colorado, across through southern Utah's national parks ARCHES, BRYCE CANYON, ZION to name a few,

to GRAND CANYON & Las Vegas, Arizona,

& on into California.