western us road trip for senior summer

[Cowgirl Liz]

so me and a big group of my friends are planning a major road trip for the summer after we all graduate. at this point the plan is very lacking, all we know is that were probably stickin to the western half of the country. anyway if anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated (and considering were all students were working on a pretty small budget)

also, what would be the best car for this trip?

Advice depends greatly on how old you all are.



AB

[Cowgirl Liz]

oh yeah i forgot to put that in....were graduating from high school

so any suggestions would be great since weve really got very little at this point

[imported_randi]

hey im also graduating this year and im from hawaii, me and a friend wanted to do the samr thing but we also have a tiht budget...but i sounds like so much fun...where would you be starting from?...and ending ...let me know ...aloha ...

[Cowgirl Liz]

well were going to be starting in portland or and after that kind of just making a big circle until we end up back in portland....the general route so far is going south through oregon to cali then a bit of nevada, arizona, part of either utah or new mexico, colorado, wyoming, montana, idaho and back home....(as you can see its very vague at the moment as were still looking for ideas of places that are must sees)

[imported_randi]

thats what we were kinda planning on doing..see we were gonna fly to oregon ,my fam lives in eguene,OR,than we were gonna do the same thing as you except both my friend and i are going to be freshmen at the university of montana so we were just going to probably end in montana! but ours is very vague also..the only problem we ran in to is transportation and unfortunitly thats a big one!lol...i def. think you should go to yellowstone in wy and montana also cody, wyoming is supposed to be awsome..anyways let me know...later

[RoadTripper Brad]

Last year I moved 2 weeks after my Graduation from Washington State to Arizona. That was a great roadtrip (just the driving alone, not much time to stop and see the sights). If you are planning on leaving from oregon, here is what I suggest:
Spend as much time in the mountains or on the coast as possible. Its much more interesting than miles and miles of farmland.
Luckily I work with AAA Arizona, so I have maps of basically the whole US. Im looking at my maps here, and you could try the coast highway 101, thats a particuarly nice drive. If you aren't one for seeing miles of ocean next to you, you can try this route:

US 97 through Oregon to Klamath Falls (with a stop at Crater Lake), Oregon Hwy 39 to CA hwy 139 and Alturas, CA. Then south through the mountains along US 395. US 395 goes right through Reno (you may be too young to gamble, but the atmosphere may be worth visiting in itself). From there you can take us 395 south some more to Carson City, and then back into California. There are plenty of little state highways off US 395 that go back over the Sierrasm, and CA 120 appears to be a nice little ride from my maps... it goes RIGHT through Yosemite! From there you can take CA 41 to CA 99. I have driven CA 99, and its a whole lot of city/rural areas, rural mostly south of Visalia into Bakersfield. That would get you through to I-5 and the LA mess (You may want to take CA 14 just north of San Fernando if you don't want to get lost in LA), take that east to CA 138, then on to CA 18 and then I 15.

From there you can take I 15 north to I 40 and Barstow CA. Here is where you can start to "get your kicks on route 66" Take I 40 East to Topock, AZ, then north on Route 66 (check www.arizonaroads.com for historic information for all roads in Arizona) to Oatman and the Goldroad Ghost town (just north of Oatman near Sitzgreaves Pass). Then you can continue on Rte 66 to Kingman, Rte 66 up through Hackberry, Valentine, Truxton, Peach Springs, and to Seligman. You will rejoin I 40 at exit 139 just East of Seligman. Old rte 66 segmants can be found in Ash fork, Williams, and Flagstaff.
In Williams you can either take the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon south rim, or drive up there on AZ 64 (also US 180 north of Valle). This will let you visit another national park along your trip. This should cover about the first 2-3 days of your road trip. I could help you after that If you had an idea where you might like to go after the Grand Canyon?
-
Brad M.

[Cowgirl Liz]

oh hey thats cool! and im actually considering going to university of montana too weird....but yeah we are definitely going to yellowstone! ive been to part of it before and i loved it there and we were also planning on going through cody on the way in.....and we also still have to get our transportation situation figured out

[Cowgirl Liz]

wow thanks so much for all the great info! i definitely do not want to just drive through california on I-5 ive done it before and its incredibly boring so this mountain route sounds interesting...just wondering though because i was reading an article on this site talking about a trip the author took up US-95 to the Bristlecone Forest area and it sounded cool so do you know if there is a way i can get there coming south versus going north from las vegas?...and as for where we are going after the grand canyon its still a debate between going to bryce canyon/zion etc and through the southern part of utah to colorado or continuing east through arizona and seeing part of new mexico before heading north to colorado so if you have any suggestions for that it would be great
thanks for all the help

[RoadTripper Brad]

I am not familiar with Bristlecone forest area, but as far as AZ, here are my suggestions: Take I 40 from Flagstaff, stopping at Meteor Crator and the Petrified Forest NP (actually, its best if you detour from I 40 in US 180 and enter the park from the south).