NYC to LA via Chicago, Vegas & SF

[Charlie H]

If you do Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park there are a number of guided tours of the Valley available and you can arrange for one either at the Visitor Center or at Gouldings Motel. You can also drive the seventeen mile loop drive yourself and it takes three to three and one-half hours. If you do decide to drive yourself, do not be discouraged by the first mile to mile and one-half. It is over solid rock and is quite rough. After that, it changes to a mostly dirt road which is smoother but dustier. If you are driving a rental vehicle, make certain this drive is not prohibited by your rental agreement.

If you have the time, an attractive and rewarding alternative is to travel about twenty miles north of the Valley to Mexican Hat, Utah. This would give you the opportunity to visit Goosenecks State Park which is about 10 miles north of Mexican Hat. It is a great place to visit and only requires about an hour.



There are a couple of decent motels in Mexican Hat: The San Juan Inn and The Hat Rock Inn. The San Juan Inn also has a pretty good restuarant. Both overlook the impressive San Juan River gorge.

The drive between Mexican Hat and Monument Valley is also well worth the while and gives you some excellent views of the Monument Valley formations as well as the signature Hat Rock:



Coming from Monument Valley it would work great to pick up Arizona 64 near Cameron and enter Grand Canyon Nat'l Park at the east entrance. Arizona 64 becomes Desert View Drive and Desert View, Lipan, Moran, Grandview, Yaki, Mather and Yapavi Points are along Desert View Drive. Desert View Drive takes you in to Grand Canyon Village. These east rim viewpoints along Desert View Drive provide some excellent views and the east rim is generally much less congested. Arriving in the Village, you can park and walk the Village Rim where there are several excellent viewpoints as well as restaurants and gift shops. You can then catch the Hermit Road shuttle or, if you’ve seen enough, take Arizona 64 on in to Williams, Arizona.

[Charlie H]

If you are at all interested in Route 66, you can begin your research here: http://www.roadtripamerica.com/links/Route66.htm. I would especially recommend the link to Discover Historic Route 66.

[Subman]

Thank you once again, Midwest Michael, Charlie H, AZBuck and all of you guys!

I now think that AZ-64 and the Grand Canyon should definitely be part of the trip. Those helicopter tours from Vegas do seem to short-change you to a considerable extent, especially bearing in mind what they charge.

The Mexican Hat place, if we have time (if only we had more time...), has gone on the to-do list as well - absolutely stunning photos!

I also discovered the 'Million Dollar Highway'. So if we left I-70 a little earlier (before US-191), we could actually drive through this road as well - it sounds amazing - and still have enough time to go through Monument Valley. But will it be open/safe in mid-May? Wikipedia says that the road is kept open all year round, but that there are frequent snow closures? Confused. Have any of you traveled this road in May?

You have certainly opened my eyes to the fun and importance of planning properly, especially off the Interstates - very grateful for this.

Cheers!

Subman

[Southwest Dave]

The Million Dollar Highway is a spectacular drive with wonderful scenery and mountain towns such as Ouray and Silverton. It is also part of the San Juan Skyway which is a scenic loop that includes the popular town of Telluride. As well as the other excellent suggestions already made, if you keep looking you will find another million and one possibilites and so many of them can be found between Denver and The Grand canyon. In fact if you were to travel the Million Dollar Highway you could cut down to Poncha Springs and take US50 over the Continental divide at Monarch Pass, through Currecanti National Rec area and stop at the Black canyon of the Gunnison before Montrose. After headsing south to Durango you will then head west to Cortez and in between you will find Mesa Verde NP. You should be fine in May on the highway but of course it's always wise to keep an eye on conditions, especially high up in the mountains.

Following on from a couple of ideas from Charlie; If you visit Goosenecks State park instead of heading north from Mexican Hat you could turn off 191 earlier onto the 95 after Blanding and then take 261. This will take you down the Moki Dugway, you can see more scrolling down this page.

You almost certainly won't be able to drive your rental on the Monument valley scenic drive without violating your rental agreement but there are jeep tours on the go all day.

As I said, so much more to see. It doesn't appear that you plan to spend much time in NY, so out of interest, have you considered flying into Denver or Vegas and doing a loop trip that would save you one way drop fees and save a lot of miles driving across country ?

[Charlie H]

Folks could go on and on about things to see in this part of the country - the National Parks of Utah haven't even been mentioned. However, as per your initial post, you only have 13 days of driving time and after the sites we've been discussing, you still have a long way to go and you don't want to shortchange the Pacific Coast Highway. I guess my suggestion is don't overload - sometimes, less is more.

[Subman]

We did consider doing a loop out of LA or SF or Vegas even, but in the end I think that, with this being our first road trip, we have got it into our heads that it must be coast to coast. NYC as a starting point holds some historical significance to us due to a prior visit there, and it just seems like a wonderful idea to be (sort of) following in the footsteps of the Beat writers, not to mention the early settlers who headed out to the West. (Granted we will be doing this in an air-conditioned automatic, so the experiences are probably not strictly speaking comparable, but I think the basic principle still holds..) And arriving there after a long journey will surely feel more appropriate and rewarding than simply catching an inter-continental flight. I also think there is a lot to be said for visiting, however briefly, Chicago and the Midwest in general.

Sadly, unless one of us wins the lottery between now and then, we will need to stick to 3 weeks, so some tough choices will need to be made. But in the future, doing loop trips in the South/Southwest or the Northwest will be an attractive option.

Thank you for all your help.

Subman

[Charlie H]

I got this from a fellow from the UK on another Forum I participate in:

This is what we took. We got it specifically for our trip. Had no issues and no fees!
http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards.../clarity-card/

Thought it might be helpful.

I was not suggesting you change your route but just that you not overload.

[Lifemagician]

Since that Halifax Card is a Credit Card and not a place to 'store' money for the trip, my first question would be, how much does your own bank charge to pay it off at the end of the month.

The Cash Card does not cost anything to purchase, no fee to load money, and no fee to use the money. I understood that that is the condition of them, worldwide.

Lifey

[Charlie H]

Since that Halifax Card is a Credit Card and not a place to 'store' money for the trip, my first question would be, how much does your own bank charge to pay it off at the end of the month.

The Cash Card does not cost anything to purchase, no fee to load money, and no fee to use the money. I understood that that is the condition of them, worldwide.

Lifey

You are exactly right - it is a credit card and this discussion got started because Subman was under the impression that credit cards are not widely used in the US and that there were costs involved.

[Subman]

Hi Jane Louise,

Thanks for replying to my questions in the NYC to LA thread - much appreciated!

I had never of heard of these cash cards before and still don't really understand them. I had a look at the one you mentioned, and found one with 0% transactions fees - is that the one you had? Also I was wondering, if you get a good exchange rate on those cards?

My concern would be losing the card. Obviously, if you lose a roll of cash, then it's gone forever, but what happens with these prepaid cards? Losing a credit card wouldn't be so bad because you can cancel it, but would the cash you have on the dollar card be lost or does it have the same protection as a credit card (since it has the Mastercard symbol on it)?

And did you really only spend $500 on the petrol for a 5000mile trip? That's amazing! I figured it might be almost double that. I guess the prices also vary from state to state.

Thank you for your time.

Subman

Moderator Note: Post Moved from This Thread. We prefer if you keep all questions about your specific trip in your own thread.