Great site folks! Will be reading for a while.

[RevJim]

Just to congratulate you folks on a brilliant site.
Me and the wife are flying to Las Vegas in Sept for 2 weeks. We have a hire car for that time and apart from the first 2 nights in Vegas, we hope to just drive around and see some of America. The general idea is to see the Grand Canyon (obviously). Death valley, Yosmite Park, San Francisco, Los Angeles and back to Vegas. This forum unfortunately offer a *lot* of other things to see and I might have to plan instead of following my nose hehe.
One problem I might have is the wife, she has difficulty walking any great distance, so hiking is out, wherever we go must have easy access for cars, kinda rules out a trip to see the sliding stones in Death Valley.
Being a geek at heart, I would also like to get my photo taken on the sloping rocks used in Star-Trek series (Bill and Ted's bogus journey too), It's near LA I think, will do more reading. The only map I have at present is Google, but will buy an atlas once I land (also have sat-nav just in case).
If I have questions, I will post knowing the answers will be just what I was after.

RevJim

[Mass Tim]

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

I believe the rocks you are referring to are the Vasquez Rocks.

Google maps is good to have to get a quick overview of the roadways, as well as the terrain (using either satellite or hybrid feature), but I still like to have a regular atlas at the ready. We have a list of some of the best here.

How much time per day were you planning on driving?

[RedCorral]

Jim,

No need to hike to them, you can drive right up - if you have high clearance 4-wheel drive. That means you'll have to rent an SUV with the understanding that you might beat it up a little bit on 25 miles of rough road. Other than that, no problem! It is a short walk from the parking lot onto the playa where the rocks sit at the ends of their "slicks".

I'd say your itinerary is good and doable in the time you have available. Yes, there is a lot of other stuff to see, but you've picked out the best of the best. And you have to draw the line somewhere or you'll find yourself in Alaska on a six-month trip!

Have a great time, and be sure to keep that nose tuned up!

Craig

[W. Larrison]

A couple of comments --

You've got about enough time to do this in, although I'll encourage you to lay out a bit more of a detailed schedule. But almost all of these locations are car-accessible, and most places have accommodations for mobility-limited people -- although they may assume you have a scooter or walker or chair available if you want to go a distance.

The sliding rocks on Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, as noted, are reachable via car (at least to get close enough to see the trails they have left),although its a 10 minute or so walk out on the dry lake bed to actually get close to one. The road is a graded dirt road, although its fairly bumpy, and I've known several people who have driven the road in their family sedans (abit, driven it "carefully!") But you need to figure its a half day to a day's trip from the visitors center at Death Valley to visit this. September may still be fairly warm here (maybe 90-100 F) so just do some basic safety precautions before you head onto the dirt road (water, vehicle in good repair, etc.)

Vasquez Rocks County Park, near Santa Clarita, is the famous "tilted rocks" used in everything from Star Trek to the Wild Wild West to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. You should note that its a 10-20 minute walk from the parking areas to the rocks at Vasquez. (I camped at the park about a year ago with a local Boy Scout Troop...)

[RevJim]

This is a first attempt, Vasques Rocks are out :( beginning to wish we had 4 weeks instead of 2.

Looks doable on paper, but might be too much. May start out that way and kinda drift along until the time gets short, so never too far from Vegas.

Got 2 weeks, 2 days in Vegas booked (time to see the casinos and such)
Then no accom booked, thought we'd follow the route and stop at motels along the way, have to try and make a better schedule later.

Thoughts?

[RevJim]

We are flying into Vegas on the 10th Sept. for 14 days.
2 nights already booked in Vegas, time to see a few things and not too long so we lose all our money :)

Then to the Grand Canyon, and loop around following this route (open to alteration and suggestion)

Any potential problems with this? Or suggestions to things to see on the way?

Thanks

[UKCraig]

You planning on giving LA and San Fran a miss now?

[RevJim]

You planning on giving LA and San Fran a miss now?

Think so, trying to cram LA and SF into the trip seems excessive and would probably push the driving time too high.

Unless you think it's still doable?

[UKCraig]

Only you can know if it'll work -- it totally depends on the pace that you want to keep up. Maybe it's something to work out when you're on the ground over there... if you find you're keeping up a good pace and you wanna go then slip it in the mix! Out of the two I personally preferred San Francisco - LA was just so big that you couldn't begin to get a grip on it in anything less than four or five days.

[RevJim]

Well I think you may be right, my parents visited SF a long time ago on a similar trip and said it was very enjoyable.

I think covering some miles will be easier in the US compared to my last 'road trip'. Based in Dubrovnik and drove south and north, stopping where we found something, enjoyable but the Croatians drive like Italians on roads that wouldn't be out of place in Greece. :)