Planning a road trip from RI to Los Angeles
July 5, 2010 8:32 AM Subscribe
Hi everyone! My sister, father, and I are planning a road trip this summer from Rhode Island to Los Angeles and we're looking for some itinerary suggestions. We were planning on taking the northern route, hitting Chicago, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, State Route 1, etc. but we don't really have any details laid out. We plan to take 10-11 days, starting on August 20th. Additionally, we would love to do some camping on the way. Thanks :D !!!
-Near Mt Rushmore, see Badlands NP. You can even drive through it.
-Depending which northern route you want to take you could see niagara falls - the view from the Canadian side is better. Decide in advance if you want to be able to go into Canada because you'll need passports/ID and you'll want to be sure you don't have eg firearms, plants, etc in the car.
-Redwood trees are really amazing. It might out of your way but if you can see some with minor adjustments, it's well worth it.
-There are a lot of past cross-country road trip questions on here; if you want to browse them for more ideas you can find some of them by clicking your tags "road" and "trip", also try roadtrip, and combined road + trip.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:24 AM on July 5, 2010
-Depending which northern route you want to take you could see niagara falls - the view from the Canadian side is better. Decide in advance if you want to be able to go into Canada because you'll need passports/ID and you'll want to be sure you don't have eg firearms, plants, etc in the car.
-Redwood trees are really amazing. It might out of your way but if you can see some with minor adjustments, it's well worth it.
-There are a lot of past cross-country road trip questions on here; if you want to browse them for more ideas you can find some of them by clicking your tags "road" and "trip", also try roadtrip, and combined road + trip.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:24 AM on July 5, 2010
Fabulous trip, but totally incomplete without a stop at Cedar Point - more wooden roller coasters than any other park!
When we did it we went all the way to Seattle or something and then down the coast, but however you do it I would tell you: do not under any circumstances miss the Pacific Coast Highway. Sell your soul to stay and eat at Deetjen's on the way.
Those two things were far far far and away the highlights of that route for me.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:27 AM on July 5, 2010
When we did it we went all the way to Seattle or something and then down the coast, but however you do it I would tell you: do not under any circumstances miss the Pacific Coast Highway. Sell your soul to stay and eat at Deetjen's on the way.
Those two things were far far far and away the highlights of that route for me.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:27 AM on July 5, 2010
I posted a somewhat similar question a few months back. Different circumstances, but a lot of the suggestions would apply to you. We didn't end up doing the drive and really want to someday.
posted by doift at 12:40 PM on July 5, 2010
posted by doift at 12:40 PM on July 5, 2010
I loved the California desert and suggest Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree parks as possible stops - both have camping.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:16 AM on July 8, 2010
posted by madamjujujive at 10:16 AM on July 8, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Here's one very rough version of a good route.
Mandatory stops: Devil's Tower. Yellowstone. But then things get REALLY good when you come down from Wyoming through Eastern Utah and down into Arizona/New Mexico. You cannot POSSIBLY set aside enough time for the entire south border of Utah, which is spectacular, as is the entire state really, and you should go as backwoods as possible. All of rural Arizona and New Mexico is outrageous. The smaller roads of that area, in the north of the states, that go up and down between desert and isolated cool mountain buttes? OUT OF THIS WORLD.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 10:06 AM on July 5, 2010