Our First Extended Road Trip! Ideas?

[Dalnna]

My husband and I are driving from Florida to Lake Havasu City, AZ the end of May for our grandson's graduation then heading north on our first extended road trip.  We want to see Mt Rushmore, Custer St Park and all things incredible in that part of the country!  We need to end up in Maryland the last week of July.  What's not to miss and where to stay in our 36' Southwind.  We have two yorkies with us so need air conditioned sites. We've been all over the south but never up north.  Any ideas or suggestions including roads to avoid would be helpful.  Thanks so much!

Donna

[hermanmullins]

Donna,

Welcome to the Forum. Do you have time before you need to be in AZ? If so coming across on I-10 you will have the sites of Mobile & New Orleans, NASA in Houston, Ft. Davis and the McDonald's Observatory, El Paso, Tucson, Phenoix and Lake Havasu. Going up from there you have the Grand Canyon, Moab, The painted Desert, Jackson Hole Wyoming, Yellowstone,  Cody Wyoming (great museum), Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore,  Sturgis South Dakota,  just to name a fee. 

Have a great trip. There is so much to see you may have to save some of then till the next y time. 

Herman 

[grandpanana]

If you can work in the road from Fort Collins (KOA there is good) to Larimie WY (hwy 287) you will have a great drive with changes in geology, flora and fauna. On your way north to Mt Rushmore stop by as many parks as you can in southern Utah. There are several people that blogged about trips in this area this last travel season.   We are heading for Yellowstone, Glacier and Tetons about this same time in the spring/summer.  Cathi

[BillAdams]

So here's my trip assuming that getting to Yellowstone area is too far.  You will already be over 3000 miles and only 7 weeks to get there.

 From Lake Havasu I would go to the Grand Canyon  followed by:

4 corners (short touristy thing) on the way to Cortez, CO to visit the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings.

Moab area to visit at least Arches and Canyonland.

Glenwood Springs, CO for a relaxing hot springs in an excellent facility

Golden, CA for a visit to the Coors factory and just a beautiful area

Off to Devil's Tower.  See if you see anywhere along the way that interests you.

Deadwood, SD (Nothing to see in Sturgis if the motorcycles aren't there and you don't want to be there when the motorcycles are there unless you are a biker.)

Rapid City, SD area.  Mt. Rushmore, Custer, Needles Highway and Crazy Horse.

Wall, SD for a quick stop at Wall Drug and get some free ice water....look it up....

MItchell, SD and visit the Corn Palace

Dayton, OH for what is likely the best Air/Space museum in the Country.  You need 2 days to keep from exhausting yourself.

I will recommend a side trip to Niagra Falls but it is a 400 mile detour.  If you don't plan another trip in the area then it's worth the miles.  Go into Canada (passport needed) so you can see if from that side as it's a much better view.

That's about 3200 miles without Niagra and 3600 if you do.

So many places to go and so many things to do.  Don't try to do too much.  Leave yourself plenty of time at each place you want to visit and don't include your driving day as one of those days.  In most cases you will get in late or just be too tired.  Plan your visits for the next day or 2 or 3.

 

[tbutler]

Lake Havasu in late May will be HOT.  Northern Arizona, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde will be cool in all likelihood.  Being from Florida, you may want to bring oxygen  for the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde (high elevation but great experiences).  June and July in the lower elevations will be HOT and muggy through the central plains into the northeast.  Expect the campgrounds to be more rustic than in Florida.  You shouldn't have any problem getting full hookups in most places.  You will find it difficult to get close to places like the Grand Canyon.  We stayed in Williams, AZ last year for the south rim.  The north rim has a campground but you need to make reservations now, otherwise, there is a forest service campground with no hookups, Jacob Lake.  You can use your generator for electric there.  The north rim is remote but is also quite spectacular and despite what I've just said, it is much less populated than the south rim.

We tend not to make reservations as we travel but in the summer with families out on the road, any popular attraction you can name will have lots of people there.  If you don't want to commit to a long schedule of reservations, we call several days to several weeks in advance to make reservations.  It saves complete disappointment at the end of a long drive.  If you can't get reservations in one place, just put it on the list for the next or another trip. 

Out of Lake Havasu, Flagstaff, Arizona (camp at Williams) has the Lowell Observatory.  This is an excellent visit if you have any interest at all in astronomy.  They run a full series of lectures every day, all the way into the evening.  Then after dark they have telescopes set up for viewing and they even have a very large (24" diameter, 28 feet long) refractor (lens type telescope) that is impressive to see even if the skies are cloudy. 

Now one of the things that would help us help you is to let us know what interests you.  Are you an old car buff?  We can send you to those museums, if airplanes, you have the museum in Dayton.  Enjoy a train ride, the train to the Grand Canyon out of Williams or the Durango to Silverton railroad out of Durango takes you to the old mining town of Silverton where the streets are still dirt roads.  You can stay at one of two campgrounds just across from the entrance to Mesa Verde (cliff dwellings that will knock your socks off) and visit Durango also.  If you are interested in musical instruments, the national musical instrument museum (yes, there is such a thing and it is spectacular) is located in Vermillion, South Dakota (off I-29 south of Sioux Falls).  You get the idea, we can tailor our recommendations to fit your interests.  If what you want is parks and sightseeing then you have a pretty good list already.  Buy a National Park Pass and start browsing the National Park website.  Stop when you enter each state at the visitors center and pick up information, ask the staff for their suggestions.  If you are lucky, you will stumble into a nice local festival or celebration.  Look for evening concerts in the park, campfires in National Parks, enjoy yourself, don't drive yourselves into the ground.  Travel slowly and enjoy the road.

[ianbullock]

Hi Donna,

Yes so many places to go, so much to do!  Very exciting.

Would heartily agree with all of the suggestions from everyone so far, they have pretty much covered all of my top suggestions. 

Would definitely suggest you not miss Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, South Rim.  You could easily spend a week at each, so much to see and do.  Both have great RV campsites.  However would strongly suggest you book online now as these very popular destinations sell out well in advance. (May be close to selling out already for May 2017)

As far as where to stay in your 36' Southwind, other than those above, when we travel to parts unknown for the first time, we often count on a KOA in the area.  There are several hundred throughout the US.  They have a great Online booking site, at http://koa.com.  and although not always the cheapest they generally offer a consistent level of services, Hookups, etc.so you know what you are getting.  And on your first visit to the area, you can scope out other options for next time.

Enjoy!