Looking For A Good Trip:

[GaryDundee1]

My wife and I will be traveling to Sun Valley, ID in October. We will take about 3-4 days going up and a 7-10 days coming back. We live in Tulsa and would like your recommendations for sites to see and places to visit on the way up and back. My thought is to travel north via Colorado, Utah and into Idaho. Travel south will be via Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas. Would appreciate any ideas.

[Guest BillAdams]

Well, going up you are just going to have to drive your A** off as you are hoping to make a 1500 mile trip in 3-4 days. That will leave no time for anything else. You will pass through Denver and SLC, UT but you will have no time to stop so let's ignore these wonderful locations. It will be about a 1900 mile return trip if you include SD so maybe you could make one stop at Mt. Rushmore. Enjoy your stay in Sun Valley as you will miss the entire US as you try to make the rest of your trip within that time frame.

[tbutler]

Hello Gary,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum!

You've met Bill! Like Bill, we are full time in our motor home so we are used to traveling at our leisure. Sometimes we think this is the only way to go. I remember years of vacation travel, zipping to and from to find a few days of leisure in some exotic place. We've all been there at one time or another.

We've covered much of this area at one time or another and can make some suggestions for things to see. One of the things that would help us is to find out what you are interested in seeing. I have a background in the Earth sciences so we frequently travel to see natural features. One of my favorite places in Idaho is Craters of the Moon National Monument - but I love volcanoes and volcanic features. In eastern Wyoming is Devils Tower, which is another volcanic feature. The Black Hills of South Dakota are worth a stop. Mount Rushmore is nearby. Custer State Park has roaming herds of buffalo. The Badlands National Monument in western South Dakota is also in the same area. The badlands are beautiful bare rock escarpments, quite scenic. You can drive through in your motor home, lots of pull outs for viewpoints. While there at the badlands, you might as well stop to see a bit of Americana, the much advertised Wall Drug is just across the interstate from Badlands.

Now if you have other interests, I might suggest other sites. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Wyoming/Utah is an area of spectacular beauty. You can tour the Flaming Gorge Dam. Drive on into Vernal Utah for some more great scenery. In Vernal there is an excellent Dinosaur museum. Dinosaur National Monument is east of there but the main feature, the dinosaur quarry was closed the last time we were there. It was in a building that has been condemned. The next time the federal government has some money to spare they will replace the building. I'm not holding my breath. In southern Utah Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park are both great for scenery, hiking and four wheeling.

There are Lewis and Clark Trail sites across this area and many visitors/interpretive centers were opened in 2004-2006 on the 200th anniversary of their exploration of the Missouri River.

In eastern Nebraska, stop in Lincoln to see a spectacular museum of paleontology at the University of Nebraska. It's been years since I was there. Their collection is amazing. Kansas is close enough to Oklahoma that you could put off visiting there for a weekend or week long trip some day. Wichita has a great aviation museum.

So there are a few of my favorites. Obviously you can't see them all on this trip. You may not even be interested in any of them. Let us know what your interests are and perhaps we can make other suggestions.

[Guest BillAdams]

I can see that my tongue-in-cheek bit of sarcasm has been lost on the users of this forum. My wife say that no one "gets me" and she appears to be correct. I sense a bit of a jab there from Tom, but I stand by my post. I guess if it's your plan to drive 700-800 miles per day you might be able to see a number of sights but the reality is that you are (IMHO only) trying to stuff a 10 pound trip in a 5 pound bag.

You are about to travel through some areas of this Country that are unsurpassed for beauty, history and points of interest. I (again, I) suggest that you either limit the scope of your trip or find a way to add more time as you will "see" the countryside whiz by but not much else. Could you give us an idea of what you would like to see and/or do (as Tom mentions above)?

The points of interest are overwhelming on the route you have selected and you are going to want to find the critical ones and focus on these.

[Roodriver]

I'm going to play the diplomat and agree with both Bill and Tom. Way to many miles in a day for me but younger folks with more hair on their ugh head can probably pull it off.

For my money, Custer State Park is a must see. Tom you didn't mention the wild burros that will stick their head in your vehicle begging for food.

You do need a towed to pull it off though.

Man there are a ton of things to see out that way. You may want to slow down and start at the one closest to you that interests you.

Have a fun trip.

Ward

[migrantdawgs]

I gotta agree w/ Tom on this one - we're 'younger folks' and don't like to do more than 4 hours of driving or so - and even after a couple of those I need to sit still somewhere - preferably with hookups! - that's a lot of gorgeous country you'll be traversing - I'd say pick your most interesting spot to spend a (day? a few hours?) and plan to do it again in slo mo...

Sheri

[tbutler]

Let's not get involved in choosing up sides. What I was pointing out was that those of us who are retired and traveling at our leisure have a much different set of priorities and pressures than those who are perhaps younger and still working. Their trip is not the trip that we would normally plan but that doesn't make it somehow wrong.

Some people we've met over the years enjoy traveling just for the scenery out the window and aren't really interested in spending days in an area exploring all that an area has to offer. Whether you drive 100 miles in a day or 500 miles in a day, we all do that to some extent. We chose routes to travel that will allow us to see the land, driving by attractions that we vow to return and visit some day. If we didn't do this regularly, we'd never get around to seeing the whole of the US and Canada as Louise and I have done in the last 10 years.

Several years ago we spent over a month in British Columbia on our way to Alaska. We were enjoying ourselves tremendously, exploring new territory, when I decided that if we didn't move a little faster we were going to cut ourselves too short in Alaska so we picked up the pace and got to Alaska with the idea that we'd take our time there. We would see a few more sights in BC on the return trip if time allowed.

So I think we have to look beyond our own situation, accept the constraints given by the original poster and offer the requested suggestions if we can. There is nothing wrong in pointing out that the distances to be traveled and time allowed were going to make further sightseeing difficult or impossible. To Bill, I apologize for taking a jab at your response. I get the "tongue-in-cheek bit of sarcasm." I simply thought the OP being a first time poster deserved a little gentler handling. JMHO

[Guest BillAdams]

No matter young or old, there are only so many hours in the day and that reality cannot be changed. The total miles driven add up to 3400 miles with a maximum of 14 days to travel and sightsee. The reality is that you can't take much time to see much with that kind of a travel schedule.

I am not saying the trip can't be done as it absolutely can, but they are going to need to very carefully select the best of the best along the way and simply by-pass the rest.

The question remains. What are you wanting to see? If we have some information about what's important to you we should be able to give some good guidance on where the "must see's" are.