West From Cleveland OH

[georuple]

II am planning a trip from the Cleveland OH area to Napa, CA for next summer.

Have never been out west and do want to stop at Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. I would appreciate any advice from anyone that might have taken this route out west and places to stop at and see along the route.

Also any advice on where to stay at Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone areas.

George Ruple

email: allegrored@aol.com

[dickandlois]

George, Welcome to the FMCA Forum !

How long do you planing to take? Do you have a Towd ?

There are a number of sights to see on the way out to California and on the way back. Mount Rushmore at night is special. Yellowstone, you should plan on spending at least 2 or 3 days.

http://www.cornpalace.org/

Do you have any thoughts on what Rt. or Rt's you are thinking of taking?

The members will offer all kinds of locations and sights to see.

Rich.

[Lenp]

From Yellowstone go south into Grand Teton and then west to Idaho Falls. If you go on into Oregon don't forget Crater Lake.

Lenp

[hermanmullins]

George, Ditto on the Welcome.

Custer and Hill City, SD have several RV parks. Check with rvparkreviews.com for the names. In the area there are Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument while Wyoming has Devils Tower, Thermopolis Hot Springs, and a must see the Buffalo Bills History Center in Cody (at least one full day), Yellowstone and The Tetons.

Just in those two states you have a world of great places to visit. I envy you on your trip.

Have a great trip.

Herman

[bobndorine2]

Be sure to stop at Custer's battlefield, and when you're at Twin Falls there are several places to go down to the Snake river and see falls close up. From Crater Lake head west to the Oregon coast and south down the Redwood highway #101.

[hermanmullins]

Darn, now I want to take this trip also.

Herman

[whiteeagle]

Not sure your experience with mountain driving or big hills but being from northern WI, I found the "Mountains West" book helpful....

We pretty much saw everything in route, while in Yellowstone, Tetons, and back but there was 2 passes I avoided by taking easier route ..

[tbutler]

George,

In addition to your time constraints it always helps to know your main interests. If you are going to Napa I assume you are interested in wine! Napa isn't the only wine area out west. If you are interested in wine-ing your way west you will find small wineries all along the way. The Amana Colonies in Iowa have wine shops featuring many kinds of fruit and vegetable wines (blackberry wine, peach wine, dandelion wine, etc.). In Oregon the Willamette Valley and along the coast there are many wineries and also a nice scattering of wineries in Washington state. We even enjoyed exploring wines in the Olympic Peninsula. California has wineries in many locations other than Napa. We visit our grandchildren in the Gold Hills around San Andreas and Angels Camp in Calaveras County southeast of Sacramento. In and around the small town of Murphys are about a dozen wineries. We spent a day a the annual grape stomp there in October. Yes, they really do stomp grapes in a competition at their festival. I just did a quick search on Winery Near Me that turned up 21 wineries in Murphys and it didn't even have our favorite, Twisted Oak. Check the Older Posts for the rest of the list for each location you search on this web site. By the way they have 432 listings for Napa and a few more for Napa Valley. You could spend a lifetime wine-ing there. If you click on the winery name you get a Google Map as well as the web site of the winery. Another search site for wineries is Winery Directories. This works best by clicking on the country, then the state and then the area or city which is on your route. You can search but if you don't enter the name of the area or city exactly as the directory has it you will get no results. This site shows only seven of the wineries in Murphys, CA so it's listings aren't as extensive as Winery Near Me. Still I like this as a handy reference for the traveler.

We enjoy exploring for wines as we travel. Having a car in tow helps when going out searching for wineries. Many have small parking lots which make them inaccessible for a large vehicle. But a large vehicle can be handy when wine-ing. While in California, check with BevMo!, a liquor store chain which has periodic sales on wine. They have a wide variety of selected wines on sale, buy one bottle at regular price and the second bottle of the same wine is 5 cents! If you purchase a case (mixed cases are OK), they give an additional 10% discount! It makes the second bottle less than free! That sale has been on in October the last few years when we are there. I understand they do this about four times a year. You would be surprised how many cases of wine you can fit into an RV. Just don't have a wreck, it might be hard to explain the smell of liquor that pervades the accident site!

If you have other special interests such as natural history, volcanoes, rivers, cultural events such as rodeos or county/state fairs, native American art or history, recreation such as hiking or bike trails or beaches and swimming areas, fishing, scenic routes, etc. let us know. What interests one person may not be another persons interest at all. It's a big country and there are spectacular things to see all along the way.

[redwing2]

George,

We did this trip to Yellowstone last year from Avon Lake, OH. Traveling west on I 80 we stopped at La Clair IA first exit after crossing the Mississippi, it is home of the American Pickers (Discovery Channel).

Onward to Mitchell, SD the Corn Palace is next we stayed in the Bad Lands KOA it is owned by a wonderful couple from Amhearst OH.

At Mt Rushmore we stayed at Rafter J Bar ranch RV Resort-- big open sites. Do the Mt Rushmore loop's.

Day trip to Deadwood SD is worth it, lot's to see and do move on to Devils tower great lunch stop. Overnighted in Gillette WY and than off to Cody WY. The RV park in the center of town is perfect, see the shoot out at the hotel where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane used to stay. Buffalo Bill Museum is also worth the price of admission. Catch a rodeo while there.

I would recommend staying at Fishing Bridge in the center of Yellowstone-- it gives you great access to the entire Park.

Tetons are spectacular. nuf said!!!!

Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake is a day well spent. That is as far as we went so have a wonderful trip. and be safe.

[CarlAda]

One trip isn't going to do it....there are SO many places worth a trip, as you've seen just reading these posts.

[wildebill308]

II am planning a trip from the Cleveland OH area to Napa, CA for next summer.

Have never been out west and do want to stop at Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. I would appreciate any advice from anyone that might have taken this route out west and places to stop at and see along the route.

Also any advice on where to stay at Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone areas.

George Ruple

email: allegrored@aol.com

George welcome to the forum.

I was there this summer. You are going to have FUN. For you the easiest route is 90 west. This will take you right to the Mount Rushmore area. I don't have the name of the park handy but I can get it for you. You shouldn't have a problem getting a spot unless you were like us and show up during "bike week in Sturgis."

Then I recommend going on to Livingston, Mt and going into Yellowstone from the north. I do hope you have a toad. The roads in both areas are kind of tight for driving your Motorhome.

There are few places to park in Yellowstone for cars with all the traffic. We stayed at a really nice place on the banks of the Yellowstone river called Yellowstone's edge 3502 U.S. 89 (406) 333-4036. You can go in from the west but there are some steep passes.

When You head to CA, you can go down through Yellowstone or go west to 15 and go south to 80 and take that into Ca. Don't overlook some of the other wine growing areas. I stopped at 10 spoon winery in Missoula Ma. I found some nice wineries in Lodi Ca. This area is often overlooked.

When you are out there you might go to some of the other great parks. Yosemite is wonderful and I recommend going in from the west on 190. The Kings canyon area is right next door and The Sequoia National park.

If you have any questions just ask.

Bill

[florist8146]

To "white Eagle": we are heading out that way in June 2015.

No real experience on major hills so I was interested in your comment about two passes you rerouted around. Any info would be welcome we are coming from Fl.

Thanks