The Best American Cross Country Road Trip: 5 tips For Planning Your Route

I’ve made the road trip across the US several times on multiple different routes. I thought I would post some of things I’ve learned for anyone who might be planning a road trip.

 

Lower Yosemite Falls: Yosemite National Park

1. Travel from North to South, or South to North.

A lot of people just assume that a cross country road trip should run horizontally from east to west, but I highly recommend considering a vertical route. Either option is about 40 hours of total driving time, but there is a lot more to see and do if you start your trip in Seattle and head south to California. The North to South route is far more scenic and you can plan a route to pass through many of the best National Parks in the US including, Yellowstone, Arches, Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon.

 

Bryce Canyon National Park

2. Do it in September or early October

My favorite time to travel is in September-October after the summer crowds are gone. California and Utah typically have fantastic weather in the early fall and prices at hotels and Airbnb’s are usually lower. Spring trips can be great for avoiding the crowds too, but parks like Yellowstone can be impassable in the Spring before the snow melts. 

 

Delicate Arch: Arches National Park

3. Make reservations with flexible cancelation policies

Airbnb and Travelocity both have great filters you can use to search for accommodations with “flexible cancellation policies.” These can be a life saver when you’re driving across country. With Covid still causing problems for travelers, I would strongly recommend only booking rooms that allow you to cancel without losing your deposit.

 

Red Rock Canyon: Las Vegas, Nevada

4. Book everything with a Credit Card

You have more flexibility when you book with a credit card. Credit cards usually offer a lot more protection from fraud. For example, if you rent a car and the rental company accuses you of damaging the rental vehicle, your credit card company will often provide some additional coverage that may partially cover you, where a debit card would offer zero protection.

 

Zion National Park, view from Angel's Landing

5. Don’t’ try to cram in too much

If you have two weeks to do the ultimate road trip, don’t try to fit 20 destinations into a 20 day trip. You’ll want to get out of the car and spend at least 2-3 days in a park like Yellowstone or in a city like Las Vegas. Ideally, I would spend 2 nights in most of the locations on my route.

 

Snoqualmie Falls, Washington State

 

 Here’s my route for the Ultimate Cross country trip: Ideally, I would spread it out over 20 days. Fly into Seattle and Fly out of Los Angeles. If you wanted to cut it down to 2 weeks, you could fly into Salt Lake City and cut out the Northern part of the trip.

 

Seattle Washington

Missoula Montana

Yellowstone National Park

Jackson Hole Wyoming

Arches National Park, Moab

Bryce Canyon National Park

Zion National Park

South Rim at Grand Canyon National Park

Las Vegas Nevada

Santa Monica California

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Best Day Hikes in the National Parks - National Geographic

Best Day Hikes in the Parks - National Geographic: National Geographic editors recommend the 20 legendary day hikes within our most legendary national parks.

Mist Trail in Yosemite NP

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Lava River Tube. Flagstaff Arizona

Lava River Tube in Flagstaff Arizona

The Lava River Tube in Flagstaff Arizona is a nearly mile-long cave located in the scenic Coconino National Forest. Its only about an hour away from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. If you plan on visiting the Grand Canyon, this hike should be at the very top of your list of things to see. I would say this hike is definitely suitable for young children as long as they can be careful at the rocky entrance. I probably wouldn't plan on hauling a baby or your feeble old grandmother though. There's no gift shop on this hike and you're on your own if you run into trouble.


The entrance to the cave is short quarter mile hike from the parking area. The temperature in the cave ranges between 32-40 degrees Fahrenheit, so bring a jacket. There was actually snow and ice on the ground at the entrance to the cave in early October. The hike into the cave starts with a 200 yard rock scramble down into the actual tube. You won't have a tour guide and the cave is not lit, so you must have a light source. I recommend a buying a few cheap headlamps from Wal-Mart. After a few hundred yards,  the cave eventually levels out. We spent an 30 minutes walking deeper and deeper into the cave. You can't get lost because the only fork in the cave leads right back to the main tube.  The height of the ceiling can range anywhere from 4 feet to over 40. I took a ton of pictures and we actually turned around before we even reached the end. There were a ton of people in the cave with us, and a few hillbillies were smoking clove cigarettes and blasting country music from a boombox.  They completely killed the ambiance. It was one of the few times I wished I had a park ranger to supervise the trail. But even the hillbillies couldn't sour me on the Lava River Tube. Its a really amazing cave.

Walking the Lava River Tube is a totally unique experience. The Coconino National Forest is a worthwhile destination in its own right. I've already started planning a camping trip here next year. I saw a ton of awesome primitive back-country camping spots while we were cruising down the fire roads.

Directions: From Flagstaff, take route 180 North for approximately 14 miles. Turn Left onto Forest Route 245. In 2 miles, follow the signs for the lava River Cave and turn left onto a small fire road for and parking area for the Lava Cave.

Attention-Route 245 is closed in winter.

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Rim to Rim: The Grandest Hike on Earth. A short video by Andy Lewicky

 And now that you'be been inspired, here is nice little article about how to do the hike yourself.
http://www.everytrail.com/guide/hiking-the-grand-canyon-rim-to-rim

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Havasu Falls: Grand Canyon

Mooney Falls: Supai Arizona,
 Grand Canyon

For a lot of hikers, a trip to the Supai reservation in the Grand Canyon to see Havasu Falls is the high watermark of a lifetime of exploration and adventures.  I’m in my early thirties now, and I thought it was time that I made the journey myself. After doing a lot of research online, I became an expert on Supai before I had ever even visited. Most people agree that the best times to visit are during the spring and fall when the temperatures are mild and the crowds are thin. I reserved my campsite by phone for early October about 6 months before of my trip. For three people staying two nights in the Supai campground, the fee came to exactly 85$ per person. You don’t actually pay for anything on the phone, they just give you a reservation number.  The lodge was already completely booked, but the prices for a room were several hundred dollars more expensive and I wouldn't have spent that much money anyway.

The next step for our trip was gathering supplies and planning the route.  The major factor to consider in the Grand Canyon is always the weather.  Summer temperatures can reach 120 degrees. In the winter, they regularly drop below zero.  Temps in the spring and fall can be unpredictable. In early October, the weatherman called for clear skies with daytime temps in the low 70’s, and nights in the upper 40’s. Perfection.  The hike to the campground in Supai is ten miles each way from the parking lot at Hualapai hilltop. To clear up any confusion about directions, the best route from either direction on Route 40 is to take route 66 and then exit North on Hualapai Highway (Indian Route 18).  You just follow the Hualapai Highway for an hour or so until it dead ends at the parking lot for Hualapai Hilltop. It should be hard to miss. It’s the parking lot situated on the edge of a billion year old crevasse 1 mile deep and 18 miles across.

Gear:

Considering the mild fall temperatures, I packed food for two days,  1.5 liters of water per person, 3-man tent split into three packs, hiking pole, 1 change of clothing and socks, 1 light jacket, 1 light sweatshirt, 2 pound sleeping bag, sleeping pad, gloves, hat, ten feet of nylon clothesline, cell phone, camera,  1 roll toilet paper, travel size toothbrush and toothpaste, travel size shower gel/shampoo, needle and a small spool of thread, 1 emergency kit*

*Emergency kit

Emergency  blanket, alcohol swabs, small tube of dermabond, crazyglue, matches in waterproof case,  toilet paper, Purel hand sanitizer, travel size suntan lotion, flashlight/headlamp with spare batteries,  needle and thread,  energy bars, pocket knife, emergency whistle,  bandages, rain poncho, compass, water purification tablets/iodine,  powdered Gatorade individual packs,

(You can store your emergency kit in an aluminum thermos for boiling water in an emergency)


A very condensed trip report:

We left our hotel in Las Vegas early in the morning and made the trailhead in a little under

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