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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Snow Canyon State Park, St. George Utah

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

I recently visited Snow Canyon State Park in southern Utah for the first time. Snow Canyon has several unique and interesting features including arches, petrified dunes, slot canyons, a few small caves, sand dunes and a natural spring which can be easily accessed from the road or by a paved bike trail that runs through the park. The park is located about ten minutes from St. George Utah. If you’re headed to Zion National Park from Las Vegas on I-15, you’re going to come within a few miles of Snow Canyon State Park. I highly recommend taking a half day to explore Snow Canyon State Park.

Unlike Zion National Park which is usually filled with tourists, visitors to Snow Canyon Park are sparse by comparison. However, most of the major trails in Snow Canyon State Park are less than a mile round-trip, so you should expect to see families and and some tourists  on the trails. The paved “Whiptail” bike trail gives you access to most of the trailheads without ever having to cross the road. I highly recommend bringing your bike to this park.

There are several great hiking trails for families including a short quarter mile jaunt on Jenny’s Trail to see a small slot canyon, the Sand Dunes Trail and the Johnson Canyon Trail. For more of an adventure, one of the best ways to experience Snow Canyon State Park is to find the Petrified Dunes trail and just start exploring. The giant sandstone mounds on the Petrified Dunes Trail are perfect for climbing and rock scrambling. From the top of the Petrified Dunes, you get an amazing birds-eye view of the park below. The Petrified Dunes were my favorite feature in the park.

Admission to Snow Canyon State park is $6 per vehicle or $4 per bike. If you have multiple people wanting to bike, it’s a much better deal to drive into the park with your bikes, park your car and start your bike ride inside to avoid the multiple per-person fees.

Petrified Dunes: Snow Canyon State Park

Snow Canyon has a campground, but it's located very close to the road. While it’s probably a great place for an RV, I would probably avoid tent camping in Snow Canyon State Park if you’re sensitive to road noise like I am. The noise probably won’t be an issue in the off-season during the fall and winter when most of the visitors have dwindled. Campsites are $20/per night and can be reserved in advance here: https://utahstateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/snow-canyon-state-park/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=UT&parkId=345781

Just  a few miles down the road from Snow Canyon Park, there is a free area to explore called Pioneer Park which has several fun features you can explore including a cave, a small slot canyon and a miniature arch. Pioneer Park is situated high above St. George with an amazing view of the town below and it’s one of the best places in the area to catch a sunset. Pioneer Park is comprised of the same type of red Sandstone you’ll find in Snow Canyon. It’s a really great area for rock scrambling and climbing. I definitely recommend taking an hour or two to explore Pioneer Park.

Pioneer Park, St. George Utah

I would avoid visiting this part of Utah in the late summer when the temperatures are usually sweltering. You get very little shade and the sky is cloudless for most of July and August. My favorite time of year to visit is in late September and October when the crowds are gone and the temperatures are in the 60’s and 70’s.

For a good list of trail descriptions in Snow Canyon State Park, visit: http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/snow_canyon/trails.html

For and interactive map of Snow Canyon State Park, click 

here: https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/snow-canyon/map/

Pioneer Park overlooking St George Utah

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Bryce Canyon National Park: Queen's Garden Trail and the Peekaboo Loop

Bryce Canyon National Park

It’s after 5 o’clock in Bryce Canyon National Park. It’s 45 degrees and drizzling.  Mt girlfriend and I are finishing up an 8 mile loop touring the canyon floor. We're just starting a long ascent up switchbacks to the rim where we parked our car. I’ve been keeping an eye on the black clouds approaching from the east.  They're moving fast, but we should just beat it to the car if we keep a good pace. A group of 4 college aged tourists pop out from around a bend and are heading towards us on the trail. The 3 boys are walking quietly with their heads down and arms close to their bodies, trying to hide the fact that they are freezing, probably to impress the girl that they’re with. They’re wearing jeans, t-shirts and a lot of ridiculous silver chains around their necks. I can tell that they’re almost definitely European from their stonewashed jeans. They look like they could be the spoiled grand kids of a Ukrainian diplomat, a Czech pop band, a Polish swim team,  or something akin to that. “That big storm is going to hit really soon. Do you guys have jackets, “I ask? They don’t acknowledge me and they keep on walking past us down the hill into the canyon.  Fifteen minutes pass. The rain hits just as we can see the rim. The temperature drops ten degrees, the canyon goes completely dark and the rain is so intense that we have to wait in the car for a half hour before we can even leave the parking lot. We watch for them, expecting them any minute, but the Ukrainians never come back up the trail. I would love to read their Yelp review of Bryce Canyon. 

Peekaboo Loop Trail

Bryce Canyon National Park is one of the most beautiful parks in the United States.  Although it’s located only 80 miles from Zion National Park, Bryce gets only a fraction of the number of visitors.  I suspect the lack of  crowds are due to the fact that Bryce is in a remote area with no major cities or highways close by.  We stayed west of the park in two small towns, Panguitch and Hatch.  If you’re looking for luxury on your trip to Bryce, you won’t find it in either of these towns. The best you can hope for is clean roadside motel to sleep in and a diner where the flies won’t swarm you. Bryce Canyon National Park is situated at an elevation above 8,000 feet and the temperatures are much cooler than Zion.  Where Zion might see sun and fall temperatures in the 80’s, it may be in the 40’s and raining in Bryce in October like we experienced.  We had planned to camp, but torrential evening storms and nighttime lows in the 30’s forced us to stay in motels outside the park.

Man-made arch on the trail in Bryce Canyon NP

We spent 2 days in Bryce hiking 4 major trails in the Amphitheater Section and another day driving between the overlooks and only briefly exploring the rest of the park.  I could easily have spent several more days in the Amphitheater exploring every nook. The Queen’s Garden trail easily ranks among the best trails I’ve ever hiked. You begin the Queen’s Garden trail at the Sunset Overlook with a vast view that spans the entire canyon and at least 20 miles beyond. You’ll hike several hundred feet down among the giant spires and hoodoos. The scenery completely changes around every bend in the trail. You pass under several man-made arches as you hike the trail. Once you reach the valley floor, you weave through a maze of trees, slots, copper colored rock walls and giant, precariously balanced rock formations that look as though they could come crashing down on you at any second.  You can take as many photos as you want, but they won’t do the trail any justice. You have to see it to believe it. The return trip up is actually pretty moderate no matter which direction you travel. We saw several young children on the trail who were handling the ascent with no trouble at all. The loop is approximately 6 miles. We finished it in a little over 2 hours with several stops for photos.  

Bryce Canyon National Park Overlook

The next trail we hit in Bryce was the Peekaboo Loop. The trail starts at the Bryce Point Overlook. You descend for approximately one mile into the canyon until you hit the actual loop. You’ll ascend and then descend several times on the 4 mile loop through the canyon, passing overlooks, rock shelters, small arches and rock formations all along the way. This trail is a bit more strenuous than the Queen's Garden. The Peekaboo Loop is absolutely stunning, but you’ll have to share it with the horses and donkeys and a lot of the trail smelled like horse piss. Maybe when I’m older, I’ll appreciate the need for a horse so that I can visit the park without having to walk, but I really felt like the stench and piles of manure on trail detracted from the natural beauty.  I don’t think I would hike this trail again during tourist season because the stench was a real nuisance. I regret not hitting the Fairyland Loop instead where horses weren't allowed. 

Bryce Canyon National Park Rim Trail

Where to Stay In Bryce Canyon National Park.

There are several options nearby for camping. Dixie National Forest is located just north of the park and there are plenty of free places to camp a few miles off Route 12, especially near Red Canyon. This website has a detailed list of free campgrounds  near Bryce with directions and GPS coordinates.  If you prefer a cheap motel, I would recommend checking Hatch or Panguitch. For something a little nicer, check the town of Tropic. There are 2 campgrounds within Bryce Canyon NP, Sunset and North both are located right next to the visitor’s center. They were completely devoid of tents when we visited in October, but I’m sure they fill in the summer.  These campgrounds are located at over 8,000 feet of elevation and they can be brutally, dangerously cold in the winter at night.

The park is serviced by a free shuttle that runs from late April to September. The rest of the year, you’re on your own.  There are 2 or 3 dining options within the park, but you’re basically limited to pizza or fine dining in the evening. I suggest bringing a cooler with some food before you hit the park. A few other things you might need in the park would be a rain jacket, firewood for camping, headlamp, gloves and a warm hat. 

Rim Trail

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The Great Subway Escape Zion National Park

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California's National Parks Will Likely Close During Government Shutdown

California's National Parks Will Likely Close During Government Shutdown

According to an article I just read, all of the National Parks in California are going to close during the government shutdown. This includes the big ones: Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Channel Islands and all the rest. Most of the park employees are going on furlough, so there is a good chance the parks could close within the next 48 hours. I think that its insanely ridiculous that the government is going to close all the national parks because of a dispute over healthcare. This is going to cost California a ton of revenue in lost tourism. I bet I vote for Ron Paul again in the next election.

Update: Most of the 401 National Parks are now closed. Even some of the websites are down.

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A Cross Country Roadtrip to California

Grand Teton National Park

I've driven across the US 6 times on 5 different routes.  My version of the ideal cross country trip is to see as much as possible for the least amount of money. I try to camp as often as I can along the way. I thought I would post some general route suggestions for anyone who might be researching a trip of their own.

The Southern Route
If you're considering driving across country on the I-40 , chances are that you're planning a trip to the Grand Canyon. This is the wrong way to do it. You would be better off flying into Las Vegas or Phoenix and renting a car. Why you ask? Because the 1000+ mile drive between Nashville and Flagstaff is endless and terrible. If you feel the need to ignore my advice, avoid booking a hotel room in Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City or Albuquerque for safety reasons and stay in a small town instead. All of these cities are notoriously dangerous. The Smokey Mountains in Tennessee are definitely worth a visit.  The east-coast beaches from Delaware to Florida are beautiful, with the lone exceptions of Virginia Beach, Newport News, Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach which are all cesspools of human misery.

The Middle Route

To be frank, the middle of America is empty and boring, no matter what route you take.  The middle routes across I-70 and I-64 both converge in Saint Louis, one of the scariest cities I've ever driven through.  On my first cross country trip ever, I had planned on stopping at the Saint Louis Arch. When I saw the surrounding neighborhood, I was afraid to get off the highway.  Oklahoma City and Kansas City are equally depressing.  On the other hand, the 750 miles of highway from Denver to  Las Vegas is one of the most scenic and surreal drives in the US, with literally hundreds of parks and more amazing hikes than you could finish in a lifetime.  The I-70 heads over the Colorado Rockies through Vail and Grand Junction and past Arches National Park. From I-15 South you’ll pass Cedar Breaks National Monument,  Zion National Park, Kolob Canyon,  Valley of Fire State Park,  Las Vegas, the Mojave Desert, Temecula Wine Country in California and eventually San Diego. 

The Northern Route
For a first timer who has never made a cross country trip, I would recommend the route from Chicago to Orange County by way of the Badlands and Yellowstone National Park. Here is my optimal route:  

Chicago Illinois-> Badlands National Park -> Mount Rushmore -> Devil's Tower National Monument -> Yellowstone National Park -> Grand Teton National Park -> Jackson Wyoming -> Lava Hot Springs Idaho  -> Cedar Breaks National Monument-> Zion National Park -> Las Vegas -> Newport Beach California

You can pick up an annual National Park Pass  for 80$ and get access to all of the parks on this list. They will probably still hit you with an extra fee for parking at Mount Rushmore.

The route from Chicago to Orange County California  is estimated at 36 hours one way, it'll take a hell of a lot longer than that. I would recommend splitting this trip up into 3 weeks if you want to enjoy yourself and see everything on this list. The return trip is always a nightmare. If you really haul ass and swap drivers, you can make home from anywhere in 3 days.  A word of warning: you are really going to be sick of the car by the end of your trip.

 I've had a few minor car issues on my travels, but I still don't recommend renting a car because the prices have gotten outrageous. For the price of a rental car for three weeks, you could buy 4 round-trip tickets to anywhere in the United States and still have plenty of money left over for hotel rooms.

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Angel's Landing Hike. Zion National Park

Angel's Landing. Zion National Park

Angel’s Landing in Zion National park is one of the best hikes that I've ever conquered and easily one of the best in United States. From the canyon floor, the hike looks nearly impossible. Under a cloudless sky in the scorching summer heat, the endless switchbacks can sometimes feel impossible too. The reward when you reach the top is well worth the effort. Angel's Landing is the Sistine Chapel of hiking. In his wildest dreams, Michelangelo could never have painted anything as beautiful as the birds-eye view of Zion National Park from the top of Angel's Landing.

The hike starts at the Grotto Trailhead in the main section of Zion National Park.  You cross the foot bridge over the Virgin River to the west side of the canyon and head up the daunting set of switchbacks affectionately known as “Walter’s Wiggles”.  If you’re in decent shape, you’ll inevitably pass the multitudes of red-faced, overweight tourists slogging up the hill. The further up you get, the more the crowd thins out. By the time you reach Refrigerator Canyon, your legs will definitely be pumping some blood and most people take a short water break in the shade. There are a few small wind caves that you can explore on this part of the hike. You begin a more even ascent towards an area known as Scout’s Lookout.  I heard a tour guide say the area directly below the cliff is sometimes called “Scout’s Landing” by the locals in honor of all the Boyscouts that have accidentally fallen over the ledge.  A close friend of mine lost an uncle in this exact spot.  The views from Scout’s Lookout are amazing, but they get better. From here, you start a harrowing climb up the chains on a path that narrows to just 2 feet across on a cliff with vertical decent of several thousand feet.  It can be a bit terrifying to share the path with people crossing in the opposite direction. A lot of people see the chains and can’t work up the courage to climb more than a few feet before they turn around and head back down. This part of the hike is obviously not for anyone with acrophobia.

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My Top 5 National Parks

You can't really rank these. All of the National Parks I've visited are amazing in their own way, but this is a list of my favorites.

Yellowstone National Park

Yosemite National Park

Supai Indian Reservation

The Supai Reservation is not actually a national park, but it is located adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. Havasu Falls is probably my all time favorite hike.

Zion National Park

Sequoia National Park

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Kanarra Creek Utah

Kanarra Creek Utah

On the edge of the tiny town of Kanarraville in Southern Utah, there’s an amazing slot canyon hike on Kanarra Creek. This hike is only an hour drive from Zion National Park. Kanarra Creek features several small waterfalls that you can actually climb using ladders and ropes. At its thinnest point, the slot canyon narrows to barely 8 feet wide.  As you head upstream, the walls tower above you, providing a good amount of shade from the sun. The red canyon walls and pristine water makes this a popular destination for photographers. I saw more camera equipment on this hike than on any trail in recent memory and for good reason.   Be warned, a good portion of the hike involves sloshing through the creek, so count on getting wet.  I wore a pair of neoprene socks and my feet were fairly comfortable for most of the hike.  In the summer, this hike can get extremely hot. It can rain and potentially flash flood in the spring, so the best time to do it is probably in the fall when the temperatures are mild. 

 We did this hike midweek in May and it was a little crowded, possibly due to its close proximity to Zion National Park.  We waited in a 20 minute line behind ten other hikers waiting to climb the wooden ladder at the final waterfall. Then we hiked for another 45 minutes upstream just to do a little exploring.  From this point, we only passed two other hikers, so I assume most people just hike to the falls. The canyon walls in the upper part of the canyon must have been several hundred feet tall. We found a secluded spot by the river, ate lunch, and turned around to hike back to our car. We finished the hike in a little under 3 hours. This creek is used as a water source for the town, so make sure to pack out your trash and waste to avoid contaminating it.

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Zion, Bryce, Grand Staircase, Glen Canyon Trail Locations

A ton of research went into this Google map.  It has slot canyons, hiking trails, points of interest and lodging marked out for Zion, Gran Staircase and Glen Canyon National Park. 

LINK TO MAP

Green = Slot Canyon
Red = Hiking trail or point of interest
Blue = Lodging

	Escalante Outfitters $45 cabins 310 West Main Street Escalante, UT 84726‎ (435) 826-4266 escalanteoutfitters.com‎   http://www.escalanteoutfitters.com/lodging/
	Americas best value Inn $65 200 North Main Street Tropic, UT 84776 Get directions ‎ (435) 679-8811 americasbestvalueinn.com
	Middle trail Trailhead 5* http://climb-utah.com/Escalante/buckskin.htm   http://climb-utah.com/Escalante/Maps/buckskin.jpg      There are several very good panels of petroglyphs where Middle Trail joins Buckskin Gulc...
	Wire Pass t/h 3* http://climb-utah.com/Escalante/Maps/buckskin.jpg   0:45 - Wire Pass Trailhead to Buckskin Gulch. 4:15 - Buckskin Gulch to Middle Trail. 2:00 - Middle Trail to Rock Fall. 1:15 - Rock Fall to Paria...

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