Going on a road trip in August... Need ideas....

[Lachesis00]

OK my husband, son who is 12.5 and myself will be doing a 28 day road trip leaving Alaska 7/30. We'll drive through Canada to Victoria BC, take the ferry over to Seattle and then drive all the way down to NM (Carlsbad Caverns). From NM we'll go up to CO (have to be there the 20th for a family reunion) and then back to Alaska.

So far we have no huge "Gotta do it" plans. We'd like to see the Redwoods, Napa Valley, Magic Mountain, Disneyland, in Phoenix we have friends, Carlsbad Caverns in NH and of course the reunion in CO. We don't have a travel plan for driving back yet.

NOW if this were your trip, what would you do (exclude Disney and Magic Mountain for the moment) as a family? Where would you camp? Those who live along this route, can you recommend good places to eat that are not expensive? What else would you do to keep the 12yo happy?


How warm are the evenings in August (CA and NM)?

I look forward to hearing what people have to say. I am looking for a program to map out this trip. I was at Rand McNalley's site but I can only put in 10 stops.

 

[goofy4tink]

When we visited Washington state the last time, we drove over to the rainforest area. It's up in the far northwest corner of the state. It is quite beautiful and very unexpected!!

 

[tar heel]

We did a driving trip to a family reunion at Snow Mountain Ranch near Denver a few years ago. Probably our favorite place on that trip was Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado. It is where Native Americans built cliff dwellings centuries ago and you can actually climb inside them -- I'm still amazed that my 4-year-old was allowed to do the climbing he was b/c of liability issues. The park is on top of a mesa with 100-mile views in all directions. We stayed one night in the lodge in the park and would highly recommend it.

 

[battricia]

If you have a triple A membership they will plan out a trip route for you, they will send you maps with your route highlighted, send you books of each state/region you drive through (books that cost 15-30 dollars if you buy them in stores), and everything you need to plan a road trip at no charge. I've driven from phoenix AZ to east stroudsburg PA (pa, ohio, indiana, ill., missouri, oaklahoma, texas, new mexico, arizona) , and then from east stroudsburg PA to phoenix AZ (pa, maryland, west virginia, virginia, tennessee, georgia, alabama, mississippi, louisiana, texas, new mexico, arizona), and we used the triple A service both times, it is the BIGGEST help. The books they give you will give every hotel, camp sight, restaurant reviews, etc. for each state or region. If you don't have a membership i'd suggest getting it for one year, I think it's only like 24 dollars for a membership, and with all the information they'll send you it's definately worth it.


tricia.

 

[Virgo10]

Check out Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. It's amazing!

http://www.crater.lake.national-park.com/

Roberta

 

[Lachesis00]

Wow thank you guys. I had heard of AAA. I am looking into that as I type.

I haven't had many people comment on OR or CO so that was nice people here spoke up. We would have had no clue where to go and what to see.
CA my coworker has commented (many many times ) on places to see in northern CA.