Long-haul road trip planning, Michigan to California

[hodad]

If you're ok driving late at night like that, you should be ok. And then you can afford to spend more time at the parks before leaving!

 

[Colleen27]

If you're ok driving late at night like that, you should be ok. And then you can afford to spend more time at the parks before leaving!

Yeah, I tend to burn the candle at both ends when traveling, and late nights on the road aren't a problem. But it appears revisions are in the works anyway - we had family from California in town for a funeral last week and now DH is thinking he's not going to join us for Disney after all but rather fly into San Jose to be there for the Monterey/Carmel and San Francisco parts of the trip, staying on a couple of days in San Fran after DD starts classes to celebrate her 18th birthday with her (8/22) before flying home. So, back to the drawing board I go...

 

[katyjeka]

I thought I'd throw some more confusion your way. We've done 2 cross country road trips(from Pa.)and LOVED them both. Our kids favorite stops were Gateway Arch(they loved the ride to the top), Deadwood City and Badlands, Moab, Glenwood Springs, Co.(hot springs), and Pike Peak. Your kids will probably not be to familiar with Oklahoma City Federal building but the memorial was beyond words. We live 30 miles from flight 93 memorial and have visited the WTC memorial but the OKC memorial was so moving. To walk past the chairs.... We spent 12 days in California and wish we had longer. As a family we really enjoyed Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Alcatraz, San Diego Zoo(we stayed at Homewood Suites Hotel Circle)and of course Highway 1. Redwood National Park was unbelievable and worth every second of the drive up. I know I'm on the Disney boards but Disneyland was not our favorite.(Let the attacks begin)I guess we are to accustomed to Disneyworld and were a little disappointed. I guess we like how immersed we feel in WDW. Have a great trip!

 

[Colleen27]

I thought I'd throw some more confusion your way. We've done 2 cross country road trips(from Pa.)and LOVED them both. Our kids favorite stops were Gateway Arch(they loved the ride to the top), Deadwood City and Badlands, Moab, Glenwood Springs, Co.(hot springs), and Pike Peak. Your kids will probably not be to familiar with Oklahoma City Federal building but the memorial was beyond words. We live 30 miles from flight 93 memorial and have visited the WTC memorial but the OKC memorial was so moving. To walk past the chairs.... We spent 12 days in California and wish we had longer. As a family we really enjoyed Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Alcatraz, San Diego Zoo(we stayed at Homewood Suites Hotel Circle)and of course Highway 1. Redwood National Park was unbelievable and worth every second of the drive up. I know I'm on the Disney boards but Disneyland was not our favorite.(Let the attacks begin)I guess we are to accustomed to Disneyworld and were a little disappointed. I guess we like how immersed we feel in WDW. Have a great trip!

I know I'm going to wish I had more time for this trip. There is so much I would like to see/do, and even more that my girls would like to see, and not nearly enough time to do it all. I've been working on getting the itinerary together enough to book some of our longer stays and I'm already finding that we're going to have to leave some things out. But on the bright side, this isn't going to be the once-in-a-lifetime trip I thought it would be when I started pulling ideas together 6 months ago. With DD going to school out there, we'll undoubtedly have other trips to the West Coast over the next four years (and maybe longer if she stays out there for grad school).

I'm not sure what my girls and I are going to end up thinking of DLR, but I'm eager to see where it all started. We're also planning to hit some or maybe all of the Asian parks in 2020, with a goal of eventually making it to all of the Disney parks around the world, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the same general concept is different in each of the castle parks in particular.

 

[Colleen27]

I think I have an itinerary! I ended up taking Seattle and all of Washington out of the trip in the interests of less backtracking and having more time in the places DD is most excited to see. Eliminating the couple of places we wanted to see in WA let me cut down most of the longest driving days, so I don't think I have much more than 8 hours of drive time on our worst days with most being shorter and/or broken up by several stops.

Day 1: just driving, Michigan to Wisconsin
Day 2: House on the Rock, WI. Driving on to Minn.
Day 3: A couple of Little House on the Prairie sites DDs both want to see. Corn Palace. Drive on to Black Hills, SD.
Day 4: Badlands NP. Wall Drug.
Day 5: Mount Rushmore. Jewel Cave.
Day 6: Devil's Tower. Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. Cody Rodeo. Stay overnight in Cody.
Day 7: Yellowstone. Drive on to West Yellowstone.
Day 8: Yellowstone.
Day 9: Yellowstone. Drive up into Montana via north entrance.
Day 10: Glacier NP.
Day 11: ??? with my uncle in Montana.
Day 12: Drive down to Twin Falls, ID.
Day 13: Craters of the Moon NP. Drive to Salt Lake City.
Day 14: Capitol Reef NP.
Day 15: Bryce & Zion NP.
Day 16: Grand Canyon NP. Seligman. Stop somewhere in California.
Day 17: Joshua Tree NP. Drive to Anaheim.
Day 18, 19, 20: Disneyland
Day 21: Universal Hollywood, Griffith Park. Drive as far as San Luis Obispo.
Day 22: Big Sur. Pfeiffer Beach. Stay in Monterey.
Day 23: Monterey Aquarium. Santa Cruz Pier.
Day 24: Lassen NP.
Day 25: Crater Lake NP. Grants Pass, OR.
Day 26: Drive down the coast. Stop near Mendocino.
Day 27: Arrive in San Francisco, the day before move-in. Walt Disney Family Museum. Dinner somewhere wonderful.
Day 28, 29, 30: Move-in and family orientation.

I'm pretty happy with the way this looks, but I would appreciate feedback.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sounds like a fun trip!