A Tourist in Western US

In My Humble Opinion
61

FYI, between May and August, the interior desert southwest (i.e., not near the California coast, from about Las Vegas southward) is going to be 85-95F in the mountain areas like Flagstaff, and 95-115F in the low lying areas like Vegas and Phoenix. I opted not to go to my own high school commencement in the Phoenix Metro area, because they were holding it outside in mid-May and it was already 100F during daylight hours. It does not cool down very much at night, and the locals’ idea of uncomfortably humid starts at 15-20%. ALWAYS have water with you, especially if you’re not used to this, and especially especially at altitude. And take engine overtemp warnings VERY seriously.

Also, if you’re planning on doing a lot of camping down near the southern end of things, be prepared to make alternate plans in case the park is on fire. I am not kidding. I worked conferencing at Northern Arizona University one summer, and we had a bunch of European students absolutely freak out in July because there was a huge dark cloud of smoke, visible for miles, somewhere to the west of the campus, and the entire town smelled like pine smoke. Those of us who lived there ignored it, because it happened every year.

62

But it’s a dry heat! :smiley:

63

You say that as if there is any practical difference between poaching and roasting when you’re the one getting cooked.

64

Bling to you. I concur - you have suggested an excellent route and saved me from struggling to put together memories and maps from some years ago.

Perhaps there are a few points missed although that’s inevitable. If possible I’d suggest Four Corners (just to be there), Monument Valley, Medicine Hat, Cortez, Mesa Verde National Park, Wolf Creek Pass, Durango, then south to Santa Fe etc.

As for the season, autumn or spring are beautiful. I camped in a Volkswagen microbus at the South Rim of the Canyon in April, 1ft (300mm) of snow. We walked down the Kaibab Trail to the bottom where it was t-shirt hot. And the squirrels stole our food overnight. :smack: A hard walk but well worth it.

65

It is. I love it in the PNW. It’s absolutely beautiful. But if you’re looking for something really different than NZ, I’d skip it - you have coastline, mountains, and temperate rainforests where you are. Actually, I’d skip the coast altogether, stay south, and move toward the interior.

66

The Google Maps only give a max of 25 destinations, otherwise I would of added quite a bit more to the list, but yeah, those places should be on the list as well. Between J and M on the list, there are many other destinations and routes you could change that would be just as good or better.

If Kiwi goes on the same similar route, the list of towns to stay overnight or base at would/should be:

Anaheim, CA
Flagstaff, AZ (add Lowell Observatory to the list!) - Sedona if you have the cash, or for at least one night.
Alamagordo, NM
Carlsbad, NM (don’t stay at Whites City - It’s a dive)
Santa Fe, NM (or Albuquerque - big city, lower prices on hotels)
Cortez, CO
Moab, UT
Green River, UT (just out of necessity - you have very few towns here between the National Parks)
A choice between Boulder, Escalante, Tropic, or Bryce Canyon entrance,UT (Is the Boulder Mountain Lodge any good…??? <shrug>)
East Zion entrance or Springdale, UT (for Zion NP)
St. George, UT (if Springdale, UT is full or too pricey…shouldn’t be though)
Las Vegas, NV (as long as you can afford it!)
WARNING! BIG CHOICE AHEAD!!
Either Death Valley NP, CA at Furnace Creek or continue on to Lone Pine, CA (at the base of Mount Whitney)…or both. Bishop, CA is another alternative that is 60 miles past Lone Pine. The eastern Sierra is a very impressive view along this route.
Mammoth Lakes, CA or June Lake, CA (for mountain views) or Lee Vining, CA (for Mono Lake views)…or both.
Yosemite Valley, CA or Groveland, CA depending on availability and price.
San Francisco, CA (pricey, but very memorable) or an outlying suburb of it…or (DETOUR ALERT!) Napa Valley area if you love wine!
Santa Cruz, CA
Monterey, CA
San Simeon or Cambria, CA
Morro Bay or San Luis Obispo, CA
Solvang or Santa Ynez, or Santa Barbara, CA
Los Angeles, CA and surrounding areas as needed.

This is by no means the definitive list…Dopers, add or subtract to it.

67

Thanks for keeping the suggestions coming. We’ve discussed the route with a friend who lives in LA and would like to come for some of the trip. She thinks the SW route looks great and is very keen. As far as us experiencing countryside that is SO different, it looks the part.
We still want to check whether going to San Francisco is too much or not. I’m picking we will go and also go to the Redwoods as well. We might have some forest giant Kauri trees, but not forests of 300’ trees, that a car can drive through!

68

If you do decide to go this way, then I strongly suggest that you consider Big Bend. The Chihuahuan desert is huge, but it’s probably the most interesting of the four you will likely encounter (the others being the Mohave, the Sonoran, and the Great Basin). Well, that’s IMHO, because all of them are interesting. If Big Bend is a bit to far, then a stop by the Guadalupe Mountains can easily be combined with Carlsbad Caverns. If you go south at Flagstaff and go through Tucson on your way to Alamogordo, then you’ll definitely hit the Sonoran.

69

I can attest to the problems with hiking at altitude. We hiked a trail in Bryce yesterday at about 8,000 ft. Going down not a problem, coming back up there just wasn’t enough oxygen on the planet to feed the system. Ouch.

70

If you do pursue the “unique Southwest” route, given the time of year you’re coming out, you would to well to basically hover along the Utah/Arizona state line. Some suggestions off the top of my head: After Vegas, hit the Grand Canyon North Rim, then over to Zion, then Bryce (I’d stay in Panguitch; Bryce Canyon city doesn’t offer much), Monument Valley, Natural Bridges, Canyonlands, Arches, Mesa Verde, San Juan Mountains (may be too similar to NZ, but they’re gorgeous), Taos, Santa Fe. If you head down to Arizona, stick around the northern area of the state. Sedona’s really popular (though I confess, I don’t get as much of a boner over it as the whole rest of the world, but the Pink Jeep tour is well worth the splurge). One place I haven’t noticed being mentioned yet is Jerome: an old mining town, now tourist destination south of Sedona up on Cleopatra Hill. Here are some pictures I took there last year: Photo and Video Storage | Photobucket

If you end up in Southern Arizona somehow, I highly recommend Bisbee, another old mining town/tourist destination that looks like it’s frozen in the 1940s. I particularly enjoy the mine tour and Brewery Gulch (with it’s unique live bands), as well as the scenery. On up the road is Tombstone, which has it’s tourist trappy stuff, but also has some fun, fascinating stuff for the more hardcore history geek. On over is Tumacacori, with it’s 19th century mission, and Tubac, with a bunch of Southwest-themed shopping.

71

Ah, this also reminds me of the ghost town of Bodie, CA which is preserved in arrested decay. It was a gold boomtown from the 1870s-1880s, and steadily depopulated into the early half of the 20th century. This is located a few miles to the NE of Lee Vining, CA and north of Mono Lake.

72

Great place to stay in Bisbee: The Shady Dell

We may have passed each other on the road somewhere in the last week. I was in Bryce Monday and Tuesday. I was at Mesa Verde today and the smoke from the AZ/CO fires was really horrible.

73

There are at least 3 trees which can be driven through. I’d just pick a forest on or near Yeticus Rex’s route and not bother with drive-through trees. Yosemite is iconic and on the route. The largest sequoias are in the Sierras but the tallest are the coastal redwoods. I spent time in Sequoia National Park but its off the suggested route.

San Francisco - a beautiful city and worth visiting.

On the way you will pass the Monterey Peninsula which has a significance for New Zealanders. For one thing, Clint Eastwood lives there and was the mayor for a while. More importantly the Monterey Peninsula is home to the Monterey Pine and the Monterey Cypress.

You will know these trees as Radiata Pine and Macrocarpa of which there are millions in NZ. Radiata is our primary plantation timber. Macrocarpa makes fine timber (a la kauri) and is used for shelter belts. They grow better here than at home which curiously is this small footprint on the Californian coast.

74

Yes. There are two species of Redwood tree that are native to California. The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, is the world’s tallest species of tree, while the giant redwood, Sequoiadendron giganteum, is the most massive tree in the world. The coast redwood ranges from Monterey County to southern Oregon, while the giant redwoods are mostly in a small area of Fresno and Tulare Counties in the western Sierra Nevada mountain range. The National Park Service has a map of giant sequoia groves.

The biggest coast redwoods are north of San Francisco, in places like Humboldt County. If you’re going south from San Francisco, you can see some impressive coast redwoods at Big Basin Redwoods State Park and in the Big Sur area.

If you want to see giant redwoods, I’d suggest Sequoia National Park.

75

You weren’t that asshole who was tailgating me, were you? :stuck_out_tongue: Too bad about Mesa Verde: it’s a beautiful place. We’re in Zion today and tomorrow we point our noses toward home, which is three days away for my way of driving.

76

Thanks for this Jeff. Now, do we go for the tallest or most massive?:slight_smile:

It looks like we may be travelling in late April and early May. I don’t think we’ll do any camping so we will stay in motels/hotels. I’ve checked some accommodation sites and the motels look rather like many in NZ and Oz and we are both familiar with them, and happy to stay there. Our friend from Los Angeles is getting some updates from her cousin who travelled from LA to Amarillo, TX, mostly on Route 66, this April. We’ll see what advice we get.
Cheers.