To drive north-south in California, the main options are the scenic Highway 1 (on the coast) or the boring Highway 5 (in the Central Valley).
Your map depicts a north-south drive across the Sierra Nevada (the mountain range in eastern California), which I’m not sure is possible.
As for going across the U.S., I’m not qualified to judge the northern route you’ve chosen, but the southern route (L.A. to Atlanta) looks great!
Maybe on the other hand you should skip New England, since the drive from DC to Boston will take up most of the day, and so will the drive from Boston to around Erie PA, leaving you with not a lot of time to see Boston. If you stopped in NYC instead then you will have a shorter drive both ways and a longer list of things to pick from to see. The only thing I don’t know about - for either boston or NYC, but I’ve definitely experienced an issue in NYC - is finding overnight parking. If you or someone else knows where to find it in the NYC let me know because I would be able to use it next time.
What is #1 supposed to be? The Grand Canyon? If you are planning on seeing the more famous South Rim - which also has more amenities - it is much farther away from Arches than it looks on the map since you have to drive all the way around the canyon. That will take up a good chunk - although not all - of the day.
On the other hand, time-wise, Yellowstone at #13 and Yosemite at #16 are immediately impressive enough that, while you would wish you could stay more days, they are nonetheless worth doing for a few hours if you don’t have much time. There should be plenty of hotel rooms near Yellowstone, at least the last time I did it the better part of a decade ago, but I am not sure about Yosemite. If you have to book far away from Yosemite, then it could eat into your day.
On the other hand, if you are seeing whatever you are seeing in Boston during the day you get there, and not the morning you are leaving, then there would be time to see Niagara Falls if you get up early enough, even though you’d need to make a side trip of around an hour plus sightseeing time.
Enjoy.
I don’t quite get from your map/description how far you plan on driving on an average day, the sorts of places you intend to stop, and how long you intend to stop in various places.
Our neighbors just retired from spending 2.5 months on what was essentially the western half/third of your trip (from Chicago), deadheading home after Utah. Different from you, they committed to less driving on any given day, and overnight stays at numerous points of interest - heavily weighted towards national/state parks. They maintain it was a wonderful experience. The more they’ve told us of it, the less it appealed to my wife and me. Different strokes.
My impressions - it had to be quite an expensive trip. And you have to figure out when/how you are going to do things like laundry, and have internet to do financial/home management. They said managing/organizing all of their “stuff” in their vehicle became quite challenging as the trip progressed. However, they travelled during the fall, and needed more range of clothing than you will in summer.
New England is IMO a hell of a lot more interesting than much of Texas, or the upper Midwest. But when we drove up to Maine, it impressed me as a heckuva long drive. Of course, we has 3 kids with us. You are going to Mass, so it isn’t as tho you are “ignoring” the region.
I didn’t either, as I had assumed that the numbers were days, since in the OP they had originally planned to drive around 6 hours a day, and many of the numbers are indeed around 6 hours from each other (although many of them are quite more than that!)
So you can scrap most of my previous two posts: even though NYC is indeed much closer than Boston to DC. If you have double the time then there should be plenty of time to see DC, NYC and Boston.
But I’d still leave the suggestion about Niagara Falls in there, because it isn’t that far off the path. There are only a couple of other things I can think of in NYS that are on the path in between Boston and the Midwest that you can’t see elsewhere. One is the Indian Ladder trail in Thacher State Park, where you walk under a limestone cliff and behind 2 waterfalls, with lots of tiny springs coming out from the limestone as well.
The other is Panama Rocks, which is a quartz conglomerate formation with lots of hundred-foot high crevasses that even occasionally form miniature caves when they fall on top of one another. There are several other of these conglomerate formations in Western NY/NW Pennsylvania, including Minister Creek, Rock City NY, Little Rock City, and Bear Caves, but Panama Rocks has the best combination of size, spectacularness, and ease of access (i.e. not having to hike a lot until you see it.)
There are also plenty of spectacular waterfalls in the Ithaca/Watkins Glen region, but those will be as out of the way as Niagara Falls, and are more impressive by the sheer number of medium sized waterfalls than the spectacularness of each one. If you are coming in the early New York spring, that is another story, since the snow melt adds volume of the waterfalls.
Apologies to anyone else who may have already mentioned it, but be aware that parts of Glacier National Park often don’t open until around late June due to weather/snow, most notably the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Which is a must-do if you’re there.
For most of the rest of the country, you can count on summer weather at that time of year. But not in Glacier. Be sure to check status of what’s open when you plan to be there.
Also, IMHO, to be so close to Niagara Falls and miss them would be a shame. Truly gobsmacking.
Looks to me like going down 395. Plenty scenic!
Niagara Falls is pretty impressive IMO. I think it would be a mistake to put in this many miles and not at least stop by for a peek, especially as you are driving so near.
Without anything being inked in, the theory is 2-3 days getting to/staying at each POI.
There has been advise that this could be better done using the tier 2 roads without being glued to the interstates.
Having been a lifetime RHS driver I would prefer to cruise rather than play dodgems.
For Washington/New York was thinking of stopping/staying outside the metropolis and commuting (train?) into the places of interest. Is that feasible? How far out/in would that be?
Lots of mentions of national parks, and with Grand Canyon, Monument, Yellowstone, Glacier and Yosemite I think have the usual suspects covered. Yes, Niagara is on the list.
What about human activities? Need to catch a MLB game. Is there any venue more likely to get a seat on a walk-up/short notice? NBL? New Orleans is there for the buzz but I haven’t worked out what event(s).
Just taking it all in.
Since you’re coming in from Australia, I understand that you have no choice on stopping in LA but, really, it’s not a particularly nice destination.
If you’re willing to drop a big chunk of money then you could do a tour of the various theme parks and attractions around LA and San Diego (we recommend the VIP Pass at Universal Studios and, in San Diego, the zoo in Balboa Park and the beach regions of La Jolla and Coronado) but there isn’t a lot of history in the region, LA isn’t all that nice a city, and San Diego will take you out of the way for where you want to get to.
I do recommend Universal Studios (if you can bypass the lines) but, otherwise, I’d just get a hotel for one night to start adapting to the time zone, wake up, take the obligatory photo with the Hollywood sign, and then start moving East.
BUT, when you come back to California, I’d suggest hooking over from Yosemite and the Giant Sequoias to San Francisco and then go down to at least Monterey. Whether to stick to the ocean after that, or not, is up to you.
San Francisco is a nice city with a lot to do, a good amount of history, and it sets you up for a nice beautiful drive along the ocean.
North of Yosemite, I’d recommend the Moaning Caverns and Columbia (or, at least, it was a cool place to visit when I was a kid - check the reviews). I’m not sure how interesting the Donner Party museum is - I haven’t visited - but the reviews look good.
Lake Tahoe is a good stop for some boat and jet ski fun.
When I went there, it was too early in the morning for the museum to be opened, so I don’t know, either. The rest of the state park was good if not unique. I’d only recommend it if you were in the mood for just a general walk amongst the woods and lakes.
What did impress me, though, was the rest stop on I-80 west of the museum. Because it was early June and there were still large patches of snow on the ground, alternating with ponds of snow melt, on this, the most traversable pass in the area. It really impressed me how they could have run into impassible conditions.
I don’t know about the rest of the trip, but the trip from Niagra Falls to Iowa/Nebraska seems a bit insane. Cleveland to Chicago is tolerable but this is hours east of Cleveland and hours west of Chicago. And once you get west of Cleveland the drive is soooooo flat and boring.
You’ll literally be passing through Cleveland and Chicago. I highly recommend stopping in one or the other. Or both! Looks like Chicago would be your better bet based on your destination of the caves.
You’ll just eat it up!
I think that’s fine for Washington DC, but I wouldn’t miss the chance to say in NYC if you can swing it. Commuting in and out is possible but will shorten your day and add stress. In my opinion, you’ll miss out on the vibe of the city if you don’t spend the night in it. Much less of an issue in DC.
Shouldn’t be a problem anywhere for the Mid-May to Mid-July parameters of your trip
I may be biased, but given the cities you’ll be going through I’d pick Boston, Wigley Field (Chicago), or Seattle to catch a game. (Maybe Houston --ugh-- since there’s nothing else to do in that City and they are the defending champs)
Oh! I missed the part about the ball game! Another reason to stop in Chicago or Cleveland.
Cubs and White Sox are both in Chicago. No idea how hard it is to get to either field from the highway and get walk-up tickets mid-season. Cubs had a terrible 2022 season so they might have tix, and it’s an amazing historic field so it would be good to try.
Cleveland will definitely have walk-up tickets (we have very very low attendance). You can get a ticket for $15 that comes with a beer voucher. Every seat in the stadium is a good one IMHO. The stadium is VERY easy to get to from I-90, just get off the highway and make a left on E. 9th st (make a right and you drive into Lake Erie) and the stadium is within walking distance. It’s a beautiful stadium, one of the modern gems.
If you are planning on staying IN the nat’l parks, make your reservations as early as possible. Some lodges book up a year in advance.
My suggestion might be to use an average of 6 hours or so as a target, but some days might be more driving (particularly out west, where everything is much more spread out), and some days might be less, depending on what specific locations or sites the OP and family are interested in.
From personal experience, I’d say that a two hour drive in the morning and a two hour drive in the evening is a pretty reasonable way of traveling, if you want to be free to do stuff during the day.
I wouldn’t go over that, unless there’s literally nothing to do in that territory.
We went once on the way back from Tahoe. Interesting if you have a few spare hours, but not a must-see unless you are into the story.
On the question of the drive, would anyone have recommendations on the type of vehicle best suited (and there is no reason to expect I’ll have the same one for the whole trip).
An RV is not an option. Just no.
My daily drive is an SUV specifically a VW Tiguan
My starting point would likely be something similar. Not looking at a muscle car or some grand tourer. Am going to burn my share of petrol/gas so economy is a consideration. Would a diesel engine be an option? Conversely given the distances involved and some genuine mountains a buzz box ain’t going to cut the mustard either.
To do the equivalent tour in Australia I’d seriously consider a Holden Ute. All the comforts of a sedan with storage space aplenty and Plan B accommodation if the chips were down. Don’t believe that you have an equivalent stateside and a pickup isn’t attractive 'cause I’d like to cruise about under the radar.
Regards
PT