Cross Country Trip - Must See's and Suggestions on where to stay

[TG Twinkie]

No offense taken. The Crazy Horse story is truly an American Story. How a man with no help from the government built this incredible monument. And how his family is continuing his legacy. It is well worth the price of admission.


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[Brooklyn Boy & Froggy]

We"re heading the other way! Oregon to New England, both my husband and I grew up on the East coast; he in L.I., I, in Ct. I still have lots of family left there. Then, to N.C. To visit his last remaining Uncle and a few cousins. Onward to Silver City, NM. To meet our first, just arrived, grandson. My son went to school at UNM, Abq., working off his loans. Santa Fe usually has something arty going on, Tao is pretty in summer. Mountainous outcroppings through NM, haven't been as far south as Roswell yet, but lots of ancient petrographs, old living sites, ect., uthroughout state. We've driven to NM, but never hauling. Beware the winds of Arizona!!! Traffic was stopped, the interstate closed just after we went through because of a summer wind storm, complete with lots of sand! Stay informed, long stretches of empty highway. Of course, the Grand Canyon! Crater park not far, crater hole from long ago. I really enjoyed Sin Aqua, a wayside park along the trek from Hoover dam to GC. Ancient First American cliff dwellings, nicely made accessible, so named by the Spanish name for the original inhabitants who accessed their dwellings by ladder, but had to climb down to get water. I swear I heard whistling back and forth from the caves in the canyon ( continuation of the Grand ) and those we were exploring made by water carving into huge stalagmites rising from the canyon floor. Hoover dam, Reno has a great water park and lots of kid friendly stuff to do. Nearby Lake Tahoe, Silver City, and Virginia City fun history of the old west. I-80 west has turn off to Donner Pass, take you through pretty country to the San Francisco area. I certainly am prejudiced, but I think riding 101 up the coast to Lincoln City, Oregon, is a trip in it self. Don't know what you're hauling, there are some wicked turns, roller coaster hills, but the most beautiful scenery! Casinos make great, cheap, campgrounds with access to a buffet! Nice campground near Fort Brag, north of, I think. Don't miss the easy hike up Cape Perpetua! Walk the path to the stone shelter/picnic spot/ lookout, bring binoculars. The stone rail guards, all the parks, paths, and original stone buildings were made by the work crew Roosevelt put together during the depression. Lincoln City is north of Newport where you can pick up hwy 20, pick up hwy 34 in Corvallis and miss a big loop, take 20, follow signs to Bend. You'll see the beautiful Willamette Valley, pick up 20 in Sweet Home, pass through the Cascades where every peak you see is an overdue volcano!...to high desert, Bend. Lots of campsites all along the route, waterfalls, lakes, and watch the foliage change. The ground near Bend is orange pumice from a long ago eruption. From bend, you'll need to head south to Crayer Lake. I've heard the campsites are great, but you'll need to call for reservations, popular site. Other campsites nearby. In fact, Oregon is loaded with campgrounds, government lands. Bryce Canyon in Idaho not to be missed. There are just so many beautiful forests, lakes, natural wonders in Oregon, you'd have to research what appeals to you; hocking, fishing, ocean fishing, camping in the woods, lakes....it goes on and on. There's even a natural " spiritual" vortex in Oregon where "dimensions" meet and DO create unusual perceptions!
What about your neck of the woods? Would you haul on the BlueRidge Hwy? Haven't been on it in years and it was in a car. We're also newbie towers! What should we see besides New Oleans?

[Ed Brownfield]

No need to abandon your trailer/RV in New Orleans there is a fantastic RV Resort right in the French Quarter. It's The French Quarter RV Resort we loved it... walk to FQ take public transportation easily from there to other things in New Orleans. If you send me your email address (my email ed.brownfield@gmail.com) I will send you a link the blog that we kept going from VA to AZ on I-10 with the password to get into the blog. We just took I 10 out, great beaches in the Pan Handle of Fl, swamp tour in Beaux Bridge Louisiana, observatory in TX, fun hiking in Tucson. We spend the winters in AZ one suggestion would be on your way to Grand Canyon plan on stopping in Sedona (great hiking) there is a wonderful RV park right in Sedona on Oak Creek.

[Rocinante]

It may prove useful to quickly scan the blog of our recent trip for places to stay. We spent 8 weeks on the road and covered roughly 8,000 miles including some of the geography you intend to cover. Our trip starts here: On the road to Cannon Beach - Casa Rocinante

I see that another post suggested Rancho Sedona RV park. We'll give that a +1, we enjoyed staying there with our pre-Airstream motor home a few years ago. However, you may wish to check out the north end of the Oak Creek canyon on 89A before planning to exit that way toward Flagstaff - plenty of switchbacks, and signs warning no trucks longer than 50 feet. The warnings are legit, though it's a beautiful drive if the nerves are steady and the rig an acceptable length.

If you decide to explore the north side of the Grand Canyon you might want to check out Kaibab Camper Village. We had a lovely one-night stay there, also a couple of years back. Kaibab Camper Village | Grand Canyon North Rim camping for RVs, trailers, tents, cabin room at Jacob Lake, Arizona

That said, US 89 north from Flagstaff through Navajo territory is a terrible, awful, no good, very bad road - unless they've completely re-paved it in the past couple of years. That stretch of highway very nearly shook our motor home to pieces. We survived, but it was a jarring experience. The scenery is astounding, though the road was simply awful. We split off US 89 to US 89A at Bitter Springs and followed it across Marble Canyon along the base of the Vermillion Cliffs up to the Kaibab Plateau. Again, stunning and beautiful topography and scenery for the entire way. The road improves a bit by the time you get to Marble Canyon, though it's still a country road. We didn't blog that particular trip, though we took quite a few pictures which may whet your appetite: Sedona to Jacob Lake June 2013 - Casa Rocinante

If you're itching to continue north into Utah, here are some shots of our visit to Bryce, which may also get you thinking: Bryce Canyon NP June 2013 - Casa Rocinante

So much to see, so not enough time to see it all!

[chaseav]

Originally Posted by Old Lady Who

What about your neck of the woods? Would you haul on the BlueRidge Hwy? Haven't been on it in years and it was in a car. We're also newbie towers! What should we see besides New Oleans?

Quick reply now from a mobile device. Sharing Intel about my neck of the woods is a great idea... happy to "give back" in that regard in exchange for all this great info!

We are going to be attempting the Blue Ridge along I77 then to I79 next week! First time doing it with our tow behind but have it pretty well figured out. Our routing, driven dozens of times throughout the years without a trailer, brings us through Summersville, WV along route 19 which bypasses Charleston, WV and save about an hour on our trip. However, we're going to avoid it with the trailer because it's very hilly and through Summersville there are lots of stop lights including ones at the bottoms of huge hills. Happy to report back on how the actual trip goes along with the name of the RV park we stopped at if its any good.

I'm hesitant to share this publicly because of how much we love the place but if you're looking for a coastal SC place to stay literally on the beach, Hunting Island State Park is absolutely amazing. It stays very busy and it's hard to stay in one spot for more than a couple nights at a time but avoid holidays and you should be okay. 100yards over a sand dune is one of the best beaches on the Atlantic side IMHO and if you walk a few thousand yards down, you're almost entirely alone. The major downside to this place is that there is no on-site sewer. There are two dump stations. The park is just outside Beaufort, SC which is a gorgeous small town steeped in old American history. All the Marines east of the Mississippi have been here... Paris Island is right in this area too.

[Brooklyn Boy & Froggy]

Gee, that's a lot of great information! Thank you all for your time and suggestions!
Donna

[kswelsh]

We stayed at the KOA in San Antonio - a little oasis in town with access to public transportation and biking and walking trails. It is also close to River Walk. It was a 10/10 campground IMHO. Also, when getting into the St. Louis area, there is a beautiful State Park called Babler State Park about 35 minutes west of the city and it is close to hiking and biking trails as well as river access for kayaking or canoeing. It is in my hometown of Wildwood, MO which is very quaint with nice restaurants and a movie theater and not far from Six Flags for the kiddos.

[SuperTrouper]

A word of advice for California Camp Sites when you get here, there are some real beautiful state parks with sites right on the beach or in the redwoods but the best sites sell out 6 months in advance. So, if you are interested in camping on the beach while going up the coast you might want to pick an "anchor date" and book one or two spots in CA well in advance. I think Yosemite books out 5 months. The way to do it is to find a destination park, look it up in campsitephotos,
http://www.campsitephotos.com
choose a spot click on details and then the reserve button. That will take you to the associated reservation site. (Reserve America or the National Park Service Reservation System)

For California State parks, you need to book at 8AM 6 months ahead of time. For instance, I booked my New Years camping site this year on the coast planned for 27 December through 4 January on June 1st at 8AM. I used a NIST time web page to ensure that I pressed the reserve button at exactly 8:00:00 AM. 20 sites were sold out in 30 seconds. I was luck to get my first choice. I actually had three web browsers open with three sites chosen and clicked them 1-2-3 and I only got the first one!

Now there may be cancellations and there are usually overflow sites available for walk ups but the choice "I always wanted to camp on the beach on the west coast" sites are gone 6 months in advance.

Here's some more info:
http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/top...e_park_res.htm

This sounds like a trip of a lifetime and I'm sure that you'll have a great time! The crew here on the forums won't steer you wrong as long as you don't start asking about tow vehicle, hitch or Gas/Diesel preferences! ;-)

Have a great time planning (or not) and taking your grand trip!

Brad


- Brad Sent from my iPad using Airstream Forums

[SuperTrouper]

And if things weren't confusing enough, Yosemite has it's own schedule booking 4 months ahead starting on the 15th of the month at 7AM!
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/camping.htm

Brad


- Brad Sent from my iPad using Airstream Forums

[chaseav]

Originally Posted by SuperTrouper

The crew here on the forums won't steer you wrong as long as you don't start asking about tow vehicle, hitch or Gas/Diesel preferences! ;-)

You're not kidding! Found that out the hard way. So much controversy! Thank you for the intel and the web links. Anchor dates is a great way to put it.

[TheOhioSean]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

That said, US 89 north from Flagstaff through Navajo territory is a terrible, awful, no good, very bad road - unless they've completely re-paved it in the past couple of years. That stretch of highway very nearly shook our motor home to pieces.

In May 2014, I took AZ 64 out of the east entrance of Grand Canyon National Park, then US 89 south from Cameron to Flagstaff, much of AZ 64 was relatively freshly repaved, portions of US 89 were freshly repaved, and I passed contruction zones where they were repaving more of it.

Farther north on US 89 (past where we actually were), in the area you describe, there was a landslide/road collapse a year or two back. It shut down US 89 between Bitter Springs and Page. As a result, portions of US 89 were rerouted onto US 89T, a quickly-paved section of one of the Navajo roads (Indian Route 20, IIRC) until the US 89 reconstruction was completed. Then US 89T reverted to being a Navajo road, but instead of the dirt road that had been there a couple years ago, they get a paved (if slightly used) road. And amazingly, the government of Arizona, the Federal government, and the Navajo all came to agree on this pretty quickly, and US 89T was paved and open within a few months.

[LyleRussell]

If you can't get reservations at Yosemite try Touloumne Meadows campground just above Yosemite. Fewer people and traffic, good local store and restaurant, friendlier and less stressed people. Also nearly as pretty. You can get a bus to visit Yosemite avoiding traffic and parking hassles.

[chaseav]

Originally Posted by LyleRussell

If you can't get reservations at Yosemite try Touloumne Meadows campground just above Yosemite. Fewer people and traffic, good local store and restaurant, friendlier and less stressed people. Also nearly as pretty. You can get a bus to visit Yosemite avoiding traffic and parking hassles.

That's GREAT Intel. Thank you Lyle! I'm all about less stress.

[Ed Brownfield]

Originally Posted by chaseav

Our clan is planning a real cross country trip for summer 2016 and we want to "poll the audience" for suggestions on things we need to see and do. We're going to be leaving from South Carolina and heading west first along the southern route; I-10 I suppose.

We may stop somewhere less interesting first but the first real destination is New Orleans. Does anyone know of a nice campground we could stay at around there? The intent would be to leave the trailer behind and go spend some time downtown. A day or two at most.

Unless there is anything critical to see or do between NO and Houston area, that would probably be the second stop. Any great suggestions for campgrounds on the West side?

The third stop would be San Antonio where I could see spending a couple days to see the city and any other suggested destinations. Never been there; no clue what's to do.

The next place after this is TBD, especially the routing but I'm sorry to say we HAVE to see Roswell, NM. (I know, I know.) Is 285 the best way to get there? Looks like it on a flat map but not sure what the road conditions or gradients are like.

After seeing aliens, my thinking is to head to northern AZ to spend some serious time exploring the Grand Canyon. I hear these places book up real fast which is why we're starting this planning now. State Parks are great but we'd like to do some serious hiking and maybe some rafting?

Lake Mead and the Hoover damn would be fun to see again... anywhere to stay that's actually ON the lake?

We've been to Vegas a lot over the years and will be going there again once between now and then but certainly open to something that would give us easy access to the strip for a night. Or perhaps a hotel that would accommodate trailer parking! We might need it.

It's at this point we start running out of any prior experience. Yosemite obviously needs to be hit, and Lake Tahoe is beautiful but we may forego that in favor of getting over to San Fran. Would be nice to stay on the north side of the city for a few days before heading north along the coast up to Bandon, OR area where we have some friends.

Then it's eastward ho(!) to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and any other suggestions. The bearings from there would bring us anywhere along the route to St. Louis where we'd basically cross our finish line. We've seen everything east of there and would just pick some favorites along the way.

Any thoughts anyone is willing to share are greatly appreciated! I don't have a whole lot of excess torque on my tow vehicle so if you have thoughts on how to keep us off the steep mountain passes, that would be great!

There is a great state park in Destin, FL - Henderson Beach State Park; there is no need to leave your trailer and go into downtown NO. There is a great RV park in downtown NO - French Quarter RV Resort it is very well kept and it is very secure. Hope that this helps; safe travels.