traveling from Atlanta to Los Angeles/ parks

[Lothlorian]

Please help..

My son is traveling from Atlanta to Los Angeles for work. He will be gone for 3 months. He does not want to pull the Airstream and has decided to tent camp instead of buying hotel rooms. He plans on traveling about 450 mile today,but then plans on going 700 miles a day the other days.

Any recommendations would be helpful for parks with showers he can stay.
I pulled it up on road trip maps and it looks to be a straight shot. Any advice would be helpful. any parks close the highway would be great

Brian

[mandolindave]

700 miles a day seems too ambitious.

[Lothlorian]

I agree. I told him 450 miles should be enough

[Goin camping]

Don't take interstate 10. A bridge got washed out near Desert Center (Middle of nowhere) and the entire Interstate is closed.

[Wolfe]

tent camp in LA ???

[Blueliner]

I'd take the 40 across. As Rivet said, the 10 got washed out in our last storms. plus, the scenery is marginally better!

[maryel]

How is 40 in the winter? Driving from Toronto to LA in January. Any advice?

[m.hony]

I have tent camped in Los Angeles.
That was before I had a trailer.
We still have tents, but they have not left the shed since 2010.

[Lothlorian]

Thanks for the advice. He has a place to live in LA. The camping is travel places to sleep.

[SouthForkAS]

choices- yes 40 for the quick run (75 to Nashville or something like that, then 40 west to 15 south etc...). get a rider/driver t split shifts and motels/camping are a non issue - I did ATL to LA in less than 50 hours drive time that way (back in '80 when I was a crazy kid).
700 miles is roughly ATL - Miami, a drive my family and myself made many times in one fell swoop (usually 10-12 hours).

But for the real wild wild west experience, take 20 to the 10 and grab the I-8 just north of Tuscon. That goes thru a variety of amazing wild west scenery from Tucson to San Diego at which point you take I5 up to LA goes along the Pacific Coast until about Oceanside - That avoids the bridge colapse on I-10 altogether.

camping? wish I could help- it gets so hot, motels with AC were my preferred choice- and with possible monsoons in west Texas- planning camping becomes an iffy proposition. Plenty of cheap motels less than $40 night (a little haggling goes a long way) I've done all these drives in cars and Harleys. Best to play it by ear.

Either way, I-10 to I-8 will be an adventure of a lifetime - the 40? not so much (until you get into the mountains, but even then...)
my $.02
hope this helps

[maya13]

I have just finished planning a trip from Pa. to Southern California for this fall. I used "Good Sam" to do it. They have a great trip planner feature on their website. You first figure out your route and then you can click on and evaluate the different camp grounds along the route. You have to pay a membership fee but it isn't expensive and gives you discounts as well. We are using our Airstream but it would work even if you weren't. It was a great help.

[Lothlorian]

Great information....Thanks

[CaddyGrn]

Ambitious trip! Good advice above, it will be hot, hot, hot going through the Southern Route....lots of nothing in between many towns. I would highly recommend he consider heading further north to cross if he can spare the little extra time, although until he hits the Rocky Mountain range camping and such is nothing like it is in the "west"... most major truck stops have showers one can pay to use (inexpensive) and they are usually open 24/7. I would also suggest if your son has a smart phone he might look at the app store and find a good truck stop app... they have lots of good information. On several other threads are mentions of good apps for camping as well: I use the following AllStays, Campwhere, and Oh Ranger.

[Wolfe]

I-10 will open fri-sat, now that's fast.