Western U.S. Road Trip Suggestions

[OE800_85]

I don't have much experience, but the scenic drive along the coast between LA and San Fran was amazing. Too bad you're gonna miss Cali, can't you leave your gun at home?

[taylor]

I don't have much experience, but the scenic drive along the coast between LA and San Fran was amazing. Too bad you're gonna miss Cali, can't you leave your gun at home?

I agree. Southern California and Northern California are like 2 different states, both beautiful in their own right. I'd add San Diego as a must stop too, GORGEOUS.

Smart move skipping out on Vegas though. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...especially your money and it never comes back.

[bkahuna]

Buburja is right, the drive is kinda boring in NM BUT if you like wide open spaces its kinda neat. The rural W texas roads just had the speed limits upped to 85 so you can probably cruise through.

Not sure exactly where you are coming from but you could come up through NM, stop at carlsbad caverns through roswell and ruidoso and the valley of fires which is pretty cool or white sands, then through to ABQ, to Flagstaff (yes this is the most boring drive but it goes by fast) and hit all of your AZ sites.

When I was first in college we drove from ABQ to Corpus and it was 14 hours, so thats a long one day, but we were young fools HEHE.

If you did go to carlsbad on the way you could go from las cruces to Phoenix and go up that way too.

My grandparents took my cousin and I when we were kids around NM and we saw all of those things in like a week including going into Juarez (not sure i would reccomend that today with the violence going on). I think we even made Chef Boyardee ravioli using the exhaust manifold of the car

[LaceyLady]

Thank You guys so far for all the suggestions. My trip will hopefully start in June after my daughter gets out of school. I get back from Afghanistan in April. I might just skip Las Vegas. I forget that I have to take my two small dogs on my trip. I'm not to worried about the 90 plus temperatures, we're from South Texas so we are used to the 100-120 degree temperatures. The best part is that in the West there is no humidity like South Texas or the East. I will be getting all the destinations mentioned, googling them and plug them into a trip planner to see the best routes to take to get to each location. I'm glad my wife is saving all my hard earned money (for a trip) since I'm not home to stop her from spending it. :roflol:

In June, you should be able to visit everything. If you are fine with 100-120 degree temperatures, you can visit all of Arizona (and the rest of the Southwest) with no problem. Although I, personally, wouldn't want to travel to a place that has the same 100+ temperatures as where I live. As you mentioned, it is much less humid here, which makes it more bearable. Whenever it gets a bit humid (still much less humid than the East) we complain that it is too hot and sticky!

Bkahuna, there are many places to see in Arizona so I only mentioned a few. But I agree, Meteor Crater is great, as well as the painted desert, petrified forest, Walnut Canyon, and more (I mentioned some more in my other post in PonyGirl's thread).

Burbuja0512, I was hoping you would join in and tell more about Colorado! I really want to visit Colorado, but haven't had an opportunity yet. I agree that the drives in AZ and NM are very long and boring. Many of the long drives in the Southwest are.