Vacation coming up, need input

[Porqupine82]

Just a random comment on the internet, but I'd encourage switching more often than that, and make sure the back-up driver gets sleep while not driving. Even experienced over-the-road truckers aren't allowed more than 11-hours continuous driving. It's very hard to stay awake at 2AM with a car full of sleeping passengers. You can't even blast music and sing to stay alert. Driving while drowsy has been shown to be just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated.

That said, it's your car and your family. With full sincerity, good luck!

I agree. I work 12 hours and stay behind the wheel the majority of the time, but I also don't drive constantly. We may shorten it up to 8hrs, 8hrs, 4 hrs, 4 hrs.

 

[jdtaylor42]

Curious, have you been to the North Rim? It couldn't be more different from the South Rim.

I have been to the North Rim and I agree it is 1000x better than the South Rim. The SR is like a zoo with the amount of people there. However, just my opinion, but after the two minutes of "wow this place is just massive" I really don't think it's all that pretty. During the Golden Hour you can get some nice colors but nothing compared to Black Canyon or even Sedona

 

[northcoast]

I am planning a trip to West CO next year and am flying the wife and kids out to save some days on the road and then we will tour and they will fly back. Total time for me will be around 12 days but only 7 for them and there won't be any long days in the car unless we are doing a couple passes. Just something to consider.

As soon as my daughter is old enough, this is exactly how we plan to do it as well. I love driving, and my wife has no interest to drive to the Rockies from here in WV. They can fly out and back, and I'll take some Dad time to myself on the drive. Win win.

 

[gm350reratliff]

Just a random comment on the internet, but I'd encourage switching more often than that, and make sure the back-up driver gets sleep while not driving. Even experienced over-the-road truckers aren't allowed more than 11-hours continuous driving. It's very hard to stay awake at 2AM with a car full of sleeping passengers. You can't even blast music and sing to stay alert. Driving while drowsy has been shown to be just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated.

That said, it's your car and your family. With full sincerity, good luck!

I agree. Take plenty of breaks.

I've done a few marathon drives from MN to NM and vice versa but it was rough. Took a couple days to get my body back to normal. I work a lot of graveyards so staying up isn't really an issue for me.

 

[MeefZah]

Colorado loop: Rocky Mtn National Park - Grand Lake - Steamboat Springs - Grand Junction - Ouray - Durango - Pagosa Springs - Great Sand Dunes NP. 600 Total Miles and 13 hours total drive time start to finish. Stops in between as interested.

https://goo.gl/maps/3JThD8jaNps

Do the Colo River Headwaters Scenic Byway, too... since it'll run you between some of these places...

 

[MeefZah]

OP, what time frame are you working with?

My suggestion for a "no destination" road trip is to buy a national parks pass, then spec out a series of national parks that are kind of in a row, and visit them; linking them together with random non-interstate roads. This is a good way to sort of stumble across the country and see a lot, without giving you a solid "end" destination. I find that having a destination locked in kind of ruins a trip for me, because then I always think I'm on some sort of timetable to get there. Vague meandering is best. Plus you got to keep it loose, you never know when a road / park is going to be shut down... I've been unable to go through Glacier TWICE now due to freak snowstorms...

My wife and I did a 13 day trip from Ohio to California and back in late 2015 doing it this way and we had a great time - epic parks, lonely off road, oceans, deserts, mountains... but be careful... we ended up moving to California because of our trip!

In our case, we slabbed it overnight to the Badlands, then did Mount Rushmore and associated roads in the Black Hills, Yellowstone, Tetons, Crater Lake, Redwoods, Pacific Coast, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Moab, Rocky Mountain trails (Engineer, Cinnamon, Imogene)....

On other trips I've done a lot of the stuff suggested above, and I concur... RMNP via US 34 is awesome, rural Arkansas and Texas Hill country is great, US 30 in the Columbia River Gorge...pretty much anything in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming is going to be incredible... really, it's hard to go wrong heading west...

If it gives you any ideas, below is a link to a the trip we took. Ignore the Xterra... that was before I came to my senses (JK, actually, it was / is a great truck!):

https://meefzah.smugmug.com/Sept-2015-4WD-US-trip/

What the hell, as long as I'm pimping out my shit, here's our move out west following the taking of that cross country trip...

https://meefzah.smugmug.com/California-Schemin/

Anyway, even if you don't move as a result of an epic journey, you will find your horizons broadened, you'll meet new people, and you'll renew closeness with your family (well, with 2 kids along, you actually might do homicide or two along the way, but here's to hoping they are trip-friendly...). At any rate, assuming no homicides, you will find that the world is simultaneously much bigger and much smaller than you could have ever imagined.

 

[wanderMT]

Late Sept is great time but watch the weather - at 10,000' doesn't take much of a storm to turn bitter. Also, watch your distances - the 'west' is big country and sometimes seems you can drive for hours and hours and not get anywhere.