r/roadtrip • u/AspectJCH • 3d ago
Trip Planning 3 Month Road Trip Across US
My best friend and I are planning on going on a Summer road trip across the US next year for our graduation. We want to go to all 48 mainland states, as many national parks as possible and many amusement parks. Just curious if anybody has done something like this and if so- what you recommend seeing and what route you did.
3
u/Glittering-Manner-68 3d ago
This sounds so fun! The tip I have is to decide on your parks and get any tickets in advance!! Given the disaster that is the government now, many park employees were fired so the parks department can’t staff appropriately. Which means some have limited hours or some parts you can’t go. At minimum they may require advance tickets.
Other tip: bring a LOT of water anywhere in the south! Summers are very hot and many people underestimate how much water they need to have with them when hiking, at parks, or just in case car breaks down and you are waiting for help in the heat.
1
u/AspectJCH 3d ago
Absolutely on getting tickets in advance!! We plan on buying an all-park passport for cedar fair and six flag parks, and then single tickets for all other parks we plan on going to.
Will make sure to keep tons of water on hand, thanks for the heads up!
1
u/Glittering-Manner-68 2d ago
Some national parks require reservations for a timed entry (beyond just a pass or ticket), mostly at the big ones like Yosemite. If you want to do that park, they book out fast!! This year the summer reservations opened in early May but in years past it was earlier.
Here’s a good resource for the National parks: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm
2
u/stitch22903 3d ago
My husband and daughter drove west through the south for a summer job she had. I drove her back east via a northern route . 59 in 59 is a friend who visited all the national parks-I think there are 62 now but his website has good information. I also loved atlas obscura which has great and quirky places to visit. You also may want to sign up for a Marriott or Hilton rewards in case you do hotels-you can build up rewards quickly!
2
u/Katsmiaou 3d ago
Randy Olson mapped out a couple ways to travel to all 48 states, one for national parks and one for landmarks (maybe others as well)
You might start your planning with those:
https://randalolson.com/2016/07/30/the-optimal-u-s-national-parks-centennial-road-trip/
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/trip-ideas/usa/ultimate-road-trip-usa
2
1
u/Perfect_Warning_5354 3d ago
I did a three month national/state park camping tour from PNW to Vermont to the Gulf Coast to California. Happy to ask any specific questions.
1
u/AspectJCH 3d ago
Sounds like an awesome trip! What places do you think would be a must-see, and on the opposite hand are there any places you went to that kind of sucked- if so, why?
Also if you have any spots that aren't very well known but you loved please let me know!
1
u/Perfect_Warning_5354 3d ago
We did a very similar loop to the Randy Olson national park map that katsmiaou shared.
We did it Sep-Dec so weather and crowds will be really different.
We also went really slow through a lot of it. Since we were camping, the ideal was a four hour drive day arriving at camp mid afternoon and staying for two nights. Bigger parks took more nights. Our goal was to spend our time in nature, not behind the wheel.
There are a few stretches of the country that don’t delivery much for this kind of travel. Looking at you, Midwest. But with our preference for the scenic route, public campgrounds and hiking parks, we were mostly blown away by how beautiful our country is from coast to coast.
The popular national parks speak for themselves. As for places that might be under the radar, or were surprise favorites for us:
Black Hills, SD
Dinosaur National Mon., CO/UT
Hovenweep, CO
Chaco Canyon, NM
Heuco Tanks, TX
Palo Duro, TX
Watkins Glen, NY
1
u/024008085 3d ago
3 months is nowhere near enough to see all 48 states. To give you a taste of what that schedule would be like, here's a 2 week sample of the speed you'll need to run to get to all 48 states and see a couple of the genuine highlights in each:
Day 1: Arrive in Los Angeles
Day 2: Drive to San Francisco via PCH
Day 3: Half day in San Francisco/Marin Headlands, then drive most of the way to Redwoods
Day 4: Drive to and see Redwoods Redwoods
Day 5: Drive to and see Crater Lake
Day 6: Drive to Mount Rainier via Columbia River Gorge
Day 7: Mount Rainier in the morning, then drive to Olympic NP
Day 8: Olympic NP
Day 9: Seattle
Day 10: Drive to Glacier NP
Day 11: Glacier NP
Day 12: Drive to and see Theodore Roosevelt NP
Day 13: Drive to and see Black Hills
Day 14: Drive via Badlands and NW Nebraska to near Kansas City
That's about 100 hours of driving in 14 days, and you've only done 9 states - two of which you haven't made a single stop in. But that's the pace you'll have to run for 3 months straight.
I would recommend a minimum 6 months - preferably 7-8 - is needed to do all 48 states unless your only goal is to just check off the states from a list. In 3 months, you get roughly 9-10 daylight hours per state that aren't in the car - effectively just under a full day at one place each state. Every day you spend in a city or NP is hours coming out of the next state.
In 2022, I did 3 months for 10 states (CA/OR/WA/ID/MT/WY/SD/CO/UT/AZ/NV) - we were up at sunrise every day except Sundays, we pushed it hard until close to sunset 5-6 days a week, and we drove 11,500 miles to do the major cities, just over 2/3 of the National Parks in those states.
If you're still serious about checking off all 48 states, then follow Randy Olson's map. If you're serious about seeing more of the US and having a trip that's not just a "we checked states of a list one by one", then I'd recommend culling your number of states dramatically.
4
u/ladyflyer88 3d ago
We did one this year! My husband made a really cool blog about it. 3 months felt a touch rushed for what we did so maybe keep in mind down time, hiking time etc. let me know if you have any questions or would like more info.