Cross-Country Road Trip in 3 Weeks?
 

My sister and I are beginning to plan a three-week road trip this summer (it has to be summer as she is a teacher). From her home in Boise, Idaho, we hope to have a fairly leisurely trip across the country. We'd like to have a day or two stopover in Yellowstone, and a day or two in the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore area before heading to Ithaca, NY (where my niece attends school) and then several days in NYC. Coming back, we thought about driving up to Montreal and then heading west through Canada.

Is this do-able in three weeks? We could add a few days if necessary. Does anyone have a good itinerary for such a trip? Thanks.

I just did a month-long road trip from Portland to the east coast, spent a week back there, then home, stopping a few days here and there along the way. So I think your trip is quite doable, though with three weeks you might seem a bit rushed. With two of you you may be able to do some long days of driving if necessary? (I was solo but still did a couple of 10-12 hour days driving - not fun but they were fine.)

What I'd do is go to Google Maps and start plotting a course ("Get Directions" and keep adding cities) from Boise through the cities you know you want to stop in: probably Boise to Bozeman, MT or Jackson, WY (stop for Yellowstone) then east to Rapid City, SD (Mt. Rushmore). Make New York your next map point. What's in between that you might want to stop and see? There are a lot of places I'd never been but just always wanted to see - e.g. St. Louis, Memphis, etc. so I just put them on the route when they were not inconvenient.

Boise to Yellowstone is about 450 miles, so can be done in one day. Say you stay 2 days there, so 3 days gone. From Yellowstone to Ithaca, it's 2,100 miles. Leisurely done will take 4 days. If you add two days in the Black Hills, that becomes 6. Meaning you've already taken up 9 days.

Ithaca to NYC is about 250 miles, so half a day or 5 hours. NYC to Montreal is 360 miles or 6 hours. Another half day.

If you go straight home from Montreal, it's about 2,600mi, which can be done leisurely in 5 days. But if you mean taking Trans-Canada, that's a different story. You add at least 400 miles if you stay on Trans-Canada to Medicine Hat, AB before cutting back down through MT; or continue with Highway 3 across the Canadian Rockies before cutting back into Idaho. And most of this route is not freeway, some stretches only 2 lanes. So, that would take a whole week.

If you add it all up, you'll find that you won't have much time in Ithaca, NYC or Montreal. You need to add more days.

Sounds like lots of fun, but I really think that you and sis should sit down together and take turns picking ONE spot toward the eastern USA that you want to see. Then put your trip/path together based on where you 'need' to be in order to accommodate the destinations you select.

FOR EXAMPLE... the person who chooses first needs only pick a spot fairly between Mt. Rushmore and Ithaca, NY.

IF, say, she selected CHICAGO, then that would necessitate the path going through that city. The second choice could be either between Mt. Rushmore and Chicago OR between Chicago and Ithaca.

Part of the fun of your trip IS the randomness, and what better way to really gain a sense of your sister than to make her interests more important to YOU as well?

I would err on the side of NOT pinpointing exact routes until you reach a point where you should make a couple/few of the hotel reservations in the bigger cities perhaps.

Good luck!

The next time you are near a WalMart stop by and invest in a 2009 Rand McNally Road Atlas, $5.97....

Azzure, yes, it's doable. Plenty of time, IMHO. I[m envious. I did a cross country trip in 1977 - 10,000 miles in about 5 weeks. Absolutely the best time of life. Everyone should take a cross country trip if at all possible. I'd love to do it again.

Wow, thanks, everyone for all the replies. My sis and I have been burning up the cell phones; each of us "tuned" to Google Maps as we plot out a route. A day or two in Chicago would be nice; I've never been. What else IS there between Mt. Rushmore and Ithaca? What about Minnesota? Door County, Wisconsin? We're considering Niagara Falls either going or coming back since we haven't been there since we were little kids.

Well, here is my first stab at a cross-country itinerary. Stopping places (*) are mostly approximate. As you can see, there will be 18 on-the-road days going to and from our destination in Ithaca, NY. We are thinking we will most likely take public transportation from Ithaca to NYC.

This doesn't sound quite as relaxing as I had hoped; there are a few too many 400 miles+ days for my taste. It's about 5700 miles altogether.



Boise - *West Yellowstone - 386 miles
West Yellowstone - *Cody - 133 miles (drive through Yellowstone en route)
Cody - *Deadwood - 357 miles
Deadwood - *Rapid City - 112 miles (see Mount Rushmore and Custer SP en route)
Rapid City - *Sioux City - 428 miles
Sioux City- *Chicago - 530 miles (yuck) (2 nights)
Chicago - *Erie PA - 447 miles
Erie PA - Niagara Falls (sort of a drive-by; have been there before) - *Ithaca 286 miles

Ithaca and NYC (several days at least)

Syracuse - Montreal 251 miles (2 nights)
Montreal - *Sudbury - 400 miles
Sudbury - *St. Ignace - 235 miles (ferry to Mackinac Island)
St. Ignace - *Duluth - 426 miles
Duluth - *Fargo - 377 miles
Fargo - *Miles City - 464 miles
Miles City - *West Yellowstone - 368 miles (drive through the other corner of Yellowstone)
West Yellowstone - Boise - 386 miles

Any thoughts will be appreciated!