2 week tripout west
 

I need help planning a 2 week trip out west from louisville, ky. What is a "must see"?

Where "out west"? Its a big area :) Are you planning to drive? Fly? What are your interests? Who is going? What time of year?

Really need to know the composition of the group, your interests, what time of year and if you will fly or drive.

Welcome to Fodors Sheere. You will find lots of help on Fodors . . . however you do need to give people something (anything) to work with.

As the others say we need at minimum • When? • How many? • Family/kids? • Do you mean a road trip or are you fling out? • If driving -- is the 2 weeks one way or round trip?

And the Biggie - 'Out West' covers about 2 million square miles and many states, any idea which you might be interested in visiting? . . . etc.

I'll start...


Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is a must see out west.

>>Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is a must see out west.<<

That's just mean ;)

House of Mystery, Columbia Falls, Mt.

hey I love Winchester Mystery House :-)

but agreeing with others above... "Out West" is one very large place. You need to give us something more to go on in order to help with suggestions!

The wall of chewed gum in San Luis Obispo is worth the detour from wherever out west you are headed. Also the used-to-be-a-secret pizza place in Las Vegas and the parade of boats in California if your trip is at Christmas time.

Ah come on people, let's welcome this brand new poster!

:-)

Are you going to be driving from Kentucky? Or flying to a point out west to start this trip?

The Grand Canyon.

With two weeks you could do:

1. A circle tour of Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, Lake Powell on the AZ - Utah border, Bryce National Park, UT and Zion National Park, UT if you are flying in.

2. If you are driving then it's going to really limit the amount of time. Maybe Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Mesa Verde National Park, CO as you head home.

3. A circle tour of Yellowstone National Park, WY, Grand Tetons National Park, WY, Mt. Rushmore and Badlands National Park if you are driving and you would have to drop Mt. Rushmore and Badlands and could add Glacier National Park, MT if you are flying. But these trips would need to be done either in the summer or fall and not the winter.


So as you can see, we need more information like what time of the year, are you driving or are you flying to really help you.

Utahtea

Leaving in 1 week want to see must such as Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, grand Tetons, Grand Canyon not really sure where to begin.

Sorry forgot driving just my husband and me

<i>Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, grand Tetons, Grand Canyon not really sure where to begin.</i>

That represents 2600 mi. and 47 hours of driving according to viamichelin.com, and not counting rest stops, just to get to Grand Canyon NP. Then there's the drive back. I would drop the Grand Canyon and add Rocky Mountain National Park. You could approach it from the west and maybe include Dinosaur National Monument.

If you are leaving <u>next week</u> -- finding accommodations will be difficult. Especially for the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. I think you need to REALLY cut back on the distances/expectations and do a shorter trip . . .

If you don't have reservations as janis suggests you will have a problem. I also do not consider any of those places except Grand Canyon "out west". Have a good trip.

While living near Louisville, we discovered that for the lesser traveled folks in KY, "Out west" was anything west of St. Louis. So you might start with the Arch in St. Louis.

Start calling now for reservations in Yellowstone for 3 nights and starting 3 to 7 days after your vacation starts. You might be able to snag one on a cancellation but you will have to keep trying over and over. If that fails try to find someplace in West Yellowstone. Then when you have those dates you can build the rest of the trip around that. It's going to take you a good three days of just driving to get to Yellowstone. Depending on the reservations you find, you can do the Grand Tetons and Mt. Rushmore either before or after Yellowstone.

You barely have enough time for Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Mt. Rushmore so you don't have enough time for the Grand Canyon on this trip. Just Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Mt. Rushmore is about 3,500 miles and if you travel 12 hours a day you can make it with only 4 days of travel...but that's brutal so you're looking at more like 6 days of travel so that only leaves you 8 days to tour around. Adding the Grand Canyon adds 800 more miles and at least another 1 1/2 days driving.

Get a good map to make your routes. I'd stick to the interstates to make the best time. Like I-64, I-29- & I-80 one way and I-90 and I-74 for the other direction.

Utahtea

With regard to what is "West", and what isn't:

The west officially starts at the 100th meridian, as explained here.

http://geography.about.com/od/learna...thmeridian.htm

Her's a route to consider if you can get lodging in Yellowstone.
Fly to Minneapolis (MSP). Rent a car there and drive to Rapid City, SD (about 9 hours). See Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.
Leaving Rapid City, see Devil's Tower on the way to Yellowstone (via Cody). See Yellowstone using whatever lodging you can find or afford.
Leaving Yellowstone head north to Whitefish MT. (9 hours).
Leaving Whitefish drive through Glacier NP and end the day at Havre, MT. Leaving Havre, head for Bismarck, ND (state capitol). MSP is an easy days drive from Bismarck.
Fly home to Louisville.

<i>I also do not consider any of those places except Grand Canyon "out west".</i>

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.--Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico are among the Western States. Mt. Rushmore is about 40 miles from the Wyoming border. It is "out west" from where the OP lives, but it is not in a Western State.

HTtY

<i> It is "out west" from where the OP lives, but it is not in a Western State.
</i>

But it is west of the 100th Meridian, as per the post of dbdurand.