6 week trip take 2
 

can someone please tell me if 30 days approx is enough time to travel from charlstone s.c to seattle wa. via mt rushmore,yellowstone plus any other major atractions on the way.we are already giong to new york, washington,philly etc,so it would be straight acroos basically.we will be leaving aobut the 18th of april.

Have you "mapped" this yet? like,driving directions from yahoo or excite.com maps? Sounds like you should be able to cover it all, but there's lots of country in between! You're going to cross some mountains, and depending where you turn north, some plains. Try to keep to interstate highways when you have lots of ground to cover and you'll do fine.

I guess my first question is this: <BR>do you drive back to Charleston, or do you leave for home from another city? <BR>In terms of driving from Charleston to Seattle, if you took it the hard way I think you could do it in 5 days, which allows for some stopping to sleep. <BR> <BR>But with so much to see and do, you may find 30 days leaving you quickly. <BR>Certainly in that amount of time, you can see a lot, and the are roads good so you can travel many miles in a day. <BR> <BR>I suggest that you head from Charleston to the Smokies National Park, then from Knoxville, TN, to the Grand Canyon via Oklahoma City. From Amarillo veer southwest to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, White Sands National Monument (NM)the Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest. From there back track a little by way of Bryce Canyon over to Moab, Utah, for a visit to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Then from there over to Mesa Verde. Then head north over some awesome mountain scenery to Grand Junction Colorado on your way to Salt Lake City to the Tetons and Yellowstone. From there, continue on to Seattle, via the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Ranier. If time is left, there is a lot to see in and around Seattle. You could cut out the Carlsbad deviation with no major loss, except for a huge, beautiful cave and beautiful white sand. By continuing straight from Amarillo to the GC, you would have more time for it and Yellowstone. Notice I left out Rushmore. A bias of mine I guess. There is so much to see and do elsewhere that I think you would be doing a lot of driving in the featureless flats to see giant stone faces jackhammered into the side of a mountain. Of the places I described I would rate as "must sees" the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Tetons, and Yellowstone. Others will have their own list. <BR>A lot of driving, but do-able. <BR> <BR>An alternative would be to continue from Knoxville to St. Louis via Nashville, then on to Denver. From Denver, drive over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, and continue on to the National Parks of Mesa Verde National, Arches, Canyon Lands, and the Grand Canyon via Monument Valley. From GC, south rim, continue north to Bryce Canyon, possibly Zion, and from there to the Tetons/Yellowstone via Salt Lake City. Then on to Seattle. Both will take you over the flats of the central USA, and then to the beautiful, but bone dry American Southwest. <BR> <BR>(I have caught flack over my opinion of Rushmore before, but that is my position.)

Bob, you're not alone on your feelings about Mt. Rushmore. My husband and I feel the same way. <BR>

I admit a little confusion -- are you leaving Charleston; going north to Washington, Philadelphia, and New York; and then going west to Seattle? Or doing a loop where these could at either the start or the end of your trip? The reason I ask is that there are two good cross-country U.S. routes, IMHO -- the Northern and the Southern. The former includes Chicago, Minneapolis, Black Hills, Yellowstone/Teton, and Glacier. The latter includes New Orleans,Memphis, New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, and Las Vegas. The Southern is better for winter; Northern, for summer. In April, some parts of the Northern Route will still have a lot of snow. <BR> <BR>Does your "thirty days" include the time you intend to spend in New York, Philly, and Washington? If you were to include visits to those northeast cities (which will require about two to five days MINIMUM APIECE), you would only have time to take one route (i.e, Southern Route to Seattle and then speedily back to New York). <BR> <BR>*IF* you are going to those northeast cities and then go to Seattle and back, all in the space of thirty days, I would recommend going to those cities, taking the Northern Route, then return by the Southern Route and stopping only if you have the time. <BR> <BR>One last thing, that should ACTUALLY be the FIRST thing -- what sort of things are you MOST hoping to experience on this trip? Scenic beauty? Entertainment? Cultural diversity? Museums? What you want MOST to experience will greatly determine WHERE you should go to find it.