December "Adventure" Travel Ideas?
 

Hello! Many of you have provided feedback to help us plan a cross country trip from Boston to San Diego (Thanks!!). We leave this Friday, December 4 for a 12 day trip and have decided on the following route:

Boston - Washington DC
Washington DC - Nashville
Nashville- Dallas
Dallas- Carlsbad Caverns, NM
Carlsbad- Tucson
Tucson - San Diego

These cities are where we will be spending over nights/a day or two.I'm trying to make the most out of the trip and will sightsee, etc. I have tour books from AAA on each of these cities but am hoping for a few "adventure" tour ideas. I saw canyoneering mentioned in one post and that was appealing- but it was in Utah. Hoping for some different/active/adrenaline rushing ideas to do in a stop or two. Any thoughts? Sure traveling in winter makes this more difficult... air tours? hot air balloon rides? sky diving? canyoneering? open to any ideas....

Also, our final destination (relocation) is San Diego. Would love to plan a ski/snoboard weekend for New Years. Do you have any suggestions of where would be fun to visit by car for this? Big Bear? Where would you recco staying/eating/ringing in the new year?

THANKS!

Thanks!

oops meant to tag CA too. I will have to repost as I don't see an option to add tags....

We do a ton of really adventurous things. Everything from rafting Grand Canyon, Canyoneering, waterfall rappelling, etc. We do not jump from planes. lol. The thing that started all of this for us was a wild cave tour in Carlsbad.


Take the "Wild Cave Tour" in Carlsbad. Hall of the White Giants would be my first option and Spider Cave would be my second. They only take about 10 people per week on each tour. This isn't "over the top" adventurous, but pretty darn good. Spider cave has more crawling involved. Consider they only started these tours about 10 years ago and you will be just a handful of people to have ever seen these areas. Lower Cave Tour would be you 3rd option. You might even be able to do two of them. You would want to see "big Room" on your own and eat at the bottom of the cave. Make reservations NOW!

I would stop at Memphis and eat. My favorite is Blues City Cafe.

You can drive an actual race car in Dallas(haven't done that one).

If you are interested in hiking in Arkansas I can suggest 3 or 4 really nice spots to hike. The kicker here would be the hikes are at waterfalls and you would need a little rain the day or two before to insure they were running nicely.


You might take a look at Saquaro and Guadalope National Parks as they are along your route as well. Not for sure if there is anything really adventurous there, but I would imagine some really really good hikes. I have read a lot about both areas but haven't been. Might also consider White Sands National Monument

Make Reservations NOW for the wild cave tour is what I meant

Thanks Spirobulldog! I'm pretty sure it was your post about canyoneering in Utah that I referred to above.

Love your suggestions. I will call and make reservations today for the Wild Cave Tour.

I found the Nascar driving school here: http://www.racingschools.com/stock_c...perience.shtml. Looks like we may be able to do this in Dallas or Nashville!

Also, I have noted already to stop in Memphis and eat at the Blues City Cafe from your help in the previous forum!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Blues City looks like a dump. I sent my parents there and they almost didn't go in. They were glad they did.