USA and Canada in 2 months
 

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are planning a 2 month road trip across the USA and to parts of Canada in July 2015. We are both in our late twenties. We prefer natural beauty to cities and are both very outdoorsy. We love adrenaline and adventure sports. We are hoping to do some horse trekking, maybe an overnight canoe trip, hiking, skydiving??? and anything else anyone can suggest.

We have a budget of £13,000 (or roughly $20,500). Our plan is taken from a tour company but we will be renting a car and doing it on our own. We plan on mostly camping with a few hotel nights whilst in cities. We are used to doing trips at a rapid pace and both get bored in one place for too long.

We just wanted to see if it was feasible on our budget and If people could recommend the best/ most adventurous thing to do in each destination. We also have 3 days spare and are wondering which places to stay an extra night? Many thanks in advance!



Day 1 Fly to New York
Day 2 New York
Day 3 Drive to Niagra Falls. Stay nearby (8hr drive)
Day 4 See the falls. Drive to Ohio (6hr drive)
Day 5 Full day at Cedar Point Amusement Park
Day 6 Washington DC (8hr drive)
Day 7 Washington
Day 8 Philadelphia (3.5hr drive)
Day 9 Drive to New York (2hr drive) . Fly to LA (5hr flight). Arrive LA
Day 10 LA
Day 11 San Diego (2.5 hr drive)
Day 12 Vegas (6hr drive)
Day 13 Vegas
Day 14 Zion NP (4hr drive)
Day 15 Zion NP
Day 16 Lake Powell (4hr drive)
Day 17 Grand Canyon NP (5hr drive)
Day 18 Grand Canyon NP
Day 19 Monument Valley (6.5hr drive)
Day 20 Monument Valley
Day 21 Moab / Arches NP (5hr drive)
Day 22 Denver (8hr drive)
Day 23 Denver
Day 24 Denver
Day 25 Jackson / Grand Teton NP (11hr drive)
Day 26 Jackson / Grand Teton NP
Day 27 Yellowstone NP
Day 28 Yellowstone NP
Day 29 Yellowstone NP
Day 30 Montana (8hr drive)
Day 31 Glacier NP (7hr drive)
Day 32 Glacier NP
Day 33 Banff NP / Lake Louise (8.5hr drive)
Day 34 Banff NP / Lake Louise
Day 35 Jasper NP via Icefields Parkway (4.5hr drive)
Day 36 Jasper NP
Day 37 Whistler (12hr drive)
Day 38 Whistler
Day 39 Vancouver (2hr drive)
Day 40 Vancouver
Day 41 Seattle (3hr drive)
Day 42 Oregon Coast (4hr drive)
Day 43 Redwood NP
Day 44 Redwood NP
Day 45 San Francisco (8hr drive)
Day 46 San Francisco
Day 47 Yosemite NP (4.5hr drive)
Day 48 Yosemite NP
Day 49 Big Sur (6.5hr drive)
Day 50 Santa Barbara (5.5hr drive)
Day 51 LA (2.5hr drive)
Day 52
Day 53
Day 54
Day 55 Fly from LA to New York
Day 56 Fly form New York to London

I don;t even know how to tell you what is wrong with this plan - but for a couple of notes:

Your drive times (that I am familiar with) all look too short - you have not allowed for any usual stops (fuel, food, bathroom) or any of the normal traffic delays you find in summer (road construction, accidents, bad weather and just a whole bunch of people going the same place at the same time). For instance you have 8 hours NYC to Niagara Falls but to see much you have to go to the Canadian side and with the border crossing this is more like 10 hours - and this assumes no delays at the border. Also that your visa or ? allows you unlimited entries to the US and Canada (I don;t know the rues of this for you - but border crossing can take an hour at major crossings even for those with perfect paperwork)

I am not aware of rental agencies that allow you to take the car out of the country - you would need to confirm this in advance and get it in writing Also car rental agencies do not allow their cars to be taken off paved roads (it invalidates the insurance and you would be personally liable for any damage to the car, towing fees, etc - so you need to consider this)

If camping in national parks you will need reservations far in advance (many book out a year in advance) and also need to organize all of the equipment including whatever you need to secure your belongings and food from roving bears which have a habit of using camp grounds as a supermarket. (Yes, we have a LOT of wildlife include some that are dangerous - even NJ suburbs have an overabundance of bears they are trying to figure out how to remove without having to kill them - locals less than an hour of Manhattan often see bears in their neighborhoods/back yards - never mind the gazillion deer you see dead by the side of the road due to car accidents.

Now - your itinerary. For many places you have NO time to see anything: 1 day in NYC, 1/2 day in SD, 1 day SF - all this is nuts - if you dont want to see cities just don;t bother. Second spending only one day in each place doesn't give you time to identify, sign up for and take part in these adventure activities - which often don't happen every day. You need to be somewhere on the day the activity is being offered. So you need to find out the details and make reservations well before you arrive wherever. (I don;t see where you will be doing riding treks - or the time for same - or locations and times for white water rafting, skydiving etc.

For instance - in looking at skydiving in Denver found a couple of listings, typically available on weekends only and costing about $200 per person for a tandem jump (only thing allowed if you don;t have a sky diver license). You really need to look into all these things in detail. And for Grand Canyon you don;t have time to hike to the bottom, spend the night and hike back in the morning - even if you could still get reservations.

As for your budget: a lot of these adventure activities are expensive and I would start now finding locations, times and costs so you don't run out of money part way through.

Frankly I would cut your destinations by half so the bulk of your trip isn't looking at things out of a car window and you're not in the place the wrong day for the activity you want.

As far as your east coast plans go, I suggest that from Niagara Falls you drive south through Pennsylvania to Washington. You could take a detour to someplace like Ohiopyle State Park (PA) and do some whitewater rafting. From Washington, instead of circling back to NY plan to fly from Norfolk, Virginia to the west coast. This would give you the chance to drive down the coast of Virginia and see Assateague Island National Seashore. You would miss Philadelphia but you could see Williamsburg, VA as well as go to an amusement park (Busch Gardens) if that is something you'd really like to do.

For a trip this long, I think you have to consider the accumulated effects of all that driving and the occasional stress of driving in foreign countries (and would it be on the 'wrong' side of the road for you?). You have some very long back-to-back driving days. As nytraveler mentioned, drive times will probably not stay within the frames you're thinking, especially in places where the whole reason for being there (natural beauty, outdoor stuff) will be tempting you to stop, linger, detour, etc.

Then there's just the basic stuff like needing to spend time doing laundry which in summer, doing outdoorsy things, with some daytime temps very high, could be somewhat frequently and certainly multiple times over a trip of this length.

Camping involves setting up and breaking down camp sites which also involves time. As mentioned, you would likely need camp site reservations everywhere and certainly in U.S. national parks. You'd need one or more bear canisters to secure food and anything else that has a scent like toothpaste, shampoo, sun block, etc. You can't just lock the stuff in the car because the bears will destroy the car to get to this stuff. Sometimes these canisters are available to rent at camp sites, but, like site reservations, they go fast. You may need to just buy one or two canisters and then abandon them, give them away or sell them at a discount at your last camping stop.

On paper, it sounds like a great trip. But IRL, I think it might feel like a race without enough time anywhere to really enjoy it. If it were my trip, I'd skip eastern U.S. and plan more non-driving days in western U.S. and Canada.

As mentioned already, you need to cut a few destinations and slow it down. Trying to do NYC, Niagara Falls, Ohio, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. in essentially a week will likely be unpleasant, even for those who get bored easily. Rule of thumb for the big cities like NYC, and Washington, D.C., San Francisco, do three nights minimum, which essentially gives you only two full days to see everything and that will just scrape the surface.

As noted, you will need to make national park lodging or camping reservations months in advance, so maybe plan the rest of your itinerary on when you can get into Yellowstone, Grand Canyon National Park, Banff, etc. Here is the website (for the U.S.) to get started on this: http://www.cr.nps.gov/. Click on Find a Park, and proceed from there.

In some areas like the Western U.S. outside the cities, you will make very good time driving long distances, but the distances are very long. In Southern California and the Bay area, plus the Northeastern U.S., the distances are shorter, but you will be crawling through intense and slow traffic some of the time.

It will be an amazing trip, however, even with fewer destinations.

We are not slow travelers. We like to pack a lot into our trips. Even so, your itinerary stresses me out just reading it.

for ex., Day 8, 3.5 hour drive to Washington. Then what? You're leaving the next day for NY. And why are you going back to NY, you can fly to LA from Philadelphia!

Same goes for Days 11 and 41 - 2.5 hours drive to San Diego, 3 hour drive to Seattle, but no additional days in either place.

And days 49, 50 and 51.

Yet you have two full days in addition to the driving day in Denver.

Day 42 says Oregon Coast (4 hours drive). Seattle to Redwood National Park is a 10 hour drive.

What you have is a shotgun approach -- hit everywhere and everything. Sorry but this is a dreadful plan.

Parts are the equivalent of Paris to London to Southampton to Penzance to Cambridge to Carlisle to Edinburgh to Inverness in two weeks. Too too much.

You have the luxury of time -- so plan a sensible/enjoyable journey -- not this zig zag trek. After about the 2nd or 3rd week you won't know which way is up . . .

This is so exciting although a very long trip. Maybe you should review the plan because you might be stressed with the long trip. Anyway, you can have the best experience you can. Have an amazing trip!

Here's another person who thinks you are trying to see "too much" in your allotted time - all you'll be doing is driving from place to place with little actual time to enjoy doing something "once you get there".

You need to rethink your plan.

When we did a similar trip through New Zealand we worked up an itinerary that had us drive no more than 3 or 4 hours to reach the next destination and we spent 2 to 3 nights in each place. We saw quite a lot and had plenty of "time" to enjoy the local culture.

One thing you have to recognize is the US is quite large and, there's quite a lot of rural space in the mid-part of the country which doesn't usually hold much appeal for the tourist. You might be better off spending say 2 weeks exploring the Northeast, then flying somewhere south and spend a week or so driving around that part f the country ten flying off to the west coast to spend more time there.

Hint: Use Google maps to plot out the areas that most interest you then take a look at the driving distances between those points. The type of trip you want takes major planning and you might seek out some professional guidance, especially if you want to do some camping since the more popular campgrounds require advanced reservations in summer.

Good Luck and I hope your trip is enjoyable.

I agree that if I were to cut anything out of a trip like yours, I would start by skipping the east coast part and saving that for another time. Other than that, I think your trip is doable, even if it is very ambitious. You are young and traveling without kids so you should be able to go with the flow and keep your plans loose enough for last minute changes. One thing I would do differently is fly into one airport and out of another. For example, you could fly into Las Vegas and out of San Diego. I don't think you would much miss the drive from San Diego to Las Vegas in July. I might also skip Denver in favor of Salt Lake City.

My brother and his wife did a similar trip a few years ago. One thing they found was that the best way to get a campsite was to scout out lesser known campgrounds and arrive just prior to checkout time (noon or so depending on the camp) to nab one site of sites being vacated.

I would forget about buying camping gear and then taking flights within the US. There are quite a few HI Hostels in the US.
My ideas - some you may like and others not so much:
Fly to New York and spend a day. Take an Empire Service or Maple Leaf train to Buffalo or Niagara Falls NY. See the falls including the Canadian side which is a bit better IMO.
Get back to Buffalo to catch the Lake Shore Limited (leaves Buffalo about midnight). Take the LSL to Cleveland arriving in the morning. Rent a car to go to Cedar Point. Return the car to Cleveland and take either the Lake Shore Limited or the Capitol Limited to Chicago. Spend a day in Chicago before flying to Las Vegas. Rent the car in Las Vegas (cheaper than California). Rent the car for about 25-28 days and cover all you wanted to see in the Western US. I'm not sure about driving a rental car into Canada (check).
It is easy to take an Amtrak train or Amtrak bus from Seattle to Vancouver BC.
Return the car to Las Vegas and then fly to Washington (National or BWI). You don't need or want a rental car in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia or New York City.
There are HI Hostels in Chicago, Vancouver BC, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco (3) and Pigeon Point Lighthouse (50 miles S of San Francisco).
There are HI Hostels in Washington DC and Baltimore. Transportation between Washington and New York is either Megabus or on the Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains.

Throw out the tour company itinerary and tell us what sights are most interesting to you, then let us suggest an itinerary based on that.

You say you aren't interested in the big cities. So which ones are most important to see and why? It doesn't make sense to dash around to a bunch of different cities just to spend a day in each. I can understand if a city is on the way to somewhere else and you're spending a night there, but many of them are not.

Forget the "fly from NYC to LA" and "fly from LA to NYC" stuff. That sounds like a tour company itinerary again. Pick the closest city and fly from there to the west coast - for example, Cleveland is an hour from Cedar Point. Why not fly from there instead of looping back to NYC? Also, why not fly to Las Vegas and skip LA and San Diego entirely? It seems you're adding unnecessary driving just to fit cities in when you've already said you don't care about the big cities.

The thing that is most curious is one day in Moab followed by 3 days for Denver. Moab is a huge destination for people who love outdoor adventure and you're blasting through it to get to another big city. Why?

Some of your drive times are not correct. I can only guess this is based on the tour company literature? Moab to Denver is 5.5 hours, not 8. Denver to Jackson is 8 hours, not 11. You'll want to get a better more realistic handle on all of those drive times.

Re: camping. Totally doable. You're going to have to verify some of the info you have received because most people don't camp, they just repeat what they have heard from others.

Camping reservations do not book up a year in advance. Right now I just looked at the reservation website for Yellowstone (a very popular park) for 3 different campgrounds and every one had tent sites available every day in July and August. Yosemite (another very popular park) doesn't even begin accepting reservations until March 15th or April 15th for the dates you're looking at. Reservations at the Grand Canyon can be made starting 6 months in advance. Those are probably the 3 most popular U.S. parks on your list and none of them are booked up, two of them aren't even accepting reservations for next summer yet.

Bear boxes/lockers for food storage will be essential, but I know of no national park that charges a fee. Different parks have different regulations for food storage but it's safe to say that Yosemite is the most strict because they have had the most issues in the past. They also provide a bear box at every campsite. Glacier allows you to store it in your vehicle because they haven't had the issues with bears breaking into vehicles. It's up to you to check the regulations but the U.S. parks on your list that have bears either provide bear boxes or allow you to store it in your car (depending on how habituated the bears are to food). You won't need to buy a special storage container or rent one. I am not familiar with Canadian parks but I would suspect they also have bear boxes for use in the campgrounds if they feel they are necessary.

You can use the link provided to search for national parks in the U.S. but a quick easy way to find one is they are all nps.gov/xxxx where the xxxx is either the first 4 letters of the park name (if the name is one word) or the first 2 letters of the first word and the first 2 letters of the second word. That is not complicated. Yosemite is nps.gov/yose, Yellowstone is nps.gov/yell, Grand Canyon is nps.gov/grca, and on and on.

Yosemite rents bear canisters. The canisters are not provided free of charge and are available on a first-come basis. There are communal food lockers at some campsites but space within them is, again, first-come.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bearcanisters.htm

Bear canisters are required in some parts of Glacier Park and highly recommended in all parts of the park.

http://www.nps.gov/glba/planyourvisit/canister.htm

In Grand Teton N.P., bear canisters are required where food lockers are not provided.

http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/bears_bc.htm

If you're still thinking of leaving food in a car in any national park, check the terms and coverage of your rental car insurance.

If you leave food (or wrappers, or gum, or toiletries, or anything else w/ ANY sort of scent) in a car at Yosemite . . . be prepared to pay for the entire cost of the ruined car.

Janisj is exactly correct about Yosemite, which is why they have the strictest regulations regarding food storage. You cannot leave any food or smellable items in your car when you are not in it. Even if you just park to use the restroom, you must take those things with you. It will be easiest if you just put all those items in a plastic bag or something so you aren't rummaging through your entire car to locate them every time you stop somewhere in Yosemite.

Jean, on the other hand, is talking about backcountry food storage which is irrelevant here since I really doubt the OP is headed off on an overnight backpacking trip. Every link she has provided is for backcountry food storage, not frontcountry campgrounds. She is also referring to bear canisters, which are cylinders used by backpackers. Bear boxes/lockers are totally different and are larger, metal sided containers that are typically fixed to the ground. (I've always called them bear boxes but to simplify things, I'll just call them bear lockers from now on.)

In Yosemite, every car campsite has a bear locker.
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/lockers.htm

Let me repeat that. In Yosemite, every car campsite has a bear locker. You are not going to be sharing with another site and you will not have to rent a bear canister. Any car campsite you are at will have one for you to store your food and smellable items free of charge.

In Glacier, you are required to store your food/smellables in either a bear locker, your car with the windows rolled up, or a bear canister.

http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/camping.htm

That is the correct link for campgrounds in Glacier National Park. Jean linked to the backcountry regulations for Glacier Bay which is in Alaska.

Grand Tetons have the same regulations as Glacier. When at a campground, food/smellables must be stored in a bear locker, inside your vehicle with the windows rolled up, or in a bear canister.
http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/bears_camping.htm

That page has a good picture of a bear locker so you can see what we are talking about.

Yellowstone has the same regulations as Glacier and Grand Tetons.


As I said already, Yosemite has the strictest regulations of any national park because their bears have learned to find food in cars. They do not allow food/smellables to be left unattended in your vehicle at any time. That is not the case at these other parks (Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons) so they do allow food to be stored in vehicles as long as the windows are rolled up. Bottom line, bear behavior in Yosemite is far different than in those other parks so they have adopted very strict rules to prevent problems.

Now...after all that if the OP is planning on backpacking instead of car camping then Jean has given the correct links (except for the one that links to Glacier Bay). But like I said, I highly doubt the OP is going to be going backpacking given how little time she is spending in any one park and the whirlwind nature of this trip. It seems pretty clear to me the OP is going to be car camping and day hiking.

I'm not sure that anyone has dealt with the bears that might be encountered during hikes. Yes, the OP will be moving so fast that long hikes won't be possible but there are often bears very near the campgrounds and trailheads (otherwise no needs for bear boxes/lockers). Before you head into a park check out bear spray as well as the rules in case you encounter one - and recognition since rules are different for grizzly in case you run into one.

(I know this may sound odd to people from the UK - but we have a LOT of bears in the US - not just on the western national parks - but in many areas of the country with any wooded lots - including suburban NJ (not much more than 30 minutes from NYC)

Sorry for the incorrect link to Glacier N.P. Here is the correct one, which reads:

"All food, lawfully taken fish, garbage, and equipment used to cook, serve or store food must be kept sealed in a vehicle, or in a camping unit that is constructed of solid, non-pliable material, or suspended from any NPS designated food hanging device, or secured in any NPS designated storage locker, secured in an Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) approved bear resistant container or secured in a structure or dwelling, at all times, except when these items are being transported, consumed, or prepared for consumption."

Whatever may be allowed, I would still consider the level of insurance you'll have on the rental car.

http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/camping.htm

I also think you're stuffing too much into this itinerary.

My experience with driving in Europe on many occasions is that one should drive no more than 3 hours a day. We (my companion and I) made that decision after having a fender-bender in the Lake Country in England. It's too easy to make a mistake when you're driving "on the wrong side" of the road and you're tired.

I don't know where you obtained your driving times, but I've always checked with Viamichelin and have discovered that the driving times are usually too low. I generally add one-third more time to the estimates.

As an earlier poster said, there will be times when traffic is interrupted, and you'll need to factor that in.

By the way, are you aware of the size of the U.S.? You could fit England into the state of Louisiana.

OP has never replied to this thread - possible troll or just another hit and run poster?

Very often newbies think they'll get some sort of notification/alert when there is activity on their threads. We get folks all the time apologizing for not coming back because they didn't know. So maybe in a day or two the OP will get curious and come back. It just doesn't ring 'troll-ish' to me . . .

I think it's too detailed for a troll. Perhaps a first-time poster who is overwhelmed by the reality of their trip based on all the comments about timing, arrangements and wildlife.

Purchase a camping book as camping in a park may not be available. There are two books that are revised annually and, therefore, accurate. These are two inches (5 cm) thick each. Neither is 100%, so we have them both. Given priority, we would select Woodalls. Many campgrounds and camping stores also carry this book. Each is on the Internet
- Trailer Life by Good Sam - Click on Travel Store then Trailer Life RV Parks & Campgrounds Directory.
http://www.trailerlife.com/ - Resources tab
- Woodalls - (800) 323-9076, Click on the On-Line Store, then North American Campground Directory.
http://www.woodalls.com/rv-camping/

Travel schedule - very dynamic and well researched:
Rather than a slow car, you should consider the following vehicle to insure you meet your objectives:
Suzuki Hayabusa (GSX1300R) motorcycle - plus exciting to ride

Anyway, just start in NYC and continue on your schedule as is. When time expires, as it will, return your car and fly back and continue at a later day. Thus, insure you rent from a company that has national offices.
Welcome to US.
Vaga

Vaga

Perhaps the OP is too overwhelmed by our comments!

We just came back from Moab - Three days in the area and that was fine. Beautiful. However, in July it will be over 100 degrees. No shade. Hope the OP knows this.

Hey all

thanks for the input. I didn't realise replies had been posted as I was an expecting an email notification, as some other sites use!

Weve changed things a bit as we are now looking at doing an Alaskan cruise.

Weve cut out the east coast as we have been to some of it before, and can quite easily do that another time but we are unlikely to return to the west coast so are trying to fit as much in (even if some days are long hours!).

Weve also cut out Colorado as we have friends there so will probably visit another time in a separate trip.

The dates for the cruise are fixed and weve booked some of the campsites (Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce and Yellowstone) but can move some of the other days around. It looks like this so far;


1. LA
2. LA
3. Vegas
4. Vegas
5. Grand Canyon NP
6. Grand Canyon NP
7. Zion NP
8. Zion NP
9. Bryce NP
10.Bryce NP
11.Drive through Grand Staircase Escalante NP, onto Capitol Reef NP
12.Arches NP / Moab
13.Arches NP / Moab
14.Canyonlands NP
15.Canyonlands NP
16.Salt Lake City
17.Salt Lake City / Mt Ogden
18.Grand Teton NP
19.Grand Teton NP
20.Yellowstone NP
21.Yellowstone NP
22.Yellowstone NP
23.Glacier NP
24.Glacier NP
25.Banff NP
26.Banff NP
27.Lake Louise
28.Jasper NP via Icefields Parkway
29.Jasper NP
30.Jasper NP
31.Whistler
32.Whistler
33.Whistler
34.Vancouver
35.Vancouver
36.Vancouver / Seattle
37.Cruise leaving from Seattle 1600
38.Cruise
39.Cruise
40.Cruise
41.Cruise
42.Cruise
43.Cruise
44. Arrive in Seattle 0700
45.San Francisco
46.San Francisco
47.San Francisco
48.Yosemite NP
49.Yosemite NP
50.Yosemite NP
51.Yosemite NP
52.Big Sur
53.Santa Barbara
54.LA
55.LA
56.Fly to London



Any feedback or advice would be great.

People have suggested changing bits in Canada to spend less time in Jackson / Whistler and more in Lake Louise / Banff.
Maybe going straight to san fran the day the cruise gets in and instead of staying in seattle and add an extra day to the west coast.


Many thanks

It's busy but you say you like to be busy.
I'd add a day in between Yellowstone and Glacier or use the last Glacier day to see more of Montana in between. That's my one regret on my last Montana trip, and we stopped and "vegged" for a few days. I need to go back to Great Falls and see what I missed.

I know you like to go and be busy, but I agree with earlier posters that during a two month trip you'll probably wish you had some "still" time to really enjoy where you are instead of racing through to the next destination.

Have done road trips in both Canada and USA....the US trip was from Denver-Cheyenne-Deadwood-Cody-Yellowstoe-Grand Teton-Salt Lake City-Zion-Las Vegas-Monument Valley-Moab and back to Denver. This was a three week trip and although was a long way was easy driving with fantastic scenery and so lots of photo, rest room, eating and drinking breaks. We drove the Rockies in Canada down to Vancouver..... Banff and Jasper are stunning...we drove to lake Louise on the way but didn't stay there (not sure what else there s to do especially when staying at B and J). If you are going to Alaska then I would drive past the Athabasca glacier but don't spend time there....it's a bit touristy and a tad dirty...Alaska has amazing , blue, pristine glaciers!!!Whistler is a purpose built village which has lots of bars and restaurants...mountain biking, hiking and zip wiring, you might want to cut that stay down a bit...you could then take a trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island which is very pretty....whale tours go from there. We travelled to Alaska from Seattle this year and Seattle is definitely worth a stay also......

We did the USA tour in August... we mountain biked in the Utah desert...hiked the narrows.....rode Mustangs in Monument Valley amongst other things and (other than Las Vegas which was over 100 degrees) the heat didn't stop us doing anything that we wanted to and that's coming from the UK...you will have an amazing time...enjoy

Busy but doable.

It does fall apart a little in this bit:

>>51.Yosemite NP
52.Big Sur
53.Santa Barbara<<

The drive from Yosemite Valley to Big Sur takes more than 4 hours leaving very little time to see/do anything except recover from the drive.

Don't get me wrong -- I absolutely <B>LOVE</B> Yosemite, but I'd cut one day/night from the park, drive over to Carmel/Monterey and stay 2 nights, using it as a base for Point Lobos/Carmel/Big Sur. Then head down to Santa Barbara, etc . . .

were used to cramming a lot into our trips! Did Singapore> KL > Borneo (Sipidan Scuba Diving) > Bali > Gili Islands > Mt Ringjani > Lombok > Darwin (Australia)> Bali > Singapore last summer in 6 weeks. Including a weeks worth of diving!

We also did Mexico to Costa Rica in 6 weeks the year before that.

We are taking a cruise from Seattle to Alaska, and that will probably be enough sitting around and downtime for us!!!

Anyone have any suggestions on campsites in Canada. Weve found the USA ones easy to research and book but seems to be less info about Canada. Or where to do which activities? Were interested in hiking, canoeing, kayaking, canyoning, via ferrata, biking, sky diving.

From limited research it is possible to do most of these in several locations but is there a place which is known or canoeing, or really good for sky diving etc?

Many thanks

J

That's good advice. Maybe we could loose a day off San Francisco, or drive straight to san francsico after the crusie rather than seattle?

It does kind of fall apart at the end!

Mountain biking, zip lining and hiking in Whistler.....Jackson is outdoor mecca... eg) rafting, and kayaking we just searched on-line. Mountain biking and rafting in Moab......hike the narrows in Zion. Whale watching in Vancouver.....We did a couple of trips with Brushbuck tours...a long day in Yellowstone and a twilight tour in Grand Teton.....saw lots of Grizzlies, wolves, birds and a very close encounter with two bull Moose!!!!

mamabear, glad you enjoyed Brushback! They are amazing. I'm Facebook friends with them and love their updates on FB. It's like a living calendar.

"Anyone have any suggestions on campsites in Canada"
It's been years since we camped in Canada but we were blown away how gorgeous they were with lots of flowers and free! We did a Canadian Rockies trip after coming up from NM through the American Rockies. Enjoyed the camping in the US, but the campgrounds in Canada were amazing. You may need to ask that question in the Canada forum.