Vacation Help

Hey all, thought I'd ask for your input on our (my wife and I) upcoming vacation.

We enjoy driving distances and one of our favorite road trips was doing Route 66. We didn't want to do the exact same thing this time, but we really wanted to see the southwest again. We do need to be in Texas for about a week and it can be in the beginning or at the end of the trip. We will need to start from the midwest.

We were considering driving I-70 W and then south to LA. That leg should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 miles and we didn't plan on diverging much to see other things. We'd then stay in LA for a couple of nights and then on to Austin, TX. We would like to see some things in the Southwest and I found the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern AZ. We have seen the Grand Canyon and Painted Desert/Petrified Forest and they were both incredible, especially the Painted Desert.

So, my questions are:

How does this route sound? Would there be some reason that going to Austin first and then onto LA be better?
How safe is the AZ/Mexican border? I read a lot of things, but should I have any genuine concern?
What is your take on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument? We're nerds and love the desert landscape. We want to see giant cacti. Is there somewhere better to see this?
How would you spend your (limited) time in LA? Anything of interest or is it even worth going for such a short time?

About us: We're young, we'll have a car and we're fairly easy to please. Though the euro is weak now, we usually like to cram a lot of shopping into our itinerary. That being said, we've found the national parks to be a wonderful time. We even have the National Park passport and we're trying to hit them all (eventually). They're great for sight seeing and then being able to take off soon after (i.e. not terribly time consuming).

When it comes to cities, we like to see something interesting/historical, but also shop and wander around.

Any tips or advice, even help with a couple of questions is greatly appreciated!

Ugh. That 2,000-mile drive from the Midwest to LA is going to really, really suck, especially the first half--one of the all-time worst segments in the nation (although anything involving a drive across Nebraska or Kansas is worse). I haven't spent a lot of time there, but parts of northern New Mexico are great.

If it were me and I had the time, I would go to Mulege. That's in Baja. Mexico. And I'm not crazy--it's safe, as is pretty much all of Mexico so long as you're not running guns or drugs. If you like deserts, you'll love the drive south down the Baja peninsula. Lots of cacti and strange desert trees and mountains and great little towns on the Sea of Cortez. Mulege, which is halfway down the peninsula, is along a river that empties into the Sea of Cortez. It is utterly unspoiled, a sleeply little town on the sea that is the way Mexico used to be. The closest airport is nearly 100 miles away. They are accustomed to tourists but are not centered on tourists--you can still charter a boat to go fishing or whale watching for a reasonable price, and hotels/restaurants the same. It's a bit more than 600 miles south of San Diego--allow a couple days drive each way.

If you don't do Mulege, then consider Zion National Park in Utah. Utterly amazing.



pnutpug said:

Ugh. That 2,000-mile drive from the Midwest to LA is going to really, really suck, especially the first half--one of the all-time worst segments in the nation (although anything involving a drive across Nebraska or Kansas is worse). I haven't spent a lot of time there, but parts of northern New Mexico are great.
If it were me and I had the time, I would go to Mulege. That's in Baja. Mexico. And I'm not crazy--it's safe, as is pretty much all of Mexico so long as you're not running guns or drugs. If you like deserts, you'll love the drive south down the Baja peninsula. Lots of cacti and strange desert trees and mountains and great little towns on the Sea of Cortez. Mulege, which is halfway down the peninsula, is along a river that empties into the Sea of Cortez. It is utterly unspoiled, a sleeply little town on the sea that is the way Mexico used to be. The closest airport is nearly 100 miles away. They are accustomed to tourists but are not centered on tourists--you can still charter a boat to go fishing or whale watching for a reasonable price, and hotels/restaurants the same. It's a bit more than 600 miles south of San Diego--allow a couple days drive each way.
If you don't do Mulege, then consider Zion National Park in Utah. Utterly amazing.

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Thanks for the advice! No offense to the fine people of Kansas, but I've been known to drive hundred of miles out of the way to avoid a trip across that state. Unfortunately, I need to start in the midwest and I considered flying out west and skipping the entire drive across the midwest. At this point, I suppose I'm going to try to drive it.

Baja California sounds great and I'm going to have to look into it. I hadn't really put much thought into it before, but I'll dig up some information now that you mention it. I may take on Zion National Park. A couple of years ago, we were nearby and missed out. I've kicked myself since then and maybe I should look more into adding it into this itinerary somehow.

Thanks again for your helpful advice, I am going to spend some time now looking these places up!

Here would be my itinerary if I had 2+ weeks travel time. Head west on I70 to Denver, zip up to Rocky Mountain N.P., (hit up Estes Park..cute little tourist trap) then drive the Ridge Road if you have a car with ok clearance...(just dont take it if rainy)...head out the backside of the park and back down to I70...continue west to Arches NP and Moab (rent a bike/maybe a jeep tour). Head back to I70 westbound to to I15...then 2 different national parks...Bryce Canyon, and Zion...couple great trails can be had there as well...hike the Narrows in Zion at least...15 will head you to Vegas, then continue to LA on the 15...wave to me when you drive by!.

Once you finish up LA, head out the 10 to Palm Springs, do some thrifting at Angel View and Boomerangs, maybe head over to Joshua Tree for a bit of bouldering, then continue past Phoenix to Tucson and hit Saguaro NP practically in town. Once you finish up there, keep heading east on the 10 past Las Cruces and Ciudad Juarez, south on the 90 to zoom past Prada Marfa (tho Marfa is probably 40 miles away) continue to Marfa..great small art community there, 385 S and hit up Big Bend NP, back to 90 over to San Antonio and up to Austin.

Lot to see and do if you have the time...if time is of an essence...dont miss Zion and hiking the Narrows...

Hit me up for particulars...stayed in most NP overnight, so got lots more deets.



Stewie said:

Here would be my itinerary if I had 2+ weeks travel time. Head west on I70 to Denver, zip up to Rocky Mountain N.P., (hit up Estes Park..cute little tourist trap) then drive the Ridge Road if you have a car with ok clearance...(just dont take it if rainy)...head out the backside of the park and back down to I70...continue west to Arches NP and Moab (rent a bike/maybe a jeep tour). Head back to I70 westbound to to I15...then 2 different national parks...Bryce Canyon, and Zion...couple great trails can be had there as well...hike the Narrows in Zion at least...15 will head you to Vegas, then continue to LA on the 15...wave to me when you drive by!.
Once you finish up LA, head out the 10 to Palm Springs, do some thrifting at Angel View and Boomerangs, maybe head over to Joshua Tree for a bit of bouldering, then continue past Phoenix to Tucson and hit Saguaro NP practically in town. Once you finish up there, keep heading east on the 10 past Las Cruces and Ciudad Juarez, south on the 90 to zoom past Prada Marfa (tho Marfa is probably 40 miles away) continue to Marfa..great small art community there, 385 S and hit up Big Bend NP, back to 90 over to San Antonio and up to Austin.
Lot to see and do if you have the time...if time is of an essence...dont miss Zion and hiking the Narrows...
Hit me up for particulars...stayed in most NP overnight, so got lots more deets.

Click to expand...

Another incredibly helpful post! I've been busy all weekend, but my wife and I are starting to do research. She started some sort of spreadsheet, complete with links to photos. I posted on SF.

I am going to write down all of the things you guys have said and compare it to my wife's list. We have limited time, so I know I'll have to leave some of it for next time. We have a vague list of areas that we want to see, and we're likely to dedicate an entire trip to Route 1 in California.

This time I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not overextending myself. We don't have children, but probably will in the near future and trips like these are difficult to do with babies. So, we might as well give it a shot now!