Help Plan The Grand Tour Of The West!

[Steve_S]

My wife and I are considering a tour of the western US in our 1949 MG TC. Right now I'm looking at possible routes and I could use some suggestions. Here are the only concrete rules so far...

1. We will depart in late June.

2. The route will be counter-clockwise starting in Los Angeles.

3. The route must pass through Park City, Utah in early July so we can attend GoF West 2007.

4. We do not want to cross the rockies. Western US only!

5. We want to visit all the western states. A visit means we will at least pass through one significant city or town per state. States include CA, AZ, NM, CO, UT, NV, MT, ID, WA, OR.

6. We want to pass through Grand Canyon (probably north to save time), various Utah parks and Yellowstone.

7. Our route south from Washington will be primarily Pacific Coast highway unless there is a good reason to go inland.

8. Back roads will be used whenever possible and Interstate will be avoided. Remember, this is a 1949 MG!

We are considering skipping New Mexico and Colorado since (no offense to those who live there) there isn't much there west of the Rockies, especially Colorado. We feel it may not be worth days and days of driving just to say we passed through. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

The car we will be traveling in:

 

[Steve_S]

<u>Preliminary Route</u>
Day 1: Los Angeles to Las Vegas by way of highway 138, Route 66 to Barstow and I-15 to Vegas.

Day 2: Las Vegas to North Rim Grand Canyon via Zion National Park.

Day 3: Travel to somewhere in Utah, perhaps through Glen Canyon, Canyonlands or Capitol Reef.

Day 4: Travel to Park City for Gof West.

Day 5-8: GoF West

Day 9: Travel to Jackson, Wyoming

Day 10: Travel to West Yellowstone, Montana via Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks.

Day 11: West Yellowstone to Missoula, MT

Day 12: Missoula to Idaho Border near Bonners Ferry to visit family.

Day 13-14: Cross Washington, possibly to Seattle. Open to suggestions here to find good scenery and avoid Summer heat.

Day 15: Seattle to Olympic Penninsula and head south.

Day 16-20: Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles.

Day 21: Sleep, wash car, sleep.

 

[2wrench]

Steve, sounds great! Wouldn't you want to stop and
spend a night in San Francisco on your way to LA via
Highwy 1?

Thought you might consider it. San Francisco is a
beautiful city.

I suppose you live in LA; i.e., point of origin?

In my view, you're saving the best for last: Pacific Coast
Highway (Highway 1).

Might be fun to meet you if you travel through the
San Francisco area.

2wrench

 

[drooartz]

Steve, for your Utah bit here's my recommendation for one of the best roads in the country. I've done it on my motorcycle, it's amazing. This is possibly my favorite route in Utah.

* Rt 12 from Bryce Canyon, through Escalante up to Torrey. There's some elevation gain (can't remember how much) but the views are spectacular, and the road is smooth and twisty.

* Continue on to Loa, go north on Rt 72 to I-70. Mountain pass, twisty, pretty.

* Go under I-70, pick up Rt 10 towards Price

Now you have 2 choices:

1) Rt 10 to Price, then Rt 6 to just past Helper

or

2) Rt 10 to Huntington, then West on Rt 31 to the top of Fairfield Canyon, then back East on Rt 264 and Rt 96 past Scofield Reservoir to Rt 6. Go South on Rt 6 to just north of Helper

From Helper:

* North on Rt 191 to Duchene, West on Rt 40 through Heber (wave to me in Midway!) then right on to Park City

Look on Google Maps, start with Bryce Canyon, then wend your way northwards from there. The mountain passes are wonderful, and the driving is all non-freeway. There are some neat places to stay in Torrey, or the camping in the Capitol Reef is nice (a fruit orchard in the desert).

If you need to make more time, Bryce Canyon is beautiful, and most of the pretty stuff is visible from the park road. Rt 89 will take you north (parallels I-15) and is much nicer. If you go that way, you'll wind up through Provo. Take 189 through Provo Canyon, and you'll go through Midway (don't forget to wave!) on your way to Park City.

North Rim of the Grand Canyon is very pretty, and much less developed than the south. You don't get the full view of the main canyon, but it's still a really big hole (I've only been to the North Rim myself).

Get hold of me directly if you want more Southern Utah info. I spend a lot of time down there--it's a truly magical place.

 

[Steve_S]

2wrench, we would definitely be traveling through the bay area. We came through with a caravan of 8 T-Type MGs a few months ago on a trip to Mount Hood, Oregon and back. There are photos in San Francisco on page three of my trip report here: https://www.mgnuts.com/mg/events/gofwest2006/

And I do live in the LA area, about 30 miles northwest, hence the starting / ending point! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Drew, thanks for the suggestions. I will take a look at the maps and try to figure out time versus scenic routes based on your notes.

I have been to the south rim of the Grand Canyon but never north. I've been to most of the Utah parks a couple times and I never get tired of them! And I'm sure it would be all the better in an old MG. I don't want to spend TOO much extra time hitting all the parks, but I definitely want to hit a few of them.

 

[tony barnhill]

Are you going to stop & enjoy anything or just drive? For example, we spent 3 days in Jackson Hole & could've stayed longer.

Day 10 is actually at a minimum of 2 days travel, probably more.

Day 13-14....check out the vineyards in Yakima Valley (Yakima Valley Highway)

...just a few thoughts

 

[Steve_S]

Thanks Tony. Yakima Valley is a place I've never been but always wanted to. That gives me more incentive to go!

Day 10, Jackson to West Yellowstone, is only 125 miles. This gives us time to stop for a few hours in Yellowstone. We've both been there before so we don't have to see "everything" but we do want to tour and majority of the park.

There is always the chance that we will add a day here and there after Park City. We just have to be in Park city on a certain day for the big MG event.

 

[Stewart]

I second Tony and would say plan a few more days around Jackson and jellystone especially during prime tourist season as that place is swamped and the traffic in and out of the park can be bad especially with the huge rv's with people who should not be driving anything crowd.

Your missing quite a bit by skipping Colorado as there are tons of sweet old mining towns up in the Rockies and the views are incredible. Not to mention tons of very good micro breweries.

 

[Steve_S]

I've been through Colorado a few times but haven't spent much time west of the Rockies. It would take a lot of extra time to go that route but it is worth considering. I do love those old mining towns. Durango would be neat to spend a day in. I'm weary of going all the way to the Rockies because it's adding a LOT of mileage to make the out and back trip. It's probably 4-5 extra days. Hmmm...

As far as Wyoming, I don't plan to spend any time there at all, just a few hours in Yellowstone as we pass through. Good point about traffic that time of year. I typically don't go there during prime time. But still, it's only 125 miles so I don't see a problem making it in one day.

The drive itself from Jackson to West Yellowstone would take 2-3 hours, factor in a couple extra hours for traffic in the park and a couple more to stop at the usual spots for photos as we drive through. So there's 7 hours which leaves plenty of extra time in case we get stuck somewhere.

 

[DART]

Steve- great pics of the '06 trip to Mt Hood! I have to admire your sense of adventure with a 2,500 mile trip in a "T" car. And how did you get lucky enough to find a mate that can pack everything she needs into that car and still leave you room to drive?? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
Your trip to Park City and back should cover some of the prettiest scenery in the country. Are you in a caravan again or is this a solo run?

 

[Steve_S]

Right now this is not an official trip and is only in pre-pre-planning stages. So no one else is slated to come along. However there are a few people who might be crazy enough to join up. I wouldn't mind a couple extra cars along if for no other reason than to carry more spares! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

 

[AngliaGT]

Steve,

If you're coming through Eureka,
you'd better give me a call!

- Doug

 

[Steve_S]

Yeah, this time we need to meet up. What a shame we missed each other at the Benbow Inn by only a couple hours!

 

[swift6]

On the way out of Utah, one option is to take US40 from Park City to Vernal (maybe a short visit to Dinosaur National Monument), see the Post Office that had its bricks mailed to the area as individual pieces because it was less expensive than shipping them as a bulk load. Funny Story really.

From Vernal, drive north through the Flaming Gorge area to Green River Wyoming. Some very interesting scenery around Green River Wyoming. From Green River you can keep heading north across the high altitude plains on US191 all the way to Jackson. The desolation of these plains will really make you appreciate the beauty of Wyoming's Northwest corner that much more. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

As far as Traffic in Yellowstone. The speed limit through the park is 35mph and the Park Rangers are VERY serious about it. You do not want a speeding ticket in Yellowstone. If traffic will even let you speed.
The last time I was in Yellowstone it was with my TR6 during late September. I was visiting my Dad who lived in Moran (South side of Yellowstone next to Jackson Lake). I thought late September would be less tourists as Schools were back in session. Well, home school kids must go on vacation in September. The park was still extremely packed with lots of kids. I was very surprised to see that many youngsters still on vacation. I got the LAST parking spot at Old faithful because I was the only one willing to park next to a Ferrari from New Mexico. Even the Motor-home parking was full. My round trip from Moran to Old Faithful and back to Moran took almost all day (although daylight hours are shorter in September). And that was only with about a 20minute stop at Old Faithful (I've seen it a lot and I timed that visit perfectly, it erupted within 2 minutes of me hitting the boardwalk so it made for a short stay. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

By all means don't let any of this talk you out of making the trip through Yellowstone. It is very much worth seeing from an LBC. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif Definitely better than going up through Eastern Idaho (unless you REALLY want to see how Potatoes are grown). But plan on it taking the whole day. Making it through in 5-6 hours could be possible, and it would be awesome if you can, but plan for longer.