Trip across the USA

Hi,

We are making a trip across the States and a part of our trip is through
Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.
Starting at St. Louis and ending at Denver Colorado is there anything along
the I 70 what we must see or avoid.

Our route in general is. Starting in New York then Niagara Falls, Detroit,
Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Grand Canyon (South Rim and North Rim), Zion NP
or Brice Canyon), LasVegas, Joshua NP, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara,
along the Coast via Highway 1 to San Francisco.

From San Francisco we catch a plane back home to the Netherlands.

If there is any body who can give us hints what to do or not, let us know.

Henk.

About 21/2 hours each way from the south rim of the Grand Canyon is Sedona
in Arizona. If you have the time it is worth seeing.
Mike

"Henk" wrote in message
...
Hi,

We are making a trip across the States and a part of our trip is through
Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.
Starting at St. Louis and ending at Denver Colorado is there anything
along the I 70 what we must see or avoid.

Our route in general is. Starting in New York then Niagara Falls, Detroit,
Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Grand Canyon (South Rim and North Rim), Zion
NP or Brice Canyon), LasVegas, Joshua NP, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara,
along the Coast via Highway 1 to San Francisco.

From San Francisco we catch a plane back home to the Netherlands.

If there is any body who can give us hints what to do or not, let us know.

Henk.

Henk, that sounds like a great trip. Here are a few thoughts...

* European visitors sometimes don't realize how big the U.S. is, so
I'll point out that your trip is about like driving from the
Netherlands to Saudi Arabia. It's a long drive.

* Don't know if you're stopping in Detroit or just passing through,
but I wouldn't spend time there unless there was something specific
that you wanted to see. Spend your time in some of the other cities
instead.

* You mentioned visiting both the North and South rims of the Grand
Canyon. While it's great to visit both, on a busy trip like yours I'd
suggest you just pick one rim to visit. The south rim is the one that
most folks visit, and it has more facilities for visitors, but the
north rim is great also.

* As for the drive from St. Louis to Denver on I-70, it's been a few
years since I drove that route but my memory is that it's a fairly
boring drive.

* From Las Vegas you might want to consider a day trip to Death Valley
National Park. Hoover Dam is also quite interesting and is just a
short drive from Las Vegas.

* When you're driving along the California Coast on Highway 1, I'd
suggest a small diversion to take the "17-Mile Drive", which is a
scenic road near Monterey, California that has some of the most
beautiful ocean views in California. You have to pay a small toll
because the road is privately owned (by the Pebble Beach golf club),
but it's well worth it. Here's the official site:
http://www.pebblebeach.com/page.asp?id=1373

James

On Sat, 17 May 2008 21:02:01 +0200, "Henk" wrote:

We are making a trip across the States and a part of our trip is through
Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.
Starting at St. Louis and ending at Denver Colorado is there anything along
the I 70 what we must see or avoid.

I can't say there are "must-sees" on I-70 between St. Louis and
Denver, but if you want to break up the trip, you can stop in
Independence, Missouri to visit President Truman's home, library and
museum. In Abilene, Kansas, you can visit Dwight Eisenhower's boyhood
home, library and museum. In Colby, Kansas, you can visit the Prairie
Museum of Art and History.

If Denver is NOT a "must-see" for you, you can go to Colorado Springs
to visit the US Olympic Training Center and drive up to the top of
Pike's Peak.

Judy
================================================== =============
Judy Heuman

Don't waste your time in Detroit and try visiting around Boulder + Colorado
/Manitou Springs, Co

"Henk" a écrit dans le message de
...
Hi,

We are making a trip across the States and a part of our trip is through
Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.
Starting at St. Louis and ending at Denver Colorado is there anything
along the I 70 what we must see or avoid.

Our route in general is. Starting in New York then Niagara Falls, Detroit,
Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Grand Canyon (South Rim and North Rim), Zion
NP or Brice Canyon), LasVegas, Joshua NP, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara,
along the Coast via Highway 1 to San Francisco.

From San Francisco we catch a plane back home to the Netherlands.

If there is any body who can give us hints what to do or not, let us know.

Henk.

Many thanks for your info.

An alternative drive for us is to take the I 44 from St. Louis to Oklahoma
City then I 40 to Amarillo, Albuquerque, Durango Grand Canyon.
This route is more or less the Old US 66, if I am right about this.
Is this route less dull then the route mentioned below?


Henk

"Henk" schreef in bericht
...
Hi,

We are making a trip across the States and a part of our trip is through
Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.
Starting at St. Louis and ending at Denver Colorado is there anything
along the I 70 what we must see or avoid.

Our route in general is. Starting in New York then Niagara Falls, Detroit,
Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Grand Canyon (South Rim and North Rim), Zion
NP or Brice Canyon), LasVegas, Joshua NP, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara,
along the Coast via Highway 1 to San Francisco.

From San Francisco we catch a plane back home to the Netherlands.

If there is any body who can give us hints what to do or not, let us know.

Henk.

wrote in message
...
Henk, that sounds like a great trip. Here are a few thoughts...

* European visitors sometimes don't realize how big the U.S. is, so
I'll point out that your trip is about like driving from the
Netherlands to Saudi Arabia. It's a long drive.


Not even close, at around 850 miles on good roads its a snap in
comparison to Netherlands to Jeddah. Its more like Utrecht to
Florence, a trip made by many Europeans

Keith

"Henk" wrote in message
...
Many thanks for your info.

An alternative drive for us is to take the I 44 from St. Louis to Oklahoma
City then I 40 to Amarillo, Albuquerque, Durango Grand Canyon.
This route is more or less the Old US 66, if I am right about this.
Is this route less dull then the route mentioned below?


Yep, just off 44 in missouri is Meramec Caverns

http://www.americascave.com/

Through Oklahoma you can follow a lot of the old Route 66

http://www.oklahomaroute66.com/theroad/towns.html

Keith

"Henk" writes:
Our route in general is. Starting in New York then Niagara Falls,
Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Grand Canyon (South Rim and
North Rim), Zion NP or Brice Canyon), LasVegas, Joshua NP, Palm
Springs, Santa Barbara, along the Coast via Highway 1 to San Francisco.

That is a fine plan, but I hope you have checked the price for renting
a car in New York and returning it in San Francisco before fixing on it.
Also, I hope you have at least a month for the trip.

There are several routes from New York to Niagara Falls, and all of
them have some scenic parts. I usually like to take the route via
Binghamton and Corning, which was highway 17 but is being renumbered
as I-86. Of you could go through the Catskill Mountains via Kingston
and highway 28 to meet 17/I-86. If you're interested in glass art
(paperweights, vases, etc.), you should stop at Corning to see the
Museum of Glass.

At Niagara Falls, the river is the border with Canada on the west.
There are good views of the Falls from both sides. On the US side
there is an island in the river (Goat Island), which you can drive
around, but is mostly parkland. The best overall views are from
the Canadian side. On either side there are attractions which let
you get a closer look at the falls from a low level -- the so-called
Cave of the Winds on Goat Island, and Journey Behind the Falls in
Canada, and the Maid of the Mist boat trip, which you can board from
either country and return to the same place. The boat is probably
the best choice if you are doing only one of these. Also on the
Canadian side, I highly recommend the White Water Walk, which gives
you a close view of the rapids in the gorge below (north of) the falls.

If you do enter Canada, don't be surprised if there's a long delay
to get through customs and immigration when you return to the US.
Of course the quickest route to Detroit is through Canada.

Detroit is not a city I find very interesting. The suburb of Dearborn
has the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, which people speak
highly of, but I have not yet visited it. See http://www.hfmgv.org.

Chicago is one of the country's biggest cities with the usual range
of city attractions. It's well worth visiting if you like 20th century
architecture, as I do. You can even take archictural tours on foot or
by boat: see http://www.architecture.org/tours.aspx.

I've only visited St. Louis briefly. I enjoyed going up in the
Gateway Arch, but I'm not aware of any other notable attractions
there. Generally, whichever way you go between Chicago and Denver,
what you you will mostly see is a lot of flattish farmland and a
couple of major rivers. The amount of flat land may make the
journey either memorable or boring, depending on your point of view.

As soon as you get past Denver you are into mountain scenery with many
beautiful places, and often much slower driving as soon as you are off
the Interstates. One good route would be from Denver to Estes Park
(that's the name of a town; "park" here means a formation of mountains),
through Rocky Mountain National Park to Granby, then south to pick up
I-70 westbound again. Get off again at highway 91 south to Leadville,
then south a bit more to pick up highway 82 through Aspen to Glenwood
Springs. From there continue west on I-70 again.

About the time you enter Utah, the mountain forests and you are into
semi-desert, with completely different kinds of scenery, also memorable.
Get off I-70 at highway 128 and take it south (following the Colorado
River through a small but scenic canyon) to Moab, and then visit Arches
National Park.

*Now* continue to the Grand Canyon; if you take highway 163 you will
also pass through Monument Valley on the way. (Another misleading
name; it's not so much a valley as a set of isolated high formations
that you travel between. Or maybe there's a valley somewhere as well
if you get off the public roads; I haven't.)

At the Grand Canyon, as has been stated, the South Rim is the one that
most tourists go to, but it's farther from your general route. I've
only been to the South Rim, so I can't comment on the North Rim.

Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks are both well worth seeing and
have scenery completely different from each other or from any of the
other places mentioned so far!

I'll skip now to California, where I'll just point out that highway 1
does not form a continuous route up the coast. Leaving Los Angeles
it runs as far as Oxnard and then you have to take highway 101 to
Santa Barbara and for some distance beyond. Then when highway 1
starts up again, the next section is not coastal, as it cuts across
a point of land. You might want to stay on highway 101 as far as
San Luis Obispo and then pick up highway 1.

A notable stop on this next section is the "Hearst Castle", the
opulent home of William Randolph Hearst. There are several different
guided tours available. It's in the country near the village of
San Simeon. There is a cluster of hotels tightly packed together
along highway 1 a few miles away; their addresses are usually given
as San Simeon or Cambria, but they aren't actually in either village.
The hotels will obtain reservations for the tours if you haven't
got them already.

Continuing north you have the beautiful Big Sur section of the highway,
and then you get to Monterey and San Francisco. I hope you get good
weather on this section, because it is a magnificent scenic drive -- but
there is a significant risk of fog in a narrow strip along the coast.

Okay, that's enough. Have a very good trip, eh?
--
Mark Brader | I passed a sign that said "you are here",
Toronto | but I didn't entirely believe it.
| --Michael Levine

My text in this article is in the public domain.

On May 18, 4:58*am, "Keith Willshaw" wrote:
wrote in message

...

Henk, that sounds like a great trip. Here are a few thoughts...

* European visitors sometimes don't realize how big the U.S. is, so
I'll point out that your trip is about like driving from the
Netherlands to Saudi Arabia. It's a long drive.

Not even close, at around 850 miles on good roads its a snap in
comparison to Netherlands to Jeddah. Its more like Utrecht to
Florence, a trip made by many Europeans

Keith

You're kidding right? According to Mapquest, NY to SF is 2900 miles on
interstate hwys.
Ken