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Archive 2013 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Anzxio
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p.1 #1 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

I have the following US roadtrip planned for late May into June:

(first number is the day, 2nd is the date, eg. May 23, in brackets are my current options for what to do. they are not necessarily on the correct day, or all achievable)

1 23 Washington DC (only fly in and have a morning here, so as much as i can see assuming the rain stays away!)
2 24 Pittsburgh (stopover, Duquesne Incline)
3 25 Indianapolis
4 26 Indianapolis (Indy 500)
5 27 Chicago
6 28 Chicago (John Hancock Observatory, Skydeck, Adler, The Bean, Bridges)
7 29 Chicago (Cubs game)
8 30 Sioux Falls (stopover)
9 31 Badlands NP
10 1 Keystone (Mt Rushmore, Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Rd, Custer State Park, etc...)
11 2 Rocky Mountain NP (there's a remote chance of the Trail Ridge road being open)
12 3 Colorado Springs (Pikes Peak, Air Force Academy Chapel)
13 4 Great Sand Dunes NP
14 5 Ouray (Million Dollar Highway)
15 6 Moab (possibly Mesa Verde NP, i might not have time though)
16 7 Moab (Arches NP, Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch)
17 8 Moab (Canyonlands NP, Mesa Arch, Dead Horse Point)
18 9 Monument Valley (Moki Dugway, Gooseneck Bend)
19 10 Page (Antelope Canyon)
20 11 Page (Horseshoe Bend)
21 12 Grand Canyon NP
22 13 Grand Canyon NP
23 14 Laguna Beach (this is a long driving day.pickup Corvette)
24 15 Laguna Beach (Ortega Highway)
25 16 Laguna Beach (possibly go out to Joshua Tree NP)
26 17 Laguna Beach (fly out in the afternoon)

Yes, i am well aware of the distances, and have done these trips before, so no need to tell me about that.
My last trip was: Yellowstone NP > Grand Teton NP > Salt Lake City > Capitol Reef NP > Bryce Canyon NP > Zion NP > Valley of Fire > Death Valley NP > Mammoth Lakes > Yosemite NP > San Francisco > Carmel > Pismo Beach > Santa Barbara > LA.

I will probably post more specific threads as i'm on the trip, though any advice anyone can give now would be greatly appreciated. My current biggest concern is weather! I'm hoping there wont be too much rain/snow for the first few weeks (Colorado is where i'll probably have the most issues).

I've always wanted to go coast (ish) to coast, so it should be a fun (though crazy busy/rushed) adventure, and i'm currently making sure i have everything i need and getting ready to pack.

Gear wise i will be travelling with: 5dmk2, 17-40, 70-200 f4, 85 1.8, and GoPro.

May 13, 2013 at 12:49 PM

unsecurewifi
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p.1 #2 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Pikes peak - You may want to consider "Garden of the Gods" rather than pikes peak.
If you still want to drive up a 14r, may be - Mt.Evans. Pikes peak is OK.

I am not sure, if I can suggest this - but skip, Mt. Rushmore.

May 13, 2013 at 01:03 PM

Anzxio
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p.1 #3 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Pikes Peak is there purely because it holds some interest to me in terms of the racing that takes place there. Hence driving it is a must do

Garden of the Gods is an interesting one though. I've heard that mentioned several times as a good option. I will research that one.

Some specifics i'd appreciate info on:
- Monument Valley tour operator that's worth using, and that isn't stupidly expensive
- Antelope Canyon tour operators
- With the two questions above, is it worth prebooking these tours?
- RMNP locations. Including ideas for if the Trail Ridge road is closed.
- Badlands locations

May 13, 2013 at 01:08 PM

kellyakinsart
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p.1 #4 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

I could tell by some of your choices that driving/racing was one of your interests

Are you buying, or renting a corvette?
After some of the sights you're going to see, Ortega Highway might not be as interesting visually (but to those of us in So Cal, it's one of the prettier drives) but it's one of the most fun drives in the U.S. to take a sports car on. In the 60s and 70s the car magazines always picked it as one of the top 10 driving roads in the U.S. but it's so busy now that it has lost some of it's charm, but is still worth doing.

Kelly

May 13, 2013 at 01:30 PM

Anzxio
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p.1 #5 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

It's just a Hertz Corvette. It's there purely to have some fun with at the end of the trip

One of the best things about travelling to the US is that you can hire 400bhp+ v8 fun cars for incredibly cheap prices!
If you're aware of any other fun roads i could drive (if they involve scenery worth photographing then clearly that's better for me!).

May 13, 2013 at 01:37 PM

kellyakinsart
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p.1 #6 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

When going up Ortega Highway, just make sure you go all the way over the top and stop at an overlook of Lake Elsinore. It's a pretty view. I teach at the High School at the bottom left (the north end of the lake).

Kelly

May 13, 2013 at 01:53 PM

DonH
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p.1 #7 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

You have 2 days listed in Page but both Antelopes and Horseshoe Bend can easily be seen in one day. Horseshoe Bend for sunrise, then Lower Antelope (~9-11), and finally Upper Antelope (~11-1). Round out the day with a trip to Mushroom Hoodoos followed by Stud Horse Point (a little hard to find w/o a guide) for sunset. That will open an additional day for you. If you really want to have fun, for the day that I just opened up go to White Pocket. No permits required but you'll need a 4WD and good tires to negotiate loose sand.

May 13, 2013 at 02:40 PM

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p.1 #8 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

We moved to Portland OR from DC, in 2009. Left May 27th and arrived in Portland on the 24th of June. You will have a great time. just enjoy it. Make sure to skip the eastern states and focus on the nicer ones. First exiting area for us was South Dakota.

May 13, 2013 at 03:29 PM

Anzxio
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p.1 #9 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

DonH wrote:
You have 2 days listed in Page but both Antelopes and Horseshoe Bend can easily be seen in one day. Horseshoe Bend for sunrise, then Lower Antelope (~9-11), and finally Upper Antelope (~11-1). Round out the day with a trip to Mushroom Hoodoos followed by Stud Horse Point (a little hard to find w/o a guide) for sunset. That will open an additional day for you. If you really want to have fun, for the day that I just opened up go to White Pocket. No permits required but you'll need a 4WD and good tires to negotiate loose sand.

Do you have any ideas for which tours to take in Antelope canyon?

May 14, 2013 at 12:17 PM

alatoo60
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p.1 #10 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Just few notes:
It is recommended to drive up Moki Dugway rather than going down but its up to you. Its fun either way.
Due to landslide, road 89 from Page to GC is now closed, all traffic goes through Tuba City which adds at least an hour. There are some cool photo spots around Tuba City, too.
If you want really fun roller-coaster drive with the views, that's highway 191 (Coronado Trail) from Alpine to Morenci. Although due to Wallow Fire, the scenery may be different from what I've seen few years ago.

Sasha.

May 14, 2013 at 01:39 PM

Dustin Gent
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p.1 #11 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Sounds like a great trip and have fun! I might be biased, but you left out some of the most amazing areas of the US - the PNW. Waterfalls are in prime season right now, and the coastline up here is second to none

Olympics are looking nice - especially the Hoh.

May 14, 2013 at 01:51 PM

DonH
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p.1 #12 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Do you have any ideas for which tours to take in Antelope canyon?

As for Antelope, I've visited a number of times and never used a guide service. I've always driven up to the entrance, paid my fee for a photographer's tour, then entered the slot (Lower) or climbed in the back of a pickup for a ride to the slot (Upper). So far, knock on wood, I've not had any significant crowd issues.

As for Stud Horse Point, which is in Utah, you might want to get in touch with Jackson Bridges for guide service there. My website has a couple of shots from there.

May 14, 2013 at 05:59 PM

Derek Weston
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p.1 #13 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Some really cool views from pikes peak. Wouldn't sleep on it as a photography location with the right light. Some of the road shots looking down are quite nice.

May 14, 2013 at 06:28 PM

Tim Knutson
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p.1 #14 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

savingspaces wrote:
We moved to Portland OR from DC, in 2009. Left May 27th and arrived in Portland on the 24th of June. You will have a great time. just enjoy it. Make sure to skip the eastern states and focus on the nicer ones. First exiting area for us was South Dakota.

+1

May 14, 2013 at 08:54 PM

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p.1 #15 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

It's getting hot quickly here in Colorado, trail ridge is open up to rainbow curve already, and is usually fully open by memorial weekend. We did get some major snowfall recently, and there was some concern the sequester might delay plowing, but I haven't heard any word on that recently. My bet is that it will be open by the 2nd

May 14, 2013 at 09:07 PM

markcapilitan
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p.1 #16 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Will add another recommendation for Garden of the Gods. If you can get up early, it's a great sunrise spot. That leaves loads of time to drive up the Peak in the arvo. Great drive!

For Upper Antelope, Carol Bigthumbs tour is good. For Lower, bring a tripod, pay the photographers tour fee, and go in yourself, best way!

The Moki Dugway is excellent. We drove down it towards Monument Valley. Not a scary drive at all, but so cool!

May 15, 2013 at 05:46 AM

Craig Gillette
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p.1 #17 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

The Ortega Highway isn't that long. Making the assumption that you are fairly well recovered from the drive from Grand Canyon to Laguna Beach, you might want to consider going on past the Ortega Highway section and continue on Highway 74 to Palm Desert on portions of the Pines to Palms Highway. Depending on your return route, that could get to be kind of a long day, too. It would be shorter to go north through Idyllwild and to Banning then return west but that would likely duplicate at least some of your route in.

The eastern end of Highway 74 as you drop from the mountains to the desert at Palm Desert was used for the opening sequences of the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It's a very twisty stretch through jumbled granite boulders.

May 15, 2013 at 06:10 PM

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p.1 #18 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Sounds like a great trip.

Nothing between GRCA and Laguna? Any thoughts of Vegas / Valley of Fire on the way through? It would (probably) cost you a night in Laguna to go that way.

I've only been a couple of times, but drove a section of historic Rt 66 around Seligman - I could see how it was the place to be in its heyday. Not landscapes by any stretch.

May 15, 2013 at 08:43 PM

Anzxio
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p.1 #19 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

Can anyone advise on a suitable tour operator in Monument Valley? or should i just drive around the road there to see it? (i have very limited time). I am staying at the View hotel inside the park also.

May 18, 2013 at 11:50 AM

alatoo60
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p.1 #20 · USA coast to coast - Help me with locations!

If you have limited time then simply driving around MV yourself will provide you with plenty of excellent views and compositions, especially if its your first time there. Start early to capture good light and avoid heat.

May 18, 2013 at 12:02 PM

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