Driving from Chicago to LA - Route suggestions?

This forum always struck me as being populated by a worldly, well traveled lot - so I wanted to ask this here.

Soon (the end of May) I will be driving to LA from the south suburbs of Chicago (Crete, Il). Now, I'm purposely driving (even though flying would be cheaper) because I've never been further west than Iowa and I want to have some fun. What I'm looking for is some advice on the best route.

Here's the rough outline of my plan: Leave Crete whenever, Crete to LA, Arrive in LA on the 28th or 29th, stay in LA with friends for a day or two, drive to Vegas with said friends and stay the weekend, return home at my leisure. I want to keep the trip as cheap as possible, so I'm gonna throw a mattress in the back of my van and sleep in there whenever possible.

Mapquest tells me that the Mapquest suggested route is about 2000 miles fromhere to LA - I'd be willing to add, say, 500 miles to that on the in the name of a more interesting drive. The trip back, I'd be willing to add much more, if I had enough money left after Vegas for the gas to do so.

There is nothing in particular I want to see; I'm completely open to suggestions. I would definitely like to make the ride back as different as possible from the ride there - you know, variety, and all that.

Opinions?

Okay... having done this semi-recently (about a year ago) with a moving van, my first suggestion is: skip Nebraska.

The way I came down was I-80 -> I-76 -> I-15 -> LA. That route takes you through Vegas on the way down, and since you're going to be driving back to Vegas later, you might not be so keen to do that.

If you don't mind a bit of a northward detour, you could hop up to I-90, and hit Mt. Rushmore, in S. Dakota. From there, you can take some non-freeways to Wyoming, and see Old Faithful, in Yellowstone. Going south from there on the 89, you can hook back up with the I-15 above Salt Lake City. You can make a stop in there to visit the Mormon Temple. You can then either follow I-15 all the way down, or jump on I-80 through Nevda to Reno. I haven't been to Reno, but I've been up in the Sierras there, and they're very nice (though not as nice as the Canadian Rockies, IMHO). Of course, from there, it's San Francisco, and, going south, you can see some Redwoods in Santa Cruz before following the coastal highway down to LA.

The only other slightly more interesting route I can suggest is to head down I-55 to St. Louis to take a gander at the Arch, then just head west on I-70 through Denver. Following the I-70 through the Colorado Rockies is a very nice drive -- do it in the daylight. You'll pass by Vail, and all those other nice ski resorts. When you get into Utah, you could detour through the southern end, which has a number of drop dead gorgeous national parks. Then, of course, you're back on the I-15 to LA.

I've done all of the first route, most of the second route (I haven't done the Sacramento -> Reno -> SLC stretch), and chunks of the third. I think the second route is the more interesting, but it definately takes longer.

I haven't tried going down to the I-40, and taking the southern route, so I can't give any recommendations there. There's a couple guys at work that have done it (from S. Carolina), and say it's not that interesting, but I'll check it out for mysolf one of these days. Since you're car camping, you might want to try the southern route, since it's still snowing at the higher elevations. Mammoth got 4' last week, and the Grand Canyon got snow, as well.

On the way back, you might want to stop in at the Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon, which are both reasonably close to Vegas. Either way, I recommend not going home the same way you drove down.

Don't forget your Empeg. When I moved down, I had an FM radio and one working speaker.

Cheers,

Get your kicks on route 66

Go see the Grand Canyon, whatever you do, make sure you see the big hole.

I'd have to agree with Brashear, having lived in Oklahoma and traveled Route 66 many times. Just make sure to download the song before you leave.

I've always harboured a longterm plan to sometime take a few months and go and cycle Route 66 (all the bits that haven't been paved over with interstate, anyway). Perhaps next time Empeg goes tits-up...

Peter

Go see the Grand Canyon, whatever you do, make sure you see the big hole.

Nah, take the northern route through Reno and the Sierra Nevada. Detour about 15 minutes at Truckee and spend a day at Lake Tahoe. If you like to gamble, there are casinos on the state line in North Lake and South Lake, so you can just skip Vegas.

Then again, Vegas *is* worth seeing. Tough call. No easy way to do both...

...my first suggestion is: skip Nebraska.

I'd say try to hit Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, just to be glad that you don't live in any of those states

I forgot which road it is, but I would skip I-25 (bad experience once) and go south through Utah and Arches National Park. Absolutely phenomenal. I don't know how possible it would be (been a long time since I looked at a map for Utah), but hitting Zion and Bryce National Parks would leave you breathless.

Once you make it to I-40, make sure you visit the Grand Canyon (just between Flagstaff and Williams). When the sun is low, the rocks look like they are on fire. Unbelievable.

There is all sorts of things to see in the Southwest, it just depends on what you are looking for.

I-10 to LA is really, really boring for the most part though

On a trip back from Nebraska I didn't have time to stop anywhere in Iowa, (or anywhere else, really) which sort of sucked.

But if you're driving straight through and don't expect to see anything, I vote against I-80 in Iowa. It's very flat, which means if you have, say, a rainstorm crossing you from northwest to southeast, it tries to blow you off the road, and you're fighting the wheel... periodically you'll pass a small knob off to the side of the road, and suddenly you're fighting against nothing.

I never went off the road, but it was very hard driving, and I was going the rest of the way back to PA that day. (I drove all save from Steubenville to a few miles from my house myself)

I did the big circle. Vegas, LA, up the coast (love Big Sur). San Francisco, Tahoe, Death Valley, then back to Vegas and the "big hole."

All in 6 days and 2400 miles

That was GREAT!

Wow, some great suggestions here - please, keep 'em coming. I'll post my exact route plan in detail once I settle on one.

I did the big circle. Vegas, LA, up the coast (love Big Sur). San Francisco, Tahoe, Death Valley, then back to Vegas and the "big hole."

Oooo, that sounds cool. Some of my favorite places on that trip, and a couple I've been meaning to see for a long time. I should do the same sometime.

Speaking of Truckee, there's a great little Italian eatery there, but I can't remember the name of it. Right as you come into town off the highway, there's a Shell station on the corner before you cross the railway tracks. The restaurant is right across the street from the station. Excellent food -- two different homemade breads, both very good, some of the best lasagna I've eaten, and the vegetables were tender, but not mushy. Service was very quick, and very courteous -- even the other customers eating at the bar with me were pleasant. The atmosphere was suitable for meal-for-two, as well as larger groups. Even the large groups that were there were quite well mannered, and noise was very minimal. 4 thumbs up from me.

Speaking of Truckee, there's a great little Italian eatery there, but I can't remember the name of it. Right as you come into town off the highway, there's a Shell station on the corner before you cross the railway tracks.

Know the corner and the Shell station well. It's where we always used to stop for a potty break on the way to Tahoe. Never tried the eatery, I'll have to try that now.

Only thing is, they changed the highway so that you no longer have to drive through that part of town to get to Tahoe. There's now a more direct link to that highway from 80. They just finished construction on it. Remember how you'd get off the freeway and have to kind of jog backwards through Truckee before heading to Tahoe? The new connection just cuts straight across the "jog", around the downtown section of Truckee.

Since there is much more to see on the northern route, and since you seem to have more time on the way back, I suggest you you come to Los Angeles on the southern route through St. Louis to see the Arch and work your way down to the 40 and see the "big hole" as Dave suggested. Take the Vegas exit off the 40 in Kingman and drive accross Hoover dam. If you have time stop and take the tour, if they still have it after 9/11. There will be some long boring stretches in there, but most western states have that problem.
On your way back, take the northern route. Why drive back the same way you came.

Lot of good idea here.

As for a Northern route, if you do it, avoid North Dakota - completely boring and then you still have to go through most of Northern Minnesota as well. South Dakota however is less likely to see snow (even if you take this trip in Summer don't discount freakin North Dakota for snow!). Also SD has the black hills and Rushmore. You may get Devils Tower in Wyoming, also pretty country there. When you get across, it's a short jaunt over to Minneapolis and then through WI back to Chicago.

Also if it's summer (like July or August only), Denver may be way out of the way but the area, the mountains, Boulder, etc. are all very pretty.

And on your way out of Vegas, more options may be any or all of Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands parks in Utah. Or on the way in for that matter. Maybe go in through the north, out from Vegas through Utah?

North Dakota was pretty boring to look at from the Empire Builder, too, but we didn't make any side trips, so I can only comment on what's within sight of the train windows.

I did the big circle.

Last year, Jen and I did a small circle - San Francisco, Tahoe, Sacramento, Yosemite, Santa Cruz, back to SFO. 10 days, just under 1000 miles.

My circle was big. Windsor, up through Michigan, around the top of the Great Lakes and up to Winnepeg, across to Alberta, up to Calgary and Edmonton, then down through Banff and Jasper to Vancouver Island, down to Frisco, LA, San Diego and Mexico before going back through Vegas, the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and all the rest of those places I mentioned as option number two, before heading back to Detroit and home.

I can't remember the mileage off the top of my head, or the exact number of days (under three weeks, though). We averaged 100 km/h, including the times we were stopped and sleeping, or out of the car wandering around looking at things. Gas worked out to about $500, split between the two of us. Accomodations? $0. Showers? About $5 in quarters.

Funniest memory? My friend discovering, while in the middle of nowhere, the ramifications of drinking 1.3 liters of milk in under 2 minutes.

We averaged 100 km/h, including the times we were stopped and sleeping, or out of the car wandering around looking at things

What the hell were you driving, a Dodge Viper or something?

Gas worked out to about $500

Maybe not!

We averaged 100 km/h, including the times we were stopped and sleeping, or out of the car wandering around looking at things

What the hell were you driving, a Dodge Viper or something?

Heh. No... it was a old Mazda. Can't remember the model. My friend had driven it out to the East coast earlier that year, and wanted his car to see both coasts. The car was on its last legs -- the week before we left, he was in a head on collision on the way back from getting his brakes fixed. It was pissing rain, so not his fault. The night before we left, he was in his grandmother's barn trying to straighten the frame. We were prepared to have to fly home from somewhere, but the only mechanical problem we had was a waterpump failure in the middle of the Upper Peninsula on the first day. (Note to all foreign car owners -- Michigan's UP is not a good place to break down). We drove/coasted back into Canada, after an $80 tow.

After digging up the mileage... 15,197.4 Km (9443.5 miles), round-trip from the doors of our old high school in Amherstburg. Each flip of the 1000km trip odometer was dutifully marked down on the back of a Larry Walker baseball card (a prize found in a cereal box).

Okay, the more I look at that 100km/h number, the more I'm sure that can't be right. We originally planned 21 days, but it took less than that... Something tells me that "including" should have been an "excluding". Ah, wait... now I see where I arrived at that 100km/h. It took 15 days, so we averaged 1000 km/day, and we had also averaged 10 hours of driving time per day (including city driving).

*grumble*stupid*grumble*memory*grumble*

Well, I've got the route tentatively worked for the here - there leg, in what my friend has dubbed the "big damn road trip" route:

Crete, Il ->St. Louis, MO - look at the big damn arch
St. Louis, MO -> Amarillo, TX - eat the big damn steak
Amarillo, TX -> Grand Caynon, AZ - look at the big damn hole
Grand Canyon, AZ -> Los Angeles, CA - hang out with the big damn fools (my buddies)

Anyone have any more ideas for things to see or do that are more or less along that route?

As for the trip back, I am trying to decide between a route that takes me through San Francisco, Reno, Utah, and Colorado, or a route that goes through San Francisco, Oregon, Washington, Montana and North Dakota. I guess it kinda depends on how much money I can set aside for gas.

big damn steak

Ah, Texans! But as we all know, everything's bigger in Derbyshire. I opted for the (IIRC) the fifth largest steak on the menu when I went -- a 24oz T-bone, which was superb.

Peter

As for the trip back, I am trying to decide between a route that takes me through San Francisco, Reno, Utah, and Colorado, or a route that goes through San Francisco, Oregon, Washington, Montana and North Dakota. I guess it kinda depends on how much money I can set aside for gas.

If you can spare the time, on the way back, don't take interstate 5. Boring drive, hot, icky, etc. Instead, Highway 1 up the coast to San Francisco is absolutely wonderful and not to be missed.

I'd take a slight detour and hit Magic Mountain for a day (it's in Valencia just north of LA). Best roller coasters anywhere.

On the way to San Fran, you can stop at the Monterey Bay aquarium which is pretty cool. And there's San Simeon and Hearst Castle which is cool if you haven't already seen it. And on the steepest cliffs of Highway 1 just north of San Simeon, I've seen, from my car, whales cresting off the shore, which is pretty darn cool.

When you are in San Fran, plan to stay the night near the waterfront and make a point of hitting Cobb's that night. Preferably a Saturday night. There's one particularly good story about Cobb's at the bottom of my main news page.

From there, my choice would be to skip Oregon and Washington and instead take 80 to Tahoe and then Reno. By the way, when you do Tahoe, you need to do the drive around the lake to South Lake Tahoe, don't just hit the north side of the lake and say you've seen it. You can drive around either the Nevada side of the lake or the California side of the lake. The Nevada side of the lake is a nice and easy drive year-round and mostly quite scenic. But the California side of the lake has a short but spectacular drive around Emerald bay which you should definitely see if you can. The problem is that highway is so narrow and steep that it is closed for most of the winter. So if you're traveling in the winter, the Emerald Bay drive might not be an option. If I were detouring off of 80 just to see Tahoe, I'd drive down to south lake on the California side, then drive back up to 80 on the Nevada side (skipping the cutoff to Carson City and instead continuing up to Crystal Bay and Truckee/80).

Then again, the mountains of Oregon and Washington and even some of the mountains along the border between Oregon and California are quite beautiful. And Nevada/Utah are nothing to write home about. So Oregon/Washington might be worth the trip, but it would mean you'd miss Tahoe which really shouldn't be missed. Hmm, tough choice.

big damn steak

Story about that here.