Traveling MamasWondering how to entertain your 2-yr-old on a long trip? Got questions about airfares or car routes? Want to know where the best tourist or camping spots are? Moving across the country? C'mon in!
I'm planning a trip across country, need some travel help!
DH and I were looking at our travel atlas earlier today and trying to plan our trip across country when we transfer duty stations in March. It's looking like we're gonna be taking I-90 from Chicago all the way across the country. Then once we get to Washington, we are heading South to Eugene Oregon and continuing on down I-5 to California and then we're hitting the San Francisco and Sacremento areas and either continuing on I-5 or taking 101 down to San Diego b/c we gotta hit some other places in CA to visit DH's family.
Anyway, Is there anything I should try NOT to miss on our journey across country? I'm not took keen on taking the northern route in March, but to end up in Oregon we gotta!
So on my list of places to see so far...
Missoula
Mt Rushmore
Yellowstone (maybe?)
A couple of place around the Columbia River (that's DH's list actually)
Mt St Helens (assuming it hasn't exploded by then and that we have time)
Any other fun and exciting places I should try to stop and see anywhere along the way??? National Parks, landmarks, monuments, anything unusual or someplace that's amazingly (is that a word?) beautiful that we just cannot drive past and not stop to see? I'm open to any suggestions!!! Just name off places, I'm highlighting everything in yellow that we want to try to see and then seeing how far off the path it is and if it's possible.. LOL
We'll be traveling through Northern Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, California, Illinois, Northern Idaho, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin I believe. ( may have missed a state there somewhere??) Oh a touch of Washington State too.
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If you need any recommendations for places to eat, stay, anything, just let me know. Missoula has a really great carousel that's open year-round, too.
I would say Glacier NP is not to be missed, but at that time of year it's pretty inaccessible - I think you can only make it a little way into the park before the roads are closed. Yellowstone is definitely worth seeing, though the hotels in the park are very pricey. Definitely stop and see Old Faithful blow, though, it's spectacular.
There are so many great places down the coast, I can't even begin to say - there's probably a lot of Oregon, Washington & California women here who can tell you in greater detail. We've camped at many of the sites along the coast, though. If you can get onto Hwy 101 occasionally (it's pretty slow and twisty in a lot of spots, but so beautiful) I highly recommend it.
What a fantastic trip! I'm jealous - anywhere west is great for a road trip...
I'd love suggestions on places to stay in Missoula! We'll be there for a day or two, since I can't take the route I had orginally planned (no thanks to DH) then I told him I am stopping in Missoula and there's nothing he say about it! Only cause I've heard such great things about how beautiful it is there and so on!!!
We will definitely be on Highway 101 a little bit of our trip b/c DH' parents live kinda coastal CA now. We have 30 days to get to San Diego from Virginia and once we leave Chicago, we'll be on day 7 of our trip, so we still have three weeks to make it across the country. That means I get to take my time and see things!! yay!
I wish we could see Glacier NP, but it is a little out of the way and it is still going to be winter time, which is the only thing that sucks about the trip!
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We did I-90 across from Chicago to Seattle. It was awesome. We did it in mid-April and it was still quite cold and snowy in parts.
Don't miss Badlands NP. It was beautiful.
I don't know if you will be able to see Old Faithful. Call to see when they open the road to the geysers. We were there on like April 23rd or so (granted, ten years ago) and we were the first people (literally) to see it that season. We just happened to be there the day it opened. It was still very snowy in the park and down into the 20s and 30s at night.
And my more general recommendation is to do that with all stops you plan to make: call the park and be sure they are open, have accomodations (I can never spell that) and so on.
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And that's a good point about Yellowstone - they get a lot of snow well into the spring.
How are you-all staying - hotels, B&Bs, cabins? Also let me know your price range and how many you'll have in your 'party' (if you want to PM me, please do). I can send you some links and info.
I also just wanted to say about Mt. Rushmore - we drove up to see it and when we got to the parking area, were informed the price (I think it was $12 or $15 per person) so we said we'd pass. They gave us a HUGE hassle about coming up there and not paying, even yelling to us that we couldn't turn the car around there... like, how else were we going to leave? Anyway, you might check out the details before you get there.
As for coastal Oregon into N. Cali - there are so many beautiful places to camp and stop. I highly recommend Oswald West State Park (you truck your stuff down to your campsite in a wheelbarrow) - there's a great beach there, and you can get really amazing seafood in nearby Cannon Beach. We brought a Coleman stove along and cooked oysters, clams, etc. right on the beach C. Beach is pretty touristy, but they have a great candy place where they make real sal****er taffy. Couer d'Alene, Idaho has a huge candy store, too -- all of Northern Idaho is gorgeous, and since you're leaving Missoula to travel through there, you'll hit some really interesting little mining towns.
Speaking of interesting towns - Deadwood, SD is pretty cool. Lots of casino action, but the cemetery is well worth checking out. Wild Bill Hickok is buried there, as are some other 'wild west' legends.
When you head south from the San Francisco area to San Diego..
I-5 is quicker but virtually viewless (lots of undeveloped flat land of dry grass)
101 is longer but has stunning scenery of the coast all the way down and some neat o places to stop at if you want to get off the highway and view some sights.
Hearst castle is incredible, but not much fun for little ones. There's the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, the drive through the Redwood Forest and Trees of Mystery (silly, but in a cool way), and the Sea Lion Caves on the coast... We drove from Los Angeles to Washington quite a few times when I was a kid, it was fun!
And gosh, I gotta get me some of that sal****er taffy!!!
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happy sahmama to Ethan (4/99), Bella (02/04), and Cailey (3/08)
and *so* proud of my man...
I believe there's a few viewing areas for Mt. St. Helens along I-5, but to get to the mountain to the viewing area looking down in the crater is several hours off the interstate, and I believe it's all closed while there is any question of eruption. If you DO make it up there, it's a very windy road, switchbacks and the like, and it's not a very wide road. If I remember right, one side was a cliff face too, which totally freaked me out.
If you're into clam chowder, Moe's is in Lincoln city and Newport (not sure what other locations) and supposedly has wonderful clam chowder. DH loves it at least.
The Oregon Caves were really cool too, but a bit out of the way if i remember correctly.
Oh, and if you're into Hanna Andersson, there's an outlet not to far off I-5 just south of Portland
I'm planning a trip across country, need some travel help!
We'll be there for a day or two, since I can't take the route I had orginally planned (no thanks to DH) then I told him I am stopping in Missoula and there's nothing he say about it! 
Only cause I've heard such great things about how beautiful it is there and so on!!!
Ethan (4/99), 
Bella (02/04), and 
Cailey (3/08)
Bring her that horizon...
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