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My family will be moving from NC to North CA and I decide to drive my own car to avoid the car shipping expense. I would also like to stop by some mid-west cities for a little sightseeing and enjoy the views. Here are the two route I am thinking:
1. I-40 from: Durham, N Carolina to: Mountain View, CA - Google Maps (http://tinyurl.com/kqbllb - broken link) 2. I-70 and I-80fromurham, N Carolina to:39.656456,-104.853516 to:Mountain View, CA - Google Maps (http://tinyurl.com/kknl9h - broken link)
My plan is to use 7 days, each days drive 400~500 miles. I prefer the 2nd option, seems more places to visit, but I am also afraid the Rockies Mountain will make driving more difficult.
Anyone can share experiences? Thank you in advance
My family will be moving from NC to North CA and I decide to drive my own car to avoid the car shipping expense. I would also like to stop by some mid-west cities for a little sightseeing and enjoy the views. Here are the two route I am thinking:
1. I-40 from: Durham, N Carolina to: Mountain View, CA - Google Maps (http://tinyurl.com/kqbllb - broken link)
2. I-70 and I-80fromurham, N Carolina to:39.656456,-104.853516 to:Mountain View, CA - Google Maps (http://tinyurl.com/kknl9h - broken link)
My plan is to use 7 days, each days drive 400~500 miles. I prefer the 2nd option, seems more places to visit, but I am also afraid the Rockies Mountain will make driving more difficult.
Anyone can share experiences? Thank you in advance
Do it in the summer. In the winter, it can get interesting, especially crossing the mountains. I would take the second option.
I'm assuming you aren't planning to stop at any attractions along the way. Therefore, just any shorter and easier route will do. The only time I drove across the country (Florida to California) has been over 20 years ago. I took the easy southern route with a great pit stop in Las Vegas!
Usually, unless it is winter, driving though mountain areas isn't difficult. They have great roads and the views are awesome.
I-40: That's the most direct route for you from NC, but that road ends in Barstow, CA and you'll have to use other routes from there.
Before you leave NC, you'll climb up through the front range of the Appalachian's; 6 or 7 miles of 6% grade up into Asheville (Black Mountain), but there's no corresponding downgrade on the other side, though the road does get pretty "curvy" leading up to the TN line.
From there on, it's pretty much a piece of cake, with a long downgrade at Ash Fork, AZ and the God awful heat of Needles, CA (and nearby Laughlin, NV is you like to gamble).
On the upside, you can explore Memphis (lots to do there), Oklahoma (I'd recommend old Rt. 66 whenever possible), the unique flatness of the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico is a world unto itself. Brief side trips will lead you to the most colorful scenery in America (between Albuquerque and Farmington), Ship Rock and the oldest continuously inhabited location in the Western Hemisphere (Acoma, NM--Someone has live there for over 15,000 years), not to mention Chaca Canyon.
Arizona offers Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest right on I-40, with the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley just 50 miles or so off your route.
In California, you traverse the magnificent Mojave Desert. (I'd recommend following US-95 north off the Interstate just outside of Needles. When you come to the railroad tracks, make a left and go through Goffs. Stay on that road right on through Essex and you'll follow old Rt. 66 to Ludlow, where you can get back on the interstate.)
From Barstow, you'll have to go Ca. Rt. 58, through Mojave to Bakersfield ( and down the 40 mile grade of Tehachapi Pass), where you can choose between Ca. 99 right up the middle of the San Jouquin Valley, via Fresno, or I-5, which will lead you to Tracy, where you cross over Altamont Pass to get to Mountian View.
I-70: If you chose that route, be advised that it will leave you stranded on I-15, about half way between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, with nowhere to go but north or south. You can exit the freeway at Salina, UT and take US-50, but it's not called the "Loneliest Road in America" across Nevada for no reason. Nearly 300 miles of literally nothing. In any case, if you choose I-70, you WILL end up on either Ca-58 at Barstow, CA or I-80, unless you decide to continue on US-50 right on through the Sierras and down into Sacramento.
Depending upon where you enter I-70, you can see St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver, with a lot to do in either place. Side trips might include St. Joseph, MO (Where "The Pony Express Began and Jesse James Ended.") Leavenworth, KS and the Kansas Badlands north of Russell.
After Denver, you'll go straight up into the Front Range, culminating at the Eisenhower Tunnels underneath Loveland Pass (Elev: About 10,000 ft). Instead, turn off just before the tunnels on US-6 and follow the old road across the divide. You'll come right back to the interstate in about 50 miles or so. It's magnificent scenery, but scary as hell as the road is literally carved up a nearly verticle cliff face! A side trip up US-40 is worth the trip too, but you have two high mountain passes to traverse, Berthoud Pass and Rabbit Ears. But, you get to hang out in Steamboat Springs. The drive back down to the interstate from Rifle, CO is unimpressive.
After you cross over Vail Pass, you enter the wonderland of the Colorado River Valley, where the interstate is literally built right on top of the river. The old highway was much better, but I-70 isn't bad.
When you leave Grand Junction (not really much to see there) you enter the canyonlands of Utah, which involves a 6 or 7 mile downgrade into the canyons, and back up the other side. If you'd like, you can turn off at Green River, UT and follow US-6 through Price, UT and over Soldier Summit. It brings you out on I-15 about 30 miles south of I-80. It's beautiful country.
I-80: I don't know where you would hit I-80, but it's mostly a very monotonous drive. Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska (up until Lincoln) is just one corn field after another. The terrain is mostly flat in Illinois and gently up and down in Iowa and eastern Nebraska, but there are things to see along there such as the Amana Colonies in IA and old time farm in Des Moines (right on I-80). Services for sleeping and eating are good all the way.
Nebraska, after Lincoln, is pretty flat for a long way as you've entered the Great Plains, but it's the route of the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express and the great Morman Trek, not to mention the Indian Wars, so there's lots to see and do. At Oglallah, NB, you can detour up Rt.26 and see some of the most spectacular rock formations in America. Needle Rock and Courthouse Rock (with it's smaller companion Jailhouse Rock) are worth seeing. No, it has nothing to do with Elvis. Alliance, NB (with it's Stonehenge replica made out of old Cadillacs) and the Black Hills of South Dakota aren't that far away.
Wyoming presents a lot of pretty scenery, but not much else. It's over 300 miles of spectacular emptiness which you won't find anywhere else. If you drive at night, pick a spot where there are no lights and pause to look at the stars. It's one of the few places left where you can actually see the Milky Way in all it's glory.
After you leave Evanston, WY, you'll enter Utah, where you have a choice: I-80 into Salt Lake City, and over Parley's Summit, or I-84 into Ogden. You can go over the mountains, or wind down through the valley to I-15 and head south (or US-89 for a shortcut), whichever you prefer.
After Salt Lake City, you cross the abysmal desert flats around Bonneville and the emptiness of Nevada. Not much to see from Wendover to Reno, but it's pretty.
Reno and the Lake Tahoe area, of course, speaks for itself.
After that, you go up into the Sierras to Truckee, CA and down the 60 mile grade known as Donner Pass. It's really nothing to be concerned about, except in the winter. CalTrans doesn't have barracks for it's workers up there for no reason. Once you've exited the Sierra's, it's a straight shot through Sacramento to your destination.
I've told you all this because I've run every one of those roads and know them intimately.
Stillkit, back in June you wrote about a great drive east and said you have made thetrip many times!. Will you tell me: I am driving NC to Astoria Or. in August. Do you agree 70 is a pretty drive and just as easy pulling a 3 horse trailer than 80 would be?
Thank you so much.
Stillkit, back in June you wrote about a great drive east and said you have made thetrip many times!. Will you tell me: I am driving NC to Astoria Or. in August. Do you agree 70 is a pretty drive and just as easy pulling a 3 horse trailer than 80 would be?
Thank you so much.
No, I don't agree. I-70 west of Denver cuts right over the top of the Rocky Mountains, while I-80 goes through them. There are no long grades on 80, with the exception of the down grade into Laramie, WY, but a boatload of them on 70.
And, you'd end up pretty far out of route by the time you reach I-15, where you'd have to go north to find I-84 into Portland. On 80, you junction with 84 at Echo, UT.
I found the comment about Memphis interesting as we had company last night and we were regaled with horror stories about the city, with the final comment being, "We will never go to that city again."
Stillkit, I'm thinking that, from NC on I-40 to points in Northern CA, one should take I-24 out of Nashville over to I-57 in IL, then I-64 into St. Louis, then picking up I-70. Run I-70 over to Kansas City where you take I-29 into Iowa. At the first exit in IA, take Route 2 West into NE and run that into Lincoln where you get on I-80. What do you think?
My suggestion - get AAA if you don't have it, you could need roadside service and they give you maps and books with activities and sites to see along the way, and maps. They'll also plan a route with your specifications - avoid toll roads, check on construction zones, detours. The triptick pages will show you exactly where you go on off and on ramps, and list the possible construction zones and when traffic might be heavy. Plus they provide you books showing you the campgrounds and approximate rates if you want to save money and camp out.
Stillkit, I'm thinking that, from NC on I-40 to points in Northern CA, one should take I-24 out of Nashville over to I-57 in IL, then I-64 into St. Louis, then picking up I-70. Run I-70 over to Kansas City where you take I-29 into Iowa. At the first exit in IA, take Route 2 West into NE and run that into Lincoln where you get on I-80. What do you think?
That's an excellent route. In fact, you probably couldn't do better.
One tip, though. Don't follow I-80 all the way into Salt Lake City unless you just want to go over Parley's Summit. Instead, peel off on I-84 and run it down through the canyon to I-15, then head south. It's really not much farther and avoids going over the Wasatch Front entirely.
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urham, N Carolina to:39.656456,-104.853516 to:Mountain View, CA - Google Maps (http://tinyurl.com/kknl9h - broken link)
