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Why not give Oregon a miss this time? It's a state that's worth spending a bit of time exploring, so maybe you could do a road trip there another time.
Stay at the Wigwam Motel, Holbrook AZ for a night. You've got the Painted Desert nearby.
Acoma Pueblo / Sky City is well-worth visiting in Arizona.
Another example of gross ignorance. Dakotas? Black Hills etc. etc. Iowa? Mississippi river towns, county fairs, the real thing.
Bachslunch, look at a map and you'll see that some of the parks you suggest, like Crater Lake and Yellowstone, are waaaay out of the way, MD to AZ.
The OP said his drive included Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and all three parks make perfect sense for those states depending on exactly where he's driving. Please don't lecture me about consulting maps.
Wow, thanks everyone for all the replies. StealthRabbit, I remember your responses from my previous post and you have shared some excellent links here. The ATC sounds like a better version of Couchsurfing (for my age bracket, anyway). RoadsideAmerica.com is a foundation of my itinerary. I am timing my trip to coincide with the Balloon Fiesta! I have relatives in Taos as well but basically how I settled on a departure date was to arrive in Albuquerque for the Fiesta and then counted backwards.
Other replies...I am leaving out the East Coast because I have only so much time and financial resources, otherwise I would totally do it. Instead I hope to do an East Coast swing, say Maine to Florida, at some other time in my life (we'll see how this one goes!).
I do not want to travel 8 hours a day, and don't think I could do so day after day even if I wanted to.
For Nat'l Parks Crater Lake and Arches are on there, as well as Theodore Roosevelt and Mt. Rushmore. There are some other ones likely to be on the agenda and some smaller ones already on it.
Oregon is on the agenda primarily because I have a relative there I want to visit. I could make that part of another trip, true, but in the end I picked this part basically over going through Arizona and from Southern to Northern California. SLC, Montana, and New Mexico are all definites, so if you can kinda put those on a map and consider I'm leaving from NorCal, you can see there's flexible possibilities at the beginning and at the end.
Finally, as for Midwest/South "boring" debate...actually the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kentucky are the heaviest areas when it comes to attractions on my itinerary. We'll see!
If you're heading to/from Roosevelt NP, do consider Yellowstone as a stop. It is one of a handful of spectacular american NP. The beartooth highway, US 212, connects Yellowstone to points east and is a spectacular drive.
Agreed, Yellowstone is amazing. In fact, you could easily spend 2-3 days there if so inclined. Plus Grand Teton NP is very close by and also excellent, worth a couple days in its own right.
Haven't been, but Wind Cave NP and Custer State Park are not far from Mt. Rushmore and are supposed to be very good. Badlands NP is also in South Dakota, but again, haven't been.
Loved Arches, amazing place. Note well, when visiting the Utah NPs and Grand Canyon, it's a must to stay hydrated. Drink a lot of water throughout the day even if you're not thirsty. If you wait until you're feeling dehydrated, that's a problem. Also wear a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
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