427Z

i have been thinking for a while now about doing this roadtrip of the western united states. My goal is to do this in the vette and take the most scenic routes during the trip.
i want to avoid the interstates as much as possible and use the scenic two lane highways. i will ofcourse take the major highways if that part of the country is devoid of natural beauty(like much of central/western texas).

if you guys want, i plan on taking my laptop and digi cam with me to log on during the trip and can provide daily daily pics and travelogues.

tentatively, the trip is planned to head west from fort worth tx, into new mexico, arizona, california, oregon, washington, into canada, back to idaho, wyoming, colorado, and texas.

i have not made time for this yet but need to know from those in the know what would be the best time of the year weather wise for this trip. how much time do i need to to this. i plan to drive less than 500 miles a day and my goal is to see the most naturally scenic places. i am not into visiting arts districts or malls ect..
more along the lines of driving through colorado's mountains or along the beaches of oregon or the redwoods of cali.

if you guys have any tips or suggestions for preparations or which highways to take, im all

like i said, this trip is in the future but i want to start putting my game plan together and begin to plan it out. whacha think

Crunchking

But do it on a harley!!!

b98

Use AAA to plan trip, works great for gas hotels etc.

jrose7004

If you have a Vert, you could probably sell it for a reality show on Fox!

TripleBlackxThree

I think you will enjoy it tremendously. This past summer, I drove my vert to Seattle, down through Oregon to San Francisco, LA, and finally San Diego. I drove over 6000 miles, and with you taking in Vancouver, you'll add to that. I did a lot of research, including posting up a reqeust for good drives and side trips in the Northwest section.

The biggest problem I had was finding the time in the 14 days I was on the road to do everything I wanted to. There are just so many "can't miss this" things that I didn't have time to do them all.

Just a few things I would suggest

Shasta loop in Washington. North of Seattle...
Mt. St. Helens
Columbia River Gorge
Sisters loop in Oregon
Crater Lake in Oregon
Avenue of the Giants (readwoods in Northern Cali)
Northern Cal beachs along highway 1
Napa/Sanoma (Infineon Raceway besides the wineries)
Big Sur
Highway 95 between I8 coming out of SD and I40

Of course SD, LA, and San Francisco

From my experience you should plan on at least 3 weeks.

Check the link in my sig for some pics. And here is a link to my "trip report" in C5 Gen...

PM me if you would like some detail. You can take advantage of some of my research.Trip link

427Z

wow, thanks for that info. about the harley thing, never been on a one but would rather be in a car for a trip this long.

btw, im just outside of keller near basswood/377 so we have practically the same starting point. THIS is what im talking about. that pic is absolutely breath taking
the machine is a black 99 coupe chasis stripped inside and out. reassembled with new 04 Z06 crate engine/M12 trans/Z06 seats/z06 exhaus/Z06 wheels/Z06 cats-long tubes/Z06 springs/ plus some other goodies. (370rwhp/359rwtq)

haw many miles did you log a day. did you plan all of your hotel stays or did you pull over where ever? what did it cost you total roughly. did you find ok places (safe)to park the vette over night?
thanks

Bakersfield

When you get to San Diego and start headed north, get onto highway 1 as soon as you can. It will take you up the California and Oregon coast lines for some of the most scenic sites you will ever see. You won't regret it. I hope you have a safe trip.

TLS

The BearTooth highway in southern Montana - northern Wyoming is really beautiful. We went through there a couple of years ago. This year we went through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, etc. The area around Leadville, Co. is great. If you get the chance Tourquise Lake is in that area along with Independence Pass which is a little over 12,000 ft. I can email you some pics if you'd like.

427Z

please do e-mail them.

shawn000@juno.com

v.vet's Z06

I'm envious.......what a trip that will be!! I've thought about a trip across country and back to FL and some day I might do it, but for sure I would want to run as much of the old Route 66 in New Mexico, Arizona and California as I could. As I have dreamed, I would like to start in Missouri on Route 66 and hit parts in Oklahoma also. I think you will have a great time just planning the places you want to visit as others have said. Plan 3-4 weeks if you can get away from work that long!!

Vetteman Jack

Sounds like an awesome trip. I'd plan on taking at least 3 weeks for the trip - that way you can take your time and explore a bit when you see something interesting. I'd recommend going through at least a couple of the major mountain ranges on the trip - very scenic and fun driving.

gomerboat

Shawn,

I'm from Dallas, but moved to Arizona 3 years ago. Last year my wife and I drove 6000 miles through AZ, Utah, Wyoming, Montanta, Alberta, BC, Washington, Oregon, and California, but in a RV. We took 3 weeks and still felt like we were cramming too much into one vacation. If your focus is the driving more than the sight seeing, you might be able to do more. We drove sometimes 800-900 miles in a day, so be sure to plan how far 500 miles a day would get you.

I think some of the best driving was along the Oregon coast. Mountains, cliffs, beach, ocean and forest all at once. The roads are twisty and fun to drive, even in a RV! (yeah, I pushed it to it's limits!) Stay in Cannon Beach, Oregon, or at least drive through. Seattle is great, Vancouver wasn't that great, to us. We only stayed in Vancouver one night and our impression was that is was just another city and pretty "industrialized". I'm sure there are nice areas, but we weren't in them.

There is nothing like Califonria though...be sure to hit highway 1.

And just so you know, the driving through any of these states is nothing like West Texas! When you have mountains, you at least feel like you are getting somewhere.

If you want more suggestions, pm me. I've been surprised at all the cool stuff just in Arizona and Utah.

Greg

pdykinga

The best road to hit in Arizona is Devil's Highway (191). That is if you like twisty roads as it is about 2 hours worth of non-stop zig zags! I just did it about 2 weeks ago and snow was starting to show at the top but it is simply amazing with no traffic Starts in Alpine and ends in Clifton I believe. The only problem is it goes nowhere, just north-south on the way to nowhere, but it is worth it

Pete

TripleBlackxThree

I sent a PM hopefully answering some of your questions...

steveblonde

anytime would be a great time - just stay out of washington state the cops and fish and wildlife SUCK

MilesW

But Steve you should slow down to under the speed of sound when you pass Smokey.

edensknight

Zilla

They onlu give ticket to people from Alberta, since I am from BC they don't bother with me.

MilesW

When you go to Vancouver, the Canadian side that is, you should try the Sea to Sky highway from the Washington side to Vancouver City. It is beautiful and twisty. Their is construction going on from Whistler Village to about 10 miles north, they are ruining the road by widening it and straightening some of the curves. You may end up enjoying the best of the road before it is gone.
Alberta has a couple of really nice drives as well. The 1A highway from Calgary to Lake Louise (Banff National Park), and Highway 93 to Radium.
The road to the sun In Montana,s Glacier national park is also a must. We have driven our vert down all these roads as well as the coast highway to San Diago from Vancouver Washington. That trip took two weeks driving and not a lot of rest but I would do it again in the blink of an eye. We did it in September after all the Kids were back in school and has some empty twisties to wring out the best of the Vette. Have a great Holiday, I know you will enjoy it.

0Vette Stripes

Shawn,
If it takes you about 4 years to come to a final plan then I will joint you
Good luck with it! I always wanna do this in my vert as well!

-Mike