Road Trip! Guess Where Next?
By this time next week we’ll be in sunny California starting a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles and everywhere in between. Intrepid Travel’s latest adventure tour is a Self Drive Adventure Tour through some of America’s most famous National parks! What is unique about this one is that we are on a road trip completely by ourselves. No need to worry about backseat drivers and arguements over who get’s to drive next, it’s just Dave and I on the open road.
This entire part of the world is unexplored to us. Other than a quick stop in L.A. and San Diego in the past, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the West Coast of the US. We’ve been wanting to take a road trip through the States since we first met back in College. We were even making plans for after graduation to start driving wherever the wind would take us. That never happened, but luckily now, we’re getting our chance to fulfill one of our early dreams.
Road Trip Route
San Francisco
Our trip starts in San Francisco where we’ve added an extra 2 days onto our trip to visit this city that we’ve heard so much about. Whenever we tell someone that we’ve never been to San Fran, we hear an audible gasp. “Ah! You haven’t been to San Francisco? You have to go to San Francisco!” Now we finally have our chance and we have three whole days to see it.
First Stop – Yosemite National Park
This road trip was made for us. We’ll be stopping at all the major national parks that we’ve always wanted to see. Our first stop being Yosemite. We have two nights here. We’ve seen climbers conquer el Capitan on TV, now we’ll get to see them with our own eyes. While we won’t have enough time to hire a guide to do some rock climbing, we will try to conquer the half dome. That is if we win the daily lottery to get a permit to do so. Crowds are heavy and you hav to apply for a permit two days in advance and hope your name is drawn.
Pop into Bakersfield
Apparently this is one hopping city and California’s 9th largest city. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that California has a larger population than all of Canada. So when we pop into some of the smaller towns of the state, we’re really going to be hitting a thriving metropolis. Wow!
Las Vegas
Nearly everyone we know has been to Vegas at least once, except us. I am not sure how I feel about a desert city sucking up all the water to survive while making the river’s run dry, but it’s not going anywhere soon. I can’t say that I’m an expert on the issue, but wasn’t building a city in the middle of the desert counter productive to the environment? We’re not much on gambling, but I would love to catch a show while there. Anyone know of a good one that’s going right now?
On with the Road Trip!
Zion National Park and Lake Powell.
This park’s main feature is the 24 km (15 mile) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep Zion Canyon. The other day we met Felipe, the creator of the highly successful TwtVite on Twitter and he told us that we have to do this hike that using chains and steps to take you high up to a lookout over the canyon. I’m guessing he meant Angels Landing which sounds amazing, and it’s definitely on our aventure tour wish list, with only one day before moving on, we’re not sure what we’ll be able to do here though.
We’ll be camping overnight in Zion before we head to Lake Powell. At Lake Powell we’ll explore more canyons but this time we’ll be doing it by boat. I love a chance to relax and not have to drive in the middle of road trip.
The Grand Canyon
There is no doubt about it, this is the star attraction of our adventure tour. We will finally have the chance to see it for ourselves and let you know if it lives up to the hype. We’ve witnessed the second largest canyon in the world, now it’s time to see the first! With two days at the park, we won’t have the chance to do everything that we’ve ever dreamed of doing but it will give us a taste of the Grand Canyon and allow us to take in it’s glory from above. I have a feeling we’ll be making plans to come back to this one soon.
Los Angeles
We’ve got two days at the end of the road trip to explore LA, and we’ve even added on a 3rd to hopefully try to meet up with all our friends. I don’t know what I want to see in Los Angeles, after a long road trip, we’ll probably just want to relax, soak in the atmosphere and maybe check out some of it’s famous nightlife. That is, if we can stay up long enough, those Hollywood types look like they can go all night!
Book your own Road Trip with Intrepid Trave
So that’s our road trip! We are so excited to hit the open road and have the freedom to linger in places for a bit longer if we feel like it. What I love about an Intrepid Trave tour is that it gives you the highlights of a place so you can decided if you want to come back for more. We’ve been to China and the Galapagos with them and both tours gave us just the right taste for each country. We felt that we saw plenty and weren’t yearning for more, but we also were inspired to go back one day and check it out for ourselves.
Book Your Intrepid Travel Tour Today
This road trip is an exciting tour because it is all planned for us and we dont’ have to think too much, but we are also independent so we will feel that we are doing it all by ourselves. It’s the best of both worlds!
All photos courtesy of Wikipedia creative commons.
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17 Responses to Road Trip! Guess Where Next?
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You’re not doing Highway 1 at all????
That’s by far one of my favourite road trips, between SF and LA!
Whoa! I met Felipe from Twtvite in Berlin last summer. Cool guy! Sounds like the road trip will be a blast. Zion National Park is amazing!
What a great route, including some mind-blowing scenery. Don’t spend too long in Vegas. We were disgusted by the excess and waste also. A sidetrip to the Hoover Dam would be an eye-opener as to just how much water is being sucked up. The water of Lake Mead will be so low by 2017 that they dam may not be able to produce any power.
Wha?! You’ve never been to Vegas…? Looks like a fun road trip, we’ve done a couple Californian road trips but we’ve never made it to Utah or Arizona. We originally planned to due a Utah, AZ, NV, CO road trip combined with TBEX this year, but Baby B is not a fan of long car trips, so that ones on the shelf for a few years
Seriously–you are driving right by some really amazing places with no time to stop. You have to add several more days and visit Sequoia National Park (world’s largest trees), and Death Valley National Park.They are both incredible! Las Vegas is soulless and weird and there’s nothing to do if you don’t like gambling (my friend Jane who lives there slaps me every time I say that–well, not really, but I can tell she wants to). Replace your time in Las Vegas with time in Sedona, Arizona, about an hour’s drive south of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Plus, Zion isn’t all that far from Bryce Canyon National Park, which is way better! How’s that for unsolicited advice!
Sounds like a lot of fun. I’ve always wanted to do a west coast road trip. I have driven from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, and I definitely did not spend enough time at the Grand Canyon. Las Vegas is fun, and as for shows any Cirque du Soleil show will be a good bet. I saw O which was fantastic.
Thanks for the report : ) We will be doing about the saem route in September: Denver-Ouray-Arches-Bryce-Zion-Grand Canyon-Las Vegas-Death Valley-Mammoth Lakes-Yosemite-SFO
–
Anton
Way Any Way – Airfare search done right
http://www.wayanyway.com
Did a similar road trip last year and Cam is right, you need to stop by Sequoia National Park and see the General Sherman Tree (it’s basically on the way from Yosemite to Bakersfield!). With that said, still looks like tons of fun and I’m sure it’ll be a blast!
Too bad you will be missing Lake Tahoe! One of the most beautiful places in the country! You definitely have to plan a trip to visit here at some point
You guys are going to have such a great trip! I’m from the SF area, went to college in LA and spent several summers on family backpacking trips in Yosemite, so I have to admit I’m actually a little jealous. Enjoy it extra for me, please!
Hi. That trip sounds amazing. I’ve actually been to all those places on a Trek America tour. Alcatraz is a must see, there is plenty to do in Vegas without gambling and if you get the chance to take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon do it because the views are to die for. You’ll have a blast! l look forward to reading about it.
We’ve been living in the bay area our whole lives and still haven’t done this route. SF direct to LA yes, but not this kind. Sounds like an adventure! I heard you two were at a Travel Massive event in SF late last year no? It was at a beer shop I believe. We were there too!
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Get in touch regarding Las Vegas and anything you want to know about the Southwest. I’ve lived in Vegas for five years and know the Southwest well. Would love to chat about your plans and provide recommendations/answer questions. You know where to find me!
Okay … just read over all the comments and I see a lot of people don’t care for Las Vegas. Fair enough. Please don’t right the whole city off as wasteful and uncaring for the environment. I’d ask you to please be open minded and learn more about our city before jumping to that conclusion. There’s more to Las Vegas than the four miles people know as the Strip.
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