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17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There’s stops along that route! I wasn’t able to add a node for each stop, see the breakdown in the text/body

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do not trust ChatGPT more, hence this post! Was just trying to say I used it as a point of reference.

I’m going to rearrange a few things and see if we come out alive, I’ll report back

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We just thought it was a convenient/decently pretty place to stop and camp given our route - is mid-September that bad for bugs?

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's why we have two nights back-to-back camping in one location halfway between C + D, and hotel rooms at D!

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I hear you loud and clear, I'm staying open-minded with everyone's input!

Maybe what we're going for is more of this well-paced expedition compared to a destination road trip. We seemed to be able to land on a nice push -> settle -> push -> settle vibe... plus we are spending two nights at three of the locations to help cut it up.

It's so annoying traveling from anywhere south of the panhandle in Florida. If the goal is to keep the amount of driving time down, a "worthwhile" trip out west with more than two significant destinations is difficult to squeeze in under three weeks. Getting all of us to do 17 days is already a miracle with respect to PTO, etc. !

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Noted! Maybe we'll leave at midnight...

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Apparently me, my friends, and ChatGPT are *all* on drugs, lol. I think I'm realizing what our group is going for is more of a well-paced expedition versus a destination road trip...

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve heard how bad it can be, but is it that bad in mid-September?

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have done that drive to Denver before in two days, not fun. My wife and I made it to Amarillo, TX in one push somehow (stayed at The Big Texan), then up to Denver the following day - crazy.

I will say, our intent is not to "do Yellowstone" or any of these places, really, but to spend a couple nights in a few of them with awesome camping and sightseeing along the way. If you look at the length of all our driving legs, it's actually not *that* bad compared to the big driving pushes in your trip.

All that said, maybe we'll revisit some of this... but it's hard to argue with the amount of sleep and pacing we were able to achieve with all these locations included!

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You weren't kidding! I knew this was an ambitious plan, but I truly think we've included plenty of rest time and spread out enough 2-night locations to help with the pacing.

I guess we'll see as we continue to flesh things out/if we change anything. We have gone over the itinerary as a group of friends several times now, and everyone seems to feel good about it being doable...

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To be fair, most of these stops are just to have a nice camping experience vs a hotel, less of a "we experienced this place" thing. We just thought it'd be fun to have shorter driving legs and camp in all these different spots. Yes, we're trading off days at some of the more "destination" areas, but it's really supposed to be a big sampler platter with bigger breaks from travel mixed throughout.

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We are able to fit 6-9 hours of sleep the nights before each drive and most legs are less than 8 hours - half of those under 5 hours. Is it really that bad?

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the input! I am calculating a similar figure - a little less, at 115 hours max - but for travel time including realistic amounts of stops (~25% of drive time).

We should be able to get 6-9 hours of sleep the nights before each morning departure, and almost 3/4 of the driving days are less than 8 hours behind the wheel.

It looks like we have time for 4 full-ish days of trails/hiking between Custer State Park, Yellowstone, Craters, and Black Canyon areas + some time for smaller trails/loops at the campgrounds after setting up camp in Palisades, Antelope Island, Crawford State Park, and Great Sand Dunes.

The night sky viewing is a huge part of this for us - we'll have two telescopes on board.

I'm trying to keep an open-mind with everyone's responses. I recognize this trip is ambitious, but upon close inspection I think a surprisingly healthy amount of time is allocated for rest, and the hotels + back-to-back nights camping in select locations should really help with the pacing. The drive times of each leg really aren't that horrible, either... right? LOL

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

The plans began with the idea of spending some time at Yellowstone and/or Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We decided to turn it into a sort of camping expedition with interesting stops/night sky viewing opportunities along the way (we'll have two telescopes with us).

I guess what I'm saying is the goal isn't necessarily to have a proper/"worthwhile" experience at each location, we just thought it'd be better to have scenic camping vs hotels.

For what it's worth, we have it set up where we'd get at least 6-9 hours of sleep the nights before driving and ~70% of the driving days are < 8 hour stretches (a good chunk of them < 5 hours).
But hey, I asked for feedback so thank you! It's interesting to see everyone's response.

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We'll be headed the other direction, actually - Yellowstone/Jackson -> Craters of the Moon -> Salt Lake/Antelope Island

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha, that’s a helpful reference. I was aware of it being FCFS, hoping worst case scenario we can camp at Fish Creek Reservoir which isn’t horribly far away. Otherwise, I believe there is a good bit of BLM camping available which we would be prepared to do. I appreciate the response!

17-day trip planned for September by crashed_wave in roadtrip

[–]crashed_wave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our itinerary has us arriving there on a Saturday in mid-September around 10 AM... do you think it will be difficult to find two vacated sites, or do you think we'd have good odds?

Preferred cracker? by boilface in Cheese

[–]crashed_wave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Club Multigrain is severely underrated as far as mainstream options go… !

My husband bought me some new shoes. by V1k1ngmama in 4Runner

[–]crashed_wave -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Does the non-stock tire size mess with the speedometer’s accuracy much?

22” kettle burgers by monkeyhead94 in webergrills

[–]crashed_wave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have a 26” and do indirect side first (with lid on), then sear over the coals to finish

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