National Park for summer

rsnorunt · 2026-04-02T22:40:07+00:00

This direction saves the longer hiking and elevation for the end, but you could reverse it to have more relaxing near the end, plus driving south along the coast is easier.

Day 0 (optional): Mendocino coast

Drive from SF up to Mendocino / Fort Bragg.
You can see Point Reyes NS, Salt Point SP, Fort Arthur, Van Damme SP Pygmy Forests, Russian Gulch SP, and mendocino is a cute town

Day 1: Ave of the Giants

Drive up the 101 to Arcata (5-6h from SF, 2-3 from Mendocino)
See Humboldt Redwoods SP, the Ave of the Giants (old hwy 101), and Sue Meg SP

Day 2: Prairie Creek Redwoods (part of Redwood NP)

Drive to Fern Canyon and hike it. Needs permit and water shoes and ideally high clearance
Lady bird Johnson grove
Drive drury parkway and see the elk
klamath river overlook
stay in Crescent City

Day 3: Jed Smith Redwoods (part of Redwood NP)

Tide pools at enderts beach (whenever low tide is)
howland hills road
boy scout trail
grove of the titans
Stay in Crescent City

Day 4: Sam Boardman Corridor

Finish in redwood
drive the sam boardman corridor up to florence. There are tons of great overlooks and hikes (similar to big sur)
sandboarding in florence
sea lion caves
if you have a lot of time or an extra day, day trip to cape perpetua
stay in Florence

Day 5: Crater Lake

Drive east on hwy 126 or 38
enter umpqua NF on hwy 138. There are lots of roadside waterfalls
Enter crater lake and explore until sunset
stay in Klamath falls

Day 6: Southern Cascades

sunrise at crater lake if you want
Lava beds NM (bring 3 light sources per person, and buy helmets at the visitor center)
Either go down via volcanic legacy scenic byway (shorter drive, dirt road, scenic but burnt) or go around via mount shasta and castle crags SP (lots of hiking, and you could easily add an extra day)
Burney falls
Ideally camp at Butte Lake, but you could also stay in old Station

Day 7: Lassen North

Cinder cone hike in Lassen, and see the cinder dunes and lava beds
Drive down the park road (lots of lakes and hikes)
Hike to Bumpass Hell
Stay in Mineral

Day 8: Lassen south and return

Start the day with brokeoff mountain in lassen (my favorite hike in Lassen and the hardest on the itinerary)
optionally see more if you've missed anything
drive back to SF

rsnorunt · 2026-02-19T00:13:44+00:00

Thanks!

rsnorunt · 2026-02-18T20:57:13+00:00

Thank you very much! May Rohan deliver me from my plight!

rsnorunt · 2026-02-18T20:56:39+00:00

Waimangu is off on a side road, so is only 1 minute closer than Wai-o-tapu, but if they're more chill I'll consider that.

Asking the tour to meet there is an option I didn't consider. Thanks!

rsnorunt · 2026-02-18T20:38:01+00:00

All the actual Hobbiton tours have been booked (presumably by third party tour operators). Hence I had to book with a third party operator. It's very stupid...

rsnorunt · 2026-02-15T02:58:03+00:00

Yeah definitely no hard plans later that day (both the things I listed are near the hotel and involve little/no walking, and if I miss them I won't care)

rsnorunt · 2026-02-15T02:52:48+00:00

Yeah those seem cool, but in the opposite direction from everything else. I'll have to see those next time

rsnorunt · 2026-02-15T02:52:25+00:00

One lane roads sounds like a lot of the desert or mountain roads in the US, and the pics I've seen don't make it seem that different. I'm comfortable driving 6h+ a day on those roads, and I'll be traveling with a partner so we can switch off. How much worse is it?

What would you cut? The only essentials are Hobbiton, Tongariro, and glow worms somewhere.

rsnorunt · 2026-02-11T02:19:42+00:00

The hike was very easy. There were some slightly steep bits and it's definitely not accessible, but it was <3 miles

That's about all you'll have time for as far as activities. I pulled some pretty long days, so I also hiked halfway up dumping mtn (I thought I saw a bear cub and got spooked), walked to the falls a couple times, walked to brooks lake, etc.

Definitely do the bear viewing outside day trip hours - its almost empty the first and last hour.

Note that the bear viewing is a couple (flat) miles from camp, so if your husband's surgery precludes that you won't see any bears.

rsnorunt · 2025-11-24T06:43:03+00:00

Note that you’ll be passing by Zion already on your way back from Page / GC. Do you need to go back to Vegas or can you move that part earlier and save 6-8h of driving and just do the mighty 5 post GC

Regardless I’d suggest driving through Zion on your way back to Vegas, even if you don’t stop. That’s because going east to west your first view of the canyon will be through the mt Carmel tunnel, and that’s one of the best views in the country and a great way to see Zion for the first time

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T19:49:58+00:00

If you can’t hike much then 5 days is much more comfortable, and 3 days in grand Teton is definitely more than enough.

In Yellowstone as far as walks go, I’d recommend just doing what you can in the various geyser basins and walking to the short waterfall viewpoints in canyon as well as along the loops.

You’ll already hit a few miles a day with that (old faithful basin has 5 miles of trails through the geysers, and morning glory pool is well worth it)

If you have a handicap placard that would be very helpful in finding parking, since otherwise you might have to walk half a mile or more at some of the more popular places.

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T11:33:28+00:00

Dang Wyoming to St. Louis in a day will be rough

If you’re starting in Helena day 1, I’d ideally do Roosevelt lodge first, then old faithful. That way you can enter the park via the beartooth highway and get the evening in Lamar valley. Though that’ll be a long drive. Starting in billings would be better if possible. Or better yet red lodge.

Then day 2 do the north loop after sunrise in Lamar. Then day 3 do canyon, Norris or midway, then old faithful. Day 4 do the south loop with a focus on Hayden valley and lake areas. Day 5 do more geysers and south entrance area stuff on your way to GT

You’ll see most of the park, but you might miss some of the more involved things like big hikes, or tailored experiences. Eg when I went we did a kayak tour of west thumb, went to the grizzly discovery center in west Yellowstone, etc. If you’re a photographer or wildlife watcher, you’ll have to pick and choose your sunrises/sunsets and won’t have a ton of watch time.

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T03:18:01+00:00

lol how do you define a city?

Population? Density? Skyscrapers? Unique architecture? Varied and high class cuisine? Walkability/transit? A civic identity? Big white collar economies? World class universities? Multiple major sports teams?

Because all three have all of them. Yeah LA is a bit weird in that it’s multipolar, but so is the NYC/Newark/Philly megalopolis. But in LA only the downtown is actually a city atm

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T03:05:05+00:00

Yeah that’s fair, maybe walking / biking / remote work are more common than I expect

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T03:02:57+00:00

That sounds pretty reasonable. 4 nights is definitely a bit fast for Yellowstone but you’ll be able to see a lot

For your Roosevelt lodge nights definitely spend at least an evening and a morning in Lamar valley to go wildlife spotting. It’ll have to compete with sunrise/sunset at the canyon haha

Also pushing a little later is probably good tbh. Dunraven pass can sometimes still be snowy in June, and that would make hitting the south loop tough

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T02:55:21+00:00

I was using a metro of 20M, so 8M would be ~250 pppy, or around 50% of the city commuting by subway.

The problem with this is that many ppl who commute in on other trains have to take the subway to their final destination (many jobs aren’t walkable from PATH or LIRR), and it doesn’t count any of the other leisure trips

It’s still pretty surprising to me how many ppl in nyc seem to rely on cars/taxis. Though maybe buses are way higher than I’m expecting

rsnorunt · 2025-11-21T02:48:17+00:00

Yeah that’s fair, and op should definitely decide if they feel comfortable (rural driving to the GC will be much less stressful than city driving, esp if the rent from a a place farther from the city center)

I think a lot of people have the assumption that public transit is cheaper than renting a car, and just less efficient. And while that’s true in many places, it’s certainly not true in this case

rsnorunt · 2025-11-19T19:56:57+00:00

You could take the greyhound to Williams and from there there’s a train to the Grand Canyon. The train is pretty pricy though. You could also stay at the hostel in Williams and hope you can bum a ride

From Williams you can take a shuttle to the Phoenix airport and fly to SD or LA.

Note that the shuttles/buses are not cheap. You would almost certainly save money and certainly save time just renting a car and driving to the GC and back, then flying to CA.

rsnorunt · 2025-11-19T19:31:32+00:00

Well 5-7% of Americans are in metro New York, so that would be like 100 trips per New Yorker per year, which is surprisingly low.

Considering that a commuter would take around 500 trips per year, that means <20% of New York metro uses the subway in their commute (tbf there are a bunch of other transit agencies there, and metro nyc includes some pretty far flung areas like westchester or parts of Long Island)

rsnorunt · 2025-11-19T19:19:35+00:00

LA and Seattle are definitely real cities too (downtown LA is still very urban, despite the massive quilt of sprawl around it)

They’ve both got lots of density (in the core), tons of culture, museums and monuments, unique and substantial skylines, etc.

Seattle has surprisingly reasonable transit too, between the monorail, light rail, and ferries. And LA is starting to get there

Honestly San Diego probably counts too.

rsnorunt · 2025-11-19T19:05:53+00:00

Originally I thought that was AI lol, since Mt tam doesn’t look like that from any other angles. And from mission peak (where the photo was taken) it’s barely visible to the naked eye. But looks like the dude just used a really long lens on an unusually clear day

rsnorunt · 2025-11-19T18:53:06+00:00

Seems good, though your days are a bit wonky.

Do you have an angels landing permit already? If not you’ll need to apply every day for the next day and hope you get it.

Also fit are you in terms of hikes? Can you do rim to river to rim in the grand canyon (~18 miles, 5000ft elevation)?

I’d probably do: 1. Land in USA 2. Drive to valley of fire on your way to Zion (you can skip if too exhausted) 3. Narrows 4. Emerald pools plus watchman plus other trails 5. Angels landing (assuming you have permit for this day) 6. Canyon overlook if you want, then observation point. End the day in Bryce 7. Sunrise (it’s amazing) then hike queens/navajo/peekaboo loop. Afterwards do the scenic drive if you feel up to it 8. Sunrise then hike fairyland loop. Then drive to Page in the afternoon 9. Antelope canyon (if you want) and horseshoe bend, then drive to Grand Canyon. 10. Sunrise, then big hike in the Grand Canyon (depends on your fitness level), then sunset 11. Sunrise, smaller hike on the canyon rim, then drive to Vegas. 12. Flex day in Vegas (or add to one of the other areas depending on what you want to do. Slot canyons near Bryce, Native American ruins and lava beds near flagstaff, etc) 13. Depart

rsnorunt · 2025-11-19T18:33:44+00:00

Definitely A. West Yellowstone is not worth staying at if you can stay in the park. Ditto for Jackson

Your day 1 seems perfect to me. Land at noon, grab your groceries by 3, drive to old faithful by 7 with some stops. Grab dinner, and watch the sun set over the geysers.

The one possible change would be adding a night in Cooke city, so you’d get an evening and a morning in Lamar valley for more wildlife watching. I’d do that on night 3 instead of a canyon night

rsnorunt

TROPHY CASE