I would recommend southern Utah during the winter. It should have many clear days (perhaps February) and its share of popular jet routes. You can get all six high altitude en route charts here:
The Bryce Canyon VOR (about 7 nautical miles west of the airport) is popular for aircraft bound for southern California, and is far enough east that most aircraft will have yet to start descent to lower and warmer altitudes. I'd recommend a little to the north and/or west (20 miles or so in each direction) so that your camera is not pointed vertically.
I'd second Gordon. The Mojave and Eastern Sierra are close to LAX George AFB, there was one also in San Berdo. I'm almost sure you'd find them at the Alabama Hills when you don't.
Yosemite. Planes fly over all day long. It is common to have 8 contrails overhead at the same time. Plenty of other great stuff to shoot when you are not looking up.
Go somewhere very cold. The contrails last much longer when its cold out, and during mid-winter here in Boston the contrails seem to be criss-crossing each other all day. Chicago would be a good idea -- flat, so few obstructions, one of the busiest airports in the world, and very cold.
The other cool thing in Boston is that you can get a great overlook of one of the runways, and actually capture light trails of planes taking off. I took both of these on 4x5: http://www.pbase.com/drpablo74/image/66501446.jpg
I was on the Colorado plains yesterday (Pawnee Grassland area/north of Ft. Morgan) and there were lots of contrails. This morning coming down to Denver from the southwest, there were a lot over Denver.
hi chris! i've been taking photos of jet trails for about 4 years now, my house in the toledan mountains is right on the flightpath from madrid / seville, i just got a 400mm telephoto too for the 4x5 to get closer, they look great mounted up together, let me know if you want to see samples...
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