Tentatively I've confirmed taking the whole month of June off for a large-scale roadtrip I've been envisioning for a couple of years. This will be a solo trip both for enjoyment and with the intention of making a variety of photographs - probably taking 120, 4x5, and 12x20.
I've planned this time period around two conferences in Arizona that I will be attending the first full week of June (Covid not withstanding). At the start of June I'll be heading west and hitting Big Bend NP before getting to Phoenix for one conference and then Las Vegas for the second.
From there the places I've planned to hit as I travel west are:
- Death Valley NP
- Mono Lake
- Yosemite NP
- Layover near San Francisco with family
- Travel up US 1
- Redwood NP
- Layover in Portland with friends, hopefully
- Hoh Rainforest / Olympic NP
- Seattle layover to see the city
- Glacier NP
- Yellowstone NP
- Grand Teton NP
- something something something
- Go east towards home
I've started a spreadsheet with timeline and estimated distances and etc. to plan how long this will take me. In total, leaving June 1 and getting back around July 4, I've plotted this out and come up with 6-7 extra days, which means I could stay a bit more at any of these locations or perhaps add more on the end as I haven't really planned anything between Colorado and coming home to north GA. Total distance about 8000 miles.
As many folks on the forums here live out west or have much more extensive experience out there, my questions are these:
1. Are there any must-see NPs or other parks/locations that would be somewhat near this loop? Or even if it was a little out-of-the-way, but worth it. I know I'm not even scratching the surface of what's out there - this list was just starting to get things going on a basic route.
2. At these locations - what suggestions might you have for hiking/photographing that will be easy to medium difficulty - by which I mean, 3-5 miles roundtrip with cameras max, or even side-of-the-road lookouts like the Yosemite Valley viewpoint. While I am capable of much more, after thousands of miles driving and many days of physical exertion, I won't be able to keep that kind of pace up for long. I also struggled with altitude sickness before so I don't want to kill myself here! I'm envisioning 12x20 being for mostly roadside or nearly so views, 4x5 for most subjects, and 120 (Hasselblad) for the more difficult hikes or more snapshot-esque images, and for city travel.
3. Anything to be aware of for June travel? I notice road closures on the map right now but will most things be open in June? I am fairly ignorant on this - we don't have winter road closures here, generally.
4. Anything else I should be thinking about that I've forgotten?
My plan for this is to do a lot of car camping - or more specifically, sleeping in my car, which I've done lots when travelling over on this side of the country. I've not had any issues when doing so at Rest Areas or 24-hour store parking lots. I'm hoping I might can sneak a night or two at some of these NPs the same way as my itinerary is not quite detailed enough for booking a campsite head of time. But if they have an opening day-of that would be fine too, and I was going to bring my tent as well.
Overall I want to get a taste of the big important NPs and landscapes of the west. Later I can focus on just one place, bring my wife, and know a bit more about the location when exploring it more fully. I always find it nice to go to a place and get the basic feel, then focus with more detailed insight on the next trip.
Thoughts?
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