Planning Roadtrip for June in Middle/Western USA

[Eric Woodbury]

Add a temperature column to your spreadsheet. As noted, the SW is really hot and temperatures are in the shade, of which there is none in DV.

Anything with NP after it will be busy. And personally, every NP has been photo'd to death. It is hard to make an original image in NP. Harder yet to find a camping spot.

It looks like you will spend a significant amount of your 4 weeks driving.

When I travel at that time of year, I shoot the first 3 hours and the last 3 hours. I drive a little in the middle, eat, take care of daytime functions. At night I find camp, reorganize the gear, load film holders, eat again, and sleep. Nights are short and mosquitos thick, especially in Washington, Idaho, Montana. Any place on social media is overwhelmed.

Have a grand time.

[djdister]

That's an extensive itinerary, but here are a few spots that you might consider if your route changes:

Shiprock, NM
Joshua Tree NP, CA
Bandon Beach, OR
Crater Lake, OR
Cannon Beach, OR

In the end, you might consider a shorter trip with more time allocated to a region, (your trip has distinct "Northwest" and "Southwest" aspects) and then planning a separate trip for the part of your trip that you did not get to. And if you do find yourself up on some mountains, like Mt. Hood, OR, you can find yourself in a blizzard in June and July.

[Alan Klein]

In Las Vegas is Red Rock Canyon, and a 15 miles or so road with hiking trails off the main road. See some of my pictures here all taken from the main path, unfortunately during the day and not during magic hour.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alankl...57717671668191

I looked at your map and it seems like a lot of miles for 30 days, especially if you plan on taking time to hike. You'll be worn out by Arizona. (How many miles is the trip?)

[Drew Wiley]

Ahh... Death Valley in summer. If your vehicle overheats or breaks down, or your AC quits, and you're stuck somewhere with darn few other visitors that time of year, you could be in BIG trouble! Distances within Death Valley itself are significant. The end of the road leading to the Telescope peak trail at the old beehive-shaped charcoal kilns is a distance, but at least gets up to cooler air; and the view from Aguerebery Point at dawn is interesting, at the end of a dirt road. Bad news if you break a fan belt or something like that. Hard to say about cell phone coverage in many of these places, but unlikely there. Badwater at night? Maybe a cool 105 degrees; at least the scorpions will be cool enough to be out and about. Depends.

Even Owens Valley right below the eastern front of the Sierras is hot in the afternoon. But there are some wonderful side roads leading uphill from 395, several of them paved between Lone Pine and the Tioga grade itself above Lee Vining. Superb burgers at the Mobil Station right at the bottom, at the junction of 120 and 395. The Mono Lake shoreline is best visited early AM or evening. It gets pretty warm there too.

You're not likely to sneak a night roadside at some trailhead turnout in Yosemite NP. Even with everything covered up, Rangers come along and bounce on your bumper, trying to wake up any offender inside. I tend to car camp outside the Park in the Virginia Lakes area. Sequoia is friendlier and less crowded, but will be in a massive cleanup phase after the catastrophic fires of last year. The drive down to Kings Canyon takes quite awhile, but gives you an idea of the sheer scale of things; and there are campgrounds down there. Just realize the vehicle accessible portion is only 5% of the actual NP. But at one particular spot during the drive down, you can see the greatest canyon drop in elevation on the continent, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

[Alan Klein]

I just estimated your mileage. It's got to be 8,000 miles or 13,000 KM. You're driving cross-county more than twice. Probably closer to 3x, 9,000 or 10,000 miles by the time you get done. That's 300+ miles a day. When are you going to have time to hike, photograph, sleep, and eat? You'll be driving all day. I'd cut it into a third and focus up north where's it's cooler. It might be cheaper to fly and rent a car. You'd also save time driving the "commute" both ways getting to where you want to get.

[Drew Wiley]

djusteer and Alan, are you trying to roast the poor fellow to death? Summer is NOT a time to go hiking in Red Rock Canyon or Joshua Tree. He's traveling via an SUV, not a camel caravan! Some of these places are actually hotter than the Sahara!

[Corran]

300 miles in a day is actually not much, to me. I drove from Washington DC all the way to South GA in one day before. All the way from GA line to Ft. Lauderdale and back once too, 900 miles. 6-8 hours driving on long days, 6 hours sleeping, that gives at least 10 hours to photograph .

[Two23]

I think you're badly underestimating how much time you're going to spend driving. To give an idea, in South Dakota the fast food restaurants are an hour apart.



Kent in SD

[RandyB]

Not near enough time, either cut your list in half or add another month. Plus add several thousand dollars to the budget, gas is and will be even more expensive throughout the mountain states. Consider the weather also, you may not have photo worthy weather when you get to your destination, do you wait several days for it to clear or move on? Even in June you will have forest fire smoke, sometimes hundreds of miles from the actual fires. Good luck, have fun, stay safe.

[Roger Thoms]

Let hope you don’t break down in Death Valley, been there done that. I had a problem with the primer pump on the fuel filter housing on my Duramax diesel. The fuel system would lose prime and the truck wouldn’t start, hop out pop the hood prime the fuel system and the truck would start right up. Only happened occasionally and took a while for me to diagnose the problem. Dealer wanted $500 dollars for a new fuel filter housing/primer pump assembly, The Duramax Store in Placervile Ca. wanted $20 for a rebuild kit which consisted of all the proper o-rings to rebuild the pump. Mind you it just a little plunger you press with your thumb. Was going to Flagstaff so perfect, I'll take rather scenic route, swing through Placerville, buy the kit and do the rebuild in Flagstaff. Stopped in Death Valley in the middle of no where and had a nice lunch, hopped back in the truck and it wouldn’t start. No problem, jump out and pop the hood, start to pumping the primer and diesel comes gushing out each time I press the pump. No cell signal, but hey I have the rebuild kit and my tools. But damn it’s hot, ok first thing change my clothes, what I'm wearing is way to dark. Ok now get to work, pull the pump, nice thing is it’s a pickup so I have the tailgate to work on. I get the pump rebuild and just about reinstalled and I drop a hose clamp. The clamp drops down and either disappears into the engine compartment or into the gravel on the shoulder of the road. I really wanted that hose clamp and spent a good amount of time searching for it but finally gave up. I search through my tool kit thinking heck I must have another hose clamp, no luck, but I do find a zip tie, ok maybe that will work. So I zipped the fuel line and to my surprise I actually get the truck started. There was a lot of traffic and the cars the did pass by acted like they had blinders on, looking straight ahead as they passed by. At one point I did try and flag a couple car down to no avail. Once I had got the truck started, but still had the hood up checking for fuel leaks, a truck drive actually stopped asked if everything was ok. With the truck running I was able to drive into Beatty and buy a new hose clamp and continue on to Flagstaff. Anyway, that’s my Death Valley story.

Brian, sounds like a great trip and I sure you’ll come home with some awesome photographs. One thing for sure bring plenty of water because you just never know. Also and I’m sure you will, take care of any issues with your vehicle before you leave.

Roger