Looking for advice on taming The Wild, Wild West!

[Dan-sr@perra-us.net]

Originally Posted by D-n-LSawyers

If you choose to ride the Silverton I would recommend that you ride the bus for the return trip. Going downhill on the train is a very jerky ride. We really enjoyed the trip up and loved the views.

I have ridden the Silverton many times both ways. I have never noticed a "jerky" ride on the way back to Durango. It has been a while since the last time, perhaps an inexperienced or trainee engineer. Certainly, the engineer from the first time I rode the Silverton in the 1970s is either retired or pushing daises. The way back is all downhill, so the engineer has to work hard to keep the speed under control. Uphill it's the fireman that has to work hard.

[Pabs4]

Originally Posted by halfprice

Don't forget about Crazy Horse and the needle highwayAttachment 41155Attachment 41156Attachment 41157Attachment 41158Attachment 41159Attachment 41160Attachment 41161

These two as well as Mt. Rushmore. We stayed at the KOA mentioned before, but it was still on the heels of Covid, so the restaurant was closed. We also stayed inside Custer State Park in the Blue Bell campground. It was nice, and right across the street from a restaurant and next to a camp store. I preferred it over the KOA.

The Alpine Inn in Hill City has a great German restaurant. You have to arrive before opening if you don’t want to have to wait for a table. The lunch menu is limited, but we didn’t want to fight the crowd for dinner. We took day trips to Deadwood and the Badlands. Don’t fail to drive the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. https://custerresorts.com/activities...wildlife-loop/

We did just a one night stopover in Cody on our way to Yellowstone. I wish we had more time there.

Have a great trip!

Pam

[SchoolTeacher]

For something different, try these places we found on our trips west.

https://oregontrailcenter.org/

https://mim.org/

If you stay at the KOA in Great Falls, MT, there is a couple who do live music every night. 2023 will be there 31st year to do so.

[Ejohn2317]

Were leaving Jacksonville 4/2 the goal is Vancouver and back by July. Weve already done the Colorado Utah loop but will still hit that again. I want to hit Masa Verde again. Never been to California Oregon or Washington.
You mentioned bringing a dog. National parks have very strict rules against dogs in the parks. So check them out before you enter.
Some excellent suggestion on the forum im going to reread this and take notes.

[NMRVer]

After living in the southwest these last 35 years, we have seen/been to hundreds of campgrounds, state parks and the deserts. The big 5 in Utah are cool, Old Tucson (seeing the Duke's old stomping grounds) and with our love of water, lakes Mead, Havasu and Tahoe all are goods spots. I would recommend you pick things you like, select say your top 10 and see those. The journey Is best part, take your time and try different things along the way to you selected destinations. ENJOY

[RVwife]

Don't know if you CAN tame that wild west, but you sure will have fun. These are our brief highlights from the states we've been to over the years:

TN - pre RV days

• Chattanooga - the battlefield NP and the aquarium are worth visits
• Oak Ridge - one of the trio of Manhattan Project sites was quite interesting. We were there 20+ years ago and it was rather easy to get in to see the sites. Now you do have to reserve ahead. We plan on revisiting it on our upcoming trip this spring. If you collect cancellations in a National Parks passport, they have a unique stamp. It is 3 parts (with the other 2 being Los Alamos, NM and Hanford, WA).

AR - we vised in the fall of 2020, so much was closed or very restricted. They do have beautiful state parks with very nice facilities. We also stayed in the KOA in Hot Springs; very friendly and they had a shuttle into town which was handy since we don't have a toad.

• Little Rock Desegregation VC is small but very in-depth and informative. Due to the lack of crowds, we got our own personal ranger tour. He was very knowledgeable and we had a great conversation with him. Be sure to visit the commemorative sculpture display of the Little Rock Nine that is situated next to the state capital. Brought reality front and center as you walked around it.
• Crater of Diamonds SP was great fun digging in the dirt like kids in a sand box. We didn't strike it lucky on our day, but shortly before our visit someone had found a sizable diamond and just recently someone found one over 2 carats. When we were there, we ended up talking to a lady who had previously found a small one. She had it in a little box and showed it too us. Pretty cool.

OK & KS - we were following Rt 66. It was a "kick" with plenty of photo opps if you enjoy that. Travel photography and scrapbooking are some of my hobbies, so this was the mother load. Next trip we'll allow more time. I under estimated how many interesting stops and how much time we would take. There are lots of guide books and publications, so I won't repeat them here. Just take a few along for all their info.

TX - still on Rt 66 on our way to NM
We camped at Palo Duro Canyon even though it was bit off our path. So glad we did and wish I had reserved a few more days. It was amazingly beautiful. Plenty of hikes to do, but you could just chill at your campsite and take it all in too. The road down into the canyon is steep and windy, but as long as you down shift it wasn't a problem.

NM

• Albuquerque was strange. I don't know if it was just because it was early post covid (fall 2021). The downtown was absolutely deserted on a Saturday morning, save for some homeless and mentally unbalanced people roaming the streets. Although there were interesting things to see, I have to say we didn't feel particularly safe, so we didn't spend much time in town.
• We did camp at a very cute camp ground on the outskirts though. It had a vintage theme and was very nicely kept up. The hot tub and pool were just what we needed after nearly a week on the road in some sweltering temperatures. (We never knew OK could be so hot.) Even with AC on and drinking plenty of water, it took a bit out of us. We northerners were not conditioned to those temps.
• Santa Fe was fun. Lots of history, culture, art, shopping, you name it. Allow more than just a day. We had several. They have some great museums and a discount pass program that saves some decent $$ if you plan to visit several museums and a few other state historic sites.
• Bandalier NP - we camped here for 5 nights and used it to day trip to Valles Caldera and Los Alamos/Manhattan Project NP, as well as enjoy the tours of the ruins. Some of the hiking could potentially be strenuous, but there were a few short easier ones too. I have some limitations that make long hikes a challenge, but we found plenty of fun things to do. The basic ranger tours are largely on packed gravel pathways with benches for those in your group who may not want to go the whole distance. Different rangers covered different topics so we took several tours and enjoyed all of them.
• Capulin Volcano NP was one of my favorites. Due to a partial road washout, RVs were not allowed to drive the road to the top of the cone, but at 4:30 they close the road to vehicles and you can hike or bike up. It would have been a bit of a hike (2+ miles up pretty steep climb) but riding our ebikes up the road was absolutely amazing! We had the most fantastic weather and no one else around. WOW is all I can say. Go. Weather you take your toad up or bike it, it is so cool. There was a little mom & pop campground right near the base. Nothing fancy, but so convenient after our bike ride.

We did a short stop in Trinidad, CO as we started to follow the Santa Fe Trail back to Missouri. I wish we'd known more about what was to be seen there and had more time. It was a cute town and a half day was not enough. The trail was fun too and could be a trip in itself.


AZ(in our pre-RV days)

• Phoenix - visit the Musical Instrument Museum and allow a full day or even 2 if you are into music. DH & I are not major music folks but my cousin said this was a must do and boy was she right. There are numerous galleries, each devoted to a different continent. Each gallery is broken down into countries with instrument displays and music that plays as you pass each display. It was truly amazing. We ran out of time to do N America and Europe, but plan to definitely be back.
• Tucson & Phoenix - botanical gardens were great. We are both plant nerds, so of course.
• Patagonia - quaint, very small town almost to the southern border (so close that we actually encountered an ICE checkpoint). Toured Biosphere on the way.
• Stayed in Prescott for a few nights. It was OK, but not real special. We did make the drive over the mountain to Jerome, an old mining town; Sedona which had cute craft shops but is rather touristy. The red rocks are gorgeous and worth the look though. Cottonwood was also amusing; small town where we stopped at a local organic cafe for lunch. Got quite a chuckle when a local cowboy came riding down the main street, hooked his horse to the hitching post, got his tag-a-long dog a bowl of water and himself his lunch. When he was done he mounted back up and trotted on down the road. No question but that he was a local working cowboy. It was quite the fun sight (especially since I'm a horse person).
• Tuzigoot, Montazuma's Castle, and some petroglyphs in the near-by national forest were very interesting if you enjoy history & other cultures. They are small sites and the walks were not strenuous. You can do all 3 in the same day.

And lastly DO come to Michigan. There is so much beauty here too. Kewenaw NP and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are in the Upper Peninsula. Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore is in northwest lower MI. It would be easy to spend several days to a week at each. One thing I will warn you (not really a surprise) but you will find it impossible to get a site at Sleeping Bear from 4th of July until well after Labor Day, but....
we live just 10 miles from Sleeping Bear and are happy to offer a site to boondock (well, we do have 15 amp service we can run from the barn and the BEST fresh well water in the world) on our 10 acre horse farm. Give us a shout if you're interested.

Now I've written a novel already, but if you are interested, I have more detailed itineraries of our Rt 66/Illinois and Rt 66/NM/Santa Fe Trail RV trips. I like to travel with my handy dandy custom made chart where I've planned out places to see, where we have camp reservations, mileages we plan/need to travel each day, hours & fees for attractions, and more. If you'd like I can turn them into PDFs to email to you and anyone else (others just add your email in a post reply and I'll send them as a group). Let me know if you'd like the more detailed info.

[HMCSW]

Originally Posted by Ejohn2317

Were leaving Jacksonville 4/2 the goal is Vancouver and back by July. Weve already done the Colorado Utah loop but will still hit that again. I want to hit Masa Verde again. Never been to California Oregon or Washington.
You mentioned bringing a dog. National parks have very strict rules against dogs in the parks. So check them out before you enter.
Some excellent suggestion on the forum im going to reread this and take notes.

We live in Vancouver WA and pretty much stay west of the Rockies. Depending on time of year: Ca: Saltan Sea(Bombay Beach) visit-Stay in Palm Springs. Going north eight Route 1 and 101 along the coast or 359 east side of the Sierras to Reno/Lake Tahoe. You can either continue up to Bend Or or turn towards Lake Shasta coming out at Weed Ca. The Oregon Coast is amazing. We spend most of our weekend trips there. So either stay along the coast or go thorough Bend. Stay away from I5 (Portland, Eugene) mother worthwhile to see. Nothing but bums and crime. Used to be weird now just disgusting. Heck, Nike, Apple and even all the Walmarts are shuttering in Portland. P.M. me if you like and I can share Washington too. Parks are tight as we are forested but awesome views. Lots of Thousand Trail location as Washington is where they started.

[The Gritz Carlton]

Originally Posted by RVwife

Don't know if you CAN tame that wild west, but you sure will have fun. These are our brief highlights from the states we've been to over the years:

TN - pre RV days

• Chattanooga - the battlefield NP and the aquarium are worth visits
• Oak Ridge - one of the trio of Manhattan Project sites was quite interesting. We were there 20+ years ago and it was rather easy to get in to see the sites. Now you do have to reserve ahead. We plan on revisiting it on our upcoming trip this spring. If you collect cancellations in a National Parks passport, they have a unique stamp. It is 3 parts (with the other 2 being Los Alamos, NM and Hanford, WA).

AR - we vised in the fall of 2020, so much was closed or very restricted. They do have beautiful state parks with very nice facilities. We also stayed in the KOA in Hot Springs; very friendly and they had a shuttle into town which was handy since we don't have a toad.

• Little Rock Desegregation VC is small but very in-depth and informative. Due to the lack of crowds, we got our own personal ranger tour. He was very knowledgeable and we had a great conversation with him. Be sure to visit the commemorative sculpture display of the Little Rock Nine that is situated next to the state capital. Brought reality front and center as you walked around it.
• Crater of Diamonds SP was great fun digging in the dirt like kids in a sand box. We didn't strike it lucky on our day, but shortly before our visit someone had found a sizable diamond and just recently someone found one over 2 carats. When we were there, we ended up talking to a lady who had previously found a small one. She had it in a little box and showed it too us. Pretty cool.

OK & KS - we were following Rt 66. It was a "kick" with plenty of photo opps if you enjoy that. Travel photography and scrapbooking are some of my hobbies, so this was the mother load. Next trip we'll allow more time. I under estimated how many interesting stops and how much time we would take. There are lots of guide books and publications, so I won't repeat them here. Just take a few along for all their info.

TX - still on Rt 66 on our way to NM
We camped at Palo Duro Canyon even though it was bit off our path. So glad we did and wish I had reserved a few more days. It was amazingly beautiful. Plenty of hikes to do, but you could just chill at your campsite and take it all in too. The road down into the canyon is steep and windy, but as long as you down shift it wasn't a problem.

NM

• Albuquerque was strange. I don't know if it was just because it was early post covid (fall 2021). The downtown was absolutely deserted on a Saturday morning, save for some homeless and mentally unbalanced people roaming the streets. Although there were interesting things to see, I have to say we didn't feel particularly safe, so we didn't spend much time in town.
• We did camp at a very cute camp ground on the outskirts though. It had a vintage theme and was very nicely kept up. The hot tub and pool were just what we needed after nearly a week on the road in some sweltering temperatures. (We never knew OK could be so hot.) Even with AC on and drinking plenty of water, it took a bit out of us. We northerners were not conditioned to those temps.
• Santa Fe was fun. Lots of history, culture, art, shopping, you name it. Allow more than just a day. We had several. They have some great museums and a discount pass program that saves some decent $$ if you plan to visit several museums and a few other state historic sites.
• Bandalier NP - we camped here for 5 nights and used it to day trip to Valles Caldera and Los Alamos/Manhattan Project NP, as well as enjoy the tours of the ruins. Some of the hiking could potentially be strenuous, but there were a few short easier ones too. I have some limitations that make long hikes a challenge, but we found plenty of fun things to do. The basic ranger tours are largely on packed gravel pathways with benches for those in your group who may not want to go the whole distance. Different rangers covered different topics so we took several tours and enjoyed all of them.
• Capulin Volcano NP was one of my favorites. Due to a partial road washout, RVs were not allowed to drive the road to the top of the cone, but at 4:30 they close the road to vehicles and you can hike or bike up. It would have been a bit of a hike (2+ miles up pretty steep climb) but riding our ebikes up the road was absolutely amazing! We had the most fantastic weather and no one else around. WOW is all I can say. Go. Weather you take your toad up or bike it, it is so cool. There was a little mom & pop campground right near the base. Nothing fancy, but so convenient after our bike ride.

We did a short stop in Trinidad, CO as we started to follow the Santa Fe Trail back to Missouri. I wish we'd known more about what was to be seen there and had more time. It was a cute town and a half day was not enough. The trail was fun too and could be a trip in itself.


AZ(in our pre-RV days)

• Phoenix - visit the Musical Instrument Museum and allow a full day or even 2 if you are into music. DH & I are not major music folks but my cousin said this was a must do and boy was she right. There are numerous galleries, each devoted to a different continent. Each gallery is broken down into countries with instrument displays and music that plays as you pass each display. It was truly amazing. We ran out of time to do N America and Europe, but plan to definitely be back.
• Tucson & Phoenix - botanical gardens were great. We are both plant nerds, so of course.
• Patagonia - quaint, very small town almost to the southern border (so close that we actually encountered an ICE checkpoint). Toured Biosphere on the way.
• Stayed in Prescott for a few nights. It was OK, but not real special. We did make the drive over the mountain to Jerome, an old mining town; Sedona which had cute craft shops but is rather touristy. The red rocks are gorgeous and worth the look though. Cottonwood was also amusing; small town where we stopped at a local organic cafe for lunch. Got quite a chuckle when a local cowboy came riding down the main street, hooked his horse to the hitching post, got his tag-a-long dog a bowl of water and himself his lunch. When he was done he mounted back up and trotted on down the road. No question but that he was a local working cowboy. It was quite the fun sight (especially since I'm a horse person).
• Tuzigoot, Montazuma's Castle, and some petroglyphs in the near-by national forest were very interesting if you enjoy history & other cultures. They are small sites and the walks were not strenuous. You can do all 3 in the same day.

And lastly DO come to Michigan. There is so much beauty here too. Kewenaw NP and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are in the Upper Peninsula. Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore is in northwest lower MI. It would be easy to spend several days to a week at each. One thing I will warn you (not really a surprise) but you will find it impossible to get a site at Sleeping Bear from 4th of July until well after Labor Day, but....
we live just 10 miles from Sleeping Bear and are happy to offer a site to boondock (well, we do have 15 amp service we can run from the barn and the BEST fresh well water in the world) on our 10 acre horse farm. Give us a shout if you're interested.

Now I've written a novel already, but if you are interested, I have more detailed itineraries of our Rt 66/Illinois and Rt 66/NM/Santa Fe Trail RV trips. I like to travel with my handy dandy custom made chart where I've planned out places to see, where we have camp reservations, mileages we plan/need to travel each day, hours & fees for attractions, and more. If you'd like I can turn them into PDFs to email to you and anyone else (others just add your email in a post reply and I'll send them as a group). Let me know if you'd like the more detailed info.

WOW...WOW, what an incredible response and yes, please send whatever you wish to share. I've read through every comment and suggestion made here...multiple times. I've copied them by "name" to a document. April and I read through them, research the suggestions that fit our profile and limitations, adding them to our route. Thank you so.much to everyone here for sharing these qualified points of interest. One reason for downsizing was to eliminate a toad and be more versatile during the days, as this smaller camper can go and park nearly everywhere and our loving, old Bugsie can sit in the A/C as we make short stints to the things we want to see and do. We're not much on hiking but it appears most of the "venues" can be enjoyed cruising through or by some of the short hikes to the overlooks. And...I'm a foodie...I've made notes of the don't miss food joints along the way as well. Please keep this priceless advice coming! I have a huge steak dinner waiting on me near the South Rim...but...if anyone else is along the path it would be an honor to meet, if just for a quick handshake and visit. What a great group we have here. I've been on a few forums in the past few years but nothing like the respect and heart-felt buch of folks like we have here!! I value time like I do life itself and the time people have taken here to personally address this wealth of knowledge is 2nd to none!!

[ducksface]

Mesa Verde requires a mile or so of walking
But
If you go to the visitor center you'll see a staircase leading up .
At the top of that staircase used to be and hopefully still, a hidden gem of the equivalent to a Michelin starred restaurant.
And
In Jerome Arizona, if you go to see the travelling jail and such, there's a restaurant named
The asylum(it's in the old mental/ respiratory asylum) that is/was world class with a very sophisticated menu.

(Foodie stuff)
Look them up to find if they still exist.
also:
While the corner of Winslow is indeed immortalized in song, the song is really about
an encounter at the der weinerschnitzel in flagstaff.
However;
The restored Harvey House(look it up, then watch the Judy Garland movie) in Winslow is the real gem.
Beautifully restored hotel worth staying at if you need a break, and (off and on as it changes management) a fantastiic restaurant with an intersting menu. The hotel and grounds are worth a 15 minute stroll.
Also
Uranus Fudge in Missouri is worth a stop for oddly named gifts
And
We stayed at an odd rv park called
South of the Border(they must have 500 billboards along the road)
I think on the southern Tennessee border.
A theme park of sorts, it's hard to describe but we had a great night in the rv park and it was wildly interesting in a 'how in the hell vs why in the hell' way. It was my favorite stop in a 5,000 mile roundabout.

[happy]

I can't even remember who started this thread, we are taking all these suggestions personally and already plugging some in for next weeks trip!!!


Who makes the best Rellenos in New Mexico?

[Jimbo56]

Originally Posted by The Gritz Carlton

WOW...WOW, what an incredible response and yes, please send whatever you wish to share. I've read through every comment and suggestion made here...multiple times. I've copied them by "name" to a document. April and I read through them, research the suggestions that fit our profile and limitations, adding them to our route. Thank you so.much to everyone here for sharing these qualified points of interest. One reason for downsizing was to eliminate a toad and be more versatile during the days, as this smaller camper can go and park nearly everywhere and our loving, old Bugsie can sit in the A/C as we make short stints to the things we want to see and do. We're not much on hiking but it appears most of the "venues" can be enjoyed cruising through or by some of the short hikes to the overlooks. And...I'm a foodie...I've made notes of the don't miss food joints along the way as well. Please keep this priceless advice coming! I have a huge steak dinner waiting on me near the South Rim...but...if anyone else is along the path it would be an honor to meet, if just for a quick handshake and visit. What a great group we have here. I've been on a few forums in the past few years but nothing like the respect and heart-felt buch of folks like we have here!! I value time like I do life itself and the time people have taken here to personally address this wealth of knowledge is 2nd to none!!

I think we’re actually staying inside Grand Canyon National Park on the south rim. We’ll arrive on 4/24 and be staying 3 nights. Then heading to Paige.

[Jimbo56]

Originally Posted by ducksface

Mesa Verde requires a mile or so of walking
But
If you go to the visitor center you'll see a staircase leading up .
At the top of that staircase used to be and hopefully still, a hidden gem of the equivalent to a Michelin starred restaurant.
And
In Jerome Arizona, if you go to see the travelling jail and such, there's a restaurant named
The asylum(it's in the old mental/ respiratory asylum) that is/was world class with a very sophisticated menu.

(Foodie stuff)
Look them up to find if they still exist.
also:
While the corner of Winslow is indeed immortalized in song, the song is really about
an encounter at the der weinerschnitzel in flagstaff.
However;
The restored Harvey House(look it up, then watch the Judy Garland movie) in Winslow is the real gem.
Beautifully restored hotel worth staying at if you need a break, and (off and on as it changes management) a fantastiic restaurant with an intersting menu. The hotel and grounds are worth a 15 minute stroll.
Also
Uranus Fudge in Missouri is worth a stop for oddly named gifts
And
We stayed at an odd rv park called
South of the Border(they must have 500 billboards along the road)
I think on the southern Tennessee border.
A theme park of sorts, it's hard to describe but we had a great night in the rv park and it was wildly interesting in a 'how in the hell vs why in the hell' way. It was my favorite stop in a 5,000 mile roundabout.

Used to be a touristy spot on I95 in SC just across the NC border named South of the Border. Don’t know if it’s still there or not.

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by Jimbo56

Used to be a touristy spot on I95 in SC just across the NC border named South of the Border. Don’t know if it’s still there or not.

That's it.
I'm never sure exactly where I'm at when I'm driving the RV.
I just turn where the spousal unit tells me, stop when I'm told, leave the park when she says.
Neither of us really care much where we are, just that we are.

If you get bored at the Canyon, the little grand canyon is a spectacular hole in the ground just a few miles away. Also,Canyon de Chelle is a day trip from the South rim.
If you go to de Chelle let me know if you want company. We'll follow you there then we'll proceed over lukachukai and on to farmington nm.

We should be doing an off-road day trip Williams to the grand Canyon,on the old stage coach trail when you're here. If you're interested I'll find out if any seats are open. Drive, picnic, nod at the Canyon, drive back.

[RVwife]

Originally Posted by The Gritz Carlton

WOW...WOW, what an incredible response and yes, please send whatever you wish to share.....

Happy to do so. I'll make some time over the weekend to convert our various trips to PDFs. I actually have more trips east than west but will just send you the whole batch; each trip as a separate file. We've had a great time on all of them. I also have a Kewenaw/Michgan Upper Peninsula (UP) roughed out. Thanks to covid it didn't happen. Many of those sites are just getting back to where their local volunteers are willing to open them back up. We look forward to doing that one in the near future. If you do decide to come to MI via the UP give a shout as I have some suggestions that are not in that trip plan.

Another option for getting to MI might be via the car ferry from WI to mid-MI. Down side is it's further from all of the MI national parks and a lot of really neat stuff up this way. I costed it our recently as a way of avoiding the crazy drive around Chicago. Money wise gas vs. ferry fare it's about even (maybe slightly cheaper) for us @ 10 MPG with our rig. Time wise it will be shorter. We haven't done that crossing yet but I hear it's good.

Oh and that referral about a stop in Uranus, MO. Must do for lots of off color laughs! Not an official Rt 66 stop (it's more recent) but we could not resist. Spent way more time (and could have spent a large amount of $$) laughing the whole time.

[RVwife]

Ok, managed to convert files of 7 or 8 trips ( there is a bit of overlap or duplication as my planning evolved). Later tonight I'll send you an email (or perhaps several if the files prove too large) with the PDFs attached. Enjoy now or in the future.

If anyone else would like the batch, now is the time to leave your email and I'll include you when I send them out.

Love hearing everyone's shares and have appreciated the help from this group over the last few crazy years in RVing. Thanks all. Keep on rolling and adventuring.

[RVwife]

OK, Trip plan PDFs sent to those who requested. Enjoy your travels.

[Jimbo56]

Here’s a question for all you Western travelers. When leaving Joshua Tree, heading to Badger CA (Sequoia Natl Park & Kings Canyon), what route do you take? . 29’ pulling a Kia Sorrento on a dolly.

[HMCSW]

Originally Posted by Jimbo56

Here’s a question for all you Western travelers. When leaving Joshua Tree, heading to Badger CA (Sequoia Natl Park & Kings Canyon), what route do you take? . 29’ pulling a Kia Sorrento on a dolly.

247 make your way to 99 . We just did that drive last week. If you want more freeway. Go to 10, 215 and 15 north 138 to Bakersfield 99 north: we lived in 29 Palms and would go through Bakersfield .if you go through Barstow the original DelTaco is there. Not like the chain but same people.

[The Gritz Carlton]

Working on final route details and will post a very brief edition. Thanks for so many off the beaten path recommendations like Winslow and Jerome, AZ. Lots of cool places. My question at this point, for those knowing this territory...we can't find a decent breath of life between Oklahoma City and Roswell, NM. Looks like, other a few OK campgrounds, society has abandoned this area of about 900 miles. Can't find anything other than an old smokehouse and the Cadillac Ranch.

[happy]

We spent 2 nights at Blaze-In Saddles in Tucumcari, NM. Both nights were just fine.
Tucumcari has some Route 66 tourism. Palo Duro canyon near Amarillo is worth seeing if your schedule allows. The fella who commissioned Cadillac Ranch also did a few other art projects. I do not know if they still remain. Billy the Kid.....was a dismal person who lived during a dismal time in history....that is my opinion. There are sites dedicated to him in the Ft, Sumner area.
Roswell seems sorta alien.