It was 2016, the year that Carly and I took a 3-week, 7,000-mile road trip across the southwest. The idea began with a once-in-a-lifetime, 3-day concert called Desert Trip, and evolved from there.
I was turning 55 and figured let’s make this the adventure we would never forget. We searched and searched for the best itinerary that would cover most of the west coast. I didn’t find anything that was very helpful, and most were all over the place.
So I started researching myself. I made a list of all of the places I wanted to see and evolved from there. The trip covered 10 states with stops at multiple points of interest and National Parks.
Building the Itinerary
Our itinerary was well planned out, but quite full, so this meant most stops would be brief with little time for a full experience. When I started my research I found very few itineraries that addressed my needs this thoroughly and hoped to create the best itinerary possible for us. Really, I found very few itineraries at all that covered these areas.
If you have the plan to do the same sort of trip, I hope you find this itinerary useful! My original plan was to rough it and sleep in the car due to traveling pretty well nonstop for 3 weeks.
An RV was out of the question since we would have spent half of our time just setting up and breaking down our site. We decided showers and a nice bed would aid in our adventures, especially since we would be spending so much time in a car together. So, we went the hotel route.
We will be visiting most of these sites again with the RV when we are able to slow down and enjoy more of what they have to offer.
Itinerary
Week 1
White Sands National Monument
White Sands Missile Range
Sedona, Arizona
Grand Canyon National Park
Sequoia National Park / Kings Canyon
Yosemite National Park
San Francisco – 2 days – Golden Gate Bridge (visited during fleet week so we had Blue Angels and many others flying over and the bridge as a backdrop)
Haight Ashbury
Pier 39
Lombard Street
3 Day scenic drive down Coastal Highway 1, a trip of a lifetime in itself
Carmel by the Sea
Monterey Bay
Big Sur
Morro Bay
Pismo Beach
Santa Barbara
Week 2
Venture Highway
Malibu
Hollywood sign
Muscle Beach
Santa Monica Pier
Whiskey a go-go
Huntington Beach
Laguna Beach
Dana Point
San Diego for my 55th birthday
Joshua Tree National Park
Southwest Travel Desert Trip 3-day concert in Indio
- Day 1 – Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones
- Day 2 – Neil Young and Paul McCartney
- Day 3 – the Who and Roger Waters
Week 3
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
2 Days in Vegas
Valley of Fire State Park
Arches National Park
Last but not least in the middle of the Kansas flatlands we found the most unique salt formation. You never know what you will find unless you look! (I added it as last picture below) Now that’s what I call an itinerary!
Like I said earlier, we were not able to thoroughly enjoy each park.
I don’t suggest this type of traveling for anyone, due to the furious pace we were on, we missed out on some of what these places have to offer. It was just how it worked out for us since we had three weeks to see all of these beautiful places.
There was just no way we could shorten the list, we wanted to see them all. Most of them we made it in time to see the sunset, and I can say with certainty, there is just something about a sunset over these already amazing landmarks. It is a must see,
if given the opportunity.
Even though it was a quick stop at each place, we made sure to take advantage of some of the hiking, scenic drives, and tours for most of the places.
We did most of the driving at night. This helped with our fast paced itinerary, but I am sure we missed out on some beautiful scenery along the way.
We plan to return to most of them and spend a couple days at each place or close to them with the RV. Most have so much to see and do, 2 days might still be cutting us short on time.
Final thoughts
Please just get out there and see what this wonderful world has to offer you. There are so many places to see and things to do. The pictures of the places we took do not do any justice, you have to see them in person to enjoy the true beauty. Throughout life I have been close to many places and never took the time to see what was right next door to me, but this was not one of those times. We will be doing a more in depth blog on most of these stops in the future so please subscribe if you enjoyed this brief overview of our trip of a life time.Thanks
Desert Trip 2016
The Stones
Bob Dylan
Paul McCartney
The Who
Neil Young
Roger Waters
