What are your big plans for summer 2017?

[John1928]

Originally Posted by howlin4you

Our kids are a bit on the younger side (6, 2, & 1). I can't wait till they're just a bit older, better at longer car rides, and we can venture further away.

Unsolicided advice: Don't wait, start young. It increases the hassle factor then but it pays dividends for a lifetime when they don't blink at knocking out 18+ hours of boring the first day to have more time at the destination. Each of our kids had at least one 3000+ mile road trip prior to their first birthday (and more years than not since).

Back on topic:
We're heading Northwest from the Twin Cities up through Teddy Roosevelt to Glacier then on to North Cascades, Olympic, and Mr. Rainier National Parks. We'll loop back through the Columbia River Gorge, past Craters of the Moon and on to the Grand Tetons for the eclipse. Then we're spending some time in Yellowstone before stopping at Custer in the Black Hills on the way home.

This will be pushing six weeks which is the longest single vacation I've taken, but a major two year long project recently wrapped up at work, and this long chunk of time was to make up for not taking any significant chunk off the previous summer. I have dialed in for meeting from West Yellowstone, Estes Park, and Dinosaur NM in the past and there's a decent chance there will be a day or three like that on this trip, but it's still worth it even if I can't 100% disconnect for the whole duration.

[Big1]

Originally Posted by ttavasc

Big plans indeed! That looks like quite the road trip. 8-10 days at a time is about the max I can squeeze into my work schedule. We do that a couple of times each season with the rest of the outings usually limited to long week-ends at the coast or someplace in the Cascades or Central Oregon. This coming season the longer trips will be in July when we make our annual volunteer trip to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, UT, and September when we take a lazy trip through southwestern Montana. Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend always drive up from the Phoenix area for the week at Kanab so it's good family time. It'll just be the DW and I on the Montana trip - planning to spend time at Lews & Clark Caverns and Bannack State Historic Park.

You trip is almost like our trip that we have plan,came are leaving from Tacoma go to Las Vegas.

[Big1]

Originally Posted by John1928

Unsolicided advice: Don't wait, start young. It increases the hassle factor then but it pays dividends for a lifetime when they don't blink at knocking out 18+ hours of boring the first day to have more time at the destination. Each of our kids had at least one 3000+ mile road trip prior to their first birthday (and more years than not since).

Back on topic:
We're heading Northwest from the Twin Cities up through Teddy Roosevelt to Glacier then on to North Cascades, Olympic, and Mr. Rainier National Parks. We'll loop back through the Columbia River Gorge, past Craters of the Moon and on to the Grand Tetons for the eclipse. Then we're spending some time in Yellowstone before stopping at Custer in the Black Hills on the way home.

This will be pushing six weeks which is the longest single vacation I've taken, but a major two year long project recently wrapped up at work, and this long chunk of time was to make up for not taking any significant chunk off the previous summer. I have dialed in for meeting from West Yellowstone, Estes Park, and Dinosaur NM in the past and there's a decent chance there will be a day or three like that on this trip, but it's still worth it even if I can't 100% disconnect for the whole duration.

Agree on taken the kids now at that ages, because believe me all my kids are grow and out the house when they get a certain ages they get their on mind.

[Bookemdanno]

Originally Posted by John1928

Unsolicided advice: Don't wait, start young. It increases the hassle factor then but it pays dividends for a lifetime when they don't blink at knocking out 18+ hours of boring the first day to have more time at the destination. Each of our kids had at least one 3000+ mile road trip prior to their first birthday (and more years than not since).

Back on topic:
We're heading Northwest from the Twin Cities up through Teddy Roosevelt to Glacier then on to North Cascades, Olympic, and Mr. Rainier National Parks. We'll loop back through the Columbia River Gorge, past Craters of the Moon and on to the Grand Tetons for the eclipse. Then we're spending some time in Yellowstone before stopping at Custer in the Black Hills on the way home.

This will be pushing six weeks which is the longest single vacation I've taken, but a major two year long project recently wrapped up at work, and this long chunk of time was to make up for not taking any significant chunk off the previous summer. I have dialed in for meeting from West Yellowstone, Estes Park, and Dinosaur NM in the past and there's a decent chance there will be a day or three like that on this trip, but it's still worth it even if I can't 100% disconnect for the whole duration.

I couldn't agree more! But your post made me laugh...only because it brought back memories of me pulling the car over and the DW having to climb into the back seat of our car and breast feed our (at the time) baby. I used to ask repeatedly...Are you done yet?

[ttavasc]

Originally Posted by Big1

You trip is almost like our trip that we have plan,came are leaving from Tacoma go to Las Vegas.

Last April we did similar trip to Hendersen, NV where my wife had a convention to attend. Camped out along the north shore of Lake Mead for the week. We came down US-93 in eastern Nevada instead of I-15 in Utah. That is one long and desolate drive. If you go that route plan your fuel stops carefully as the stations are few and far between. Cell service was spotty at times too. We had planned to return the same way but due to some very nasty weather that moved in the night before we left we decided to take the I-15 route instead.

[need-a-vacation]

Spring break we are taking our boys on their first cruise.

Hopefully as soon as we get back from the cruise, it will be moving time. Once I do some changes to the landscaping, the 32 will be kept at our house!!! Sad part is it requires some trees to be removed. Not huge, but probably just a little to big to be able to just move them. Hope to try to find a last minute site once things have settled down maybe Memorial W/E if we get lucky....

June- Open houses every w/e!!! So no trips this month.

So far we only have our big trip planned in Aug with our group of close friends at Higgins Lake SP here in Northern Mi.

After that, hopefully at least a couple w/e trips somewhere within an hour or so of the house.

Safe travels to all!!!

[Big1]

Originally Posted by ttavasc

Last April we did similar trip to Hendersen, NV where my wife had a convention to attend. Camped out along the north shore of Lake Mead for the week. We came down US-93 in eastern Nevada instead of I-15 in Utah. That is one long and desolate drive. If you go that route plan your fuel stops carefully as the stations are few and far between. Cell service was spotty at times too. We had planned to return the same way but due to some very nasty weather that moved in the night before we left we decided to take the I-15 route instead.

That's I believe we are planning on going or taken I-15, I know that we took that before so I will have to look more into that, my plan also are to take about an extra 10 gallons gas.


Looking at going on this route, what do you guys think? https://www.mapquest.com/directions/...as?optimized=1

[hoppers4]

Taking the Grand Circle tour with Adventure Caravans which includes all the cool parks in Utah in environs includes Grand Canyon. It's a month long tour plus a four day drive from the house each way. Been wanting to do this for years and DW finally got on board.

[JPBeck]

I'd love to swing by the Grand Canyon, but we've been there in the summer and it was too hot for us.

[ttavasc]

Originally Posted by Big1

That's I believe we are planning on going or taken I-15, I know that we took that before so I will have to look more into that, my plan also are to take about an extra 10 gallons gas.


Looking at going on this route, what do you guys think? https://www.mapquest.com/directions/...as?optimized=1

That is the exact route we took to Hendersen except we headed southeast on Nevada State Hwy 168 at Coyote Springs down to Moapa Valley and then into the Lake Mead Recreational area where we were parking the trailer for the week. I have the extended range fuel tank on my RAM so I normally plan for fuel stops about every 250-300 miles. With our small and lightweight trailer average mpg is about 12.5. For this route we fueled up at the following locations:

Shell - Umatilla, OR
Phillips 66 - Nampa, ID
Chevron - Jackpot, NV
Shell - Ely, NV
Chevron - Moapa Valley, NV

I had 5 extra gallons in the truck bed as well. We traveled in early April and there was still some snow along the way in places - Deadman Pass on I-84 in Oregon and on most of the hills in northern Nevada. Here's a shot from around Ruby Valley, NV...

[Big1]

Originally Posted by ttavasc

That is the exact route we took to Hendersen except we headed southeast on Nevada State Hwy 168 at Coyote Springs down to Moapa Valley and then into the Lake Mead Recreational area where we were parking the trailer for the week. I have the extended range fuel tank on my RAM so I normally plan for fuel stops about every 250-300 miles. With our small and lightweight trailer average mpg is about 12.5. For this route we fueled up at the following locations:

Shell - Umatilla, OR
Phillips 66 - Nampa, ID
Chevron - Jackpot, NV
Shell - Ely, NV
Chevron - Moapa Valley, NV

I had 5 extra gallons in the truck bed as well. We traveled in early April and there was still some snow along the way in places - Deadman Pass on I-84 in Oregon and on most of the hills in northern Nevada. Here's a shot from around Ruby Valley, NV...

Ahhh, that is one beautiful scenic, I was planning out my trip a few minutes ago and seen your post and since you know a little more than me about the sites, do you know of any quick overnight rv park that we can stay that is right off the Interstate?

Our first stop is going to be at the Country Corners RV Park that's in Caldwell, ID, the first day is going to be about 483 miles from our start but the next stop I'm not sure.

After the first long stop we want to go between 300 to 400 miles, I'm looking at Valley View RV Park that's in Ely, NV or the Welcome Station RV Park that's in Wells, NV, so do you or anybody have any good rv park that is close to the Interstate?

Thank you for those gas station I did wrote them down on my list.

[ttavasc]

Originally Posted by Big1

Ahhh, that is one beautiful scenic, I was planning out my trip a few minutes ago and seen your post and since you know a little more than me about the sites, do you know of any quick overnight rv park that we can stay that is right off the Interstate?

Our first stop is going to be at the Country Corners RV Park that's in Caldwell, ID, the first day is going to be about 483 miles from our start but the next stop I'm not sure.

After the first long stop we want to go between 300 to 400 miles, I'm looking at Valley View RV Park that's in Ely, NV or the Welcome Station RV Park that's in Wells, NV, so do you or anybody have any good rv park that is close to the Interstate?

Thank you for those gas station I did wrote them down on my list.

There aren't very many places along that stretch of US-93. Our first night on that trip was at an Idaho State Park - Three Island Crossing - about 20 miles east of Mountain Home. We left early the following day and were at Lake Mead early evening. There are more options along the I-15 route through Utah. The last time we did the Kanab trip - September of '16 - we just pulled into a rest area around the Bliss/Jerome, ID area for the first night.

One resource that I've used to look for potential stopping points along the way is Good Sam. We are members but you don't need to be a member in order to use the search features:

RV Camping and RV Parks – RV Campground Search at Good Sam RV Club

Once you put in the location and have the list of campgrounds switch to "Map View" - then you can quickly see the location relative to your route.

[rsday75]

With a major reorg at work (Hoping to still have a chair when the music stops), and my wife's company being sold (No job after May) we are staying close to home this year....
We were going to take the kiddos to see The Mouse for the first time this year, but looks like that will be on hold for awhile...

[jloco]

Weekends and a couple of full week trips to my seasonal site down on Cape Cod.
Lot's of inshore fishing plans for this year including black sea bass, fluke, haddock, cod and striped bass.
Also looking forward to some big game offshore fishing for yellow fin and blue fin tuna, mahi-mahi, wahoo and marlin!! We're going to try our hand at swordfish this year for the first time! I can't wait to get the season started!

[KCSA75]

Originally Posted by Bookemdanno

I couldn't agree more! But your post made me laugh...only because it brought back memories of me pulling the car over and the DW having to climb into the back seat of our car and breast feed our (at the time) baby. I used to ask repeatedly...Are you done yet?

[JPBeck]

We are going to be adding two more trips on the way home one at Upper Peppermint in Sequoia National Forest and one at Upper Deadman's in Mammoth.

[JPBeck]

We started our summer trip a lil early-- At Morro Bay on the beach--
Made a BLT and a chief salad, the kids are with mommy getting some kites. The sun is out the batteries and floating, and my solar is powering everything I need.

Things could be worse.

[FeatherFam]

This is not a "big" trip summer for us. We will camp at a state park here in AL and spend a week in NC. Next summer we hope to got to the Tetons. This is a house punch list summer for us - Lots of days in the AL summer swelter!