Honeymoon Road Trip

shadowclaw

My fiance and I are considering a road trip for our honeymoon. We've been having a lot of difficulty agreeing on what kind of trip to go on (cruise, resort, etc), but we both like the idea of taking a cross country road trip out west (we live in Pennsylvania) to see the national parks out there. I have a tentative route mapped out, which will take us to the following parks:

Mammoth Cave, Mesa Verde, Arches, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Redwood, Mount Rainier, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Badlands

To keep within budget, we're mostly staying at campsites. Some of the parks wer're going to stay a couple days at (Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Glacier) and the rest will get an evening and a day, except for Redwood and Badlands, which we'll only be spending the afternoon into the evening at.

We also plan to bring a cooler for drinks and food, so we can make our meals on the road (and stop for groceries along the way), which will make the trip way cheaper than if we ate out.

So I'm looking for suggestions for any cool sights that we should make time for at the above mentioned national parks. Also, if there's anything cool and quick nearby that we can stop to see along the way. For example, Mount Rushmore is right near Badlands and we can make a quick stop. Also, if anyone has any tips for road tripping, that would be great.

I'm also interested in whether you think we should make all of our campsite reservations ahead of time. Some parks have sites that are first come, first serve along with reservable sites. Reserving ahead of time means we absolutely must stick to our schedule, no matter what, but it guarantees we'll have a campsite. Doing it on the fly lets us change up our schedule if we decide we really like a certain park and want to stay longer, but there's always the risk that the campground will be full and we'll have to do some searching to find a motel or another campground (and possibly pay a lot more).

PS - before anyone asks, this road trip will be around 3 weeks

dazyabbey

I think that sounds like a ton of fun. I think you should check out some cities along the way too. I know when we were up in Rapid City we stayed on the backside of Mt. Rushmore at a camp site and it was great and very convenient to all the local spots.
Other than that... I can't really help much. Good luck!

hoffse

I've only been to Mammoth Cave, and it's alright.  I don't know that I'd drive all the way to KY for it (if that's the entrance you're using).  It's certainly enormous (hence the name), but there aren't the formations and things that you necessarily want to see.  The vast majority of the cave is not accessible to the public, so you'd have to sign up for special caving excursions to see some of the cooler parts of it (supposedly).  My favorite cave is Raccoon Mountain outside of Chattanooga, TN.  It is small but has amazing formations, and has a few things that only 5 or 6 caves in the world have.  I saw that one first and then went to Mammoth cave and was really disappointed.  Mammoth cave is really just a big opening in the ground that goes on for miles with pretty smooth stone and such.

If you do decide to go down to KY a day trip to the Shaker Village is always worth a visit.

Sue-n-Kevin

We took a road trip for our honeymoon last September, down the Pacific Coast Hwy from San Fran to San Diego. We didn't camp, I made hotel reservations all along the route, from one city to the next.

I'd recommend making a spreadsheet if you haven't already, with your start date, the dates you expect to be in an area, then how many miles are between the two, for the entire trip out there and back. On my spreadsheet I put phone numbers and addresses for the hotels, so I could simply put the addresses into the GPS on our rental car. I added points of interest between each "stop", things like "see Seal Beach near San Simeon, 10 miles south of X". That way I had something I could refer to after spending so much time arranging everything.  

You don't say whether you are taking your own car, or a rental, but we rented a convertible for our trip and were so glad we did. It wasn't cheap, but for the daily views as we drove along the Pacific Ocean it was lovely. See if your employer or your hubby's has a business account with an auto rental company. We used my employer's code.

You don't say when you are going, so it's hard to know if you should reserve your spots or not. We had reservations for every night we needed them...........I didn't regret that, however, there were times when it felt we had to rush to get to point X, rather than going off and seeing things that we might have enjoyed. I guess it depends on the types of people you are: I'm a planner and like organization.

I'd recommend checking www.tripadvisor.com. Not sure they have campsites on them, but they do have restaurants and sightseeing places. Also, sign up for access to www.budgettravel.com (it's free). They have a lot on road trips on that site.

Sadly I have not been to any of the parks you named, maybe someday LOL.

littlestbuttercup

You definitely want to make reservations. We went up to the GC once (we live in Southern Arizona) thinking we could get a camping site and they were completely reserved - it's just such a popular place, and the closest place to stay that is remotely affordable (if you're looking to save money) is Flagstaff, which is a bit of a drive, and also, isn't very cheap (for the hotels you would be okay with staying in).

I'm sure you've looked this stuff up, this a park's pass will save you tons - http://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm. We have one and use it so many places just in Southern AZ, it's incredible. Be sure to look at all the little landmarks and stuff on your route, you'll find some awesome things

Santorini2011

I went from DE to Mt Rushmore in about 1.5 weeks and it was a blast.  We didn't make any reservations and "winged" it.  However, we were also staying in hotels.  The rates were normlly $80-100 by stopping in and asking for the lowest rate.  Some (maybe all?) parks have a list of available sites so you could see if they are filling up and book the ones that are as you are on the trip.  Mt Rushmore take maybe an hour. Badlands was amazing.  There is a drive through zoo(not the park)  near Rushmore that is actually pretty cool.

We researched http://www.roadtripamerica.com/ and similar sites to see the tallest totem, corn palace, car henge, koolaid museum, and the other goofy all-American things.  The best experiences were seeing how the country changes as you drive, both the physical landscape and the people.

Bring a couple pairs comfy shoes, flip flops to easy hop out of the car for a pic or bath stop.  I would also stop by AAA and see if they have any resources, like guidebooks. 1 more thing...do not drive a car that only takes premium gas.  I had a really hard time in many spots trying to find a gas station.

REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT RUSHING TO GET SOMEWHERE AND TO ENJOY THE TIME IN THE CAR

J&K10910

Custer State Park will be on your way to the Badlands, and it's worth a drive through! 

I feel like you're going to feel ripped off only spending a day or two at most of those places, though, especially Yellowstone.

shadowclaw

Thanks for the replies!

We're getting married July 7th next year, and the trip will probably start the last week of July. Depending on finances and things, we may go earlier. We are taking our own car. I looked into flying out west and getting a rental and focusing on the parks in Arizona, Utah, and California. But I found that just the cost of the flight and the rental for two weeks cost more than what I'm estimating the entire trip in my own car would be. Even just renting from home is pricey.

Thanks for the link to roadtripamerica.com... I totally want to see some of those goofy road trip things like giant rubber band balls and such.

april79lynn

Hi! I am aso taking a road trip honeymoon! Id love to email and stay in touch about places you find. Heres my pinterest board.I hope you like http://pinterest.com/april79lynn/honeymoon-road-trip-usa/

cnf2013

FI and I are planning a cross country road trip honeymoon as well. We're doing something similar to you, camping at National Parks, but we're also picking five cities along the way to stay in a really nice hotel and explore and do touristy things. 

We've done a few big road trips so far and we've done Mammoth Cave and the Badlands. Both were really cool. I'd suggest The Great Sand Dunes in southern CO if you're going anywhere near there. Rosswell is a quirky and fun stop too (the Alien "Research Museum" is hilarious). I've been to Mt Ranier a number of times. It's spectacular!

Make reservations, definitely. Even if it means calling the day before or a few hours prior to try and snag something. FI and I spent many a nights trying to look up places to make reservations from Dennys or hotel parking lots trying to find wifi (pre smart phone). We have the list of all the places we've visited so far on our raod trip blog if you'd care to look them up.

robcourtneytrip.wordpress.com

Other cool places we've gone are Big Bend National Park, Carlsbad Caverns, Lookout Mountain, The Chattanooga Aquarium (as someone mentioned Chattanooga above) and Congaree NP.

Our honeymoon we're planning is going to be leave from our house, in our own car, and drive all the way across country to Olympia, down the CA coast and back across AZ, Utah, CO, and head the Chattanooga where FI's family is from, then back up. We stop at as many NP as possible. We bought a NP Passport and are trying to get all the stamps!