What are some places you guys have enjoyed when traveling the USA ?

[Jayko-Wizard]

Hope this thread counts for me it would be Route 66 and, Beale Street in Memphis. Right now I'm planning a cross-country road trip and, looking for ideas places I enjoy are museums anything historic and, roadside attractions

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Soooo many places to see and things to do in this world. At least once a year I travel, and never the same place twice. My latest trip this past May was from Michigan to Georgia to South and North Carolina and back to Michigan. We did our research prior, found huge waterfalls, fantastic hiking trails, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta (massive), the Atlanta Botanical Garden (huge place, conservatories, etc.), shelling and shark tooth hunting along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas, a dolphin watching tour, and stopped at 3 different mines in the Carolinas and found literally bags of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, garnets, and other cool rocks and minerals. In September, we are going to do some fossil hunting at different locations in Michigan. Next May, hopefully, 2 weeks in Scotland with our family. Southern Indiana and Ohio is known for their fossil and geode hunting, so that is yet another trip in the queue. A Lake Superior loop tour and rockhounding. I could go on and on.

I've been to a lot of different places, fantastic memories, and once we retire, we plan on road-tripping several times a year.

Some of the prettiest beaches and coastlines in the US: Oregon
One of the best hikes in the US: Mount Rainer National Park, Washington
The Grand Canyon and surrounding areas
The Badlands and Black Hills regions of the Dakotas
Hawaiian Islands, each one is different and each worth the time to visit
The National Parks found within the Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah areas, all stunning.
Frankly, too much to list.

 

[Au Naturel]

Highways 1/ 101 up the west coast. Absolutely beautiful!

Wandering around Ireland was nice too.

 

[Forest Cat]

I haven't traveled there but my sister drove route 66 and she was so happy about it, great trip she said. So I really want to do that. I think I would enjoy it immensely. I would look like this nonstop from one end to the other:

 

[Tom]

Zion National Park in Utah was very beautiful and fun if you are up to some short strenuous hiking. Above is Angels landing and you can go all the way out and up to the top for an incredible view.

 

[Rodafina]

I second the 101 route up the western coast of the U.S.

Also…

Moab, Utah

Boise, Idaho

Joshua Tree, California

Death Valley

The entire state of Vermont is fantastic.

 

[Au Naturel]

I haven't traveled there but my sister drove route 66 and she was so happy about it, great trip she said. So I really want to do that. I think I would enjoy it immensely.

I drove it twice when I was young and camped at parks along the way. There's something very nostalgic about it even today.

Today I live in in California. I like to catch it near Victorville and take it to Arizona. That desert is even emptier than it once was. Used to be a busy little highway. Many of the small towns along the way are abandoned and slowly disintegrating.

Remember this?

 

[Au Naturel]

Get your kicks on Route 66 (Originally written in 1946!)

 

[Metalhead]

If you have the chance to, I suggest seeing a concert at the Gorge Amphitheater near Moses Laks, WA. One of the most beautiful concert venues I have ever been at.

 

[Shevek]

I enjoyed a bicycle trip from LA to San Francisco on Hwy 1, and then a loop to Yosemite and back. The advice in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is to stay off the expressways. Look for a road that goes from nowhere to nowhere, with a faster alternative. That's where you'll see real life. The fewer people around, the friendlier they tend to be.

 

[Athyrium]

Highway 89 up from Flagstaff through Kanab! There's a lot of cool natural and history stuff in Flagstaff, and so so so many pretty natural areas on the drive.

I've lived all over the US, is there anything in particular you are looking for history-wise? Or a part of the US you'll be going through?

 

[VictorR]

On the topic of US 1 / 101 along the Pacific, north of Seattle, Hwy #11 (Chuckanut Drive) from Burlington to Bellingham is a nice seaside detour away from the rather plain I-5, and north of the border, Hwy #99 from Vancouver to Whistler has some lovely stretches as well.

 

[Richelle-H]

I was fortunate to travel along route 66 multiple times from Los Angeles. Once all the way to Chicago. The thing that is most embedded in my mind from those trips - The Burma Shave signs all along the route. It was fun for us as children whenever one came along. We also played license plate baseball from time to time.

Anyway, I was bitten by the road-trip bug at a very early age and have seen many fascinating and wonderous things in my travels. Not knowing the routes you intend to take, the suggestions I am about to offer may be well off your path, but it is fun to share my travel experiences and what follows is presented in a rather scattershot manner.

Each state has something remarkable in it worth visiting, from natural wonders to man made structures.

I cannot possibly list everywhere I have been in the U.S or this could be overwhelming. Here is a picture of one of the great natural wonders in the state of Idaho.


That is a picture of Shoshone falls, higher than the Niagara falls. It is actually a collection of descending cascades. Situated on the Snake river, I was fortunate to snap this photo and many others when it was at full flow. I was fortunate as the flow gets diverted to produce power most of the time, but it is still worth a visit in my estimation. Also in Idaho is Craters of the Moon.

I have been to Devils Tower in Wyoming which has a nearby Prairie Dog Town. Also worth a visit in that state is Fort Laramie.

It is a vast site with the core consisting of many restored structures, but there are many outlying ruins of once large buildings. There are other places to see in Wyoming as well.

If you are into volcanoes, their are many in the northern part of the Pacific coast: Mt Lassen, Mt. St. Helen's
, etc...

Then there is the Columbia River Gorge with some spectacular scenery and this odd bit of a monument on the Columbia River in Washington State across from Portland.

It is a replica of Stonehenge as it might have been and built as a war memorial.

Utah has a great many natural wonders, but they are overrun with tourists over the warm weather moths and can be a bit of a nightmare to visit. Moab is a gateway to the Colorado river as well as other interesting places but it too has become a bit crowded in the spring and summer months.


I love caves and in 1983 did a walking tour of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and a little less than 48 hours later a walking tour of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico (Hey I was 38 then: more active and a little crazy to do that). Then you did not need a reservation to take a tour, but now it is probably advisable.

I will stop now before I bore everyone even though I have not covered a tenth of everywhere I have roamed.. I love travel by automobile wherever I visit. The ability to just go where serendipity takes you leads to wonderful discoveries. Too much rigid planning on a trip can rob one of those, but I understand the need for a starting Itinerary.

Wherever you wander, may you also enjoy your road trip.

(All attached photos are from my personal history)

 

[Wolfnox]

Arkansas. Hot Springs. You can swim “or sink” in my case on a mountain lake. With one looming above the lake. First time I was genuinely in awe of a land mass in person.
Went to Appalachian mountains in Tennessee and Ripley museum.
We stayed in a rental on the mountain side. Hot tube on the back.
I kept trying to pee on a bear from balcony.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Pacific Coast from Ensenada, Mexico, all the way up to Victoria, British Columbia.

I don't want to give away specific locations, because as Neil Yong sang, I want to leave the little secret places "helpless". No people, no trash, no crowds, no subdivisions. Just keep it special for the lone traveler to discover and be awed by too.

The Pacific Coast and its inland deserts, forests, and mountains are sublime.

 

[Wolfnox]

Pacific Coast from Ensenada, Mexico, all the way up to Victoria, British Columbia.

I don't want to give away specific locations, because as Neil Yong sang, I want to leave the little secret places "helpless". No people, no trash, no crowds, no subdivisions. Just keep it special for the lone traveler to discover and be awed by too.

The Pacific Coast and its inland deserts, forests, and mountains are sublime.

You know the location to the mines of Morra?

 

[Jeff T]

Hmm
Southern Utah/ northern Arizona, especially during monsoon season.
The top of the Sierra Nevada and eastwards
Wallowa Mountains (NE Oregon) and John Day country.
Basically any place that is scenery porn to my brain, with very few people.
No other people makes it extraordinary!

 

[tripleU]

I am 12 hours away from America, so dig down, and go to Pakistan, and then the snowy areas in it.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

You know the location to the mines of Morra?

Speak friend, and enter.

 

[Starflowerpower87]

There are so many places I want to visit in the states. I’d love to see Maine in the fall. (Don’t know if I spelled that right.)