19 replies to this topic

[57Pan]

I’m pretty new to all this stuff. Planning a trip in April to North Rim of Grand Canyon from southwest Washington. Hoping not to travel anymore than 4-500 miles a day to get there.
How to you go about planning on where to stay each night any special apps? Special ideas on route planning? Anyway just tossing it out there on how people plan there trips.

[Wallowa]

Others will give you better advice than this, but for getting there:

 

#1  Take more time for the trip than you expect to.  Don't rush to get anywhere; "enjoy the ride".

 

#2  I avoid frwys and heavy populated areas, bad for the nerves. Again, slow down and soak up the experience.

 

#3  Plan your overnight stops based on camping sites that meet your criteria.  For us, it is, no traffic, no neighbors and dark nights.  Dispersed camping sites in the boondocks are our first choice.

 

Destinations:

 

#1  Do searches online and cross-reference what is said about each location you wish to visit.  How much hype, how much reality. We also have a ton of books covering the areas we are interested in.

 

#2  Are these locations open and available in your time frame.  Consider weather and optional destinations.

 

#3  Don't try to "see too much" [a shortcoming of mine..] but rather plan kick-back time and several days at one location exploring.

 

SW Washington?  Well that means you at some level are exposed to a population glut of hypertensive folks....so plan on taking your favorite libation to decompress once on the road!

 

All good....we are in Southern Utah and Northern AZ in March...take a look at Tuweep Campground on Grand Canyon rim, remote and permit needed....too many of the areas down there require permits which are often limited and handed out by a lottery of some sort.

 

Good luck!

 

Phil

 

Ps...Obvious, but prep your vehicle for the type of terrain you plan to travel in.

 

PPs...You mentioned "apps'; don't rely on electronics, also have backup maps.   Paper is good!

Edited by Wallowa, 01 February 2020 - 05:56 PM.

[57Pan]

All very good, suggestions.

[PaulT]

I concur with Phil's advice, especially the "don't travel too far per day" and the "stay more than one day at a campsite".

 

Somewhere in the forum here, someone mentioned the camping rule of Two's. 

Don't travel more than 200 miles/day; get to your campsite by 2 PM; and stay for at least 2 nights. 

 

We don't always manage to do all of these on a trip, but we do try to keep these in mind.  The two night rule is, especially, good as you don't get the feel of a place and you miss too much unless taking the second day. If the trip is primarily about a particular destination, we short change them to get to the destination area.

 

 

Paul

[JaSAn]

 . . .
How to you go about planning on where to stay each night any special apps? Special ideas on route planning? Anyway just tossing it out there on how people plan there trips.

 

I plan 2 long trips a year.  2-4 week trip in May-June and 6-8 weeks in July, August, September.  I plan at this time of year.

 

Once I have decided where I am going to explore:

 

Collect maps:

 - Delorme and Benchmark atlas

 - State highway maps

 - National Forest Motor Vehicle Use Maps

 

Combined with maps I use online resources:

 - Google Earth

 - Freecampsites.net, Campendium.com, Allstays.com

 - National Park/Forest web sites, State Park/Forest web sites

 - BLM web sites and Corps of Engineers web sites (I also have a book listing all their campgrounds).

 

My first day driving is long (about 500-600 miles to a known campsite), since this area has been well explored.

After that no more than 300 miles a day and usually less.

 - I have a possible boondocking or campsite every 100 miles marked,

 - I don't always use them as I can often find better or wander off on a tangent,

 - but it is a great stress reliever to know of a campsite up ahead.

 

Depending on how detailed (or bored) you are will determine how much detail you plan.

BUT - slow down and smell the roses.  Leave plenty of time to explore unplanned roads and trails.

 

jim

[DavidGraves]

Howdy

 

We have a region in mind and if it is distant (Southwestl, Baja, Newfoundland) we employ freeway mode and typically make about 500 miles a day with early starts, a late afternoon break and driving into the night....to a KNOWN destination....and often a small motel.

 

In the midwest or Canada we often stay at rest areas....stop, sleep and go early......never rest areas in OR, WA, CA.

 

When we reach the region we hope to visit we slow way down and transition to stop by 3:00 in the PM or so.

 

We generally pack tons of paper maps, marked from years past or winter study....and often ignore them entirely and just go where it looks interesting...weather guides us generally.

 

We visit lots of Federal Wildlife Refuges, BLM lands and smaller state parks when there is something that interests us there.

 

By and large we ignore and even bypass national parks as they are too often stupid crowded.

 

We try to shower every 4-5 days...pay campground or truck stops.

 

We often crash Senior meal sites...fun to meet locals and ...we are seniors.

 

Our principal interests are history and natural history with some boating and antique car/motorbike shows thrown in.

 

We always seem to loose weight and save money during our 2-10 week trips.

 

I hope this was what you were asking.

 

David Graves 

[Vic Harder]

All good advice above.  I use an old copy of Microsoft Streets and Trips (S&T) do to the actual road mapping and estimation of travel time.  It is WAY out of date (Google maps - which I also use - has much more recent info).

 

If you drive speed limit, I set S&T to the next slower setting in route options.  That works for my driving style.  What this means, practically, is that even if driving Interstates where the speed limit is 70+, and I DO drive that, my average speed is still only 50MPH.  

 

Google maps does not let you do that, and there travel estimates are waaaay to fast.

[Kolockum]

Once I have decided where I am going to explore:

 

Collect maps:

 - Delorme and Benchmark atlas

 - State highway maps

 - National Forest Motor Vehicle Use Maps

 

Paper maps are by far the best. Most of my campsites are out of good cell service. Look for Forest Service Land, BLM and state lands for dispersed camping.

 

We often will drive from Washington to Utah as quick as we can. Leave after work drive 5 hours then camp in Oregon and get up early and drive all day to our known predetermined campsite. This gets us in the mental go-go-go mode and to combat it we will normally stay at the site for 2 nights and spend the second day hiking around and relaxing/adjusting to the new climate. This helps us get into the mindset of vacation and slowing down. 

[Foy]

My wife and I are 63 and 64, respectfully, and we couldn't be more different in overall approach: She says "surprise me" with destinations and routes, while I have been known to study a destination and route so thoroughly and for so long that I more or less recognize it when I get there.  Must be the old field geologist in me. I cut my teeth trip planning as a Project Geologist running a drilling crew of similar size to a platoon of WWII-era armored vehicles, so taking great care to figure out where we can go, can't go, want to go, and need to go are second nature.  All of that said, the planning and its requisite map study are very enjoyable exercises and comprise much of the fun.

 

Having been trained in the use of USGS 7.5' topos at 1:24,000 scale and a Brunton pocket transit, the infinite variety of digital products available now has led to me to..........not use any digital maps whatsoever.  Oh, I do like to zoom in to crux points with Google Map sat photos and I do so regularly and agree they're fine tools, but my intent is to dance with the one that brung me for as long as I'm able to dance.  Accordingly, DeLormes and more recently Benchmarks are my primary tools.

 

Overall, my trip planning involves several stages:

• Hankerin'
• Longin'
• Jonesin'
• Schemin'
• Daydreamin'
• Advanced Daydreamin'
• Obsessin'
• Site plottin'
• Time and distance cipherin'
• Reality checks, review, and bookings when needed.

Last night I finished Site Plotting and started on Time/Distance on a long, broad arc through southern and central Montana scheduled for August 2020.  We'll enter MT at Red Rock Pass down near Henry's Lake, ID and will run a trapline of familiar haunts we just can't do without seeing again for the nth time and mix in a few new spots. The "mostly old stuff" will end at the mouth of Rock Creek, east of Missoula after which we'll complete a several hundred mile mostly gravel traverse from around Fort Benton, through the Breaks, up through the American Prairie Reserve, Fort Peck, follow the Little Missouri River upstream from Medora (just inside ND), and cut back into MT briefly before exiting at MT's far southeastern corner at Alzada on the 5th day out of Fort Benton.

 

This trip will be in one of our pickups (need to decide which one soon) towing our lightweight pop-up hardside A-Frame camper.  It'll be the second trip to MT for the camper and the 5th North Carolina-to-Montana road trip since 2002, so we've developed some preferred stops for overnights along the way, and even some preferred fuel and food stops. So lots of the getting there and back is boiler plate. I generally won't tow at much > 67-70 mph unless it's really flat and the highway surface is very smooth.  I just don't care to put too much strain on the auto transmission, cooling system, suspension, and tires so I park my tail in the right lane, keep the CB on to warn truck drivers of a "slow mover" when it looks like they're bearing down on me, keep some music going on low volume, and enjoy the scenery. 

 

Within our East Coast states, and with having to traverse the Appalachians within 3 hours of leaving home, we look for about 600 miles/day.  In less-thickly populated parts of the Midwest, we can comfortably cover 650-675 miles/day. Between the Missouri River and the Rockies, we'll push out to 700 miles/day at times  At an average of 52-55 mph on a "beginning to end of day, including all stops" basis, these are obviously long days, but we start a little before dawn in order to stop long before dark and we do some walks at rest and fuel stops during the day and try to get in 20-40 minutes of walking in during the evening. We choose state and federal park campgrounds (not NPs, but Army COE and the like) which offer pull-throughs or level back-in sites so we can readily level without disconnecting, and 30 amp electric is a baseline requirement.  Our camper has an A/C unit which throws ice cubes and we find that cool air and clean sheets go a long way towards getting to sleep quickly and sleeping restfully with campground and highway traffic noise well muffled by closed windows and the soft hum of the A/C.Then it's up at 0430-0500, press Go on the Mr.Coffee, go grab a shower at the bathhouse, a bowl of Cheerios with blueberries quickly downed, and we're wheels-up easily by 0600.  The pop-up sets up and takes down in a couple or three minutes.

 

For the "in state" parts of this trip, we're looking at 2 to 5 nights at each of 4 places which are only around 2-3 hours' drive from one to the other.  The Looooooong Traverse down the Missouri and up the Little Mo will run between 70 and 120 miles/day mostly on BLM and county gravel roads.  That part will be just pull up to the stop, pop up, dine/shower/walkabout, and to bed.  Morning coffee will take a few minutes longer on the Coleman stove.

 

So that's pretty much how we do it.  I daresay there are no right or wrong answers. It just boils down to doing things in a manner you're comfortable with and used to, taking care to stop and smell the roses at most every opportunity.

 

Foy

[AWG_Pics]

In less than 3 weeks we will take our first trip with a pop-up camper. Prior we have tent camped so many places and nights I really do lose track. What is different this time is we are both retired and have more time & flexibility than any time previously. Like Foy, I am a former geologist (exploration geophysics variety) and obsess over maps, books and intertube information -- with logistics just about equal to fun/awsomeness of the destination.

 

So we will blast out of Portland, OR at 5:00 am and get down to virgin valley campground in northern NV for the first night. Then we will cannonball down to Death Valley and go to ground for 2 to 5 days in some place like Cottonwood Canyon or beyond hole in the wall. After that we are prepared to head down to Baja if we want, Arizona, New Mexico and such before wandering back about 3 weeks later.

 

Carry maps always, have a inexpensive handheld garmin, Foy reminds me I need to dig out my Brunton. I also have a rather extensive Goolge maps based map I have compiled over the last few months with a lot of dispersed locations and interesting things located on it.

 

I want to poke around ancient pueblo people's ruins and locations for part of the trip. We have some reading to help with that. We also like the idea of hanging out after a day of hiking and reading stuff that has to do with where we are. Sort of a context specific immersion reading experience, if you will.

 

But neither of us is locked into one set agenda and expect to flex into the experiences as they arise. While keeping an eye out for interesting serendipitous occurrences.  

 

If we find we are not having fun -- then we will change it up!