How to Plan a Roadtrip
How to Plan a Successful Road Trip
A good road trip means more than just getting there and back. Photo by Jen Judge.
One evening two decades ago, on a Thursday after
work, a friend and I loaded our climbing gear and drove 17 hours from
Boulder, Colorado, to Smith Rock, Oregon, where I’d always wanted to
climb a classic test piece called Chain Reaction. Another time a friend and I drove from Sta Maria CA to the Oregon border to go fishing for salmon. We didn’t arrive until 2 p.m. Friday and were too knackered to climb or fish.
That left a day and a half before we had to load up and return to
Colorado or California in time for work Monday morning meetings.
Though I sent the route, I don’t consider that trip a
success, other than the fact that we never fell asleep at the wheel.
Sure, it lives on as a mythic tale in my personal narrative, but the
rush added so much stress over succeeding that I didn’t really enjoy the
process. I barely remember the trip through the fog of sleep-deprived
driving. Today however I now leave such roadtrips to the college kids, I'd rather fly.
The moral of the story—other than youth often serves up more energy than good sense—is that a good road trip
means more than just getting there and back. My wife, JoAnn, and I have
been living on the road on and off for three years and have developed a
dialed process for trip planning, we have it down to a science. Here’s a primer.We as ldsi ha a sailboat and do similar trips by boat, just ad wet gear.
Long Weekend
The three-day trip can be the trickiest to plan and
execute, because time is short and overdoing it is tempting. If I have
one piece of advice, it’s that less is almost always more.
I usually set aside in a staging area, everything I want to take with me and then cut back by a third before packing up.
I usually set aside in a staging area, everything I want to take with me and then cut back by a third before packing up.
Pick a Destination That’s Not Too Far
Obviously, an end goal will drive you, so pick
somewhere you want to target. In general, Jen and I prefer to drive four
hours or less in a day, six at the max. After that, you’re getting into
“more road time than sleep time” territory. This might seem limiting,
but don’t neglect nearby spots.
Plan for Two Nights in the Same Place
Sure, you can make a loop and see a couple places in
one shot. But the setup and tear-down process is a drag and cuts out
precious time for hiking, biking, boating, or just plain sitting.
Get Out the Maps
Once you know where you want to go, sit down with
your favorite mapping software. We always start with Google Maps to get a
baseline of distances and driving times. After that, we open the
website AllStays.
For short weekends, city and state parks and established camping areas
are great options, because they allow you to roll up at a site, set up
quickly, and get busy recreating. Reservation sites (if you can get
them) remove the guesswork and wandering in search of that perfect spot.
Still, we always consult OnX, our preferred map app, in case there’s easy and stunning public access in the vicinity.
Stay Longer
One mistake I see so many people make is devoting
the entire last day to getting home. Look, I get that there’s a lot to
do—unpacking, cleaning, getting ready for work the next day—but having
invested all that time to drive and get away, you should make the most
of it. Plan an activity for day three and stick to it. If you get home
late, throw all your gear in a pile, or just leave it in the car. It
will get put away eventually, and I promise you’ll value another day
outside more than you would spending half a day cleaning.
Long Week
Even though nine days—a full workweek and two
weekends—seems like a ton of time, it’s still easy to pack in too much
travel and too many activities. Again, restraint will deliver
higher-quality experiences in the outdoors and less time burning up the
highway.
Pick Somewhere You’ve Always Wanted to Go
A weeklong trip should put you in range of some
marquee destinations, but again, unless you want to spend half your time
driving, rein in your aspirations (or consider flying). For us, 12
hours is acceptable proximity; less time is preferable. For instance, at
13 hours, Grand Teton National Park
would be a good bet from our house in Santa Fe. Figuring six hours a
day driving (plus stoppage), the trip to and from the Tetons will take
four days total, leaving just five days on the ground, which will go
quickly between biking, hiking, climbing, boating, and seeing friends.
On the other hand, Guadalupe Mountains National Park is just six hours
away, meaning only two days of driving round-trip and a lot more time
for discovering things along the way.
Plan Your Route, Including Pit Stops
When planning long trips, I’ll spend a lot more time
with Google Maps for a macro view of towns, recreation sites, and parks
we might want to visit en route. For that hypothetical Tetons trip, I
see that Aspen, Colorado,
is only 30 minutes out of the way. I’ve been wanting to climb in the
Maroon Bells, so we decide to make it a halfway stopping point. On the
way back, with just an hour more driving, we can stop in Durango and do one of my favorite bike rides.
Pick a Few Campsite Options
Assuming you haven’t made reservations at national
parks, which you often must do months in advance, you can use AllStays
to scan for other parks and campgrounds. Jen and I generally prefer dry
camping on public lands, so I normally spend more time on OnX looking
for national forest and BLM land near our chosen destinations. Toggling
the public/private land filters on and off makes it easy to find nearby
swaths, after which I zoom in and use the app’s aerial photography to
scan forest roads for pullouts and campsites. I tend to flag three to
five spots near a place so we have options if one is full when we
arrive.
Don’t Be Afraid of RV Parks
If we’re going somewhere distant like the Tetons,
without any aspirations to stop en route, we’ll often book a cheap RV
spot where we can roll in late, hook up for a night, and blaze at dawn.
It makes stops quicker. We also sometimes just use interstate rest
stops, which can be a bit ugly but will get you where you want to go
faster.
Don’t Pass by the Gems
Part of the appeal of driving somewhere you’ve never
been is stopping in places along the way. Sure, the Tetons are the
goal—but don’t just motor past the local shop selling fresh tortillas,
the restaurant advertising the country’s best burgers, or the prettiest
campsite you’ve ever seen. The Tetons will be there. Stop and enjoy the
fruits of the route you’ve picked.
A Month or More
You have time—remember that. Pick a locale,
something as big as half a state, then head that direction and plan as
you go. With pervasive Wi-Fi and cell service these days, you’ll never
get completely lost
or stuck, and, frankly, that’s a real pity. Many of our most memorable
experiences have been when we made an unexpected turn into a place we’d
never heard of (like Window Rock Park on the Navajo Nation) or
discovered a quiet corner on public lands between destinations (such as
an open prairie on BLM land near Carlsbad, where we ended up staying two
weeks because it was so serene). Part of the magic of living on the
road is that you are no longer bound by the rigid schedule of home. Be
flexible and enjoy it!
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