Hey, thanks for all your replies.
You guys are awesome!
I’ll try to answer all the questions.
About the first part of the route:Edmonton to Las Vegas: 7 days and 3245 kmsA LOT OF DRIVING!
Here’s why:We will be travelling with my father-in-law this part.
He has only 1 week, and really wants to see Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Hoover Dam.
That’s why we have so much driving in this first part of the trip.
In addition, we will have 2 drivers till Las Vegas (my wife doesn’t drive)
He will fly from Las Vegas back to Edmonton.
After Las Vegas we won’t have long drives (6 hrs is a max).
About Yosemite:Here’re my thoughts, please correct me if I'm terribly wrong:
When we check if something is worth the visit, we always do a “google images” search:
if what you see inspires you => go there
if it’s just “ok", then probably skip it
So, Yosemite. It does look cool.
BUT
We have mountains 4 hours from Edmonton, been there 2-3 times a year for the last 3 years.
We’ve also seen British Columbia mountains.
We do love mountains: hiking, wildlife, etc.
Here’s a google images check (North to South):
Jasper:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=jasper+national+park&tbm=ischBanff:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=banff+national+park&tbm=ischGlacier National Park:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=glacier+national+park&tbm=ischBritish Columbia:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=british+columbia+mountains&tbm=ischYosemite:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=yosemite+national+park&tbm=ischGrand Teton:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=grand+teton+national+park&tbm=ischLooks pretty much the same, so we decided to skip all of those.
We have enough mountains, bears, mooses, etc. :)
After so much of those, they just don’t inspire us enough to pay them a visit.
USA has a lot of variety, so why not to check something else this time?
What does inspire us?Deserts, palms, canyons, beaches, beautiful gardens.
All the things that we don’t have here :)
For example, these parks:
Arches National Park
Zion National Park
do look really amazing and
DIFFERENT, but we have time constraints for the first part of the trip :((
I just don't know how to fit them in our itinerary
Why so much time in LA?3 days for Disneyland, 1 day for Universal Studios = 4 days.
The rest: we just want to live a bit in a warm climate near an ocean.
We plan to live in Anaheim first (near Disneyland), and somewhere else (
where?) later.
Why not skip Disney for future "family-kid" vacation?We don’t have kids yet, so “Family-kid” vacation is at least 6-7 years away.
(I think it doesn’t make sense to go there until a kid is at least 5-6 yo or even older)
And we just want to go there, we love such things.
Yellowstone: we will have 2 partial days there:
1) Great Falls => Gardiner: 4 hours and 360kms. The rest of the day is in Yellowstone, following the road to West Yellowstone.
...) just a night in West Yellowstone
2) West Yellowstone => Idaho Falls through Yellowstone
About Redwoods and Highway 1:Our initial plan was to take Highway 1 and have 2 stops: Santa Barbara and Monterrey. Visit Redwoods too.
Then I’ve found Sequoia NP (stay at Visalia), and we changed the route:
We will have enough “beach” and “ocean” in LA and SD, so giant sequoias are better than redwoods.
Do you thinks it’s a mistake?
Maybe there’s a way to get the best of 2 options?
Sequoias VS Redwoods? Which one is better?
We can easily change this part of the trip.
Grand Canyon:All over the Internet people say that the South Rim is the best. That’s why we chose it.
We stay in Flagstaff (not Phoenix,
Mirwen)
Las Vegas:We have 4 nights there, 3 full days.
Do you think it's too much?We don't drink, don't party, and I plan to spend around $20-30 on the cheapest slot machine (just for the experience of pulling the handle :), without any hopes to make a profit).
We plan to wander the strip at day and night, there're several interesting free things there.
Plus: Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, they're nearby
You might want to consider stopping by Death Valley National Park. It's only a couple of hours from Vegas.
Ok, we will consider it. I checked google images, and didn't understand what's in there :)
But DESERT! That would be cool to just drive there :)
Or insanely hot :)
About campingMy wife doesn't like camping. She is awesome in all ways except more "dangerous" stuff (camping? with bears? no way! roller coasters? no way!) We're both pretty young, but we married at 22, so it's our 5th year of happy marriage :)
About GasBuddy:Thank you all! I'll install it.
About Medford and Crater LakeWe chose Medford just to split long road in 2 day.
We will stay at Ashland, OR then, because several people recommend it.
I'll redo the route.
Ashland => Crater Lake => Portland is 6 hours, 555kms... too long :(
Get a prepaid sim from straight talk. 45$/month with unlimited data
I was hoping for something cheaper... Any other suggestions?
Also in Oregon all gas stations are full-service, it is illegal to pump your own gas
Good to know. I hope to not accidentally break a law :)
Mt. St Helens (highly recommended!) and Mt. Rainier. Or you could also do the big loop around Olympic National Park -- some beautiful beaches and the rain forest is fun to see.
Mountains again :) We will pass them.
About the loop: sounds interesting.
Maybe, if we won't be exhausted from driving.
Or next time when we visit just Seattle and area.
Once the stews ran out, we purchased microwave meals at Wal-mart
Walmart! How can we forget about it :)
we had a hike at Lake Jenny and saw a moose
One morning in Jasper we got up, opened the door of our cabin and saw an ass of the moose in 3 meters :)
He was eating his breakfast grass and didn't really care about us.
Instead of the San Diego Zoo, I would visit the Safari Park, near Escondido
We plan to visit both :)