East Coast to Utah. Suggestions and tips please!

[FleshTuxedo]

After I saw a certain post about Utah, I've been kinda planning a road trip.
It would be Philadelphia area to Moab.
Things I'd love to know are if people have done similar and where you stopped along the way, which routes you took, and just general suggestions on how much to drive every day, and things to see along the way.!

Thanks in advance!

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[BroncoTrail]

It all depends on how much time you have.
How many days do you have, including the day you leave Philly and the day you start driving back to Philly?

Edit: And what month?

 

[FleshTuxedo]

It all depends on how much time you have.
How many days do you have, including the day you leave Philly and the day you start driving back to Philly?

I have as much time as I need
Basically would like to do a week and a half-2 weeks maybe?

 

[BroncoTrail]

OK let's say you have fourteen days total. Without pushing too hard it'll take you three days to get from Philly to Moab, and then three more days to get back. So this leaves you with eight days to really play.

Personally I would spend some time in both Moab and Colorado. Sure, Moab is considered the offroad mecca but CO is just as beautiful and has totally different scenery. You'd want to hit CO in Jul, Aug, or Sep so the snow doesn't mess up your plans.

Moab you can hit whenever pretty much although May and Oct are probably the most comfortable months. Summer works too, you'll just want to use your A/C a lot of the time.

If you want any specific ideas for Moab or CO I can provide some as I've been doing a lot of research but I am sure others will chime in and of course you can always search online!

 

[FleshTuxedo]

OK let's say you have fourteen days total. Without pushing too hard it'll take you three days to get from Philly to Moab, and then three more days to get back. So this leaves you with eight days to really play.

Personally I would spend some time in both Moab and Colorado. Sure, Moab is considered the offroad mecca but CO is just as beautiful and has totally different scenery. You'd want to hit CO in Jul, Aug, or Sep so the snow doesn't mess up your plans.

Moab you can hit whenever pretty much although May and Oct are probably the most comfortable months. Summer works too, you'll just want to use your A/C a lot of the time.

If you want any specific ideas for Moab or CO I can provide some as I've been doing a lot of research but I am sure others will chime in and of course you can always search online!

Colorado is definitely in the cards, as I have a bunch of friends there, and will likely crash with them in Ft. Collins and Denver.

I think 8 days in Moab would be a little long for me, personally. I'd need maybe 3.
I have some trails I'd like to do, but I'm not doing anything crazy, as I'll be by myself and don't want to put myself in any bad/dangerous positions.

 

[Rick Astley]

@broadicustomworks Did the Carolina to Moab and back trip this year. Perhaps he has some suggestions even though he went a more southernly route than you're likely to do.

 

[FleshTuxedo]

@broadicustomworks Did the Carolina to Moab and back trip this year. Perhaps he has some suggestions even though he went a more southernly route than you're likely to do.

Thanks! I knew you’d never let me down.

 

[broadicustomworks]

We took 10 days for our trip and it wasn’t enough.
3 days spent meandering SW, Long-hauled the first day to Amarillo, stayed the night there.
From there we popped on and off of Historic Rte.66 and skipped a LOT of stuff in the interest of time.
Night 2 was in Winslow, AZ. I really wish we had more time to spend in NM and AZ.
Day 3 we went to the Grand Canyon, and again, wished we had more time to spend there. Like the entire day!
But we saw it, spent probably 3-4 hours there, trucked it on up to Moab for night 3.
We spent the next day doing a few trails, some shopping.
the next 2 days were used up on White Rim trail and camping on it about halfway through.
The next day we meandered around town, bought a bunch of shirts and stuff, went to Arches and spent a good 4-5 hours there.
Drive to Eagle, CO and spent the night, came back across through KS, MO, IL, IN, KY, WV, VA, then home to NC.
I-70 was that route and let me tell you, it was a hard push and nothing of note to see east of Denver. Quite the monotonous hard drive.
If I were to take a route that was not I-40 and Rte.66, I’d make it a point to plan it so I saw the BL in SD, Mt. Rushmore, etc.
the dream trip would be enough days to get those in, Devil’s tower, Yellowstone, and down into Moab.

However, CO was a drive-thru state for us as we had getting home and not stranded in Vail Pass on our minds. But I wish we had spent more time in CO, as the scenery change from west to east in that state is breathtaking. And I’m sure there were hundreds of scenic drives and off-pavement we could have explored there.

As much as I don’t want to take that boring drive to get to CO, I 100% want to return and devote time to seeing more of it. Moab is a definite “want to go back” place, as we probably did .5% of the trails we could have done.

I would assume you’d have to add an additional 7 hours trek south to even get here where we started from, but my strong advice is to take I-40 west from I-81 in VA and TN and do that southern route.
It is sooooo much cooler and more scenic than the mid-country I-70 route.
Once you get past OK City the Americana and historic places and people you meet are life changing.

If you’ve never been down this way or west along that route some of the cities/places you will see for the first time:
Nashville
Memphis
Little Rock
OK City
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Petrified Forest
Winslow
Meteor Crater
Flagstaff
The GC
And you are not more than a short-ish jaunt from Roswell, the Painted Desert, Carlsbad.

 

[FleshTuxedo]

We took 10 days for our trip and it wasn’t enough.
3 days spent meandering SW, Long-hauled the first day to Amarillo, stayed the night there.
From there we popped on and off of Historic Rte.66 and skipped a LOT of stuff in the interest of time.
Night 2 was in Winslow, AZ. I really wish we had more time to spend in NM and AZ.
Day 3 we went to the Grand Canyon, and again, wished we had more time to spend there. Like the entire day!
But we saw it, spent probably 3-4 hours there, trucked it on up to Moab for night 3.
We spent the next day doing a few trails, some shopping.
the next 2 days were used up on White Rim trail and camping on it about halfway through.
The next day we meandered around town, bought a bunch of shirts and stuff, went to Arches and spent a good 4-5 hours there.
Drive to Eagle, CO and spent the night, came back across through KS, MO, IL, IN, KY, WV, VA, then home to NC.
I-70 was that route and let me tell you, it was a hard push and nothing of note to see east of Denver. Quite the monotonous hard drive.
If I were to take a route that was not I-40 and Rte.66, I’d make it a point to plan it so I saw the BL in SD, Mt. Rushmore, etc.
the dream trip would be enough days to get those in, Devil’s tower, Yellowstone, and down into Moab.

However, CO was a drive-thru state for us as we had getting home and not stranded in Vail Pass on our minds. But I wish we had spent more time in CO, as the scenery change from west to east in that state is breathtaking. And I’m sure there were hundreds of scenic drives and off-pavement we could have explored there.

As much as I don’t want to take that boring drive to get to CO, I 100% want to return and devote time to seeing more of it. Moab is a definite “want to go back” place, as we probably did .5% of the trails we could have done.

I would assume you’d have to add an additional 7 hours trek south to even get here where we started from, but my strong advice is to take I-40 west from I-81 in VA and TN and do that southern route.
It is sooooo much cooler and more scenic than the mid-country I-70 route.
Once you get past OK City the Americana and historic places and people you meet are life changing.

If you’ve never been down this way or west along that route some of the cities/places you will see for the first time:
Nashville
Memphis
Little Rock
OK City
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Petrified Forest
Winslow
Meteor Crater
Flagstaff
The GC
And you are not more than a short-ish jaunt from Roswell, the Painted Desert, Carlsbad.

Wow! Great write up, thank you!
On my phone at the moment, so can’t make a detailed post, but I’m going to look at what you said when on my computer and try to figure out a different way, as I-70 was my way out west.

 

[PSUTE]

I 80 is boring as shit. Lived in Malvern and went to UU, so I made that drive alot...

 

[broadicustomworks]

Wow! Great write up, thank you!
On my phone at the moment, so can’t make a detailed post, but I’m going to look at what you said when on my computer and try to figure out a different way, as I-70 was my way out west.

Cool deal.
And technically you could shave time off and head NW out of Albuquerque to Moab, but we HAD to go to Winslow and the GC.
Let us know what you decide!

 

[WarthogJr]

Tip: avoid populated areas in Utah. It’s like the twilight zone. Backcountry is cool though.

 

[nhmountainman]

Planning a similar annual trip of 2-3 weeks starting next April…but I don’t think the Ford will make it back and forth. Gonna need a Toyota for these annual 5k+ trips, LOL…

 

[FleshTuxedo]

I 80 is boring as shit. Lived in Malvern and went to UU, so I made that drive alot...

see, I was told I-80 is one of the best ways to go, lol.
I remember you said you went to GV, if I recall correctly.

 

[PSUTE]

see, I was told I-80 is one of the best ways to go, lol.
I remember you said you went to GV, if I recall correctly.

It is one of the best ways to go, but boring. Endless corn fields, but you're not going to avoid them no matter which way you go, so it does get them out of the way as quickly as possible. Council Bluffs is the only feature for hundreds of miles in either direction...

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