Road Tripping from San Fran to NOLA. Need Advice
phatmoneysack
Melbourne 1,124 Posts
Hey All,
I'm heading to the USA in April for Coachella and to do a road trip across the south-western states.
We're traveling through:
California
Nevada
Arizona
New Mexcico
Texas
Louisina.
We've done a bit of research into these places and have found a plethora of stuff to do and see. The difficulty is knowing whats good and whats achievable on a road trip where we'll sometimes be travelling for between 4-7 hours a day.
Has anyone done a trip like this?
Whats the deal regarding cities, towns, records, food spots, night spots, national parks, historical and cultural places?
Any tips and hints would be greatly appreciated.
I'm heading to the USA in April for Coachella and to do a road trip across the south-western states.
We're traveling through:
California
Nevada
Arizona
New Mexcico
Texas
Louisina.
We've done a bit of research into these places and have found a plethora of stuff to do and see. The difficulty is knowing whats good and whats achievable on a road trip where we'll sometimes be travelling for between 4-7 hours a day.
Has anyone done a trip like this?
Whats the deal regarding cities, towns, records, food spots, night spots, national parks, historical and cultural places?
Any tips and hints would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
From SF take the Pacific Coast Highway via Big Sur, spend the night at San Simeon, I can recommend the Best Western directly on the water, get a room with sea view. There are no private B&B or anything so don't waste your time looking for something more "rustic". It's all about taking long walks on the beach and staring at the elephant seals. I'd leave Highway 1 at San Luis Obispo and drive East to Death Valley National Park. Maybe spend a night in Las Vegas if that's your thing and then drive to the Grand Canyon. I'd recommend avoiding the tourist crowds and going to the North Rim and checking out some of the crazy rock formations in Southern Utah beforehand. All of this shit is so close to each other and it'd be a shame to miss any of it.
There's a dirt road off the Arizona State Road 389 which leads you to the Toweep, Taroweap or Toroweep (all three spellings seem to exist) outlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The place is super remote and you'll have to brave a 60 mile dirt road. Don't go too fast, some of the gravel rocks are sharp and pointy. We blew a tire on the way back and barely made it back to the 389 since our rental SUV only had one of those miniature spare tires which of course also blew after only a few minutes. I'd drive there again in a heartbeat though... the scenery is mind blowing and because of the remoteness you are likely to have it all for yourself. When we were there, there was one other car full of people which left soon after we got there. You have to imagine that this is one of the very few spots where you can stand on the very edge of the rim and look straight down onto the Colorado river ca. 1.000 yards underneath. Yes, that's an abyss of 3.000 feet! Enough to make you feel light-headed...
All my jpgs are too large to post them, I can't figure out a way to make them show and don't have the time to scale them down and re-upload. Just click on the links to view them:
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Any pictures can actually only do a poor job in giving you an idea of the sheer scale of it, it's really overwhelming.
From there, if you have the time, I would go to the Monument Valley (I mean you've got to see this once in your life so why not spend the extra day) and if you can check out the Valley Of The Gods which is close by and somewhat a miniature version of VOTG but when we went, nobody was there, you can drive down a well maintained dirt road and stop wherever you like, take pictures, walk around, it's really peaceful and ridiculously scenic. VOTG is a must but it can be over-run by tourist buses and RVs and then it can get very dusty and not very relaxing as you're constantly on the run from other vehicles. Then drive straight down South all the way to Organ Pipe National Monument right on the Mexican border. I know, this is a whole lot of driving but so worth it and after all, this is a road trip, right? So driving for long stretches is part of the appeal and it's amazing to see the climate and scenery change completely in the course of a day. On the way down there, if the timing is right, spending the night at Gila Bend's Space Age Lodge is fun. They have a cool pool directly on the highway so you get to soak in the water while inhaling truck fumes and admiring their cool signage.
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The Texaco station down the road has excellent smoked ribs but don't go too late, last time I went they were already sold out.
When continuing towards the Organ Pipe park, make a stop in Ajo, an old mining town that has a couple of interesting antique stores. To continue East from Organ Pipe, I'd stay as close to the border as possible and drive through the reservation. Alongside the road you will see many saddening shrines to victims of drunk driving.
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It's mostly very flat but there are a couple of nice views along the way, depending on how clear it is. If you stay right on top of the border here's a winding dirt road to Nogales which is one of the most scenic drives I ever took. I can't seem to find this on Google Maps but you'll figure it out or I can look it up for you later.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o36/voodoofunk/Road Trip 2011/IMG_3604.jpg
Again, the picture does little justice to how breathtakingly beautiful this country is...
In Nogales, go to Los Tacos Inc at 550 North Grand Avenue and try their tripe tacos!
When we went, we stayed at a horse ranch 20 miles outside of Tombstone and riding through the Arizona desert was one of the 5 best things I've ever done in my life. Can't recommend this enough, you'll need at least 2 days to spare though but gain, taking yourself as much time as possible is essential for any rewarding road trip. Shoot me a PM if you want the details for the place, it's not a dude ranch, you'll be their only guests and you'll get the fullest experience imaginable and the couple who runs this are the sweetest people you'll ever get to know. Wherever you are in Southern Arizona, be careful to always have at least 2 gallons of water per person in the car, better more. There are places where there's no phone reception and where it might be days before someone comes by. You might also encounter someone else who's stranded or well... lost. Be careful who you give a lift but always have water handy to give to people.
When you're entering Louisiana, I'd stick to the coast and take the 82 via Cameron, Grand Chenier and Pecan Island. You'll get to take the (free) ferry which is kind of fun and the scenery is amazing. You'll most likely see a shit ton of birds and maybe some gaturs.
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There's an intersection where you can leave the 82 to Creole (no reason to do this) where you'll find a gas station that has killer smoked sausage and boudin check whatever they have at the small food counter, it's all good. As is most food in most places of the wonderful state of Louisiana where it is about as hard to find bad food as it is elsewhere to find the good stuff.
I love staying in New Iberia. I'm a huge James Lee Burke fan so every time he puts out a new Dave Robicheaux novel (buy one here), I rent out this cabin right on Bayou Teche for a few days to read it. This is a ridiculously romantic place under huge, century old live oak trees... in the evening you can walk down main street along the famous Shadows On The Teche and loads of other landmark buildings. Sit outside on the dock of Pelicans On The Bayou, eat a few pounds of boiled crawfish and hope for a tug boat to come by so they have to pull up the draw bridge. Gale, the owner of the place lives on the property. She will leave you alone but will always have good recommendations as to where to get the best boudin in town, where to go for some Zydeco etc. Go to Dave's Specialty Meets for duck jerky. Go to Legnons for boudin and tasso. two links of crawfish boudin and a six pack of Abita makes an excellent breakfast by the way.
When in New Orleans, there should be a couple of old threads about where to go and eat. I'd strongly recommend having mint juleps on the terrace of the Columns hotel on St. Charles one afternoon. Lunch at Cochon, and dinners at Coquette and at Patois were our recent favorites. Friends talked me into taking the cemetery walking tour at the Voodoo Museum on 724 Dumaine Street and to my very surprise, it was absolutely incredible. Make sure you get the owner Mr. Gandolfo as your tour guide.
Some more thoughts about the Pacific Coast Highway, this is the most incredible stretch of road on the planet. Most people are raving over Big Sur and because it's located right between LA and SF, this is the most common section of Highway 1 that most people get to see. Yes, it is amazing but In my personal opinion, the area further up North around Mendocino County is even more pretty. In fact it's almost absurdly idyllic up there. The whole drive is all about the interplay of vegetation, light and the sea and you're much closer to the water up there. It's about 5 hours from SF to Fort Bragg and in my opinion, it'd be worth spending a day driving up there, get a room in Fort Bragg (ridiculously good local wine and seafood up there) just to drive back down the next day. The drive is so spectacular, you won't regret it, I swear. I've done it twice myself and would do it again tomorrow if I could.
Spend as much time as you possibly can. You'll go back home with memories to last a lifetime. If time is an issue, I would rather skip any city with the exception of New Orleans and instead see as much of the country as possible. A city is always just another city.
warning..north of fort brag, route 1 is still amazing gets very strenuous with switchbacks. you can get carsick real easy and end up clocking about 12 miles an hour.
and like frank said, try to stay off the interstate highways and just take backroads (unless you need to get someplace in a hurry). the old highways will turn into main streets of interesting old towns and will give you a much more Easy Rider experience (hopefully without the beatdowns and gunshot wounds)
west texas is kindof desolate. make sure you have gas in your tank
http://www.offbeatearth.com/real-life-flintstones-bedrock-town/
We've driven down South from Eureka twice and that's one of our favorite parts but yeah, if you're not used to narrow and winding roads I guess it can be a bit much. One of the most amazing spots is just North of Eureka though where when going South, you drive through old growth Redwood forest and the trees are so massive and thick and the trunks reach right up to the edge of the narrow road so that it feels like driving a toy car through a fairytale forest that's totally thick, dark and dense and then out of a sudden the whole thing opens up and before your eyes had time to get used to the light you're on a cliff overlooking the pacific.
Skip Arizona if you do this. I know a girl who got locked up on some petty shit driving through AZ.
Arizona is zero tolerance, if you have a joint or a bud it's a felony. Worst part about the state other than phoenix.
second that. Redwoods is holy ground. my favorite being all up and around Eureka
I would so want to drive this and take lots of pictures.
...and the weed. Make yourself useful!
I didn't mind this in Phoenix
:feelin_it:
Hey Frank,
Thanks so much for this advice - its given us a perspective that we might not otherwise have gotten.
We're now quite keen on doing the north side of the canyon like you suggested. Your Louisiana advice is also really useful. I am keen on seeing how gaturs compare to our crocs at home.
I don't know whether we'll get the time to go as south as you guys did although it sounds like a great trip.
We're essentially in the USA for 25 days and almost a week of that will be in California due to the three days in Coachella, so time is an issue.
In terms of cities we are keen on checking Austin and Sante Fe though.
Does anyone know these places well?
I've been pulled over the last 3 times I've driven east through Arizona (Cali plates-related), "warnings" given each time. :weaksauce:
i just drove to austin and stopped for boudin in Lafayette at Guidroz's Food Center. it was damn good. the seafood boudin especially was out of this world.
25 days will go by real real quick. you probably dont want to spread yourself too thin, driving most of the time. id concentrate around cali and maybe a trip to the grand canyon and some time in the southwest. have fun!