Saint Louis road trip TWO
Plan made in the mid-1990s for someone who wanted to take a two week road trip from St. Louis to see some of the Southwest.
|
Where one spends the night |
Hours of driving that day |
|
St. Louis |
|
|
Shamrock, TX |
11 |
|
Pilar, NM |
8 |
|
Aztec, NM |
6 |
|
Chinle, AZ |
4 |
|
Grand Canyon |
4 |
|
Las Vegas, NV |
4 |
|
Redlands, CA |
4 |
|
Los Angeles, CA |
2 |
|
San Diego, CA |
4 |
|
Yuma, AZ |
4 |
|
Wilcox, AZ |
5 |
|
Las Cruces, NM |
4 |
|
Clinton, OK |
10 |
|
St. Louis |
10 |
TRIP TWO
1st day: A terribly long drive to Shamrock, TX (eleven hours from St. Louis)
2nd day: It takes six hours to get from Shamrock, TX to Santa Fe, so get an early start in the morning. See Santa Fe until dark, then take Highway 68 north to Pilar. Call now the Plum Tree Bed and Breakfast at 1-800-678-PLUM to make reservations at this cheap B&B.
3rd Day: Spend morning enjoying stuff around Pilar, NM
The afternoon you’ll have an amazing 6 hours drive over mountains on state highways 4 and 44 to Aztec, NM
4th day: See Indian ruins in Aztec in the morning. Then visit Four Corners, and hike in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona.
5th day: a lovely day of driving, take Indian highway 59 and US highway 160 through Monument Valley, then on to Grand Canyon National Park for sunset. Stay in Grand Canyon for the night.
6th day: hike around Grand Canyon in the morning. It takes about five hours to drive to Las Vegas from there. Spend the night in Las Vegas.
7th day: Enjoy a drive across the desert. Stay in Redlands (I’ll make a reservation for you at my old University where you can stay in the Alumni house, a beautiful old Victorian building).
8th day: See whatever you want to see in Los Angeles.
9th day: See either Los Angeles or San Diego. At least get to San Diego for the night.
10th day: Morning in San Diego. Afternoon drive across mountains and deserts to Yuma, AZ
11th day: I-8 and I-10 across southern Arizona to Tucson. Visit Desert museum. Perhaps see Colossal Cave in Mountain View. Stay in Benson or Willcox for the night.
12th day: Morning drive to Las Cruces, enjoy mountains along the way.
13th day: See white Sands in morning, Drive across Apache Reservation and enoy mountains in early afternoon. Drive until late at night to get as far east as you can (go at least as far as Amarillo, TX).
14th day: terribly long drive to St. Louis.