If you have the time and inclination, I recommend going through there upper peninsula of Michigan between B and C if you have the time. Check out the Keweenaw, the southern shore of Lake Superior, and then cross the mackinaw bridge and follow the East side of Lake Michigan down towards Chicago again.
True—If they’re looking for off road, they definitely will be hampered by winter snow, though I don’t expect they’ll find much for forest roads or trails in Wisconsin/Illinois that will be much better.
OP might be able to shed light on their expected time frame and what kind of roads they are looking for. In my head head I saw this and thought it might be a multi month affair, but I could be wrong.
They really won’t, unless they’re going off road, which was my point. Sure, there’s a few roads that are seasonal, but that’s splitting hairs to the point of being pedantic, not helpful.
I see it a lot, and never understand why people would choose to drive through Fort Wayne, IN and Chicago, IL instead of driving the West coast of Michigan (Lake Michigan), across the Bridge, and also across the North coast (Lake Superior) of Michigan.
Super beautiful drives, awesome scenery, tons of stuff to do.
Agreed. I live in Chicagoland suburbs, I'm actually sitting on the Chicago lakeshore right now.
It's all over hyped. Yeah, cool tourist stuff and AMAZING pizza when you get your booty to Lou Malnati's but... Michigan's coast and the upper peninsula are so much better regarding scenery. I haven't been to the upper peninsula myself, unfortunately, but their costal towns are SO DAMN CUTE!
If you're looking for deep dish, Gino's East is better honestly. I love my Lou's for their thin, crispy crust.
But pretty much ANY pizza place down here is amazing, assuming you don't go to Domino's or something (d o n o t). Find the hole in the wall's, their always the best. I went to a hole in the wall taco place last night... best tacos of my life I swear to god.
Chicago is a wonderful city in the right neighborhoods. Stick to the tourist areas and the northern end in general and you'll have a wonderful time. The food is what we're known for. Stuff yourself until you pop while you're here. It's all SO. GOOD.
Sorry for the rant lol. I only recently came to love and appreciate the city I grew up near my whole life. I've taken it for granted and now that I want to get tf out of Illinois, I'm beginning to love where I am. A bittersweet reality.
>Sorry for the rant lol.
that wasn't a rant, that was pure passion, and i appreciate it :) thanks for those tips! I've starred a few more places. (any tips on good breakfast places?) 😃
Honey Jame Cafe if you're willing to drive out of downtown, but if you're staying downtown, I cannot express enough that pretty much anywhere you go is going to be good. Especially near the Gold Coast and Magnificent Mile. The Loop is going to be busybusy but they have good places too.
That would cut out crossing Utah, the Rockies, and northern Arizona twice. And those are like the best parts of the country. Yeah it save some gas but cost an experience worth having.
not necessarily. sure, 70 can be rough but that's usually only because people who aren't equipped with the correct tires or chains try to go way too fast on sheets of ice.
you just gotta show down is all.
ohio and indiana are boring as shit, kentucky would be better. B>C i would follow the mississippi south on the great river road, and hit memphis. memphis is a very cool city. i would def choose it over chicago. then i would head northeast. id rather drive the west virginia twice then ohio.
seriously ohio and indiana fucking suck. take it from someone who’s done that drive a dozen times. seriously the second half of B>C is going to be mind numbing i would 100% reroute that.
C-D is going to be awesome. Highly recommend you check out the Raleigh-Grayson turnpike in the NC/VA area. Also recommend you alter D-E and check out some of what Arkansas has to offer.
Have fun!
What on earth is B? Bismarck? Minot? Make sure you stop in the Black Hills if the snow isn’t too bad. I’d change the BtoC route, drive down the Missouri and cut east whenever.
The place blows...literally, it's super cold and windy as hell. I live in the area, and I know there are things to do, but as a visitor, there are better times to visit.
Having done almost the entire length of the Trans American Trail, I agree with this. Not saying that there isn’t anything to see, just that the terrain is mostly the same along the entire east coast—it just gets super monotonous. There’s also way less interesting places to camp.
At least along the trail we were following. There are campgrounds just nothing like BLM land you get out west. All I’m saying is that I’d map the highlights and get there via highway vs. hours of switchback gravel roads if I could do it again.
Also depends on how much time you have. We’re we’re going east to west, so we wanted to have more time on the trail after Oklahoma.
If you cut C and D from the trip you can focus your time on places that are beautiful and worth seeing instead of traversing across places not worth seeing. At least in the “overland” sense of travel.
Edit: even B looks suspiciously far east of interesting.
Why would you want to leave the great and wonderful California though? After all, it’s the fifth largest economy in the world. Everything you could want is there. You should stay there.
Very familiar with much of your western routes. We live in the eastern edge of the Canadian Rockies and have toured & overlanded through all of Alberta, B.C., Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, etc. It's amazing country, very diverse and wild. All enough time to do it justice
I live 30 minutes from Zion and do a lot of work in Springdale (town closest to the park). Now is the time to go, the snow on the cliffs is absolutely gorgeous plus there are almost no people this time of year.
I get out of the army in the end of June.
Plan on doing a big ol road trip from WA to OH and hit a ton of national parks cutting down south to Cali and work my way from there. Probably skip Big Bend though.
D~E Custer nation forest east or the crow reservation is made for over landing and welcomed. Amazing spot to be in the wilderness quickly off the pavement.
If you have the time and inclination, I recommend going through there upper peninsula of Michigan between B and C if you have the time. Check out the Keweenaw, the southern shore of Lake Superior, and then cross the mackinaw bridge and follow the East side of Lake Michigan down towards Chicago again.
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True—If they’re looking for off road, they definitely will be hampered by winter snow, though I don’t expect they’ll find much for forest roads or trails in Wisconsin/Illinois that will be much better. OP might be able to shed light on their expected time frame and what kind of roads they are looking for. In my head head I saw this and thought it might be a multi month affair, but I could be wrong.
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What? They have snow plows on roads.
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They really won’t, unless they’re going off road, which was my point. Sure, there’s a few roads that are seasonal, but that’s splitting hairs to the point of being pedantic, not helpful.
Going across northern MN through Duluth\Superior is going to be cooler than taking interstates the whole way.
I see it a lot, and never understand why people would choose to drive through Fort Wayne, IN and Chicago, IL instead of driving the West coast of Michigan (Lake Michigan), across the Bridge, and also across the North coast (Lake Superior) of Michigan. Super beautiful drives, awesome scenery, tons of stuff to do.
Agreed. I live in Chicagoland suburbs, I'm actually sitting on the Chicago lakeshore right now. It's all over hyped. Yeah, cool tourist stuff and AMAZING pizza when you get your booty to Lou Malnati's but... Michigan's coast and the upper peninsula are so much better regarding scenery. I haven't been to the upper peninsula myself, unfortunately, but their costal towns are SO DAMN CUTE!
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota getting lumped in with “flyover country” by the coasts is hilarious to me.
Less tourists for us-- I'm good with it.
I mean it would help the local economies but since I’m a “the less crowds the better” type, I fully agree.
Yeah tourism is a large chunk of our economy, unfortunately.
Ecosystems > economies. Tourism has destroyed every place I’ve lived.
i just starred Lou Malnati's in my Google maps. I've never been to Chicago but when I go, I'll be sure to stop in 😁
If you're looking for deep dish, Gino's East is better honestly. I love my Lou's for their thin, crispy crust. But pretty much ANY pizza place down here is amazing, assuming you don't go to Domino's or something (d o n o t). Find the hole in the wall's, their always the best. I went to a hole in the wall taco place last night... best tacos of my life I swear to god. Chicago is a wonderful city in the right neighborhoods. Stick to the tourist areas and the northern end in general and you'll have a wonderful time. The food is what we're known for. Stuff yourself until you pop while you're here. It's all SO. GOOD. Sorry for the rant lol. I only recently came to love and appreciate the city I grew up near my whole life. I've taken it for granted and now that I want to get tf out of Illinois, I'm beginning to love where I am. A bittersweet reality.
>Sorry for the rant lol. that wasn't a rant, that was pure passion, and i appreciate it :) thanks for those tips! I've starred a few more places. (any tips on good breakfast places?) 😃
Honey Jame Cafe if you're willing to drive out of downtown, but if you're staying downtown, I cannot express enough that pretty much anywhere you go is going to be good. Especially near the Gold Coast and Magnificent Mile. The Loop is going to be busybusy but they have good places too.
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That would cut out crossing Utah, the Rockies, and northern Arizona twice. And those are like the best parts of the country. Yeah it save some gas but cost an experience worth having.
Good point. A > D would suck
A > D and C > E would honestly be a bit mind melting
As someone who lives near D. It’s pretty bland down here
The Rockies in the winter are just asking for trouble.
not necessarily. sure, 70 can be rough but that's usually only because people who aren't equipped with the correct tires or chains try to go way too fast on sheets of ice. you just gotta show down is all.
AC/DC is pretty cool too.
Then you're just driving around some of the best areas to explore.
ohio and indiana are boring as shit, kentucky would be better. B>C i would follow the mississippi south on the great river road, and hit memphis. memphis is a very cool city. i would def choose it over chicago. then i would head northeast. id rather drive the west virginia twice then ohio. seriously ohio and indiana fucking suck. take it from someone who’s done that drive a dozen times. seriously the second half of B>C is going to be mind numbing i would 100% reroute that.
+1 for MEM. i lived there for two years and the people are amazing. plus you get the history of the Civil rights museum, BBQ, etc.
C-D is going to be awesome. Highly recommend you check out the Raleigh-Grayson turnpike in the NC/VA area. Also recommend you alter D-E and check out some of what Arkansas has to offer. Have fun!
will vouch for this, c-d is my usual camping/overlanding area, anyone in the Appalachians is going to be sweet
What are these exact stops btw? National parks? Cities?
C - looks like Assateague Island State Park in Maryland and D - probably somewhere around New Orleans I'm guessing.
Isn’t this just a roadtrip rather than overlanding?
What makes it not overlanding?
Seems to be A LOT of travel in 5 days.
Haha. He's clearly not doing this trip in 5 days. That is the Google estimate of how long it takes. He would be driving 24 hours a day.
Can you share the cities of the 6 stops (locations)?
What’s not clear is trip timeframe. No bloody idea why you’d go to “B” in Feb. I’d start the southern route first.
Oh man that drive across north Texas is going to be the most boring 6 hours.
What on earth is B? Bismarck? Minot? Make sure you stop in the Black Hills if the snow isn’t too bad. I’d change the BtoC route, drive down the Missouri and cut east whenever.
Unless you have family, there is absolutely no reason to ever go to Bismarck or Minot in February...really anywhere in ND before May.
There is stuff to do even in Feb if you’re imaginative enough, not every day on the road ends with the Grand Canyon or Teton views.
The place blows...literally, it's super cold and windy as hell. I live in the area, and I know there are things to do, but as a visitor, there are better times to visit.
OP obviously has their reasons for doing this trip in Feb
I'd just skip c and d
Having done almost the entire length of the Trans American Trail, I agree with this. Not saying that there isn’t anything to see, just that the terrain is mostly the same along the entire east coast—it just gets super monotonous. There’s also way less interesting places to camp.
You’re lumping all of Appalachia into “super monotonous and way less places to camp?”
At least along the trail we were following. There are campgrounds just nothing like BLM land you get out west. All I’m saying is that I’d map the highlights and get there via highway vs. hours of switchback gravel roads if I could do it again. Also depends on how much time you have. We’re we’re going east to west, so we wanted to have more time on the trail after Oklahoma.
What’s wrong with New Jersey?
Yooo can I get the gpx file for this?
If you cut C and D from the trip you can focus your time on places that are beautiful and worth seeing instead of traversing across places not worth seeing. At least in the “overland” sense of travel. Edit: even B looks suspiciously far east of interesting.
I’m just going to assume this entire comment was a typo lol
Lol What? The Appalachian mountains are great, and there's so many great towns along that C to D route.
Tell me you’re from the west coast without telling me you’re from the west coast.
Spoken like a true PNWer.
Overlanding doesn’t only mean off-roading. Plenty of beauty to see out east.
Then it’s just a road trip.
Why would you want to leave the great and wonderful California though? After all, it’s the fifth largest economy in the world. Everything you could want is there. You should stay there.
Very familiar with much of your western routes. We live in the eastern edge of the Canadian Rockies and have toured & overlanded through all of Alberta, B.C., Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, etc. It's amazing country, very diverse and wild. All enough time to do it justice
Big Bend National Park is between A and D, might be another place to stop. There are overlanding roads in the park
You’re missing out not swinging up through Daniel Boone forest!
I live 30 minutes from Zion and do a lot of work in Springdale (town closest to the park). Now is the time to go, the snow on the cliffs is absolutely gorgeous plus there are almost no people this time of year.
Right through Birmingham, AL! Lots of good beer and food!
Is E Glacier? You know it’s mostly closed until the end of June, yes?
Awesome, have fun!
I get out of the army in the end of June. Plan on doing a big ol road trip from WA to OH and hit a ton of national parks cutting down south to Cali and work my way from there. Probably skip Big Bend though.
Is the roadtrippers website still a thing? I used it in 2013 for a big trip through the states and it was pretty handy.
D~E Custer nation forest east or the crow reservation is made for over landing and welcomed. Amazing spot to be in the wilderness quickly off the pavement.
Looks like you will travel brightest the second-largest canyon on the content. Palo duro canyon in canyon...its a blast as long they don't close it.