48stateroadtrip.com

People like maps. Here’s mine:

48-State Cross-Country Road Trip Itinerary Map

The push pins are relevant for the most part — I’m stopping where there are push pins, with maybe an exception or two. But I’m also stopping in some places without push pins. Very confusing, yes. The pins are really just there to hold the map together. As pins often do.

I’m looking at the trip in four parts: West Coast, Northern States, East Coast and Gulf, and South/Southwest. Here are highlights:

Part 1: West Coast (from July 15 through August 16)

• San Simeon
• Big Sur
• Monterey Peninsula
• San Francisco
• Point Reyes
• Yosemite National Park (ca. 4 days)
• Lake Tahoe
• Lassen Volcanic National Park (ca. 3 days)
• Crater Lake National Park
• Oregon Coast
• Columbia River Gorge
• Mt. St. Helens (ca. 2 days)
• Mt. Rainier National Park (ca. 4 days)
• Olympic National Park (ca. 4 days)
• Mt. Baker/North Cascades National Park (ca. 5 days — it’s a family reunion)

Part 2: Northern States (August 17th to September 15th)

• Glacier National Park (ca. 4 days)
• Whitefish, MT
• Yellowstone National Park
• Grand Teton National Park
• Sheridan, WY
• Devil’s Tower
• Mt. Rushmore
• Custer State Park, South Dakota
• Badlands National Park
• Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Voyageurs National Park (ca. 3 days)
• Duluth
• Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
• Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
• Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti
• Chicago
• Nauvoo, IL
• United States Air Force Museum (Dayton)
• Cuyahoga Valley National Park
• Niagara Falls
• Palmyra, NY
• Adirondacks
• Vermont Mountains
• New Hampshire Mountains
• Acadia National Park (ca. 2 days)

Part 3: East Coast and Gulf (September 16th to October 11th)

• Newport, RI
• New York City
• Philadelphia
• Annapolis/Ft. McHenry/US Naval Academy
• United States Marine Corps Academy (Quantico)
• Shenandoah National Park (ca. 2 days)
• Monongahela National Forest (WV)
• Charlottesville/Monticello
• Appomattox
• Richmond
• Yorktown
• Williamsburg
• Jamestown
• Wright Brothers National Monument
• Cape Hatteras National Seashore
• Raleigh-Durham
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park (ca. 4 days)
• Charleston/Ft. Sumter
• Hunting Island State Park, SC
• Savannah
• Pensacola/Gulf Islands National Seashore
• Mobile
• New Orleans (ca. 2 days)

Part 4: South and Southwest (October 12th to November 6th)

• Vicksburg
• Natchez Trace Parkway (from Jackson, MS to Nashville)
• Nashville
• Mammoth Cave National Park (ca. 3 days)
• Cathedral Canyon, MO
• Joplin, MO
• Petit Jean State Park, AR
• Hot Springs National Park
• Austin
• San Antonio/The Alamo
• Fredericksburg
• Big Bend National Park (ca. 3 days)
• Carlsbad Caverns
• Roswell
• White Sands National Monument
• Santa Fe
• Chaco Culture National Historic Park
• Four Corners
• Canyonlands National Park
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Right. So one of these days I’m going to figure out how to best present all this information in a way that’s useful. Not there yet. Even though I’m calling out how many days I’m spending in a few of the place above, there are others where I’ll also be spending multiple days. I also have down the names of trails, campgrounds, and other points of interest that aren’t listed above.

I mean, really, how much of my planning do you actually want to see? (You can answer that.)

bkd