I get that. My kiddo is still in a rear-facing car seat, so in the early stages here.
NH/VT/ME is definitely worth seeing
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
With those kiddos in car seats, it can be tempting to just let them sleep for hours and hours and even keep them in there for your own rest stops. Be sure to get them out and crawling around and such so they don’t get blood clots. It’s not just a problem for old people on airplanes.
PhuckItImDone
SILVER Star
Yea that whole section of country is beautiful, and fun. For us, it's sledding and driving.... or mountain biking and rc cars. I've still got to get to Maine though.
Oh you better believe anytime we stop they are out. Walking around the truck at the gas station to double and triple check anything im looking at, pee breaks, whatever. As long as no one is screaming, or fighting, im happy.
We just knocked out 8 states in a week for Christmas with the in-laws. Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. Close to 2,500 miles all in. It was quite the gauntlet but our 2 year old and 7 month old did great.
Day 1: Dallas to Nashville. Stopped to eat at Rendezvous.
Day 2: Nashville to Gatlinburg.
Day 3: Explored the Smokies with the grandparents.
Day 4: Gatlinburg to Birmingham. Took the scenic route through North Carolina.
Day 5 & 6: Bounced around the state of Alabama seeing family.
Day 7: Birmingham to Dallas.
Not the easiest trip but we covered a lot of ground, visited lots of family, and got the kids to their first NP. Grandma was happy and my wife is happy so I guess we did something right. It's tough to keep a decent pace when you are stopping every 2-3 hours so I have learned to just chill out and enjoy the journey with the family. We will get there when we get there.
Things I've learned:
The tailgate (ie changing station) is the greatest feature ever when you have kids in diapers.
I've always wanted an auxiliary tank, but until my kids get older I have no use for one. We stop every half tank or so anyways.
A lot of people here hate the coolbox but my wife sure loves it.
I want a fridge more than ever.
Taking in the view on the side of a mountain or watching the sunset over a lake are much better rest stops than sitting at a gas station.
Never calculate your total fuel cost. Better to not know.
Day 1: Dallas to Nashville. Stopped to eat at Rendezvous.
Day 2: Nashville to Gatlinburg.
Day 3: Explored the Smokies with the grandparents.
Day 4: Gatlinburg to Birmingham. Took the scenic route through North Carolina.
Day 5 & 6: Bounced around the state of Alabama seeing family.
Day 7: Birmingham to Dallas.
Not the easiest trip but we covered a lot of ground, visited lots of family, and got the kids to their first NP. Grandma was happy and my wife is happy so I guess we did something right. It's tough to keep a decent pace when you are stopping every 2-3 hours so I have learned to just chill out and enjoy the journey with the family. We will get there when we get there.
Things I've learned:
The tailgate (ie changing station) is the greatest feature ever when you have kids in diapers.
I've always wanted an auxiliary tank, but until my kids get older I have no use for one. We stop every half tank or so anyways.
A lot of people here hate the coolbox but my wife sure loves it.
I want a fridge more than ever.
Taking in the view on the side of a mountain or watching the sunset over a lake are much better rest stops than sitting at a gas station.
Never calculate your total fuel cost. Better to not know.
Karbon
SILVER Star
We're going tomorrow! One day in Portland then a few days around Acadia National Park. We were originally supposed to go to Quebec City and down through Vermont after this Maine section but getting sick over the holidays changed that.
So far my new set of Hakka R5's have been a waste of money, but maybe we'll see some snow.
So far my new set of Hakka R5's have been a waste of money, but maybe we'll see some snow.
Last edited:
I got the aux tank for towing, but what it's also enabled to your second point is find more interesting stops that are not gas stations. I'm on roadtrip now and the extended leash is liberating at 500mi range. We're generally only filling once every 2-3 days and we can be on a cadence that stays away from expensive small town fill traps.
I hear ya, enjoying the journey is what it's all about.
Ranch Flavored Corn Nuts will keep you busy for hours. 
That's a great point. Thanks for talking me back in to spending more money lol
- Thread starter
- #49
So… LRA group buy, or..?
- Thread starter
- #50
Sorry you wound up sick but still looks like a heck of a trip. Good call on the tires though, I feel like those are things you’ll be happy you wasted the money on if the weather sneaks up on you haha.
- Thread starter
- #51
That elk is BEAUTIFUL
The knob is 1.61"
PhuckItImDone
SILVER Star
I think the next trip is solo towards moab. The wife is not a fan of being in the car for extended amounts of time anyway, and the kids will still be in school. She'll fly in and meet me, do her work stuff during the day which will let me explore. The parameters are so much different between traveling with the whole family and not.
You ain’t kidding
dubyahard
SILVER Star
Planning an extended road trip for June/July. From Colorado Springs to Lake Tahoe to Portland and back to Colorado Springs. I have 7, 5, and 3 y/o boys. My 7 y/o is a trooper and can pull 10+ hour drives with me. The 5 y/o can only manage about 7 and the 3 y/o can do 7 hours one day but the next days need to be shorter, like 4 hours. So I'll likely fly my wife and younger ones to Reno and do a straight shot with my older to pick them up there with the truck and bikes, then we'll all drive to Portland from Tahoe, stopping at a seedy motel in K Falls, and I'll do Portland to C Springs in two days on the way back. It's about 3200 miles total. It really makes me want to get an LRA, the 24 gal.
I try to find places with a pool to stop for the night. That way the kids can swim for an hour or two and get out the energy.
I try to find places with a pool to stop for the night. That way the kids can swim for an hour or two and get out the energy.
First trip (Driving) out west from Georgia to Colorado with family including (2) kids 8 & 5.
Leaving mid-July
Relatively stock LX570 on 285/70/17's
Planning roughly 2 days drive time there and 2 days back. (Is this reasonable?)
Hopefully get a week in Colorado to explore / camp.
We are aware of the bigger attractions like Black Bear Pass, Rim Rocker etc...
A couple questions I have and may need to start a new thread.
1. If you only had 6-7 days to explore Colorado how would you schedule your time camping / what trails are the Must-Do's?
2. Anything on the way there or back not too far out of the way that is worth stopping for?
Leaving mid-July
Relatively stock LX570 on 285/70/17's
Planning roughly 2 days drive time there and 2 days back. (Is this reasonable?)
Hopefully get a week in Colorado to explore / camp.
We are aware of the bigger attractions like Black Bear Pass, Rim Rocker etc...
A couple questions I have and may need to start a new thread.
1. If you only had 6-7 days to explore Colorado how would you schedule your time camping / what trails are the Must-Do's?
2. Anything on the way there or back not too far out of the way that is worth stopping for?
PhuckItImDone
SILVER Star
Having driven Maryland and New Jersey to Colorado several times, I can say it's a rather uneventful ride. Depending where you pick up 70, and what you wanna see, there are a few things to hop off for. 2 days is 2 long days in the car, so you may be pushing it. As far as trails, pick up the Funtreks book for Southern Colorado and you'll get some good insight and ideas.
We did a similar trip with 5 and 6 yr olds (GA-> CO and UT) 2 years ago. Depending on where you’re leaving from in GA and what route you’re taking it can be done in 2 hella long days. Your camping setup will be crucial for moving quick, we tow so we can park and be asleep or cook within minutes so if you’re pulling out a tent idk.
You can spend that entire time in the southwest corner of CO around Ouray and want to go back later to see more… in fact, we’re going back through there around the same time this year making CO the dessert portion of a UT main course camping extravaganza.
I’m not sure what you’re using for trip planning and how comfortable yall are with wild camping and what not but I can’t recommend enough the iOverlander app for camp sites, and laundromat planning and TrailsOffroad app for 4x4 trails.
We did most of Rimrocker on that first trip and it was cool but it will take you out of the Rockies and into the desert and Moab. You’ll get to Moab and wish you had more time because the trails there are plentiful, but no more plentiful than what you’ll find in Colorado. Honestly, you’re going to be in the crème de la crème for Land Cruiser stuff once you get into the Rockies and it doesn’t stop until you cross the Sierras or run out of gas.
I could go on about this, especially since I’m currently pouring over maps and apps nightly planning our big summer trip, so feel free to hit me up on a PM if you want any detailed questions answered.
Looking to get some input for those that might have done a similar trip. My wife has a relatively unheard of 9 days in a row off work from June 29-July 7 so this is an opportunity to do a big trip of some sort. To maximize time I was thinking she would fly somewhere Friday night June 28th were I would have driven already and then I can drop her at an airport morning/afternoon on the 7th so she can get home while I road trip back. I realllly want to knock off a couple national parks that are super high on my list, but don't know how much time I should really spend at each (I know I could probably devote an entire week to each of them, but we just don't have that time).
I'd really like to check off Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. If we can squeeze it in she wants to do a couple things I already did during turkey season a few years back--Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave, and then potentially Badlands. The latter is much lower priority and I also know we could pretty much fit Mt. Rushmore, the Wind Cave tour, and drive into Badlands within one day. Looking at a mix of camping and hotels to freshen up.
Current thoughts that we had previous discussed are she could fly into Missoula 6/28; we'd go up to Glacier from there, leave Glacier on 7/1, split time between Yellowstone/Grand Teton until 7/4; either do a hotel in Custer, SD or a campsite around Devils Tower, WY on 7/4. Morning of 7/5 get up and do Mt. Rushmore, drive through Wind Cave and potentially do cave tour, drive to Badlands for a camp. Get up and spend 7/6 in Badlands and either camp or drive to Rapid City that evening for a 7/7 flight home for my wife.
Sitting here thinking about it I'm leaning toward scrapping the entire SD portion and focusing exclusively on the first three parks spread out so that we don't feel like were in the car as much as we are exploring. For those that have been if I'm looking for a highlights kind of trip how much time is reasonable to spend at each park?
I'd really like to check off Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. If we can squeeze it in she wants to do a couple things I already did during turkey season a few years back--Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave, and then potentially Badlands. The latter is much lower priority and I also know we could pretty much fit Mt. Rushmore, the Wind Cave tour, and drive into Badlands within one day. Looking at a mix of camping and hotels to freshen up.
Current thoughts that we had previous discussed are she could fly into Missoula 6/28; we'd go up to Glacier from there, leave Glacier on 7/1, split time between Yellowstone/Grand Teton until 7/4; either do a hotel in Custer, SD or a campsite around Devils Tower, WY on 7/4. Morning of 7/5 get up and do Mt. Rushmore, drive through Wind Cave and potentially do cave tour, drive to Badlands for a camp. Get up and spend 7/6 in Badlands and either camp or drive to Rapid City that evening for a 7/7 flight home for my wife.
Sitting here thinking about it I'm leaning toward scrapping the entire SD portion and focusing exclusively on the first three parks spread out so that we don't feel like were in the car as much as we are exploring. For those that have been if I'm looking for a highlights kind of trip how much time is reasonable to spend at each park?
How do you feel about crowds? We had some extra time while in WY at the end of last June, snow had us skip the Bighorns early in our trip, so we went to the Tetons… we had trouble finding parking. I was not prepared for how many people were there and from what we gathered it was worse in Yellowstone.
I’m not trying to sway you either way. It’s just something to be prepared for, especially if you want to camp at a designated campground you will likely have difficulty finding one. Wild camping, on the other hand should be available so have a few spots picked out that you can choose between once you get out there. We found some good spots outside the Tetons and stayed one night then went back to the more rural lesser know areas of WY.
