Road trip Portland, OR to metro Detroit area Mi
4I’m flying out to Portland November 15th and driving back with my brother who’s moving back to Michigan. We’re leaving the 18th and want to be home on the 24th. I know we’re taking a more southern route bc of weather but I’m looking for any cool things to stop and see along the way. I would like to do a hot springs and if any gem mining/gold digging or underground cave/waterfall tours, something like ruby falls would be really cool. I missed that when I drove home from Florida and have always regretted it. Any and all suggestion of cool things to see would be appreciated, I’ve never gone any farther than Chicago. I know we’re looking to get out of Oregon really fast bc he’s lived there for over 10 years. Thanks.
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Have you considered The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota?
@Trillian
To far north, we’re taking a southern route
@Star2236 Whenever I plan a trip, I check Atlas Obscura to find interesting places to visit that might not be covered in a guidebook. https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/nebraska
@Star2236 I missed where you said you were westward going south.
If you are doing that in the west side of the rockies there is a lot… And going up that side is fun… Just in general. There are some cool waterfalls… Things dad draged us to… Red rock. Petrified forest.
@Star2236 I think we stopped at grandfalls in arizona. There was a smaller one we had no climb down to I can’t remember
@Star2236 @unksol oh yes, if your going that far south and that far west, those are great suggestions. Also the painted desert, Grand Canyon, White Sands, Roswell (for a little alien diversion), you can even stand on a corner in Winslow Arizona (though that’s about it).
Carlsbad Caverns is great, especially if you can watch the bats come out to feed at night. You’ve never seen, or been in the middle of, so many bats. And you don’t need to be a serious caver do explore it.
Then there’s
/image route 66
Definitely plenty to see along there
Santa Fe is great.
Oh, and Taos Pablo is pretty cool too.
@Star2236 @unksol @ybmuG Santa Fe has the most wonderful stores selling original art and other handmade stuff. If you are into detours the Cliff Dwellings, a quick 1 day or 2 day stop at the southern rim of the grand canyon… I think you’d be passing through the Navaho reservation (but be careful as as they have had some pretty terrible covid outbreaks) and there are some interesting sites to see there too, not to mention their craft stores.
@unksol @ybmuG
Dumb question, is the Grand Canyon open all year round? The bats and waterfall sound really cool, all if does thanks.
@Star2236 @unksol not a dumb question at all. Looks like they are open, but there are some restrictions. Best to check before you go for any changes. You can’t imagine it until you see it in person.
https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/hours.htm
And yes, the bats are amazing. Unfortunately, it looks like the amphitheater is closed, but the bat flight can be viewed from the parking lot.
https://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/bat_flight_program.htm
@Kidsandliz @Star2236 @ybmuG cliff dwellings are great if they are doing tours. Mesa verde is awesome but you’d have to swerve north after crossing and they have shutdown tours. So… Maybe If you go a different route another time.
Arches national park is good if you have time to hike.
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
When a manager at my job got married I gave him $50 and demanded that he use it to stay at a motel designed to look like teepees that I found on roadsideamerica.com. So I would root around there first. atlasobscura.com probably has interesting stuff too. Just remember to call ahead in case things are closed/have limited hours.
@mossygreen this is just outside Tucson. Maybe too far south, though…
We’ve used roadtrippers.com to find interesting and/or offbeat things to see and do on road trips.
@j2
I tried that but it only gave me one way to go which was the fastest way, straight across and that’s not the way we want to take. It’s hard when you don’t know the exact route your taking.
@Star2236 you can add via points to force it to your route
Oh and I like aquariums and museums too. Winery’s or brewery’s, I would say outdoor stuff is idea but it all depends on the weather.
What route are you taking/which states or major cities will you hit
@tinamarie1974
Like I said, my brother wants to take a more southern route, so that would exclude i94 going through the top part of the us and i80 going trough middle states like, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska,Iowa, Illinois, ext. he wants to go below that for a southern route.
@Star2236 well, if you make it into MO you can always visit Uranus. They even have a fudge factory! Suppose to be a cute tourist trap!!
Since you specifically mentioned aquariums and museums and you have to go around lake michigan. Chicago is worth doing shedds aquarium or some others if you haven’t. even if you don’t want to spend the night there. But it might be worth spending a day. They are really good.
Small off the route things are a different things if you have picked your route already that would help. Done the north/south/middle at least once each. I assume north but you never know
@unksol
I’ve been to Chicago a bunch of times, my other brother lived there for a while. I’ve done all the stuff there. Their aquarium is very cool, another one to check out is Atlanta’s if you ever make it down that way, also worth a day trip.
@Star2236 been to atlanta and have cousins there although I can’t remember if we went to the aquarium. We fished for alligator gar lol
@Star2236 @unksol OMG the Atlanta one so very cool in part due to I won (at a conference) two behind the scenes VIP tour tickets. I had gone alone to the conference so when at that aquarium heard a grade school kid telling his mom and grandma a zillion things about the fish. I pulled his mom aside to see if she’d let me take him with me to use my second ticket. She said yes and sent her camera. We had a private tour, got to feed various creatures (I had told them to make it very kid friendly), including the manatees (big walkway across the top of that exhibit where we tossed in food), he got to handle small creatures they had in the “school room”. The kid was in 7th heaven. I felt guilty not giving up both tickets but I wanted to see it too. He had a blast. Made his day.
I really liked the aquarium in Monterey CA. Saw that one years ago. I think that is the best one I have been in so far.
@Star2236 @unksol The Georgia aquarium in Atlanta is great if you like shopping malls. Not so great if you like aquariums or actually learning anything.
It is better now than it was a decade ago, though.
while i don’t have any specific recommendations, i suggest checking out atlas obscura’s site for each state you will be going through.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/iowa/
just swap out the state name at the end.
edit: dammit. now i want to go to iowa and check out the high trestle trail bridge and the world’s tallest concrete gnome. thanks jerk!
Replica of the tallest corn stalk, Washington, IA
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/22233
OK, just from a purely practical stand point… how far do you plan to drive a day? If you go via I 84/I80 you are looking at about 2400 miles, spread over 7 days if you count both the 18th and 24th. If you go “south” thru … say Las Vegas to Memphis and up you are looking at about 3200 miles. That’s a fair amount of driving to try to do each day and make a stop(s) along the way during this time of CoViD closures etc. I just made a trip to DC of 1765 miles over 6 days and it was pretty tough to get much siteseeing done along the way and still cover some ground.
PS what are you driving? Car? U-Haul?
Spam museum in southern Minnesota.