Day 1
Alberta
Land at eleven in the morning, collect the hire car, and drive straight to a fast food car park for the wifi. The first hotel of the trip gets booked from there, with the car already loaded.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there: Lands 11:00
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Day 1
Alberta
Chosen for exactly one reason: it puts you within reach of the border for an early start. Five hours south of Edmonton, and the first night of seventeen.
Drive in: 5h
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 1 night
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Day 2
The border
Four of the fifty tips on this site are about this half hour alone. Eat the fruit and vegetables before you arrive. Do not fill up until you are through, because fuel is far cheaper on the American side. Stay in the car.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Days 3-4
Wyoming
Two nights, Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring, and the bears everyone drives this far to see. At 2,240 metres this is the roof of the whole trip, reached on the third day out.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 2 nights
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 4
Wyoming
South out of Yellowstone into more mountains, with the long hot run to Utah still ahead.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 5
Utah
Out of the mountains and into the desert, with the temperature climbing all the way.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 5
Utah
Nothing but a staging post for the canyon, and that is exactly what it is for.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 1 night
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Day 6
Arizona, South Rim
The busiest day of the trip. Away at eight in the morning, four and a half hours to the rim, five or six hours there, then four more hours on to Las Vegas. The Vermilion Cliffs arrive without warning over the crest of a hill, and the original account rates that drive above a helicopter flight over the canyon itself.
Drive in: 4h 30m
Time there: 5 to 6 hours
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Days 6-7
Nevada
Arriving at ten at night turned out to cost nothing at all. The Strip does not get going until later, so a late arrival loses you none of it.
Drive in: 4h
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 1 night
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Days 7-9
California
The one real pause in the driving, and the lowest ground since the flight landed. Knott's Berry Farm took a full day. Hollywood and Beverly Hills took another.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 3 nights
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 10
California
The Giant Forest and the General Sherman Tree. Back up to 2,050 metres having been at seventy-one the day before, which is the sharpest climb of the whole route.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 11
California
The valley in a single day, wedged between two long drives.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 12
California
A base east of the bay rather than paying San Francisco prices for a bed. The kind of decision that only works if you are not booking ahead.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 1 night
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 13
California
The only stop on the entire route with a hard deadline attached to it. Alcatraz sells out more than ninety days ahead at busy times.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead: 90+ days for Alcatraz
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 14
California
Northern California staging post, with Shasta ahead and the coast behind.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 1 night
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 15
California
Lava tubes in the morning, on the least known day of the trip.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 15
Oregon
A caldera at 1,880 metres in the afternoon, and by the photographs one of the best days of the whole trip.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Day 16
Oregon
Into Oregon and back down to fifteen metres above the sea, with one long leg still to run.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights: 1 night
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry
Day 17
Washington
The finish. From here the route turns north to Vancouver and then east for home, which is how two Canadian provinces and five thousand miles add up on a trip that reads as a drive to Seattle.
Drive in · not recorded
Time there · not recorded
Nights · not recorded
Book ahead · not recorded
Where we stayed · not recorded
What it cost · not recorded
Read the 2013 diary entry