<p>Another vote for doing the road trip.
As many have suggested Zion and Bryce are amazing. Moab is near Arches but it would be very hot in August. Grand Canyon is also hot in August.
My H drove from Indiana to Central Coast of Ca and back with my D. They took the southern route through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. They did no sightseeing. Last spring H and I drove D’s car from Indiana back to Ca. Not sure of the exact roads without a map in front of me our goal was to get the car and stuff back to Ca. We spent several extra days in the mountians of Colorado. The area around Golden to Glenwood Springs was spectacular. We did not sight see in Utah only because we had already been to the area on a previous trip. Our last day was St George Utah to Santa Barbara. A long day but doable if you don’t stop.
Your first decision I think should be what direction do you want to head from Santa Maria.
Your options are:
101 north towards San Francisco. If you haven’t been to SF that would be an easy first day, about 4 1/2 hours. You could go to Lake Tahoe from there as a 2nd day.
Option 2 101 South towards Los Angeles and then on to Las Vegas or Flagstaff. The road out to Las Vegas east of downtown LA can be bumper to bumper on a Friday afternoon so plan accordingly. It will be a long first day from Santa Maria to Las Vegas but doable. The hoover dam is interesting.
Option 3 take the 101 north a short distance to Hwy 46 in Paso Robles. This will take you east to Hwy 5 and you could head north and then east to Lake Tahoe as a first stop or continue headed east towards Yosemite and Kings Canyon NP.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for all the suggestions and information. There are places being suggested that I never even thought of. And I would not have given a thought to driving through a 120 degree desert, had ariesathena not mentioned it. I really appreciate all the ideas and driving advice! I have never tackled such a long road trip before.</p>
<p>GladGradDad - you are right that I will have to make some decisions. I’m glad I have a bit of time to do my homework.</p>
<p>The August cross-country drive I took with S-2 between two of his college years was something we’ll always remember. Just him and me, and nothing like Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogan in a recent half-baked movie whose name I forgot. We got along great and will always treasure the memory. He drove most of it. </p>
<p>Best detour on our route was to spend a half-day exploring some pre-Columbian caves of the Anasazi Indians in a small piece of Southern Utah. The National Forest tourguides were fairly knowledgable and respectful of the history. </p>
<p>We didn’t book motel rooms until same-day, to stay flexible as good surprises cropped up and changed what we thought we’d cover of our planned route. The extra days help for spontaneity. Around 4 p.m we’d see where we were on the road, decide how many more hours we wanted to keep driving, then booked forward from the road accordingly. Note we are very unfussy about accommodations, it might not appeal if you really care about the room you take for a night.</p>
<p>Because we started from the East driving westward, we began with a lot of enthusiasm, so did find a lot of joy even in the pancake-flat part of the journey. We were curious about the John Deere tractor industry presence throughout Iowa, noticed many shades of green, depending on what was planted, like a quilt across the landscape. In Nebraska I finally learned what a “ranch” looked like as compared to a “farm” from the Northeast. We watched a moonrise over a herd of cattle off a sideroad. We stopped in on a Sunday morning Kiwanis breakfast in a small town center. We crossed the Mississippi in noplace special but found the housing and architecture there unique. The heartland is heartwarming, even if it lacks the magnificent drama of the Rockies and west of them. I recall only one evening where I felt that the drive across flatlands was grinding me. So as you set out, stay open and don’t pre-decide the first part of the journey is dull just because it’s strictly horizontal.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be so happy you took a road trip, I sure am glad we did.</p>
<p>I have another friend who fears planes so always goes across the country on trains with Roomettes to sleep, watching the landscape and getting to know all the characters on the train. But he has nobody to share the driving, which is a huge factor.</p>
<p>Another vote for the road trip. Take your time, see things, plan your stops. It’s a beautiful country. I’ve loved cross country road trips, especially with the kids. Lots of great suggestions here and nothing more I can add except to vote for the driving trip.</p>
<p>Don’t let the possibility of 120-degree desert heat dissuade you from your road trip; just factor that in. Either take a more northern route (which will have some hot patches but not quite as many, for quite so long), or drive mostly at off-peak hours (e.g. not between about 11 am and 5 pm). </p>
<p>When I did I-40 straight across the country in August, I did most of it at night, which has its obvious disadvantages. I hit the mountain just outside of Flagstaff at around midnight, so my car had no problem getting up to 7,300 feet or so of elevation. But there is an additional lane on that sucker, just for cars and trucks are limping their way up in the desert heat. </p>
<p>As a warning no matter where you travel, cars will operate a bit differently at higher elevations: there is less wind resistance (yay!), but a different air/gasoline mixture in your engine. Be prepared for your car to take a bit more time to accelerate and have a bit of a harder time climbing to those really high elevations. The whole area is really dry, so drink plenty of water, and the best way to do that is to throw a flat of 24 bottles in the car before you leave Cali. Get an oil change and maybe a coolant change before leaving.</p>
<p>One more vote for the road trip. You’ve got lots of great advice on places to visit–go plan and enjoy the trip. I recently did a road trip (450 miles–so not cross country, but long enough) with my youngest daughter; we traveled from Philadelphia to Cleveland, OH to go to a relative’s dance recital. We hadn’t planned on driving, but ended up doing so because we waited too long to get tickets and the airfare was really expensive. On the way back, we stopped at Fallingwater. (Home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright).</p>
<p>I’d second what GladGradDad said about Utah. It’s too bad you have only 6 or 7 days. You could easily spend 6 or 7 days just in southern Utah. </p>
<p>I’ve driven cross-country between California and Illinois many times. I like to drive. I’ll limit my comments just to the interstates since it looks like you won’t have a great deal of time for sightseeing. </p>
<p>There is a section of I-15 at the Nevada-Utah border that is absolutely spectacular. You wind through a red rock canyon looking at soaring cliffs. </p>
<p>Then there is a long section of I-70, where it starts at roughly Richland, Utah (doing this from memory, don’t have a map in front of me) to the exit for Moab that is like driving through a national park. THE most spectacular section of interstate highway anywhere in the country and I’ve been on all of them. At the beginning of that stretch of road there’s a sign that says “No gas or services for 100 miles” and they mean it. </p>
<p>Western Colorado is gorgeous, but just past Denver, heading east is THE most boring section of highway in the country. From eastern Colorado to about Topeka, Kansas there is absolutely nothing about the scenery that is appealing to me. After Topeka, the land turns green and rolling again and I-70 through Missouri is scenic.</p>
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That’s the Virgin River Gorge.</p>
<p>It’s between Mesquite, Nevada and St. George, Utah.</p>
<p>Mesquite has low priced but decent hotels to stay at - they’re trying to lure people to stay there and dump money in their casinos rather than head into Vegas.</p>
<p>TatinG, once I drove a really big portion of that late in the day. Was able to watch a sunset from one viewpoint. A bit later after it had gotten completely dark I pulled off to a “scenic viewpoint” and parked in the middle of the road around a corner from all the lights. Best view of the stars I’ve seen in my entire life.</p>
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<p>I second this. I had my oil changed four days prior to setting off across the country. During the change, they discovered my battery had started foaming acid all over the cables! I hadn’t seen it all summer because my car’s battery has a plastic cap to protect it. Wound up having to replace the cables and alternator, which would have been a really bad thing to go out during my trip.</p>
<p>^ I still remember that sign on Route 50 in rural Nevada: “Next Services 110 Miles.”</p>