Where to go

Hi. Travelling from the LA to Phoenix in early June. I have allowed about 4 days. What route do you suggest and what is there to see on the way??
Regards Alan

The drive from LA to Phoenix is less than 6 hours. Assuming a round trip, that will use up one of your 4 days.

If you haven't seen Las Vegas, then I'd head up there. Hoover Dam is nearby. Grand Canyon National Park is 5 hour drive east of Vegas.


LA to Vegas is 4 hours; Vegas to Pheonix is 6 hours.

jstolaruk said:

The drive from LA to Phoenix is less than 6 hours. Assuming a round trip, that will use up one of your 4 days.

If you haven't seen Las Vegas, then I'd head up there. Hoover Dam is nearby. Grand Canyon National Park is 5 hour drive east of Vegas.


LA to Vegas is 4 hours; Vegas to Pheonix is 6 hours.

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unless he means louisana,,

Fred Raud

You're right.

I think it's Freeway (or is it Highway? ) 8 from memory. It took us 6-8 hours to go from LA to Gilbert, Phoenix....It was a few years ago though, and i guess the traffic probably hasn't reduced in that time . We drove back through the night as well, so that probably helped!

Sure was a nice trip though.......

The quick route is I-10. I haven't done the whole trip, but LA some distance east and Phoenix some distance west. You might get to see a litle more desert than you care to, though.

An alternate northern loop is I-15 to I-40 with a side jaunt north to the Grand Canyon. Then south through Flagstaff to Phoenix on I-17. This stretch has some beautiful country.

Try this site for routes, times and points of interest:

http://www.mapquest.com/

its actually quicker to take I-8 out,,i used to do the trip 4 times a year from SA to San Diego,,was delivering cats to an animal rescue group there,,did the round trip in 4 days,,,i also drove it a few times before i moved to SA and lived in Los Angeles and visited SA

Fred Raud

Don't know whether desert is familiar to you or not (I live in the temperate north with 4 seasons, snow and green farms/forests, so dry desert has the appeal of the unusual to me).

The Grand Canyon is truly impressive. Highly recommended. The visitors center has neat displays. You can either walk the rim of the canyon or can even venture down (and back up) trails that take one to the bottom. There are services for hire that take you for raft or boat rides. There's an Imax theater that shows the super wide screen that gives the impression of being right on a raft where the water splashes in your face. 1.5 hour drive north Flagstaff (Flagstaff is about 2.5 hour drive north of Phoenix). I can still remember how awed I was the first time I saw it, only previously having seen black and white 2x2" photos from a grammar school book, which can't convey the immensity of the Grand Canyon.

Sedona, Arizona is a New Age spiritual mecca (one of the energy vortexes touted in the '90's Harmonic Convergence), a large village nestled in a Red Rock valley. Lots of high end tourist shops with Southwestern (American Indian) motif-type items. Picturesque 1/2 hour drive on Rt89A on the hairpin turn canyon road between Flagstaff and Sedona. There are activities like Jeep rides through the Red Rocks. Classic American tourist spot (hundreds if not thousands of timeshares in Sedona)

Jerome, Arizona is an old mining town perched on a mountainside. Lots of rickety old wooden buildings on the mainstreet. The signs outside the bars make it clear that it's a criminal offense to enter with a firearm. The flavor is cowboy-western-mining.

The I-17 interstate highway that runs north from Phoenix to Flagstaff run through areas with lots of giant cactus (Saguaro?) the icon of Arizona.

Death Valley National Park (northeast of LA) is the hottest, the lowest (elevation) and driest part of the USA. I can only wonder in amazement at those who survived crossing the barrens on foot or with a horse/ox drawn wagon.

15 years ago, the Long Beach airport (due south of LA) coffee lounge was an art deco wonder. On the 2nd story, it looked out over its airfield and the adjoining airfields and one could imagine Howard Hughes drinking coffee at the next table. A throwback to the 1930's. It was worth a couple bucks for parking and a buck for coffee just to soak in the ambience. Don't know if the coffee shop still is 30's art deco, though. Hughe's "Spruce Goose" airplane flew in the water just offshore, but I think the plane itself has been moved elsewhere.

Somewhere in LA is a museum of artifacts from antiquity, like a sabretooth tiger, that have been preserved in the tar pits of LA. Probably the tarpit museum?

Dan

The La Brea Tarpits is in downtown Los Angeles and if there why not go ahead and hit the Museum of Science and Industry, Museum of Natural History and they have a great Museum of Tollerance(i think thats what its called) documenting the hollocaust,,I was under the impression he was already in LA(i asume Los Angeles,,not Louisana,other wise he is going to have a much different list,),,and didnt consider that he'd want to check out Los Angeles himself

Fred Raud

I assume Alan is flying into LA from down under and has a few days to go "walkabout" or in this case "driveabout." In which case I recommend Las Vegas and/or the Grand Canyon.

Las Vegas is not far out of the way. From Vegas you cross Hoover Dam (stop and spend a couple of hours at the dam, take the dam tour if you are inclined down the dam elevator to see the dam generators - the dam tickets aren't very much) then head south to Kingman where you will pick up I-40 East to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. After the canyon take I-17 south from Flagstaff to Phoenix. Total windshield time for the "driveabout" from LA is around 11 hours - leaving plenty of time to enjoy Vegas and the Canyon. If you want to hike into the canyon, plan on a very long day there if you are in reasonable physical shape and if you only go half way down to the overlook. If you want to round trip to the bottom that's a two day hike unless you are in really excellent physical shape and can stand a strenuous 16-18 hour hike (not recommended, the canyon is 1600m deep! I did that once when I was 17 and it was really tough. I thought I was going to die.) If you don't hike in, you can still see a lot of the canyon from Highway 64, which follows the canyon rim for about 45 Km with lots of stopping places. In the spring there is snow on the RIM but from the lookout point on down it will be very hot. Bring lots of water. The canyon is absoultely breathtaking. Its too big for your mind to really wrap around it, I've been there a dozen or so times and yet every time its still bigger than I remember it being. From the GC, the drive down I-17 to Phoenix is interesting - lots of desert canyon. I grew up in and around the Phoenix area. Phoenix is just a great big city out in the middle of of the desert - and while there is plenty to do there, there is nothing remarkable that you probably don't have where you are.

If you have the time take an afternoon and head over to Meteor Crater. Its definitely worth the side trip. Its about 40 miles East of Flagstaff - a couple of hours north-east of Phoenix. About 50K years ago a meteor plowed into the Earth and dug a hole 1.5Km across and .5 km deep - the hole is recent enough that crater rim and crater details have not eroded too much and out in the middle of the desert its truly a lunar-like landscape. http://www.meteorcrater.com/

Alternatively, there are the usual Southern CA attractions, the beach, Hollywood, Universal studios, San Digeo, Sea World, Disneyland and what not if you are into that sort of stuff. There is also "Death Valley" except that its more bragging rights than something to see.

danw said:

Hughe's "Spruce Goose" airplane flew in the water just offshore, but I think the plane itself has been moved elsewhere.
Dan

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The Spruce Goose is in McMinnville OR in an air museum.

I think the grand canyon idea is good. There nothing like that in OZ. There is also the meteor crator. Other than that I would see some real mountains.

If you go farther north I would crater lake in Orgeon.

The problem here is the same there. It takes too long to get anywhere.

Peter Nachtwey said:

The Spruce Goose is in McMinnville OR in an air museum.

I think the grand canyon idea is good. There nothing like that in OZ. There is also the meteor crator. Other than that I would see some real mountains.

If you go farther north I would crater lake in Orgeon.

The problem here is the same there. It takes too long to get anywhere.

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they moved the Spruce Goose??My highschool prom was held at the Spruce Goose when it was kept in Longbeach next to the Queen Mary

Fred Raud

One city on the Colorado river that is not real well known is Laughlin Nevada.
I haven't been to the Airplane graveyard,

but it is relatively close to Phoenix outside Tuscon.
Have fun.
Oh yea not far from LA is Disneyland.
It is my favorite place, but some people abhor it.

Yeah, I second meteor crater. Neat place.

The petrified tree national forest isn't that far away but Meteor crater was more impressive.

Another geological site is Sunset Crater 8 miiles north of Flagstaff - small volcanoes with lava flows that look like it solidified yesterday, another volcanoe of black cinder ash. SHort ddrive through.

Is that airplane graveyard publicly accessible?

Dan

danw said:

Is that airplane graveyard publicly accessible?
Dan

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Yes I think the Pima Air & Space Museum has tours.