We are planning a trip from Cape Cod MA to Yellowstone. How long are your days? We will be pulling a 27 ft TT with a Suburban,
Normally our travel day is five to six hours. We limit our travel days to time and not on miles. Health concerns and age are our limitations. Safe travels.......
We try to schedule our travel to be around 200 miles per day. Sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less.
With some exceptions, we have 3 rules of thumb: 1. Keep the speed at 65 MPH. Saves fuel, better control of the rig, easier on the nerves, and you actually see more along the way. 2. 8x4...8 hours or 400 miles whatever comes first. This is permits us to travel from point to point without wearing ourselves out. In other words, you can have a good breakfast, good lunch, and arrive at the next way point early enough to chill out before nightfall. 3. Unquestioned Stops...If when you see that sign advertising the Jackalope Museum or Rag Doll factory tour and anyone of you sez "Hey, that sounds neat", you stop and check it out--no questions asked and no groaning allowed. Makes the trip more interesting and fun. This is much easier to do if there are just two of you. If you are a family of 3 or more you can modify the rule to one such stop in each direction of travel per family member. To achieve this we actually plan 400 mile days and build in a day or two of cushion time. We also attempt to eliminate any scheduling conflicts at the beginning and end of the trip; e.g. Dr. appointments or any other commitment. What route are you planning to take on your trip and where have to planned to visiting en route to and from? You have some great options! The Bad Lands, Deadwood/Mt. Rushmore, the Little Big Horn Battlefield, Cody, etc. Between Cody and Yellowstone's East Gate are some great State campgrounds you might consider staying at either on your way in or on the return trip.
We usually drive 6 to 8 hours. We are full timers so time is never a problem, and being 68 years old we don't have the stamina we had 10 years ago. Another thing we do is take every 4th or 5th day off. It is a very personal thing depending on how you feel. B)
Well, I will be different here. I drive the speed limit what ever that is. I drive a foretravel or a bornfree so it is not the rig only. I will drive like a work day. I will get up at 5 am and be onthe road by 5:30 and will stop at dark usually or if I have to cover miles at 9 pm. I can cover 800 miles in a day and get across country in about 4 days. It is harder to do that the last day but not any harder than going to work. I will stop every two hours or so and get up and walk around for a bit but if you go 12 hours you have 600 miles or more covered. I used to use 50 mph as an average but I found if I take a shorter break one time and fill one time less a day then I get a bit over 60 mph average and i cover closer to 700 miles with out an issue or alot of effort. Of course it helps to have a 200 gallon fuel tank but it hurts to fill it up that far.
We plan overnight stops at about 300 mile intervals. Since the gas crunch we have slowed down our driving speed to about 60 mph so with rest and lunch stops that makes a 6 hr day. We don't have to get up at the crack of dawn or rush to get ready. We can have a good breakfast (most important meal of the day, you know), get on the road from 9-10 am, stop for lunch, and still get to our next stop by 3-4 pm. If we want to make unscheduled sight seeing stops, we have time and can still get off the road before dark. This works well for us, but we are retired and are not on a schedule. When we only had a set amount of time to get somewhere and see things and get back home, we traveled very differently. This way is much better, and those roses smell wonderful!!!
I seem to remember a thread (or some posts in another thread) similar to this topic last year. I am curious as to what the original poster of this query wants to know. If he/she just wants to read about everybody else's driving, fine. If they are looking for advice on how to schedule their 2000+ mile trip from MA to YNP, I doubt that the wide variety of responses so far has helped. Like a lot of other issues raised in this forum, the answer is : IT DEPENDS! (No, not the adult diapers.) Do you have a time limitation, kids, more than one driver, and/or other issues that may effect how much you can/want to drive in one day? Whether you just want to get to YNP as quickly as possible or want to stop along the way to see other things also effect how far/long you drive any given day. Even our most ambitious responder (600m/day) would take 4 days to make this trip. Some would take as much as 10+ days. For example, last year I went from Chicago to YNP in 7 travel (not counting multi-day stops along the way) days. The trip was mostly on I-90 until Buffalo, WY. While my average driving day is about 200 miles, it varies from as little as 100 to, at most, 400. On ebit of unsolicited advice: Depending on where you are coming from (MT, eastern WY, or southern WY), do not be more than 100-200 miles from YNP on your last night before getting to the park. You do not want to be driving those last 50-100 mountainous miles after already being behind the wheel for 5 or 6 hours. Have a great trip.
On ebit of unsolicited advice: Depending on where you are coming from (MT, eastern WY, or southern WY), do not be more than 100-200 miles from YNP on your last night before getting to the park. You do not want to be driving those last 50-100 mountainous miles after already being behind the wheel for 5 or 6 hours. I traveled both this summer, from Jackson to YNP and from YNP to Bozeman and I second that opinion. I would hate to have to drive the roads in YNP while tired or that 2 lane from Bozeman while tired or in the dark. WFMDFM, If you are traveliing with kids, send me a PM. I did it last summer from Atlanta in 4 days, but I would not travel that way again. Too much driving for the kids. I think I would expand it to 5 to 6 days next time. We covered around 600 per day and that was too much for the family.
My limit is 300 miles a day, I don't worry about time, I try to make 300 miles. I'm a solo, no relief driver, plus I have a cat, I have to stop and let it stretch it's legs every once in awhile after being cooped in a carrier. Again, as others have said, IT DEPENDS. If conditions are perfect, 300 miles is my limit. JJ
