Our road trip begins in San Francisco and takes us on a four-week adventure along Highway 1, also known as Big Sur, south through Santa Cruz, Monterey, 17-Mile Drive, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Los Angeles, and San Diego. From San Diego we head northeast into the interior via Palm Springs, partially following Route 66 all the way to the Grand Canyon.


The route continues through Cameron and Tuba City into the land of the Hopi and Navajo, reaching Kayenta near Monument Valley. From here we swing back west to Page and the famous Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and Lake Powell.

Via Kanab (Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park) the route leads to Bryce Canyon. We return through Red Canyon — also called the Red Rock Mountains — then take Highway 9 through Zion National Park and finally US 15 all the way to Las Vegas.

After a trip to Hoover Dam, the journey continues to Shoshone Village (southeast of Death Valley), then through Death Valley, Panamint Springs, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and on to Oakhurst — the southern gateway to Yosemite National Park. A shorter route via Tioga Pass is usually impassable in spring.
Highway 49 takes us to the Wild West town of Sonora, where we visit Columbia State Historic Park and Railtown 1897 State Historic Park. Then it's on to the second-to-last major destination of this trip — San Francisco — before we wrap things up with a domestic flight to New York City.