All -
I'll be taking a road trip from San Diego to Maine in a couple weeks. It will be mostly focused on efficiently making the trip without much time for photography.
That said, I am looking for recommendations for a few sites I should prioritize to hit for some landscape photography opportunities. Looking for things that are not far off the main route and provide relatively easy access. Final route isn't yet planned, but likely to be I-70 or I-80 centric.
Since your primary objective is to get to Maine sooner rather than later I'd take the north route on I-80 to avoid as much of I-70 as possible. A bit of construction going on near Denver, and if a semi wrecks in Glenwood Canyon (happens quite often) you may be held in line for quite a long time. Avoid Colorado if your trip is more about driving through it than taking pictures.
If you go up I15, heading toward I80 or I70, Zion and Bryce aren't too far out of the way, go east at St. George, then 89 north. I don't know what might be too disruptive to a rapid trip vs allowable distractions? One would have several ways through the red rock country or mountain west then pretty flat past the Rockies.
Definitely avoid I-70 in Missouri, a lot of construction creating three lanes each way and replacing overpasses. We're having a lot of accidents and delays. Hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip.
I prefer the 8-10-30-40-81 southerly route
I lived in SD and NY and drove and flew myself many times.
AZ and NM are fun and interesting. It gets pretty boring after that, even in an airplane. The Interstate smashs a lot of the beauty along the way into mush. Tennessee has some real beauty off 40. Going up 81 is more interesting than across on 70. Colorado (and 70 in the east) often have long construction delays, but you can check that on your way.
Do not wear UCLA or Yankees sweatshirts in the large Morton building cafe in Nevada (pronounced "Nev-A-da"), MO.
If you had time check Carlsbad caverns, Bisby, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Prescott, Meteor Crater, any of the roads through the Rockies. I like to visit the small towns of NM a lot. Get a steak in OKC, KC or St Louis.
Thanks all for the input. Still doing my route planning and have some flexibility. Aiming for 4.5-5 days travel time. I'm open to long days of driving and willing to spend a couple of hours a few times over the trip for a side excursion. Draft route right now:
Early AM departure
I-15 to Valley of Fire
I-15 to St. George (visit friends)
I-15 to Utah State Route 20/89/24 to Hanksville
I-70 to Glenwood (visit Friends / hike Hanging lake (with permit)
I-70/76 to Pawnee Buttes
I-80 to I-90 and other to Watkins Glen
I-86/88/90
I-495/95 Nubble and Portland Head Lighthouses
if you haven't....and like to read.....
John McPhee's Annals of the Former World present his musings on geologic time, history and more as he traversed the country, often viewing the strata road cuts made by the Interstate system revealed.
Thanks to everyone for the input. Made the trip with some slight variations to the route outlined earlier. Here are some of the images captured along the way. Overall it was a fast trip - 4 days/3 nights - with limited time to shoot.
