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General Climbing Discussion

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Extended NA roadtrip suggestions 17-Nov-2012 At 8:52:17 AM naticafe

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I wouldn't "roadtrip" across vast amounts of the US. Flights and car hire are cheap. Distances are long. There's a lot of flat land in between.

The first trip we did toured around California, Nevada and Utah. I'd not bother going back to Bishop and I'm not sure if I'd bother going back to Red Rocks. For only 4 weeks, I'd just do either California or Utah, not both.

It'd take days to drive over to Red River Gorge. Fly into Cininati or Lexinton or any of about 5 option within 2 hours of it from whereever you end up before hand. I loved it, had heaps of fun and I'd definitely go back, but i'd probably not suggest it as the only place to do on your trip if this was a once in a lifetime trip. Except for people not into trad at all. We had 5 weeks there and I was quite happy about that. We were doing 3 at rrg and 3 at nrg, but didn't like nrg and went back the the red.

It'll also take days to drive north. Unless you have 6-12 months on the schedule, I'd skip all the odds n sods and the driving and fly to Vancouver or Seattle. Flights and car hire and shopping are cheaper in Seattle, and if you wanted to drive down to smithrocks from there, it's an option. I didn't go to smith rocks, but weatherwise, it'll likely be too hot there in squamish season which makes timing a bit of a bugger. Vancouver is 2 hours closer however. Squamish was great, but the weather was not. Don't bother if you can't go in the best season, cause even in the best season, we got loads of rain. I didn't bother going to Skaha despite the rain, cause it's still 8 hours driving, didn't sound very exciting and I stayed and hoped for some weather windows.

What did all that dribble actually say then?

4w - California or Utah. Loads of climbing in both reasonably close together, just hang out and enjoy.

8w - both of the above and maybe Zion, Red rocks and Joshua Tree if you like the look of them because they are all on the same loop trip out of LA. The back road from the creek to zion is amazing.

12 weeks - all of the above then fly to either the Red or Squamish as suits your tastes.

16 w - keep on racking up airmiles. Fly to the other of those.

6 months +, ok, maybe now you should just buy a van and cope with the driving and explore at will getting between all of the above.

EDIT: oops I've hijacked Douglas's account .... I might have to leave Douglas in his cafe if I want to do any of those trips anytime soon!
Wendy