So I am in the planning stages for a road trip. I am thinking 2022 or 2023.
Planned route
I am thinking at least 3 weeks, to do it right and give me time to stop and take things slow.
I'm thinking either April or late in the season like September. I know those regions get snow. It will be in a 4wd vehicle.
Preliminary Itinerary
Day 1 would be here to Port Washington, WI.
Day 2 would be Port Washington to Badlands.
Day 3 would be Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Devils Tower.
Day 4 would be Devils Tower to Yellowstone.
Day 5 would be Yellowstone.
Day 6 would be Yellowstone.
Day 7 would be Yellowstone to Salt Lake City.
Day 8 would be Salt Lake City and the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum.
Day 9 would be Salt Lake City to Moab/Arches.
Day 10 would be Moab.
Day 11 would be Moab to Garden of the Gods.
Day 12 would be Garden of the Gods and Great Sand Dunes.
Day 13 would be Great Sand Dunes to the Grand Canyon via Monument Valley.
Day 14 would be Grand Canyon.
Day 15 would be Grand Canyon to Amarillo with a stop and the Cadillac Ranch.
Day 16 would be Amarillo to Little Rock.
Day 17 would be Little Rock to Nashville.
Day 18 would be Nashville to home.
I used to travel for a living when I was racing harness horses. My wife and I got in regular road trips when I was a student. Road trips are a rare event for us now.
I'm jealous.
Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be giving some constructive feedback.
My main point would be to be flexible on your schedule. If there's a way to work in a bit of extra time that you can just utilize when the opportunity arrives, that could really make the trip better.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
yea i will have a buffer of 3 days to a week
1) Avoid interstates. You don't see any of the area you're travelling through on them.
2) Make a minimum of one unscheduled stop per day. Dad and I did a trip from Cali to Florida a couple years back, and those were the stops that were most memorable. When we saw something interesting we'd stop. Got the truck stuck a couple times, hiked up a hill when the road was too snow covered and found a couple garnets at the top of the hill, saw a fault line, wandered through some random small museum of local hot rod history somewhere in Nevada, etc.
3) Avoid interstates.
While I like the overall route, do you have more time? While getting the loop done in a given time span can be an adventure, it does not seem to offer much time anywhere to stop and smell the local flora.
Inevitably when the wife unit and I do a trip we end up at some place that we do not want to leave. Spent three days in St Augustine just cause we kept finding stuff to do and the place met our mood, then had to beat feet back to Ontario skipping other points of interest. It is at these sweet spots that you get to do some relaxing. You may or may not already have these spots identified and scheduled.
NOHOME said:While I like the overall route, do you have more time? While getting the loop done in a given time span can be an adventure, it does not seem to offer much time anywhere to stop and smell the local flora.
I'd agree with that - the route does seem to be a little tight for side quests if you only have an additional three days.
A lot of this depends on what your plans are- for example if the visit to the Grand Canyon is mostly to drive to the South Rim look at a big hole in the ground 
, you may not need a full day for that. OTOH if you're planning to hike down to the bottom, you'll most likely need two full days there.
More time allotted for Yellowstone, and you need to take the early morning tour from the company operating out of the hotel. We spent three days there and it was not enough.
I mean i will be flexible, this is just the planning stages, I am not sure if i would want it to go longer than 21 days.
You also might want to plan for mechanical monkeying. When I drove out to California the truck was strong setting off, I wouldn't have hesitated to drive it to Alaska and back. Got halfway through Arkansas and the fuel pump went out. Completely unexpected, took most of a day to get it settled so I could keep going.
MrChaos said:I mean i will be flexible, this is just the planning stages, I am not sure if i would want it to go longer than 21 days.
I would consider hightailing it home after Colorado.
Just a sec while I put on some flameproof attire....
The second half of the loop is going to be a letdown after the first half. You will have done the most scenic places and driven the best roads by the time you leave Colorado.
NOHOME said:The second half of the loop is going to be a letdown after the first half. You will have done the most scenic places and driven the best roads by the time you leave Colorado.
The Grand Canyon? Monument Valley? These are not included on the most scenic places in America?
I agree with the idea of cutting out Texas through Arkansas, but Tennessee and Kentucky are gorgeous states. No comment on Indiana, only seen it when it was blanketed in cold white bullE36 M3
MrChaos said:I mean i will be flexible, this is just the planning stages, I am not sure if i would want it to go longer than 21 days.
You owe it to yourself to swing west after Yellowstone and see craters of the moon. Let me know a timeline and I can probably meet up with you there.
A pretty aggressive schedule. I'd do September.
So close to Glacier... Road to Sun second best view other than Yosemite Valley.
You can't just drive by the Grand Tetons. Day 7 I would go through Jackson Hole, Logan to Salt Lake City.
Skip Denver, do the Maroon Bells near Aspen instead.
IMHO Zion is much more impressive than Moab.
Do the North Rim of Grand Canyon and save a day.
I'd have to stop at Santa Fe / Taos.
We did Great Sand Dunes in one hour this year. Pikes Peak is more impressive. Or Durango train trip.
Cadillac Ranch is about an hour stop.
Of course you could do three weeks at just about any one of your stops in order to do them justice. 
As always, YMMV
Interesting...
I am planning a road trip of similar proportions at exactly the same time!!
St. Augustine is a E36 M3hole.
Goblin State Park is awesome
Are you going to be bringing dogs or other pets? Many national parks don't allow them out of the car. I know Zion only allows them on one paved trail through the campground. However, there was a place offering doggie daycare right outside the park.
If I might Make a suggestion.. maybe instead of running up through Indiana and then to Chicago etc.. maybe try up through Michigan then Take the SS Badger From Ludingiton to Manitowoc.
I am sure you can scare up some fun stuff to do on the Right Side of Lake MI.....
Greg
I also agree with the Avoid interstates theme.
If you can take the US Routes.
Greg
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