The Best Way To Take A Cross-Country Road Trip
October 11, 2019
Maybe you went on one or two road trips as a child or teenager. Maybe you never did, but have always wanted to since entering adulthood. Whatever the case, road trips can be some of the best travel experiences of our lifetimes. But if they’re not planned properly, they can also be some of the most stressful.
Thankfully for us, that’s where Tracy Staedter comes in. The writer and Discovery News alum sought the help of data expert Randal Olson in order to create the most logical and efficient route for a road trip across the United States.
Here was Tracy and Randal’s criteria for the road trip:
1. The trip must make at least one stop in all 48 states in the contiguous United States.
2. The trip would only make stops at National Natural Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Parks, or National Monuments.
3. The trip must be taken by car and never leave the United States.
After agreeing on the rules, Tracy compiled a list of 50 major U.S. landmarks. “The result was an epic itinerary with a mix of inner city exploration, must-see historical sites, and beautiful natural landscapes,” Randal explained. “All that was left was to figure out the path that would minimize our time spent driving and maximize our time spent enjoying the landmarks.”
Randal then got to work on researching the shortest route by car between all of the intended stops. After a bit of trial and error, Randal discovered an algorithm that could make a complete road trip of the United States in only 13,699 miles of driving.
Wondering what the route looks like? Here are all of the stops from start to finish:
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Pikes Peak, Colorado
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
The Alamo, Texas
The Platt Historic District, Oklahoma
Toltec Mounds, Arkansas
Elvis Presley’s Graceland, Tennessee
Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
USS Alabama, Alabama
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Georgia
Fort Sumter National Monument, South Carolina
Lost World Caverns, West Virginia
Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center, North Carolina
Mount Vernon, Virginia
White House, Washington, DC
Colonial Annapolis Historic District, Maryland
New Castle Historic District, Delaware
Cape May Historic District, New Jersey
Liberty Bell, Pennsylvania
Statue of Liberty, New York
The Mark Twain House & Museum, Connecticut
The Breakers, Rhode Island
USS Constitution, Massachusetts
Acadia National Park, Maine
Mount Washington Hotel, New Hampshire
Shelburne Farms, Vermont
Fox Theater, Detroit, Michigan
Spring Grove Cemetery, Ohio
Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
West Baden Springs Hotel, Indiana
Abraham Lincoln’s Home, Illinois
Gateway Arch, Missouri
C.W. Parker Carousel Museum, Kansas
Terrance Hill Governor’s Mansion, Iowa
Taliesin, Wisconsin
Fort Snelling, Minnesota
Ashfall Fossil Bed, Nebraska
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
Fort Union Trading Post, North Dakota
Glacier National Park, Montana
Columbia River Highway, Oregon
San Francisco Cable Cars, California
San Andreas Fault, California
Hoover Dam, Nevada
For a full map of the route and other information regarding this genius road trip idea, click here!