Philadelphia to Seattle road trip - advice/suggestions

[Mustardman]

Hi all,
MrsMustardman and I are going to be doing a long-distance move from Pennsylvania to Washington State, and we're thinking about extending the trip by a few days to work in some camping.

The only wrinkle to the plan is that we'll have both dogs and cats along with us in the two cars. The dogs are fine to take on leash outside the vehicles, but the cats will need to stay contained the whole time to keep them from running off. We'll also be hauling a 4x8 Uhaul trailer.

We expect the trip to consist of a mix of tent camping, hammock camping, and hotel stays, but we're leaning towards hammocks to save money and enjoy the trip a bit more.

An obvious choice would be to swing through Yellowstone on the way out, even if we don't camp there (somewhat concerned about cats + dogs + grizzlies), but what other places should we be seeing, visiting, possibly camping in? How frequent will we find places to hang our hammocks along the route?

Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated.

[nothermark]

Depending which way you go you can also hit The Badlands, Mt Rushmore, go into Yellowstone via Cody, drive through in a day and stop around Gardiner if you do not want to overnight in the park. Outside of Gardiner heading west is huge coppermine and some other stuff. There is also a computer museum out that way as well as dinosaurs.

We had a trip planned this year but is is getting postponed until next spring so I have been looking at the route. The rt 90 corridor is the more scenic. If you do Rushmore/Cody go south around instead of over the mountains from what I have heard.

Given what you said I would think up a way to hang the Hammocks from the trailer to the vehicles with a single large tarp. probably plastic. Also set up a decent travel kitchen maybe in the back of one car. Add a collapsible pole or two and you can stake the tarp and back the car under if you need to.

You might also want to check out www.passportamerica.com and http://www.freecampingdirectory.com. We use both at times.

I think I would also invest in a couple of CB radio's and magnetic mount antenna's. Car to car that way is less hassle and less legal fuss than cell phones for casually sorting out daily issues. New one's are cheap. Used is cheaper.

If you do the trip you might find it worthwhile to post a running trip report somewhere so folks can keep track of you. It may well pay off.