Visiting America- Any good places to visit?

Next year, me and my family are going to see the 2017 eclipse in Wyoming. We are still trying to plan everything out, but we have some things on our itinerary: Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Meteor Crater etc.

After going to Iceland a few months ago with my school, I was looking up on cool places to visit in Iceland, and found LOADS of 'Hidden Gems' all across the country. So is there anything like this in Wyoming, and the surrounding states?



Regarding the 2017 Eclipse, if you haven't heard of it already- Its going to be a total solar eclipse pretty much all across the center of America. Here is a map of where it is going to be. http://www.mcglaun.com/eclipse/2017/maps/whole-us.jpg
The blue line is the totality line, and anywhere on the dark band is where you would have the best chance of seeing it.


Im already looking forward to going. XD

The US is a huge country, lol. Very different from visiting Europe where basically everything is pretty close. Did you want to stay in one area? What's your travel range? The Grand Canyon isn't very close to Wyoming (700 miles or so. A full day's drive). I've always wanted to go to the Redwood National Forest in northern CA, but that's even farther from Yellowstone than the Grand Canyon is! So it pretty much all depends on your travel range.

I know it's cheesy but since you're in the area already a quick 3 hour drive from the Grand Canyon is Vegas. Depends if you like that sort of thing but it is cool to actually see in person.

Oh, yeah, you can use Atlas Obscura to find some crazy places to visit :D.

http://www.atlasobscura.com

It depends on how you are flying in. If you are flying in to new york, from heathro then flying out the same way, maybe you can stop in NYC for a few days, see the sites, like the statue of liberty, and ellis island. Also you could take in a show, but order tickets 6 mos ahead so you can get good seats. If you fly in through Los Angeles then there are a lot of great places to go on a short layover. I'm going to bet you are flying in through NY, then changing to fly to whyoming. America is a really big country, with a lots to see. Hope this gave you some ideas.

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Originally Posted by blue roses

It depends on how you are flying in. If you are flying in to new york, from heathro then flying out the same way, maybe you can stop in NYC for a few days, see the sites, like the statue of liberty, and ellis island. Also you could take in a show, but order tickets 6 mos ahead so you can get good seats. If you fly in through Los Angeles then there are a lot of great places to go on a short layover. I'm going to bet you are flying in through NY, then changing to fly to whyoming. America is a really big country, with a lots to see. Hope this gave you some ideas.

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This is a good idea. I would try to fly in through one city, such as NY, and out through another like DC, and spend a few days in each.

Gotta go to Disney Land and Vegas

There is plenty to do in the surrounding area that you are visiting. To the east of WYoming is south Dakota with mount Rushmore and the black hills. To the south is my home state Colorado with so much to see, so I will just list off some stuff of the top of my head and you have to look them up. Rocky Mountain national park, great sand dunes national park, strawberry hot springs, Glenwood springs hot springs, independence pass, aspen, steamboat springs, telluride, cave of the winds, mesa Verde, fairy caves, maroon bells, royal gorge, and garden on the gods. I live in Denver now, which is a great city with friendly people. My home growing up was Carbondale, Colorado which is a beautiful area and there are some great old mining towns outside of town called marble and Redstone. Utah also has some great places to visit like arches national park, zion national park and lake Powell. Most of these states have great hiking trails if you look them up, it is just not my thing. Also you can find some native American petroglyphs if you do some searching.

The Grand Canyon is definitely one you don't want to miss. I've been there numerous times, although not lately, and to Meteor Crater as well. (Both are in easy driving distance, LOL.) Meteor Crater is a huge hole in the ground, and they'll try to sell you overpriced geodes. It you're into astronomy, you'll probably enjoy it.

Note: Mount Rushmore is boring (ever seen a picture of it? Yup, that's what it looks like in real life too) and Custer State Park is basically a large bison ranch ;). But the Black Hills are pretty and the Badlands are kinda cool.

Colorado and Utah are probably a better direction to head.

i guess it depends how long you are going to be here, One of the things that would give you a sence of the history of america is a trip on the mississippi, from the north to the city of new orleans. The trip is on an old fashon paddlewheel river boat, and their are historic stops on the way. There are river boat gambling rooms, and shows, and you live on the boat as you travel down the river. You can look them up on a web site called mississippi riverboat cruises. just another idea.

I'm sure suggestions will continue to flow, and you should probably take a few things into consideration. I'll give a few suggestions at the end of my post, but I'll start with some inquiries:

1) How long will you stay? Travel time in the US is not like travel time in Europe. Even accomplished world travelers marvel at just how BIG the US is and how long it takes to get from one place to another. Actively try to not underestimate travel time, distances, size, and how long you will want to see all the cool stuff, and you will still underestimate it all. If you only have two weeks, don't try to "See the United States", go see Wyoming (and maybe Montana) and Yellowstone. Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon are separate trips themselves, with a full day required to travel between them depending on method of travel.

2) What is your group's motivation for choosing sites to see? If it's nature, animals, etc (I'm lead to believe from choosing Wyoming, GC, and seeing the eclipse), you're coming to the best continent for variety and unique experiences.. in my opinion at least! If you are coming here to see architecture, experience different cultures, consume unique cuisine, research genealogy, visit old cemetaries, see locations of historical significance - you'll be looking at different locations than National Parks and the like.

3) What are some "must do" activities? The eclipse is a great one. I almost never travel without dedicating one day to sport fishing.

4) Have you budgeted food, travel, and lodging costs? This will either help or hinder any decision making.


As for 'hidden' gems - I don't have much experience with the American West (which Wyoming and Utah definitely are part of) - but you won't be disappointed by dedicating a significant portion of your trip to National Parks. Even state parks in Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Colorado are to be marveled at, as well as being unique experiences that come with more surprises. Everyone knows that they will see a bunch of geysers at Yellowstone, or may luck out and see a lava flow in Hawaii, but my favorite spot to spend a day crawling on rocks is at Enchanted Rock State Park in Texas.

If you want to see some crazy cool stuff in North America and have more than a few weeks, here are some thoughts:
- California has tropical forests, vast deserts, wine valleys, snow capped mountains, ocean access (equally as vast and varied from near tropical to pretty frigid), and much more. It's about as big as France and Italy combined. I'm planning a future trip there and am beyond overwhelmed with too many options and too little time.

- Alaska - there's nothing like it. True wilderness exists in three places (I exaggerate, but it's pretty close to truth) - NORTHERN North America, Siberia, and Antarctica. Kodiak Island for bear watching, fishing charters in the ocean, and stream fishing anywhere you can pull off the road and park your car will keep anyone busy for a summer. I won't go into details for the rest of the state, because there is TOO much to do, but I always recommend Kodiak to first-timers because of how much more accessible a variety of activities is without hours of driving.. once you are there of course.

- Colorado - Much more accessible than 1 or 2, if you're in the Wyoming and Utah area. The numerous parks around Denver are all amazing. The mountains are gorgeous. If you drive through here, it is more than worth stopping for a day or two. A fun and enjoyable day trip is to go whitewater rafting, another would be canoeing a mountain lake or reservoir. Fishing is certainly an excellent option here.

- Minnesota - The only "gem" I can think of that is in no way hidden except maybe to foreigners is an area known as the "boundary waters". This is the wilderness of northern evergreen forests and lakes that lie between the American Midwest and Southern Ontario. At the height of summer, a long day out camping, canoeing from campsite to campsite, fishing, and "getting away from it all" is often capped off with the best sunset the world has to offer coupled with the calls of loons echoing across whatever lake you happen to be on. The more "outdoors-y" you are and the deeper you go into the boundary waters, the better, for this kind of trip. This is generally a vacation itself, not a day trip. If for some reason you end up anywhere in Northern Minnesota, Gooseberry Falls is a great afternoon stop.

I'll end my rambling here. If you have an itinerary of what state you will be in and for how long, I can probably dig up some good suggestions for partial-day or full-day activities. Any quick google search of 'best day hikes near yellowstone' will give you a week's worth of activities.