6,000 mile road trip

New to tacomaworld, love all the info on here. So heres the deal, me and 7 friends are going on a 6,000 mile road trip. We will be starting in our home town, Glen Rock, NJ. We will be heading north west, into the badlands, montana, Idaho, Washington... Were going to spend some time in the olympic peninsula. After that we will head south down the pacific coast highway, over to Nevada, into colorado, then into Utah for Zion, and Moab. after moab, we plan to cannonball back to NJ. We will be taking my tacoma, and my buddies sprinter van. The trip will take place over 3 weeks. Anyone who has done anything similar, we would love any ideas of stuff to do on the trip. Mostly want to do good off road camping with the tacoma in the middle of no where. Also any things that would help prepare the truck for 6,000 miles would help also. Its a 2011 Tacoma 4.0 auto. 75,000 miles. Will post photo of truck below.

 

If you can make it that far, I highly recommend camping and exploring in Neah Bay, WA. It is the most north west point in the continental US. I was stationed there for three years and that place is beautiful. Sounds like an awesome trip.

 

I'll look into it, thanks!

 

were leaving in late june. and yep, my taco has a high lift on the bed rack, 10 gallons of aux fuel, arb airlockers, warn winch, and I usually keep a small socket set. might bring a pair of lower control arms on the trip incase mine decide to grenade again. oh and yep I have a full size spare on my swing out bumper

 

Im probably going to have every fluid in the truck flushed and replaced prior to leaving... and EVERY fluid

 

Trip sounds awesome. I'm due for another long road trip. Have fun

 

Check this thread out. It's a trip my cousin, sister and I took last summer. It was about 5200 miles or so and we hit some offroad trails in Moab and Capitol Reef.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/pennsylvania-to-utah-roadtrip.390793/

We did a South Dakota roadtrip a few years ago. If you're doing the Badlands you gotta see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Be prepared for serious heat. Badlands in summer can get over 100 degrees.

Devils Tower is in Wyoming but it's close by the Mt. Rushmore area. If you like hiking there's a relatively short hike to the top of Harney Peak in the Black Hills near Mt. Rushmore. Views from the top were pretty cool. You can scramble all around the summit.

Gotta stop at Wall Drug, it's the ultimate tourist trap. Somewhere in South Dakota off I-90.

There's tons of stuff to do out west, we've been out west on roadtrips like 7 times and plan more in the future.

 

I thought Mt. Rushmore was cool, if nothing else it's an awesome engineering project. It was cool seeing all the old black and white photos of guys hanging from ropes with jack hammers, lotsa neat history. It's amazing the faces were recreated with such detail and accuracy on such a humongous scale.

 

Sounds fun. I like your Methods

 

Man, it is just the season of amazing roadtrips and expeditions around here lately!

Very cool idea, OP. We have had a few other guys recently who have thoroughly documented their adventure experiences, including one guy who did the Arctic Circle. I will find the thread and post it here so you can see his trip prep.

 

Ahhh, here we are:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/arctic-travel-california-to-arctic-and-back-in-winter.405408/

 

I just did 4k miles last month from SoCal to South Dakota, then straight south to San Antonio, and back home.

Respect the speed limits in the flyover states. They are generous limits and you will get popped. And don't be a left lane camper on the interstates.

I think you have it a little backwards towards the end of your destinations. You will have to do Utah before Colorado. The drive to Denver was very difficult for me to focus on the road. It is one giant, continuous, amazing view that I couldn't take my eyes off of.

Also, on your way south through California, you should try to stop for at least a day in Big Sur to spend the day outside, and a neat tourist thing to do in the central coast is to do the tour at Hearst Castle.

 

I've got some good ideas for out of the way routes from Montana into Idaho, and then through Idaho into Washington. If the sprinter van has moderate ground clearance it will be able to do them. I don't have my detailed map book for Idaho with me but I have plenty of time to get it if you aren't leaving till late June. You think you might want to check out Glacier National Park in Montana. I f you do that cancels out one route into Idaho, but leaves at least two awesome ones open that will be a good days travel all on dirt. One route could be made into two days plus if going through Idaho if you wanted.

ETA: If you find yourself on the eastern shore of the Olympic peninsula on a nice sunny weekend day check out the northwest shore of Lake Cushman. Take 119 out of Hoodsport. I don't think you will be disappointed if you enjoy a nice lake side party with plenty of pretty women, music and a good rock to jump off of.

 

thanks for all the info everyone, definitely would love ideas of cliff jumping spots. We plan on building bunk beds in the sprinter van. Im probably going to purchase a bed cap for the tacoma so i can sleep in the bed of the truck. Any ideas of extra parts for the tacoma I should bring? We will be doing lots of off roading and camping. Also, would love any ideas on how to get better milage for the tacoma.

 

Go back to stock? No, that's no fun. If you don't want to switch to a lighter tire I would say driving slower will give you your best increase in fuel economy.

 

how often did you have to stop for fuel during the trip? any close calls of running out?

 

I don't see tire plugs on your list of things to have. I presume that you already have a tire plug kit, but just in case, here's your reminder.

 

don't have tire plugs... good call.

 

I averaged about 17.5 mpg for the whole trip. Low was 15 through Kansas, high was 22 somewhere in Colorado. We usually would start looking to stop for gas around 1/2 tank. It might be more frequent than some guys like to stop but we had not close calls in running out, plus it's a chance to stretch and buy junk food getting the gas station. I did try to fill up before we hit any trails but sometimes the nearest gas station is dozens of miles from the trail. I brought 2 Jerry cans but ended up not being them.

 

Really good advice! Especially in Illinois. One year my sister was driving through Illinois and signs said we were in a work zone but there were no barrels, cones or workers for miles in either direction. She was going the normal speed of 65. 2 weeks later she gets a summons in the mail. In Illinois they use traffic cams to take your picture if you're speeding and you have no choice but to appear in court. You can't even mail in payment or anything, you have to show up. She ended up having to contact a lawyer in Illinois to represent her. He charged about $100 and said this happened all the time with travelers. The case ended up being thrown out because the picture was unclear, but be warned about Illinois.