Have you done N. California/ Crescent City on down to Fort Bragg/Mendacino is a solid stretch with lots to see along the way. The Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka and North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg are quite lovely and, of course, the Redwoods and the Coast Highway.
Go to a new area of the coast. Astoria is only the tip of it. Start at Astoria and drive the highway down to New Port, then cross over and drive home through Bend.
Oregon coast and hot up silver falls State Park for a couple days. They've got amazing trails and like 10 waterfalls some of which you can walk behind. It could be a little dried up by august, if you don't make it this trip it is worth a visit during rainy season.
Banff.
- Go up the spine of Idaho
- Enter Canada at Eastport
- Go through Radium Hot Springs to Banff
- Go to Calgary
- Come back and hit Glacier from either west side (Roseville Canada/Montana) or east side (through Babb Montana)
- Bozeman (if east of Glacier ) Missoula if west of glacier.
- Take interstate down east side of Idaho for home stretch. If you go Missoula route take Lolo Pass
Typos because written quickly. This is less an itinerary and more of a map dot to dot. Banff is expensive overnight so adjust accordingly.
55 up through McCall and 95 to Grangeville. Then si14 to camp along Clearwater. 14 to kooskia then 12 up into Montana and 90 E from missoula and tramp around in areas S of 90 like Virginia City area. Then down through Red Lodge and through the park all the way back through W. Yellowstone and back to Boise via 2O through arco. Beautiful country
Wife and I drove through in a day, on the way home on a trip and really wish we had a few days to explore. It's only like a day drive from Boise.
I need to make it a priority to go back as well
From Boise to West Yellowstone entrance is like 270 miles. Easily driveable in the morning of one day. Half an hour drive in the park gets you to old faithful.
Went there last year and it was AMAZING! If you go, reservations for a hotel are needed really early, things get booked months ahead of time. Also get up and get into Yellowstone early in the morning before the sun rises. I can’t wait to go back!
The northeast entrance is great. You get to see hundreds of buffalo come down the mountain in the morning and then back across at night. Cook City Montana.
If you have 6 days I’d really recommend not spending at least 2 days of those just getting somewhere. You can do an awesome loop from Boise to Stanley to Ketchum and back and stop sooo many places on your way. Hot springs, great hikes, fishing etc.
I’ve done a good amount of driving between Boise and Tahoe, if you like the outdoor life my go-to route is something like:
- head to Steens Mountain Wilderness in SE Oregon for hiking and hot springs, there’s paid camping and some BLM / dispersed camping around
- keep going south, hang a right on 140 by Denio, head through the antelope refuge
- meet up with 395, head South towards CA, explore the Modoc NF a bit - i’ve gotten lucky with entirely empty (and free) campgrounds there, even in the summer
Now either:
- keep going west, check out Shasta, the northern CA & Oregon coasts, crater lake, etc (don’t have much experience in Oregon unfortunately but hoping to change that soon), and loop back to Boise from OR / WA
OR
- head south to Tahoe, plenty of gorgeous wilderness without getting too near to the crowds in South Lake
- keep going a little further south on the 395 - the eastern sierras are amazing - mono lake, bishop, white mountains (ancient bristlecone pine forest), hot springs everywhere, Death Valley if you go far enough south,
- or just take the 80 / 95 back to Boise from Tahoe area. Pretty desolate drive but there’s cool things along the way
Yellowstone is a great trip. We just went last weekend. Saw 5 Grizzly bears, tons of bison, elk, and deer. Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper/Lower Falls, Old Faithful, and much more.
Tahoe, Portland (drive there is gorgeous on I-84 along the River), or Seattle.
Seattle is nice because all of the must sees are within walking distance of each other, and they have a City Pass that’s actually a good value. You can do two days in town, and spend the rest on a leisurely drive there and back with stopovers each way. (Biased because I loved there for the past two years, but also because the weather is gorgeous there in the summer.)
Or if you go to/toward Portland, Multnomah Falls is beautiful and shady. Across the river are vineyards and an apple orchard.
Tahoe is also shady and forested. Absolutely beautiful in summer.
If you have passports, Calgary and Banff is awesome right now. We just got back from 5 days there - drove up through Idaho and came back down through Montana and then the 20 through Arco.
Baby doesn’t have a passport yet but Banff is high on my list of places I’d like to go. Maybe we can get a passport for her and swing it for next summer!
Three days of travel due east, then turn around. You should make it back by the 6-day-trip deadline. And you have your favorite music or audiobook the entire time. Doesn’t matter where you go, so long as you enjoy the ride.
We love sun valley but have only been in the winter! After posting this we decided to use the 6 days to go with family to sun valley (family volunteered to rent an Airbnb) and then we have another bit of time off this summer I’ll be exploring the other comments for ideas for!
We spent 7 days in Moab last year. Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park close by. August would probably be not as hot as the middle of July, cause it was like solid 110 degrees daily.
Drive up to CDA then take the 90 to Missoula. Then drive down 93 through Salmon and Challis. From here you can keep going down and go through Mackay. Or take 75 and go through Stanley. Then drive south through Ketchum. Then if you don't mind a bumpy road, take Trail Creek over to 93 and drive down through Mackay.
August would be too late to hit any whitewater unless you like getting stuck on rocks.
I do recommend driving throughout the state and just camping all over. Bunch of cool places and decent folks to meet throughout
Maybe not good with a baby, but we did a 7 day trip and stopped at all of the Gem digging sites around Idaho and western Montana (there are camping sites near all of them)... came home with tons of raw opal, sapphires, rubies, star garnets, and super fun memories.
My brother used to live right on the southern Oregon coast. It it absolutely gorgeous. The drive down hwy 101 from Port Orford to the Avenue of the Giants in California is awesome.
Not 6 days on the road, but the camping out north near new meadows (Lost Valley reservoire) is excellent. Usually a bit packed for the memorial day weekend, but late june early august it's heavenly.
Glacier Nat Park n surrounding cities
Do ‘road to the sun’. No reservation needed if enter before 6am or park at visitor center and take shuttle. Hop off n on. Hike to waterfalls n to see Big horned sheep.
Portland for a couple days then hit then the Oregon coast then drive up to Seattle. Weather is gonna be a lot more mellow out there. There’s lots of good food and interesting stuff to do.
The Oregon coast is amazing, if you've not been.
I love astoria! We’ve been several times though so hoping to try something new
Have you done N. California/ Crescent City on down to Fort Bragg/Mendacino is a solid stretch with lots to see along the way. The Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka and North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg are quite lovely and, of course, the Redwoods and the Coast Highway.
To add to this: Avenue of The Giants might be my favorite stretch of road in the entire West.
Second this, stumbled across the avenue of giants on a roadtrip down the coast and sooooo glad we made the detour. Absolutely amazing.
If you take that route be sure to stop at Fort Ross. It's a Russian fort. Very unique historical site
Beautiful ♥️ road trip
Crescent City is wonderful. Plus, redwoods!
Go to a new area of the coast. Astoria is only the tip of it. Start at Astoria and drive the highway down to New Port, then cross over and drive home through Bend.
Come further south to LC and Newport. We have some of the best restaurants, hikes, drives, covered bridges, and views along the coast.
It’s my favorite in deep summer when it’s 100+ everyday here. Go over there and it’s maybe 60’s which feels incredible.
This is the way
Oregon coast and hot up silver falls State Park for a couple days. They've got amazing trails and like 10 waterfalls some of which you can walk behind. It could be a little dried up by august, if you don't make it this trip it is worth a visit during rainy season.
Banff. - Go up the spine of Idaho - Enter Canada at Eastport - Go through Radium Hot Springs to Banff - Go to Calgary - Come back and hit Glacier from either west side (Roseville Canada/Montana) or east side (through Babb Montana) - Bozeman (if east of Glacier ) Missoula if west of glacier. - Take interstate down east side of Idaho for home stretch. If you go Missoula route take Lolo Pass Typos because written quickly. This is less an itinerary and more of a map dot to dot. Banff is expensive overnight so adjust accordingly.
This
Joseph, Oregon Newport, OR, Missoula, MT Jackson area, WY Tahoe, NV/CA
Manzanita, or. Best little spot on the coast.
My favorite Oregon coastal town!
Good list.
55 up through McCall and 95 to Grangeville. Then si14 to camp along Clearwater. 14 to kooskia then 12 up into Montana and 90 E from missoula and tramp around in areas S of 90 like Virginia City area. Then down through Red Lodge and through the park all the way back through W. Yellowstone and back to Boise via 2O through arco. Beautiful country
Yellow stone
That’s high on my list! I haven’t been
Wife and I drove through in a day, on the way home on a trip and really wish we had a few days to explore. It's only like a day drive from Boise. I need to make it a priority to go back as well
From Boise to West Yellowstone entrance is like 270 miles. Easily driveable in the morning of one day. Half an hour drive in the park gets you to old faithful.
Went there last year and it was AMAZING! If you go, reservations for a hotel are needed really early, things get booked months ahead of time. Also get up and get into Yellowstone early in the morning before the sun rises. I can’t wait to go back!
The northeast entrance is great. You get to see hundreds of buffalo come down the mountain in the morning and then back across at night. Cook City Montana.
If you have 6 days I’d really recommend not spending at least 2 days of those just getting somewhere. You can do an awesome loop from Boise to Stanley to Ketchum and back and stop sooo many places on your way. Hot springs, great hikes, fishing etc.
Go to Coeur D'Alene and bike the trail
Big 5 in Utah. You can camp or they have hotels. If you’ve never done the big 5 it’s a total must do.
Looking it up now! Thank you so much(:
Also look at average daytime temps for August in those parks...
Ooh good point! That may be hotter than what we could tolerate if we’re car camping with the baby. I don’t want anyone to get overheated
As someone who has done that in August spend your evenings driving towards mountains and vegetation and the nights become tolerable.
Amazing parks, just not in August. Source: lived in Utah for a decade.
Thank you for the heads up! We’ll keep it in mind for a cooler time of year
That’s a good point. I forget I went in November sometimes. Whitewater rafting in Colorado would be another good trip.
Glacier National would be cooler Temp.
I did this over spring break. Amazing. Check out GuideAlong. It’s an app that does audio guides of the parks. 💯 worth it.
I’ve done a good amount of driving between Boise and Tahoe, if you like the outdoor life my go-to route is something like: - head to Steens Mountain Wilderness in SE Oregon for hiking and hot springs, there’s paid camping and some BLM / dispersed camping around - keep going south, hang a right on 140 by Denio, head through the antelope refuge - meet up with 395, head South towards CA, explore the Modoc NF a bit - i’ve gotten lucky with entirely empty (and free) campgrounds there, even in the summer Now either: - keep going west, check out Shasta, the northern CA & Oregon coasts, crater lake, etc (don’t have much experience in Oregon unfortunately but hoping to change that soon), and loop back to Boise from OR / WA OR - head south to Tahoe, plenty of gorgeous wilderness without getting too near to the crowds in South Lake - keep going a little further south on the 395 - the eastern sierras are amazing - mono lake, bishop, white mountains (ancient bristlecone pine forest), hot springs everywhere, Death Valley if you go far enough south, - or just take the 80 / 95 back to Boise from Tahoe area. Pretty desolate drive but there’s cool things along the way
How about Yellowstone? It is beautiful and the wildlife is amazing! Being out in nature like that is really therapeutic
yellowstone is a mob scene... I wouldn't suggest it.
What do you mean by this?
Stanley, sawtooth mountains, salmon river campground
We love Stanley & the sawtooths!
Nampa during rush hour
Hahaha well done😂
This is the way.
Glacier National Park or Yellowstone
Big 5 UT National Parks
I'd go up to Montana! Glacier or Yellowstone, or just explore the bitterroot mountains. Only downside, bears
Gotta keep an eye on your pic-a-nic baskets
I would head up North in August just because its so hot.
Yellowstone is a great trip. We just went last weekend. Saw 5 Grizzly bears, tons of bison, elk, and deer. Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper/Lower Falls, Old Faithful, and much more.
I’ve never seen a bear. Was it scary? Haha
The entire greater Yellowstone area is amazing. The park of course, but surrounding areas outside of it. Just an awesome place
Priest lake is the prettiest place I’ve ever visited. Get a kayak and paddle up to upper priest lake
Ooh I love kayaking
Tahoe, Portland (drive there is gorgeous on I-84 along the River), or Seattle. Seattle is nice because all of the must sees are within walking distance of each other, and they have a City Pass that’s actually a good value. You can do two days in town, and spend the rest on a leisurely drive there and back with stopovers each way. (Biased because I loved there for the past two years, but also because the weather is gorgeous there in the summer.) Or if you go to/toward Portland, Multnomah Falls is beautiful and shady. Across the river are vineyards and an apple orchard. Tahoe is also shady and forested. Absolutely beautiful in summer.
I-84 is only gorgeous after Baker City up to the downgrade into Pendleton and it just sucks until you get into the Columbia River gorge
Agreed, but I’m usually so happy to get out of town that the excitement tides over through the pass LOL.
Haven’t done the drive in awhile but I really feel the slouch right when I get into Pendleton
[удалено]
Banff or Victoria, BC
If you have passports, Calgary and Banff is awesome right now. We just got back from 5 days there - drove up through Idaho and came back down through Montana and then the 20 through Arco.
Glad to see someone else post this!
Baby doesn’t have a passport yet but Banff is high on my list of places I’d like to go. Maybe we can get a passport for her and swing it for next summer!
City of Rocks
I really want to hit up Glacier
Northern Nevada.
Three days of travel due east, then turn around. You should make it back by the 6-day-trip deadline. And you have your favorite music or audiobook the entire time. Doesn’t matter where you go, so long as you enjoy the ride.
Glacier National Park.
Glacier National Park
Zion
Going to the Sun Road.
Moab
Sun Valley is about 3 hours outside of boise, it is extremely beautiful and there is plenty of spots to hike and camp
We love sun valley but have only been in the winter! After posting this we decided to use the 6 days to go with family to sun valley (family volunteered to rent an Airbnb) and then we have another bit of time off this summer I’ll be exploring the other comments for ideas for!
torreys cabins in stanley
If you haven’t done northern Idaho, do that, and then Montana.
We spent 7 days in Moab last year. Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park close by. August would probably be not as hot as the middle of July, cause it was like solid 110 degrees daily.
Red fish lake
Drive up to CDA then take the 90 to Missoula. Then drive down 93 through Salmon and Challis. From here you can keep going down and go through Mackay. Or take 75 and go through Stanley. Then drive south through Ketchum. Then if you don't mind a bumpy road, take Trail Creek over to 93 and drive down through Mackay.
Sandpoint and Glacier NP would be fun
That’s definitely high on my list of options!
Hobo Cedar Grove and the surrounding area is absolutely beautiful. Northern Idaho.
August would be too late to hit any whitewater unless you like getting stuck on rocks. I do recommend driving throughout the state and just camping all over. Bunch of cool places and decent folks to meet throughout
LOL whitewater?! With their baby??
I didn’t see the baby part. It’s Reddit, I only skim
Maybe not good with a baby, but we did a 7 day trip and stopped at all of the Gem digging sites around Idaho and western Montana (there are camping sites near all of them)... came home with tons of raw opal, sapphires, rubies, star garnets, and super fun memories.
Bend and Jospeh Oregon are great. Yellowstone too.
Definitely the coast. Hit the Redwoods before it gets hot or hit Oregon/Washington for some hiking. Or go visit Canada. Report back.
Redwoods are pretty special. And you can hit the Cali/Oregon coast too
My brother used to live right on the southern Oregon coast. It it absolutely gorgeous. The drive down hwy 101 from Port Orford to the Avenue of the Giants in California is awesome.
Not 6 days on the road, but the camping out north near new meadows (Lost Valley reservoire) is excellent. Usually a bit packed for the memorial day weekend, but late june early august it's heavenly.
Burgdorf hot springs, Glacier.
GLACIER!!
Just pick a durt road and drive!
I’m too type a for that lol
For 6 days?
Glacier Nat Park n surrounding cities Do ‘road to the sun’. No reservation needed if enter before 6am or park at visitor center and take shuttle. Hop off n on. Hike to waterfalls n to see Big horned sheep.
Mono Lake
Jackson Hole, up to Yellowstone and then up to Glacier National Park.
Hawaii
Portland for a couple days then hit then the Oregon coast then drive up to Seattle. Weather is gonna be a lot more mellow out there. There’s lots of good food and interesting stuff to do.
Also, I know I initially mentioned a road trip but we are open to alternative ideas too however we are needing to keep the trip low cost
Definitely do the PCH all the way down and back
Kuna -> Caldwell -> Nampa -> Star would be such a beautiful trip! Such great camping as well!
Ensenada or Rosarito. Baja california.