Open Roads, Deserts Mountains and Coastlines
A sweeping multi state journey across the American South and West from jazz soaked New Orleans, to California's Pacific sunsets Highway One.
The itinerary weaves through fifteen states and mixes big cities with tiny desert towns, national parks with university bars, and some of the most dramatic terrains on the continent. You begin in the Deep South where New Orleans wraps you in music, Creole food, and riverfront energy. Texas comes next with Austin’s craft beer, barbecue temples, and live bands that spill into the street from Sixth Avenue.
The central section of the trip is the long climb north and west across plains, mesas, and mountain foothills. The route bites into Colorado’s outdoors culture around Boulder before pushing into the Rockies where pine forests, alpine lakes, and high passes create a colder more rugged energy. From here the landscape widens until Utah’s desert takes over. Moab is your gateway to Arches National Park, Canyonlands, and sandstone landscapes shaped by water and wind.
Arizona offers the Grand Canyon, a place that always feels bigger in reality than it does in photos, followed by the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and the neon storm of Las Vegas. The desert intensifies in Death Valley where the roads run flat. California then opens slowly: the hills of Los Angeles, the boardwalks of Santa Monica and Venice, the calm beaches of San Diego, and the artistic sprawl of northern LA.
Highway One links this southern coast to the cliffs of Big Sur, passing lighthouses, elephant seal colonies, and cloud covered forests. The route finishes in San Francisco, a city perched on hills over the ocean with cable cars, Victorian houses, and long views across the bay.
This journey is the archetype of the American road trip. T
Long drives through Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado open into the cinematic landscapes of Utah. Red rock walls, sweeping viewpoints, and national parks like Arches and Canyonlands create some of the most iconic scenery in the country.
From jazz clubs and neon drenched Bourbon Street to Austin’s barbecue pits, dive bars, and live music on Sixth Street, this early stretch is built around rhythm and energy.
Back-to-back parks: Sequoia for the oldest and largest trees on Earth, Yosemite for the granite valley, the waterfalls and the views from Glacier Point that stop most people in their tracks.
Day 1: Fly into Atlanta / drive to New Orleans, French Quarter evening
Day 2: New Orleans / Jackson Square, Café du Monde, Frenchmen Street and Preservation Hall
Day 3: Drive west to Austin / Atchafalaya Basin, Houston and arrival on South Congress
Day 4: Austin / Barton Springs, South Congress, barbecue and Sixth Street
Day 5: Drive north through the Texas Panhandle / Amarillo and Cadillac Ranch
Day 6: Drive into Colorado / New Mexico mesas and arrival in Boulder
Day 7: Boulder Flatirons hike / drive west through Ouray and the Million Dollar Highway to Ridgway
Day 8: Cross into Utah / red rock canyon descent and arrival in Moab
Day 9: Arches National Park / Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock and Canyonlands Island in the Sky
Day 10: Grand Canyon South Rim / Rim Trail, canyon descent and sunset from Hopi Point
Day 11: Hoover Dam / Las Vegas Strip arrival and evening
Day 12: Death Valley crossing / Zabriskie Point, Badwater Basin and drive to Joshua Tree
Day 13: Joshua Tree National Park / boulder fields, Keys View and drive to Los Angeles
Day 14: Pacific Coast Highway north / Malibu, Santa Barbara, Hearst Castle and Big Sur to Carmel
Day 15: Carmel and Monterey / Bay Aquarium, Santa Cruz and drive to San Francisco
Day 16: Drive to Sequoia National Park / General Sherman Tree and giant forest
Day 17: Drive to Yosemite National Park / valley floor, El Capitan and Glacier Point
Day 18: Final Yosemite morning / drive back to San Francisco and city farewell
The first part of the day-by-day route, free to read.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is one of the busiest airports in the world. Pick up your rental car from the consolidated rental car facility, connected to the terminal by the ATM train; follow the signs inside the terminal. Allow 30 to 45 minutes from gate to being in the car including baggage. Fill the tank before leaving the airport area; Atlanta petrol is cheap and the station density drops on the Interstate.
The drive from Atlanta to New Orleans on I-20 West and then I-59 South takes approximately five to six hours, covering 470 miles through the Georgia and Alabama forests and into Mississippi. It is a long first day and almost entirely highway driving. Leave the airport by midday if you want to arrive in New Orleans with evening energy. The transition from Georgia hill country into the flat bayous of Louisiana happens somewhere around Slidell; the air gets heavier, the vegetation changes and the Mississippi River appears through the elevated highway as you approach the city.
New Orleans parking is expensive and maddening. Most French Quarter hotels have their own garages; use them. Once checked in, the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and the Garden District are all walkable. You will not need the car again until you leave for Austin. Find the nearest spot and leave it.
Go straight to Frenchmen Street rather than Bourbon Street on the first night. Frenchmen Street, one block east of the French Quarter boundary, is where the local jazz scene lives: the Spotted Cat Music Club and the Maple Leaf Bar both have live music from early evening, no cover charge on most nights, and a crowd that is less tourist-facing than anything on Bourbon Street. The Spotted Cat in particular is a long room with the band at one end, mismatched chairs everywhere and seriously good jazz most nights of the week. Bourbon Street has the neon and the energy but the music is often more spectacle than substance; Frenchmen is the real thing.
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Open the full itinerary“I think what made the trip was the long drives through the desert, especially in Utah and around the Grand Canyon, listening to country music and playing car games”
“The funniest moment was definetely the frat party in Boulder, Colorado. A true American college experience!”
Terra Nova Collective
