Route 66 vs Yellowstone and Grand Teton

Route 66 is the great American road trip: roughly 2,400 miles of the Mother Road from downtown Chicago to the Pacific at Santa Monica, crossing eight states and three time zones. This Chicago to Santa Monica itinerary packs it into 10 days, which is fast. Expect about 200 to 330 miles and five to seven hours behind the wheel most days, mixing interstate stretches with the best surviving original alignments; two to three weeks is ideal if you can spare it. Start with a photo at the Begin sign, then roll past Illinois giants, the bent Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi and Ozark frozen custard stands. Cross the short Kansas corner and Oklahoma's diners before painting your own stripe at Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo. In New Mexico, sleep under the glowing neon of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, then drive through the badlands of Petrified Forest National Park, the only national park that protects a stretch of Route 66. A day off the road from Williams takes you to the Grand Canyon's South Rim. The finale climbs over the Black Mountains to Oatman, crosses the Mojave and ends with a sunset at the Santa Monica Pier. Book classic motels ahead in spring and fall.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton sit side by side in northwest Wyoming, linked by a short parkway, and together they make one of the great American road trips. Yellowstone, the world's first national park, holds more than half the planet's active geysers, including Old Faithful, plus the rainbow-colored Grand Prismatic Spring, the thundering Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and terraced hot springs at Mammoth. It is also the best place in the Lower 48 to see big wildlife: bison herds in Hayden and Lamar valleys, elk, pronghorn, bears and, with patience and a spotting scope, wolves. Just south, Grand Teton's jagged peaks rise straight out of the valley floor above Jackson Lake and Jenny Lake, with sunsets that rival anything in the West. Fly into Jackson Hole or Bozeman, rent a car and plan on long but rewarding drives. Neither park uses timed entry, but in-park lodging books up months ahead, parking at Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic fills by late morning, and most of Yellowstone's roads close to cars from early November to late April, so summer and early fall are the main seasons.