Family Road Trip

[Oleo75]

Looking to plan a family drive this summer from the West Coast to see some of the church sites. Anyone have some input on time of year, how many day and sites to see? I plan not going further East than Nauvoo. It seems that 4 days should be sufficient ( not counting the drive to get there)?

[gkearney]

Independence is along the way to Nauvoo. You can see the temple lot, the oldest manuscript of the Book of Mormon and assorted other sites in the area. Be ready to be exposed to the "other" mormons. Takes about a day.

While your driving through stop in some non-church sites as well the Eisenhower museum is worth a stop as is Constitution hall in Lacomptin Kansas with its displays on the Bleeding Kansas and the start of the civil war. I would also highly recommend the Brown v. Board of Edication site in Topeka as well. None of these will take very long and are worth seeing.

[Teancum]

It really depends upon what you would like to see and experience. for instance, there are the church hand cart trail sites in wyoming and further east in nebraska (I think) such as Martin's Cove handcart and family trek campground facility, rocky ridge, 6th crossing etc. Also if you would be interested in some LDS pageants in manti, and a few others in various towns / places of Utah, they only operate a few weeks in the summer season. There is always Temple Square, Welfare Square, This is The Place and a few of the historic temples up and down the wasatch front from St. George up into Idaho.

You could spend 4 days just going to the historical sites in utah, 1-3 days just in wyoming (Martin's Cove, etc). depending on how many sites you really want to see, 4 days might not be sufficent.


Here is the list of historics sites from LDS.org:
https://www.lds.org/locations/historical-sites?lang=eng
an even better one:
http://mormonhistoricsites.org/sites-registry/

[kgrigio]

If you can get to Nauvoo around the time of the pageant, I would suggest you go. It's one of my favorites. Carthage is close by and a great visit. July/August out here is hot and humid beyond belief, so be prepared.

If you are in to farm equipment at all, not quite two hours north of Nauvoo, where I-80 crosses the Mississippi is John Deere's world headquarters as well as several other Deere sites. We aren't building much equipment at that time of the year so none of our factories will be holding tours, but there are a couple of great museums to see.

Also in the quad cities is the Rock Island arsenal, which produced a lot of arms for the military over the years. They have a couple of great museums as well including tanks, howitzers, and a lot of guns and ammunition. There are a lot of high end gun manufacturers in our area because of the arsenal.

Other church sites would be, as you head home, to take highway 2 in southern Iowa. It's a beautiful drive and traces a lot of the Mormon trail when the saints left Nauvoo heading for winter quarters. You can stop in garden city and mount pisga where there are some Mormon cemeteries I believe.

Have fun. It's beautiful country out here.

[paulrobots]

We did Nauvoo and Carthage last summer. Just wanted to say that I enjoyed it and thought it was a good experience for my family. Good luck!

[brianj]

Near Independence, Missouri you will find what gkearny described plus the Liberty jail, Far West, and Adam ondi Ahman.

Near Nauvoo you will find Carthage and the jail.

If you choose to drive on I-70 one way and I-80 the other way it would be easy to stop in Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters.

You'll add several hours to the trip, but the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is worth a visit. And I'm not the type who would want to drive halfway across the country, within 300 miles of Chicago, and want to pass up a visit to Pizzeria Uno or Lou Malnati's for some good pizza.

Timing for the trip will be a real tough choice for you. If you go toward the end of June then you could stop in Manti for the pageant. In July you can attend the pageants in Nauvoo: the British Pageant on Wednesday or Friday, the Nauvoo Pageant on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. And if you go in August you can find a great location to watch a total solar eclipse.

[LatterDayLizard]

Adam ondi ahman is by far my favorite church site. It feels like an outdoor temple. If you go give yourself a couple of hours to walk the trails, read the signs, have a sack lunch, and just sit and meditate. It's a special place.

FYI there are nice bathrooms on site as well as picnic tables near the parking. Bring repellant and apply generously around and just a little up your ankles, as well as elsewhere to ward off chiggers, ticks, and the occasional biting flies.

[ebenezerarise]

4 days to get from the West coast to Nauvoo? That's all car time. It's ten hours at least from the coast to Salt Lake, without the orange barrels of Nevada. Lots of windshield time.

[gkearney]

I would have to agree your not leaving near enough time to see stuff. If your wanting to get to he Manti events I would suggest getting off the interstate and driving to central Utah by way of U.S. 50. It's a really nice trip across central Nevada, scenic, not much traffic and a good road. Stop and see the pertogylphs, also some real western towns that look like they are right out of a movie set.

You come into Utah and can see Cove Fort which is worth a stop. Then it is on to Colorado by way of Grand Junction (stop and get some fruit) take the train ride and then down into Denver. For there it's a rather long trip across eastern Colorado and Kansas, stop in Hays to see the dinosaur exhibit if you have kids that are interested in that sort of thing.

I've already mentioned some of the other thinks in eastern Kansas.

One thing I would suggest, depending on the age of your children, is that in Independence and Nauvoo they are likely going to encounter, perhaps for the first time, the other Latter Day Saints (RLDS, Temple Lot and so on.) It would be worth your while to explain to them, if they do not know already, that there are many other Book of Mormon believers beyond the LDS to which they are acquainted. I mean the Community of Christ/RLDS temple at independence is rather hard to miss and they are likely going to have some questions about it. Try and be polite when discussing it remember these are part of our faiths family.

[Oleo75]

Sorry, The 4 days was only for time in Nebraska/Missouri. I have extra days to get there and then up to WI to see family.

[EmmaLee]

Oleo75, there are three main areas around here that you might want to visit. If you're coming from the west, you might want to stop first at Winter Quarter's (Omaha), Nebraska. Beautiful little temple (it's the temple our stake is 'assigned' to, so we visit often), Pioneer Cemetery, and a really nice LDS visitor's center - all right on the same block.

Then you could head to the Missouri sites - Adam-ondi-Ahman, which has no visitor's center, etc. you just walk around on your own - very beautiful and peaceful place (I sometimes drive down just for an hour or two, have a picnic, usually no one else there, except in summer). Far West Temple site, which is nice to walk around (no visitor's center, etc.), and see the cornerstones laid by Joseph Smith. There is a cute little shop close-by now, run by members, which is fun to visit. Then Liberty Jail - excellent visitor's center, definitely worth taking the tour; plus, the beautiful temple nearby. Then on to Independence to tour through the large LDS visitor's center, and walk around the Temple Lot, etc. The Community of Christ (FKA: RLDS Church) headquarters and temple are right there, too, if you're interested.

Nauvoo has the most to do, and you could easily find enough to do there to occupy 2-3 days, especially in summer when everything is open and in full-swing. The temple, of course, and the main street through the town has lots of little shops that are fun to visit. Then down the hill into Old Nauvoo, where all the early Saints' houses and businesses are, most of which, offer tours. Also, the C of C/RLDS owns all the Joseph Smith properties (Mansion House, Red Brick Store, Old Homestead, etc.), but they offer tours, as well (for a fee though). There really is a lot to do in Nauvoo during the summer - pageants and plays and activities of all sorts, not so much the rest of the year. But also in summer, there are hordes of people there and not much in the way of services (restaurants, for example), so be prepared for that - especially when it comes to finding a place to stay, as there are not many hotels nearby and they book up VERY fast in the summer. It's also very hot and humid here in the summer, and not all buildings have AC in these old pioneer towns, so take that into consideration. But if you have a young, healthy family, you'll be fine. Be sure to go to Carthage Jail, as well - only 20-30 minutes from Nauvoo and well worth it.

I'm excited for you to make this trip! Should be fun for you and it is very interesting and educational visiting these places. We've lived here almost 30 years and we still visit all of them a few times a year. Enjoy!

[Oleo75]

Thankyou all for the wonderful ideas. We do have a son with Down Syndrome, so I do worry some about the weather and lack of AC in the summer, but really want to see the pageant.

Your help definitely made planning this a lot easier. I'll let you know what we end up doing.

[eddie]

Looking to plan a family drive this summer from the West Coast to see some of the church sites. Anyone have some input on time of year, how many day and sites to see? I plan not going further East than Nauvoo. It seems that 4 days should be sufficient ( not counting the drive to get there)?

Carthage is about 30 miles away, well worth seeing.

[David13]

I would have to agree your not leaving near enough time to see stuff. If your wanting to get to he Manti events I would suggest getting off the interstate and driving to central Utah by way of U.S. 50. It's a really nice trip across central Nevada, scenic, not much traffic and a good road. Stop and see the pertogylphs, also some real western towns that look like they are right out of a movie set.

You come into Utah and can see Cove Fort which is worth a stop. Then it is on to Colorado by way of Grand Junction (stop and get some fruit) take the train ride and then down into Denver. For there it's a rather long trip across eastern Colorado and Kansas, stop in Hays to see the dinosaur exhibit if you have kids that are interested in that sort of thing.
.

Highway 50 is known as the loneliest highway in America. I think it's the original Eisenhower coast to coast road but now bypassed by the interstates.
I agree. Stay off the interstates for the real scenery. And you will find some nice little old towns out there that way.

If you go into Colorado and want a train ride, go to Durango. And ride the historic steam train (daily) to Silverton. It's a full day ride, with lunch in Silverton. But it's steam and real scenic thru' the mountains.
dc