Suggested crags or stops to break up a drive Brooklyn -> Boulder

Any advice?

i80 and i70 look to take about the same amount of time.

I'll be driving a truck and towing a car, so I expect the trip to take about 3 ten hour days.

I'd like to get a few pitches in to break up the days, but I'm open for suggestions if someone has done the trip a few times and can throw in some decent places to camp or get a breakfast.

Thanks in advance.

I think that I-70 would have slightly more crags nearby than I-80, but it's still pretty slim pickins'. Coopers Rock in northern West Virginia is about 45 minutes south of I-70, and would be a good place to camp and climb after a full day of driving west from NYC. There are also some limestone crags in central Missouri around Columbia, right off the interstate, but I've not been there and have not heard anything amazing about them.

Also, any climber who is doing the cross-country drive through Kansas should stop at Rock City, just for the novelty of bouldering in Kansas. Really cool little marble-shaped boulders, and a nice place to break up the drive and have lunch, but no camping at the boulders.

Overall, the entire central third of the US is hell for climbers.

I did this drive.

I think having the truck plus car in tow might make some logistics difficult. You might need to plan to un-hitch the car and drive closer to the crag.

That said, Seneca Rocks -> New River Gorge (bit of a detour) -> Red River Gorge gets you heading in the right direction.

From memory, the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center has a very large parking lot from which you can begin your approach. NRG has a large lot at the visitor center but the individual crag parking areas were very small. For RRG I just spent one day at roadside crag and it's possible it was big enough for the truck, but double check ahead of time. I don't recall the other parking areas well enough.

Also -- look at this map and follow the dots -- mountainproject.com/scripts…

I have done this drive many times..don't bother with anything, esp this time of year. Rock City will be 100 degrees and anything else will be super humid.

Just push on through and get there. At worst make it (2) 16hr days

Blue Mounds State Park looked interesting on my drive through. Unfortunately weather wasn't the greatest and my wife was sick, so I didn't get to climb.

If you take I-80, Vedauwoo is a good stop. It's literally right on 80, lots of space to park a big vehicle, approaches aren't bad, lots of cool climbs.

But the downside is that it's not actually that far from Boulder (2 hours), so that might defeat the purpose.

+1 to not stopping for climbing - specific sightseeing. I've done the cross-country drive along those latitudes three times. If summer, it'll be hot as balls and mosquito-y through most of the plains .

Yo ML! Are you moving to Boulder? Holler at me when you arrive! Or just holler at me now and I can give you some suggestions on a good cross country route.

PS When we drove out (in a 16' box truck, towing my car) it took three 13-hour days. It's hard to maintain speed in a big ass truck. And dangerous.

I'm the one moving to Boulder. ML is kindly helping my dog and I with the drive then sticking around to climb for a few days. We'll be in a 22' diesel truck towing a car. Any input on how to best handle the drive would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for all the input so far.

Let's start in the east I-80 kinda sucks, but going up to I-90 is a pain. if you swing south a bit then it's I-81 and that is not a great road to drive with a truck/trailer combo

I-80 wins I guess

Avoid Chicago if possible..it's been under construction since the first time I drove through in 1981 ! BUT once through you clear sailing to CO

IMO I-80 ends to be a better road than I-70..better surface, more services along the roadside, etc

Quad cities area should be a piece of cake and then I-76 to Boulder town

I did this twice drive a few years ago. We went via I-80, and it gets pretty boring as soon as you leave Pennsylvania (though you can probably find some decent bouldering in PA). I don't think there's much rock to be found from Ohio to Nebraska without adding several hours of driving to the day. Like, you could head up to Devil's Lake, but is it worth adding a 6 hours of driving? I'll echo everyone else and say just power through. The sooner you're in Boulder, the sooner you'll be near quality climbing. As for interesting stops, there's a restaurant in PA called Denny's Beer Barrel Pub where you can buy a 15 pound hamburger, and Iowa boasts the world's largest truck stop. That's all I got.

I'll jump in with the power-through crowd. I've driven the entirity of Kansas 7 times now, usually to get from Boulder to the Southeast or Northeast and vice-versa.

I'm a bit of a glutton for driving, but I'm a big fan of the straight push. I usually drive Boulder > Knoxville and vice versa without stopping for anything besides gas and naps, and don't feel like I missed much of anything on the way through. Not driving from sun-up to sun-down gives you some free time (for what I might ask...?), if you want it, but a straight shot route from NYC to Boulder really doesn't give you much in the way of climbing. I'd make up that time by getting to Boulder early and cragging here instead!

Maybe distilleries or breweries would make a good stop or two for you? I've always enjoyed a day or two in KY while I'm in the Southeast, options for beer and bourbon abound!

Awesome stuff, everyone. Thank you. I'm kind of sold on the big push now, and on smoother pavement. I'm also getting more jealous of my buddy for moving to Colorado by the day.

On our NJ-CO move, we slept the 1st night in Cincinnati with family and the 2nd night in Lawrence, KS which is possibly the coolest town in the entire Midwest and absolutely worth a visit if you're passing through. That was on the I-70 route.