The Best Road Trip Route from Houston to Seattle

When we were moving from Houston to Seattle, we have searched online what would be the best route to drive and nothing turned out to be very helpful. So we simulated some routes on Google map, did some calculation of distance and time, consulted friends who are road trip gurus, and finally we have nailed down this route, which we drove along and it went very well. Hopefully it can be useful for whomever might want to do the same. One might think the more scenic route would be go through California but based on the advice from our friends, you will also go through a lot of traffic on this route and that is not very enjoyable so we picked the other route which is more inland. Of course, everybody’s definition of best is different, for us the criteria are: 1) do not take too long as we do not have lots of time; 2) can stop in a few nice places for quick glance; 3) safe; 4) not driving too long in a day and no night driving. So here you go.

	City	State	Trip Time (hrs)	Trip Distance (mls)
Start	Houston	Texas
	Austin	Texas	2.4	142
	Sweetwater	Texas	4.2	256
Stop 1	Lubbock	Texas	1.8	122
	Clayton	New Mexico	3.7	246
	Pueblo	Colorado	2.7	189
Stop 2	Denver	Colorado	1.7	116
	Glenwood Springs	Colorado	2.9	157
	Green River	Utah	2.7	187
Stop 3	Salt Lake City	Utah	2.9	182
	Twin Falls	Idaho	3.1	218
	Boise	Idaho	2.0	129
Stop 4	La Grande	Oregon	2.6	171
	Yakima	Washington	3.9	192
End	Seattle	Washington	2.3	143
		Total	38.8	2450.0

Out of Texas

Driving out of Texas is… boring, there is not much to see on the road, flat and dry desert, except that the sky is big and blue (which I like 😍). So the best is to drive out as soon as possible, thus the route we pick is almost a straight line. If we can NOT stop inside Texas, we will not, but we have to pick a stop as we do not want to drive too long. We arrived Lubbock when it is already dark, the hotel is in the middle of no where (dog-friendly!), a little scary.

Through New Mexico into Colorado

After driving out of Texas, we dipped into New Mexico briefly then into Colorado. We started to see more variation of landscapes, and we happened to encounter big snow, so it is PJ’s first time to see the snow, super excited little doggie 🐩, dream comes true! 😍

Into Utah

Utah also has interesting landscapes, lots of huge rock mountains and canyons, we drove through it and got a peek on it.

From Utah to Idaho into Oregon

Stop at the Salt Lake City was short, flash peek of Temple Square, passing through Idaho, arrived in Oregon, from big rocky mountains to forests, 🌳🌲, and more snows…