I heard from a co-worker who plans to travel to Oregon that some of the hotel rooms in the path of the umbra are sometimes > 2-3k USD for the night(s) prior to the eclipse.
Washington or Oregon? Why would you stay in Washington? The roads into the area of totality in Oregon on that day will be horrendous. It would probably be faster to walk. Fortunately our church has a camp almost smack on the totality line so we are staying at a cabin there for a few days around the event to avoid the traffic.
I don't see the point of booking something without knowing the weather unless you don't care about throwing it away and going somewhere else. My initial plan was to book several hotels in different areas, but it seems like every hotel inside the path of totality requires a 2 week notice to cancel (and this was months ago).
Since I'm about 1.5 hours from the path of totality in Georgia, my current plan is to drive out at like 3AM (before the roads have a chance to get packed) and just stay in the area.
If it looks like the weather isn't going to cooperate, I'm going to leave a day earlier. Get a hotel outside of the path of totality, and do the same thing I was planning to do at home (leave at 3AM to drive into it).
I'm in New York. I'm more than 1.5 hours away from the totality, so I'm going to have to head south and hope - although, I'm in the somewhat enviable position of just being able to sleep in a car... as long as someone cracks the window and leaves me a bowl of water.
On the other hand, the totality will pass in the very early afternoon, so I can probably just head back once it's over.
There were some big news stories here in Oregon about this. People made reservations literally a year in advance, only to have the hotels cancel them once they figured out why people were booking!
The only good news is some hotels may have done people a favor. Those were on the Oregon coast, in the Lincoln City and Newport areas, where, even in the middle of August, there's a good chance of overcast skies (marine air).
I am on a project in Bend, OR and the city is booked solid for that week. The camp grounds are booked as well. Your best bet would be to rent an RV and boondock out on the BLM land around town.
Yes the hotel prices are very high, but I hadn't seen any that high.
I'm thinking of driving south from Hood River towards Madras; OR-26 between Government Camp and Madras is probably going to be backed up, though (or so I imagine).
We're some New Hampshire tech bumpkins who got a hotel in Charleston SC for 15% of that. We're going to leave our phones and cameras inside, and just hang out by the pool with some cold beverages and experience the eclipse as it unfurls. Granted, it's not quite in the center, but I think it should be close enough to make the trip worth making. I suppose in a panic, we could drive about 40 miles north. Should we?
We're travelling all the way from Australia for this (thanks to my epic girlfriend). Got a roadside motel in Pleasant View, ~50 miles from maximum totality (Hopkinsville), for <$200. Only booked it the other week.
Not expecting it to be anything flash, but there's stuff out there. Don't be put off!
I waited too long to plan and we're flying (ourselves) up to Idaho Falls and paying like $700/night. Selection was really bad and virtually every other town I tried had zero availability at any price!
Yeah, I'm from Idaho Falls and know someone that is renting out their house for $8k a night. I tried to convince my parents that they should do the same thing with their house, but they'd rather stay in house and not worry about traffic those days. Most of the town is going to close down for a few days around the eclipse because of all the visitors.
Say, many friends and I are all converging to camp just outside Pocatello with the intention to drive up first thing that morning, either up 15, to 33, or over to Rexburg/Idaho Falls area...
...would you have any advice on where you think we might want to go (assuming we're not fighting clouds)?
We could only get our campground on the night of the 20th, so don't have time to do reconnaissance as we would have wished; the main thing is just to make sure we get somewhere with a view of some kind.
(I lived in Utah as a kid and came up through the area many times but can't correlate my ancient memories with places...)
I'm not sure how busy they'll be, but the Menan Butte and the Rexburg Bench could both provide some good views. Of course the Butte is in the desert and will be pretty hot and isolated, but if you bring your own shade and are wary of snakes you should be fine. It'll be right in the center of the path (or as close as you can get eyeballing it) so you'd get about as much time possible. My grandparents live a two minute drive from the base of the Butte, so that's probably where I'll go.
I think Oregon is a bad spot to view it. The weather (yes, even in summer) is too unpredictable and it's too close to populated coastal areas.
Wyoming is the way to go, or western Nebraska. Don't expect to get hotels, but camping on a rancher's land is easy, and the arid climate in the summer minimizes chances of cloud cover.
http://eclipsophile.com/total-solar-eclipses/total-solar-ecl... has weather overviews for various locations and it rates eastern Oregon as possibly the best place as far as weather goes. Once you get east of the mountains there's much less water to cause viewing problems.
I'll be in eastern Nebraska (Omaha) and will drive south on I-80 towards the eclipse path and hopefully pull off to the side and park somewhere.
What's hard to plan for is whether too many other Nebraskans will have the exact same idea which means I have to camp out a ridiculous 12 hours before the event to secure a spot -- or give up entirely.
True but I was trying to minimize the distance from Omaha airport since I have to catch a flight 5 hours later. It will be interesting to see how many of the ~500,000 Omaha residents will be on that stretch of I-80!
I highly recommend rescheduling your flight.. seriously. Right before and right after the eclipse roads will be slammed! One article from Missouri said to expect Florida hurricane evacuation level traffic. If you still want to try to fly, bring LOTS of water in case you are stuck in traffic for hours.
from I-80 (in Lincoln) take highway 77 south towards Beatrice. The closer you get to Beatrice the longer the totality. Lincoln will get about 1 min, Beatrice gets 2:35.
I'm planning to drive up north from Denver, the day of. Kind of concerned about how many people will have the same idea, and how early I should start...
Many people I've talked with are planning to make this event into a long weekend. If you want to avoid traffic... and find parking - I'd recommend at least Thursday.
Camping on a rancher's land with permission is easy. But given the expected crowds, friends in e.g. Glendo (population ~200) plan to be out enforcing their property rights against the anticipated tens-of-thousands of out-of-towners. So be smart, camp on public land. Otherwise you'll likely get shot.
That's what I'm doing but the wildcard is we don't know what a meaningful amount of "super early" would mean since we don't have recent eclipses in the USA to use as past guides about crowd behavior. It's an unprecedented mega event since the last total eclipse to cross the USA-48 was 1918 when the horse & buggy was still prevalent.
I plan to find a spot 6 hours early but my worst fear is that everybody else camped out 12+ hours before I did. Or there is unforseen traffic gridlock towards the path of totality.
That's true, but the path of totality is 70 miles wide. If you make contingency plans, pick an area that isn't too populated but has multiple roads, my guess is that it will be fine.
>everybody else camped out 12+ hours before I did
Basically every spot is a good spot as long as you can get to it. Gridlock starting the day before is the only problem I can foresee that would keep me from actually getting there.
I'll probably pack the bikes in the insane case that I have to leave my car on the side of the road 20 miles outside of the path of totality or something. But the only way I see that happening is if it turns into something like a hurricane evacuation.
>I thought the last full eclipse to cross the USA was in the late 70's?
Right, but that 1979 one didn't reach the major metro areas across the entire swath of USA-48. That's what people mean by comparing it to 1918[1] in terms of widespread national interest.
The eclipses of 1918, 2017, and 2024 attract extra attention because of the paths crossing numerous population centers.
What do you think of Grand Teton? I will in Yellowstone that week. I am not sure if we should go do Grand Teton or Nebraska for the eclipse. Ideally I want to hike somewhere for a few miles to avoid the crowds.
I have a campsite reserved in Yellowstone and would drive South. I guess a good plan would be to pick a trail and go there at night so you are already on thew trail before the crowds come. Not sure about the weather though.
I scouted the same area. The weather should be perfect by mid-day. Plan to drive v.early-morning a couple of hours East or West (across a mountain range in either direction) depending on a bad weather forecast. You'll know the night before.
