Do it anyway. I live in Michigan and I suspect I and my wife have seen more of the Western United States than most who live out there. We have even been to Alaska. We have a couple of more places we want to visit that we may do next year. We drive most of these trips. If we had to do tours there is no way we could afford to go. Driving is not so hard as long as you don't try to chew off more mileage than you can handle, and you kind of plan places to see on the way. If you do it this way you will be able to spend the time in the places you want to spend time and you will have opportunity to see places along the way others may never see. Places like Bear Tooth Mountains , bet few of you have heard of, or City of rocks. These places are gorgeous and little known. Start with the biggies like Yosemite, Yellow Stone, and the Grand Canyon. There are a lot of things to see on the way to these places and if you do it right a lot of things to see on the way back.