I've been there and driven through the campground but never camped there. I would imagine a lot would depend on the time of year you are going!

Hi Everyone - we just had our Neolith Calcacutta counters in silk finish installed in our kitchen. I DO NOT recommend going with this product unless you are okay with a number of downsides. We utilized a certified Neolith fabricator who has lot of experience in working with this material. We did the mitered edges so that they were not white as well. Not only was this by far the most expensive product, but it was disappointing as well. You can see the white edges where it was mitered and there are defects from the moment of installation from which I was told are "normal" and acceptable. My seams (only two, that is nice) are VERY obvious and not what I would have expected. The material itself marks up when ANYTHING touches it basically. Put a cookie sheet on it and you have horrible black / gray marks everywhere that do not come out. I have been told you have to be willing to scrub it for that to happen and they recommended using acetone to get them out. Um....so now i am left with counters that cost me over $13k that I am not happy with from how they look (they look great from afar) and that mark up when anything touches it and I have to use a special something to try and get them out and that is not easy. If I could do it again, I would go with quartz or quartzite. These are not worth the pain and suffering along with the high cost and disappointing outcome. I went to some friend's house over the weekend where they had their new quartz counters installed, by the same fabricators we used and they look far superior to ours and they do not have the same issues. I read the reviews on here and chose it anyway and am devastated I did. I wish I had taken these reviews to heart and not listened to the fabricator's comments that these were one off experiences.

I have made the trip from Ishpeming to Redwoods and camped years ago. I would certainly leave the dogs with a friend. Its difficult being in a car with 3 kids --at least we had a motor home the last few years of camping. California and some of the Western states do not have frequent Highway rest stops or they are under repair, so you may have to rely on stopping at restaurants and that won't be helpful to the dogs. In Michigan you could stop in lots of places and let the dogs run--I wouldn't try that in the Western deserts, or the freeways. What you may want to try is what mariend suggested. Join AAA; their trip ticks and State books are wonderful. they will tell you where gas stations are and interesting places to stop. Whats even a good idea is we have a Garmin GPS. It will tell you restaurants, gas stations and give you directions vocally. We wouldn't travel anywhere without that. If your car has one built in--wonderful. I would recommend that with tent camping your options in the West are more limited than you would guess. Unless you have been here --I would suggest a KOA campground every so often so you can wash clothes, etc. Do they take dogs? Redwoods NP is okay--but consider Zion or Bryce. They have huge trees also. You would have to make reservations now (unless its too late) We just finished a 14 hour plane trip and then a 6 hour car trip with 3 kids (at least they were grandchildren) and it was Australia but it made me recall traveling with my own kids when they were younger. You yearn for peace, quiet and a shower at the end of the day. As you travel across the West,available campgrounds aren't at convenient intervals. We live in California and have sometimes hunted a long time when we didn't have reservations. With two dogs you would have very limited choices in some places.

Hello Marion, I visited the park two weeks ago. The old rose section that was flowering well when we visited in early September had very few flowers but the other gardens made up for it; very spectacular. The HTs had so many flowers to a bush and the flowers were huge. We were there around lunch time and the perfume was quite strong. My favourites on the day were Mr Lincoln and Princess of Monaco. Not sure how the flowers in the park will cope with the high temperatures and winds we are having. At home we had 40 degrees yesterday and today is going the same way. I almost took a photo of my rose garden yesterday morning when I watered as it was looking so good. Last night I had crispy flowers. Fortunately there are lots more buds coming on. Aotearoa seemed to cope the best. Cheers, Hazel.