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.
I have to drive about 15 miles south from my house to get deep into the totality, and I know all the back roads, and I still expect epic gridlock.
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).
On the other hand, the totality will pass in the very early afternoon, so I can probably just head back once it's over.
A train is going to take me 16 hours, minimum - and a car will take 12. I might just go ahead and book a flight, but then I still need a car.
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).
And I don't trust people not to cancel early bookings once they realize what kind of prices they can get.
Yes the hotel prices are very high, but I hadn't seen any that high.
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!
...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...)
All ears!
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://weather.cod.edu/satrad/exper/?parms=northwest-02-48-0
Perfect example of the Cascades blocking the crap.
That said, it looks like things are going to be a complete and total mess here in central Oregon with all the people converging on this area.
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.
PS: Sure, the closer to the center the longer the total eclipse lasts. But, you still end up seeing the same thing.
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!
How much better is a 100% eclipse vs. a 90% eclipse that we'll get here?
Is it worth the trip to Wyoming? I think so, but not positive.
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.
>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??? Pretty sure it hasn't been since 1918.
Yep, I was right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_February_26,_...
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.
Probably gonna have a hard time.