Cross country road trip

I'm gonna be doing a US road trip with a friend visiting from Korea and I'd like to get some input from you guys about things to do and see. I did one about 5 years ago with my then-girlfriend, so I do have some experience with the 'process' and what to expect, but more info is never a bad thing.

My friend is flying into LAX August 13th and will be flying out of LAX September 10th. The initial leg of the trip will be straight up the coast, all the way to Vancouver (going there to visit a different Korean friend, plus never been to Canada). After that, we want to dip back down into the US and go east. She's already visited New York and D.C. and that area, so we figured to cut across more diagonally and head to the south, like Savannah, New Orleans etc. I realize that Vancouver and Savannah are pretty much as far apart as can be, and that's why I'm coming here, to see if you guys have some advice on what to see on the way.

We want to do a bit of camping, and initially we chose Yosemite and Yellowstone, but then she read about Zion and wants to go there. I figure about 3 days / 2 nights at each (or maybe 3/2 for one place and 2/1 for the other) would be more than enough to get our nature fix. Anyone with experience at any of these campsites around this time of year? It'd be both our first time camping. We're not looking for anything super hardcore, we just wanna go appreciate the environment and get out of the cities.

And one last thing, my friend is turning 21 the month *after* she leaves, meaning she'll be underage the whole time she's here. Drinking isn't the be all and end all, but I'm kinda bummed (as is she) that so much of the nightlife will be closed to her. It's doubly disappointing because the drinking age in Korea is 19 so she's been having all that fun over there for 2 years and now comes to America and reverts back to being a child. Is using a fake ID feasible? I don't even know what happens when caught, if the bouncer just says nice try, keep walking, or if they say nice try, please have a word with this friendly police officer.

tl;dr 1) what's good to see in the middle of 'Murica, 2) how's camping and 3) nightlife with an underage person. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! Oh and I'm active on couchsurfing so between that and a few hotels here and there, lodging is covered.

Ok I like the sound of that. Hopefully it works out, and if not I suppose it'll be an amusing story for this thread.

That Zion trail looks great, as does the Craters of the Moon and those areas. Thanks for that info.

After a long discussion, we changed our mind about going all the way east, as it was just gonna be too much driving. So the plan is still up through Cali to Vancouver, then over towards Yellowstone, but then down south to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Vegas, turn back to San Diego, then down into Mexico!

With that in mind, could use some additional advice. Elurin you were very right about the camping situation, Yosemite was chock full. We'll visit a friend of mine in San Luis Obispo and he recommended Big Sur, and it seems a lot more approachable than Yosemite if for no other reason than it's 'on the way' north. Also got a friend we'll be visiting in Vancouver, but that leaves Oregon and Washington and pretty much everything below Yellowstone as relatively wide open. Any recommendations on sites and sounds would be welcome!

Also in that vein is Mexico. I went there for the first time just a few months ago, but the circumstances were completely different. 9 dudes, bachelor party, always had a designated driver, and multiple guys spoke Spanish. This time it's gonna be me and a young little Asian chick, with no Spanish between us. Before, us dudes stayed atLas Gaviotasin Baja and it was really beautiful, and I may end up there again with my friend on this trip, but I'd really like to know what else is down there. My experience was driving past the Titanic boat, hanging out in that resort area, then having our DD take us to and from Ensenada where many things transpired that shouldn't be spoken of. That'd be great to happen again, just not when I'm relegated to the "responsible party" and the "fun party" consists of 1 person, nahmsayin.

I'm also disappointed at how hard it is to find a fake ID. My friends can get me all sorts of crazy illegal drugs, but when I ask about a measly old fake ID they just say "lol we're not teenagers anymore". I thought illegal stuff was illegal stuff

So we took a lot of your advice Dandain. We went up the 21 and down the...55? I think. We spent the night in Ketchum (like a mile away from Sun Valley?). Got to see the awesome Sawtooths silhouetted against the sunset, and then massive lightning storms in the distance as night fell.

Yellowstone didn't really live up to my expectations, but maybe we didn't do the right stuff. We drove the loop, starting from the north and going east to the Roosevelt Fall (I think), hiked down to the river there, then drove down to Artist's Point and the north side of that place, then drove west and south to Old Faithful, stopping on the way at that sulfur boiling mud flat area. We sat for about 45 minutes waiting on Old Faithful and saw it spew.

We did Zion in two days. First was Angel's Landing, which was awwwwwweeeeesome! I was super stoked to see it and I power walked my ass off to get up there. My friend showed up about 40 minutes after me, just as I was gonna head down to find her. She was annoyed I ditched her but said that if I had been with her she would have asked to go back, and that catching up to me actually drove her to finish. We were both amazed at the view and we even got to see a giant ass rainbow off to one side while we were up there.

The next day was the Narrows, which was just OK. The water was 100% muddy from the rain, so couldn't see anywhere you're stepping, which made for a really really slow trek. And nothing really changed as you went deeper; there was no payoff. Just more bendy canyon walls. We spent over 5 hours round trip, and took like 1/10 the pics that we did at Angel's Landing. It was an alright experience but probably saved Angel's Landing for last as a coup de grace. Or maybe replaced it entirely with Observation Point, based on Sol's comment.

We're now back in So Cal. Doing San Diego tomorrow, then putzing around LA and re-visiting Santa Barbara, and finishing it off with going to a big bang theory taping that starts 6pm the night her flight leaves at 1am. That'll be a fun little race across town to the airport, but well worth it, cuz I went once before to a taping and it's really awesome. Did you guys know they film the episode in order?? The first scene they do is the opening, all the way to the tag at the end of the credits. It's like a play. And a great way to send my friend off back to Korea.