Dennis, No matter what route you plan, it will probably change in real time. That was my experience bringing mt Ercoupe home from Arlington, WA to Weatherford, TX. What really helped me was a program called Voyager FreeFlight. The VFR version is free. I loaded it onto my laptop and was able to plug in multiple routes and options. It downloads weather real-time, so it takes the guesswork out of winds aloft and finding areas of VFR throuigh mountainous areas. The only shortcoming I found was that if I wanted paper flight plans I needed to hook up to a printer. I use Voyager even for flights across the DFW Class B.
By the way, we were able to do most of the flight at 7500' or below, but that required us to fly through some mountain passes following the major highways and rivers instead of going direct. At 9500' we were able to take a more direct routing between airports. If the weather is good, you will be fine below 8000', but you will be flying through the mountains instead of crossing them. Good luck with your trip-- sounds like fun.
