jj1206

My husband, son (7) and I are heading West Mar 22-Apr 2. We arrive in Vegas late on the 22nd. We love to travel and hike, but we are very unfamiliar with Utah and California. Our dream would be to see Bryce, Zion and Yosemite all in this trip, but from reading in the forums this wouldn't be recommended this time of year. Additional info-we don't like super busy/touristy areas and we aren't overly interested in visiting GC. We haven't booked a return flight yet so we can fly out of any where.
Any itinerary suggestions would be most appreciated! And any places to stay would be great, too.

emalloy

In late April, the trails at Bryce have been snow covered but the roads and viewpoints were fine when we've been there. You might need to buy or rent cleats for your feet if you want to hike there. Zion is much lower in elevation so when we were able to hike on the trails there.

For hiking Valley of Fire State Park is about an hour from Vegas and Red Rock Canyon is closer.

If you want to do Yosemite too, I would suggest you rent a car in Vegas and spend 2 or 3 days seeing Zion and Bryce. Return the car and fly to San Jose or San Francisco and rent a car and drive to Yosemite. Do be aware that only Yosemite Valley will be likely to be open. When we went in late April the upper areas were closed and the roads up were not plowed except for the ski area.

If you have not been to the other National Parks in southern Utah, it might make sense to visit them and save Yosemite for a time when you could explore more.
If you got into Vegas early enough you could be in Zion by the afternoon. Spend a night or two, drive to Bryce spend a night, drive to Capitol Reef and spend a night, drive to Moab and spend 3 nights and visit Arches and Canyonlands then head back to Vegas.

I should add that I'm much more a fan of the Utah parks than Yosemite, so my view is slanted that way.

Dayle

Since that is Easter week do NOT go to Moab. That is Jeep week and you don't want to be there


Also get your res for lodging immediately.

Southern Utah is very popular that week

janisj

I'd also do the utah parks from Las Vegas. Then I'd fly to Sacramento or San Jose - the easiest airports to get to Yosemite other than Fresno. (There are flights to Fresno but Allegiant only flys certain days of the week and they charge for EVERYTHING so Southwest would be cheaper)

jj1206

Thank you for all of the great advice!
I just read about Jeep Week! That would have been a shock. Is the week after Jeep Week still crazy? Looks like it ends on the 27th. If we went with that plan we would arrive around the 30th or so.

tomfuller

If you want to keep Las Vegas as a hub, try Bryce, Zion and either Arches/Moab or maybe Death Valley.
Any extra time could be spent on Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire or Red Rocks.
The Sierras of California are getting more snow this winter than any of the past 3 drought winters.

MichelleY

If you haven't been to the GC, then see it. So close and so amazing.

jj1206

We've decided to fly into Vegas, explore Utah and fly home out of Denver. So we'll be traveling west to east across the state. Any itinerary help would be appreciated! We are planning on Zion, Bryce, Arches. How much time at each and what else should we see?
Thank you!

tomfuller

If you're not looking to see anything in Colorado, why not fly home from SLC?
If you are driving across most of Colorado on I-70, make a stop in Glenwood Springs.

jj1206

It's a long story, but we were able to use miles to book round trip to from Charlotte to Denver. I was able to get a cheap flight from Denver to Vegas. So, it makes the most sense financially to just drive the couple extra hours to Denver.
Glenwood Springs! Awesome idea. Anything involving water is great in my book. Thinking of looking up lazy river trips in Utah, too.

J62

Regarding water - Keep in mind that water temps in any river will be somewhere around 40 degrees (or lower) in late March. Any water supply will be from snow melt.

emalloy

There are trips on the Colorado river from the Moab area. You could easily do 4 or 5 days in Moab. There are some trips I've see on the Green River in Utah too, but I don't know where they start. If you route yourself through Page AZ between Bryce and Moab, you can take a smooth water raft trip from Glen Canyon dam to Lee's Ferry on the Colorado river.

While you are in Moab, do go to Canyonlands too, at least the Island in the Sky district.

If you hike, 2 or 3 days in Zion and 1 or 2 in Bryce.

GemmaRose

If you're going Moab-Denver and want to take a longer, more scenic route, you can take the southern route instead of taking I70 and swing by Mesa Verde and the Great Sand Dunes, maybe spending the night in Durango in between. Soudnds like you might already have a full itinerary though

jj1206

Thank you for all of the great suggestions! I'd love to get on the river and do SW Colorado too, but that might be another trip. I foolishly didn't consider water temperature. I think our plan is
1 night in Vegas
3 nights in Zion (Springdale)
1 night in Bryce
1 night in Torrey (Capitol Reef)
2-3 nights in Moab
1-2 nights in Glenwood Springs.
1 night in Denver

Any adjustments I should make? We want to see things, but not feel overwhelmed. I'm ok with removing stops if it makes the trip more relaxing.