Hatter

I am planning a road trip from Sacramento to Denver end of June. I intend to visit at least Bryce Canyon, Arches and Monument Valley. Am in doubt whether to drive via Yosemite or Lake Tahoo and whether or not to include Zion. I would appreciate recommendations with respect to the most scenic drive, where to stop and what to do. I have 6 days/5 nights, flying out the sixth day from Denver. Who can help me out?

tomfuller

Do you have a good deal for the rental car with no drop off fee?
If you can get an early enough flight to SMF see if you can get lodging in side Yosemite. Otherwise stay in ElPortal and go into Yosemite the next day. If the Tioga Pass is open over to Lee Vining, drive through Death Valley and Beatty to get to Las Vegas. Spend a night in LV. Next day head north on I-15. Turn off through Hurricaine to get to Zion. From Zion, head for Bryce Canyon drive route 12 to get to Torrey to spend the night. The next day (4?) head for Moab and Arches. I doubt that you have the time to see Monument Valley.
Day 5 will take you most of the day on I-70 to get to Denver from Moab.

Gretchen

I'd certainly go through Yosemite, even if I had to not see one of the others.

happytrailstoyou

I would definitely include Yosemite and Zion.

You have many options, including this good routing that includes everything on your wish list except Arches: Sacramento, Yosemite, Tioga Pass, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Silverton, Aspen, Denver.

HTtY

janisj

You only have 6 days (5 more likely since you are flying out on the 6th day) - that is a lot of territory for such a short trip. Nearly 1700 miles and 35 hours behind the wheel time.

tomfuller

Any chance you could fly home out of SLC instead of Denver? Moab is a lot closer to SLC than Denver

Hatter

Thank you all for your feedback.

Somewhat more info: I have to deliver in Denver an RV that is currently stationed in Sacramento. If I take the I-80, this will take me according to google maps 17-18 hrs behind the wheel (not counting stops) and I will cover some 1190 miles.

As I have about 5.5 days, I imagined I could as well take a more scenic road. Friends told me I should definitely stop at Arches and Bryce Canyon. Including these two destinations would bring the total to 22 hours and 1320 miles.

Give that I am reasonably close I thought I could as well include Monument Valley. This is however quite a detour. It increases the mileages to 1485 and the driving hours to 25. So I look forward to hear from you whether I should indeed drive through Monument Valley, or better skip it and perhaps include Zion?

A question asked when opening this topic is whether I should drive via the 120 through Yosemite NP or the 50 via Lake Tahoe. Driving distance does not differ that much. Then again, Sacramento to Bryce is quite a trip 13 hours behind the wheel (not including stops) via Lake Tahoe and somewhat longer via Yosemite. Too long for one day anyway, so I need to stop somewhere. Just looking at the map I note Cathedral Gorge. Still 553 miles / 10 hours via Lake Tahoe, but sounds more doable to me. As the Yosemite is the longer drive, there must be a marked difference to the Lake Tahoe option to choose it. Or does anyone know a better place to stop then Cathedral Gorge?

On the other end of my trip: Moab to Denver is 370 miles / 6 hours (via UT 128 and I-70). Maybe a bit long to drive on Saturday morning. But where best to stop between Moab and Denver, Glenwood Springs?

By preliminary choices would define my road trip as follows:
Day 1: Sacramento to Cathedral Gorge, via Lake Tahoe (10 hours+stops)
Day 2: Cathedral Gorge to Bryce (3.5 hours); explore Bryce
Day 3: more exploring in Bryce, transfer to Monument Valley (280 miles, 5 hours+stops)
Day 4: Monument valley to Arches (155 miles, 3 hours), explore Arches
Day 5: Some more exploring of Arches (or Canyon Lands?), Arches to Glenwood Springs via UT-128 (186 miles, 3 hours)
Day 6: Glenwood Springs to Denver Airport (181 miles, 3 hours)

I welcome your further feedback.

november_moon

Ahhhh...driving an RV. That changes things a bit - as in the drive will take longer than Google Maps predicts

We just did a similar trip to deliver an old Jeep to CO. We did the drive in 3 days, I-80 from Sac to Laramie, then 287 into Fort Collins and I-25 down to Denver. Our grand total mileage for the trip was 1250. The speedlimit for much of this route is 75 mph, but with the side winds and the trucks blowing us around, we kept it at 65 mph most of the time - except uphill, of course, when we were slower We passed a lot of RVs who were going slower than us. With 3 days, we had almost no sightseeing time.

We chose the I-80 route because we needed to get to CO as quickly as reasonably possible and didn't want to deal with getting the Jeep over the passes on I-70 - we'd have been in 3rd gear for hours. On I-80, the highest elevation we reached was just over 8000 ft. On I-70, I believe the highest point is around the Eisenhower Tunnel, which is just over 11,000 ft.

With 5 days, you will obviously have a nicer schedule than we did, but you still won't have a lot of time to hang around.

emalloy

The RV does give you some flexibility for lodging. I would skip Monument Valley this time and visit Bryce, Arches and Canyonlands. IMHO there is much more to do in the NPs than in Monument Valley, even though it is interesting to look at.

janisj

1320 miles in 22 hours?? Not in an RV you won't . . .

Otis_B_Driftwood

I would skip Bryce and Monument Valley. Save them for another trip when you will have more time and can visit Zion and the Grand Canyon too.

Instead, drive 50 to Great Basin National Park and spend the night. Then move on to I-70, go through Green River, and then stay the night in Moab. There's plenty of campgrounds along the Colorado River heading east. Spend three days here. Lots to see in Arches and also Canyonlands. Glenwood Springs is a great place to stop on your way to Denver. Make sure you visit the hot springs.

tomfuller

For sure spend a night in Glenwood Springs along the Colorado River. http://glenwoodcanyonresort.com/
This looks like a great place.