bjjadventure

Hello, fellow travelers,
My kids' spring break is coming up on the first week of April, and I was planning a family road trip for me, my wife and two boys (6 and 8 years old). I've never been to Utah and never rented an RV before, so I wanted to get your advice.

The plan was to get into Vegas on Sat (4/1) morning and leave from Vegas on Sun (4/9) night. The exact route in between is my first question.
Here's the fully loaded route https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Las+...Las+Vegas,+NV/
But it feels like too much to pack into 9 days (more like 8 if you take out all the time for checking RV in and out, getting to/from flights, safety time buffer, etc), and too much for the first RV trip. What would you remove/reshuffle?

Here are some random thoughts/concerns:
-Death Valley is outside of the loop, so it's an obvious candidate to drop. That said, it's probably going to be the most comfortable temperature wise in that time of the year, and potentially much easier to get to on RV than driving between Zion and Bryce.
-We like it when it's warm
-I could go with car+hotels, but I wanted to try an RV, just because I never did try it and because I consider buying one at my home state of California.
-I'm concerned if the roads will all be clear of snow and ice or not. I'm not sure it's a good idea to drive RV in the mountains if the road isn't giving you enough traction.
-My wife and I have been in the Death Valley before. We've been to Vegas. We haven't been to any other places on the route (Zion, Arches, GC, etc)

In terms of personal preferences: my wife and I like casual hiking, and could go on pretty long ones, but my boys like books and screen time much more than hiking. We all hiked Lassen as a family, so they can go, the question is how much before they get tired or bored (the latter usually happens before the former). They loved hiking the Bell rock in Sedona. So we'll have to keep the hikes on the fun and easy side. One of the reason I wanted to get an RV was because it feels like it'll be easier to get us all out of it compared to getting out of hotels

Outside of the route itself (which is the first and biggest questions), any other advice you could give would be appreciated: what to hike, where to stay, etc Btw, Watchman camp in Zion shows as fully booked

Thanks a lot!

janisj

only one quick comment - if you have never driven an RV before this is not the trip to learn. Rent a car and stay in hotels/motels -- it will be easier and cheaper.

emalloy

This might be a case where less is more. You have 10 places you plan to visit and 9 days to do it with most of the day spent in the RV.

Some things to consider:

We have be in Bryce, GC south rim and Moab in April and encountered snow. It didn't stop us from hiking in Moab and GC but Bryce had a lot of snow on the trails, so we didn't hike there.

Some of the roads along the route are quite twisty and change elevation a lot. Unless you drive a large vehicle on small, hilly, twisty roads then your drive times will be much longer than google tells you.

You really don't want to drive most of the roads after dark because large animals like deer, elk, antelope etc. use the roads too and some areas have open range so cattle and horses can be encountered after dark.

Many of the RV rental companies have restrictions or large charges if you drive many miles per day.

I'd suggest either eliminating the Moab parks (which are my favorite), Goblin Valley, Natural Bridges and Monument Valley - Doing Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Page and Grand Canyon. OR doing the Moab parks (take the highway from Vegas), Goblin Valley, Monument Valley, Page, and Grand Canyon. If there is time at the end of the trip head out to Death Valley for a night.

bjjadventure

Thanks for great advice. Here's revised plan:

Sat: Arrive to LV at 7:30am Drive to Page, tour Antelope (2:30pm check-in for 3pm tour, tour length 1.5hrs) Drive to and stay at The View@Monument Valley
Sun: Spend morning at Monument Valley, visit Natural Bridges, stay in Moab for 3 nights
Mon, Tue: Moab.
Wed: Drive to Springdale, visit something on the way(Goblin?). Stay in Springdale,UT for 2 nights
Thu: Zion
Fri: Zion in the first half of the day, drive to Vegas 7:40pm flight back

The main changes:
-Dumped the RV following wise advice
-Removed Death Valley
-Made the trip shorter to be less strenuous on kids. Will gladly come back later.
-Removed Grand Canyon. Major bummer, but I wasn't sure what else to cut. I could cut the outer loop (Moab, etc.), but it seems that it's ideal time weather wise to visit those parts, while GC/Bryce might be on the colder side that time of the year.

Am I thinking in the right direction?
What are the best (short and entertaining) hikes in the area for 6-8 yr olds? I would overweight the schedule towards those.

janisj

>>Made the trip shorter to be less strenuous on kids. Will gladly come back later.

emalloy

Sounds like a more reasonable trip.

In Arches there are fairly easy hikes to several arches, like the windows, turret arch, sand dune arch. You might want to take the ranger led hike through Firey Furnace with the kids. In devil's garden you could hike out to Landscape arch, but you can't go to the arch any more, a big chunk of it fell a couple of years ago.

In Canyonlands Island in the Sky District, I would want to do Mesa Arch overlook and some of Grandview overlook. Keep the kids close when you are near the rim, there are no fences, which is nice for looking but not with active little kids.

Do the math, if you visit more than a couple of parks in the next year it will be worth it to get the America Beautiful Pass which was $80 for last time I looked for entrance to all parks, monuments, seashores etc for a year. Some of the individual parks are $25, others $10 and some very busy parks will have a lane for folks with a pass.

bjjadventure

I'm thinking of making it even simpler drive: all down south from SLC to Las Vegas instead of a full circle.
You are right, I might want to split this further into three trips
Here's what I came up with so far for this trip, if I don't split:
Fri 4pm - Arrive to SLC Stay in Moab
Sat - Arches Stay in Moab
Sun - Canyonlands (Island in the Sky) Stay in Moab
Mon - Canyonlands (Needles), Moab Giants museum Stay in Moab
Tue - Goblin Valley, Little Wild Horse Canyon, Capitol Reef Stay in Torrey
Wed - Upper Calf Creek Falls, Slot Canyons(, Willis Creek if there’s time/energy) Stay in Escalante/Tropic/Bryce
Thu - Bryce - Navajo Loop+Queen’s Garden Combination Stay in Springdale
Fri, Sat - Zion - Pa’rus (1.7mi), Watchman (2.7mi), Emerald Pools (1.2mi), Angels Landing (partial), Weeping Rock (0.5 mi), Riverside Walk (2mi), Hidden Canyon (partial) Stay in Springdale
Sun - Snow Canyon State Park - Hidden Pinyon to Butterfly to Lava Flow to West Canyon to Three Ponds (3.5 mi); St George Dinosaur Discovery Site; Grafton; fly out of Las Vegas

Is it a good plan? Shall I drop something out of it to keep it shorter?

emalloy

Have you checked with the RV rental people to see if you can rent in one place and drop in another without paying a huge drop fee? In any case check the trip in both directions as long as it doesn't matter if you do Moab first or the Springdale area first.

If you are not doing the RV, have you tried to find lodging yet?

bjjadventure

My initial plan indeed had too much driving, so I switched my mental gears to a car. I have checked the car rental - one way is a bit more expensive than same place drop, but it's manageable. I haven't checked the lodging in some of those places yet.

I don't think there are good RV options for one-way. It'd have to be some big brand like Cruise America, and the reviews on it are pretty bad.

bjgchi

Maybe spend the night in Page and Check out Horseshoe Canyon or a visit to Glen Canyon Dam.

bjjadventure

Big thanks to everyone for helping me plan the trip. I've booked it, and am looking forward to the fun.

J62

I've been to Bryce in May and had snow. All the tourists in shorts & t-shirts froze their you know whats.

For Zion, I think you have too many hikes planned.

my 2c on these hikes
Pa’rus (1.7mi) - meh. sure, take a little stroll along the creek, but I prefer the area closer to zion lodge.

Watchman (2.7mi) - meh. OK hike if you are in the s. campground area, but you'll do better enjoying your time deep in the canyon.

Emerald Pools (1.2mi),

Angels Landing (partial) - excellent - Scout's lookout is the partial hike and it's a vigorous hike straight up. Not scary but not a simple stroll either.

Weeping Rock (0.5 mi) - nice, easy walk
Riverside Walk (2mi) - definite yes, plus ~1/4 to 1/2 mile further up along the creek if the water level & water temp allows. Expect water temp in April to be low 40's max. Icy cold.


Hidden Canyon (partial) - have not done

You don't have on your list Canyon Overlook - 30min max hike. excellent.