tchoiniere

I am in the really early stages of laying out a road trip next year for a few people (all in our 30s).

What time of year would this be best? Obviously needs to be baseball season so I was thinking end of May / beginning of September to hopefully miss the hottest months.

We would fly into Phoenix. The only thing in Phoenix would be a Diamondbacks game.

Then we would want to go to Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion. How many days are recommended in each park, with a moderate amount of hiking? I realize this is a loaded question.

What is driving time between the Parks?

After doing the Parks, we would drive to Denver to go to a Rockies game and then fly home.

Preferrably we would limit the trip to 10 days or so.

Any other must sees along the route - Arches? Rainbow Bridge?

Would this driving be possible in a Chevy Impala (full size) or should we rent an SUV?

dockruins

Day 1 - Travel to PHX, DBacks game at night

Day 2 - Drive to GC, could drive though Sedona on the way

Day 3 - Hike at GC

Day 4 - Drive to Zion, stopping in Page, to see the River and Dam

Day 5 - Hike at Zion

Day 6 - Drive to Bryce, Hike Bryce

Day 7 - Sunrise at Bryce, Drive through Capitol Reef to Moab

Day 8 - Arches NP

Day 9 - Drive to Denver and catch a Rockies game at night

Day 10 - Return Home

That should do it! Except you'd have to find days that the D'Backs and Rockies play to make this schedule work.

These would all be on paved roads, so an Impala would be fine, so long as it can hold all your stuff.

tchoiniere

After lining up my trip this year (2 in Chicago, 1 in Mil. and 1 in Minn), I am sure I can find a week this will work.

What time of year should I look at to avoid the hottest temps?

teegeezfun

Day one: Fly to VEGAS, get rental and drive to Zion area.
Day two: Hiking in Zion.
Day three: drive east through Page and visit Monument Valley. A MUST in my opinion. After, head south to spend the night at Cameron trading Post at east gate of GCNP.
Day Four: GC hiking, etc.
Day Five: Visit Petrified Forest and Sedona area on way to Phoenix for a night game.
Day six: head east on Route 66! tour the desert, Navajo land, albuqur, NM and spend the night in the area.
Day seven, eight, head to denver and spend a couple of days in the area perhaps drive the loop of Rocky mountain NP. fly out of denver for an amazing road trip!

enzian

Why not go in mid- to late April? That is a greata time for hiking in the Grand Canyon, and you'll still be able to catch a baseball game in Phoenix.

tchoiniere

My only concern about April is the rest of the trip being too cold / snowing.

Myer

I was in Sedona, Bryce Zion & GC last June. Warm but nit uncearable.

I try to travel when the days are long and the chance of rain low.

= = = = =
This is what I would do.

Drive from Phoenix to Sedona. Two Hours.

Watch the sunset on Cathedral Rock over Oak Creek from the Crescent Moon Picnic area.

Stay in Sedona the next day and hike the Boynton Canyon Vista and the Broken Arrow Trails.

Drive to GC South entrance 2-3 hours. Watch the sunset from Hopi Point.

Hike and hour or two down into the Canyon to get a feel for its size.

Leave by the East exit and plan on arriving in Page by noon when the sun is high. Three sights are all within 15 minutes of each other; Horshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon and on the way north "the best dam view".

It's about 2 1/2 hour drive to Zion.

Hike the Canyon Overlook at the East Entrance either on the way in or on the way out to Bryce.

Hike to the Upper Emerald Pools and then the Riverside walk to get a feel of the park.

It's about 80 miles or 1 1/2 hours up hill (from 4,500 feet to 8,000 feet elevation) from Zion to Bryce.

The viewpoints of interestt are Bryce Point for sunrise, sunset point for the start of the Navajo Loop hike down, sunrise point for the end of the hike coming up Queen's Garden, Inspiration Point and Natural Bridge because it's different. I would go beyond this one.

Hike down Navajo Loop and back up Queen's Garden.

Drive from Bryce towards Torrey on scenic Rt 12. That about 3 hours (?). Depending on the number of days you've got you can spend part of the day hiking some combination of Chimney Rock, Hickman Bridge or Grand Wash Narrows.

The drive from Torrey to Moab is about 3 1/2 hours. Then you've got Arches NP, Canyonlands & Dead Horse Point. A couple of days.

Then on to Denver.

BibE1

I like dockruins itinerary because it fits in everything you wanted to see.

Having said that, I'm curious as to why there is seemingly no interest on your part to see anything in Colorado. Have you been there already? If so, then driving straight through to Denver to catch a game makes sense. If not, then you're going to have to make some hard decisions about what to skip along the way, because there is no way you should spend so little time in Colorado.

If you're willing to spend 2-3 days driving through Colorado (or more) and pare back the rest of the sights a bit, then I'd say mid-September is your best bet. April/May is not a great time to see the Rockies (the mountains, not the baseball team) and in mid-September the aspens will have some good color.

The parks you want to see in Utah and Arizona are not much hotter in September than in May. The temperature at Bryce is not going to be an issue - it's not going to be hot in either month. Average high temps in Zion and Grand Canyon for May are 83 and 70 respectively. In September, the average highs are 91 and 76 respectively. Since you're on a limited time frame and only doing moderate hiking, it should be pretty easy to deal with these temps. Get up and hike in the morning, then leave and drive to your next destination during the hotter part of the day.

tchoiniere

BibE1, my only concern with spending more time in Colorado is time. We need to try to limit the # of days on this trip. However, we have just started laying this out so its possible we could either add days or modify the plan to add days in CO. I do like the idea of Rocky Mountain National Park so we do have choices to make. And based on last year, isn't September the best time to see the baseball team play?

BWBlakely

I've never been a desert fan and also think you're missing too much "Great Stuff" in Colorado...take a hard look at the Four Corners area...Cortez with Mesa Verde; Durango and the train ride through the mountains to Silverton; Pagosa Springs with great sights (about 30 of the state's most beautiful waterfalls in the area). You'll see/do more there, than in the desert parks you mentioned...and not giving up a lot of quality time.

tchoiniere

I think we are trying to cover too much ground and may try to divide this into 2 trips. Maybe do the "Desert Portion" in 1 trip and then Colorado in another

tchoiniere

I looked at our itinerary if we were to decide to split it up.

Day 1 Fly into Las Vegas
Day 2: Vegas
Day 3: Drive to Zion (early am).
Day 4: Morning at Zion. Drive to Bryce late afternoon
Day 5: Sunrise at Bryce
Day 6: Visit Page

What should we see in Page? I have found some boat / air tours.

Day 7 Visit Sedona / Phoenix (late afternoon)
Day 8 Phoenix (presumably a night game)
Day 9 Grand Canyon
Day 10: Grand Canyon
Day 11 Hoover Dam. Drive back to Vegas
Day 12: Fly Back from Las Vegas

How does this revised plan look? What changes would you recommend? Too much time in Vegas looks like a possible drawback. Maybe 1 less night in Vegas - extra night in Phoenix?

How far from Bryce is the 4 Corners? Or leave 4 corners to the Colorado trip?

Myer

Bryce is a long way from Four Corners.

I think you're doing a lot of driving and back-tracking to get to that Phienix game.

If you could return home from Phoenix it would really shorten a lot of driving back and forth.

Your time in Zion & Bryce will be determined by your interests in hiking the various attractions.

I think if you're going to be in Sedona it would be a shame not to spend a day or two on a couple of hikes such as the short Boynton Canyon Vista and somewhat longer Broken Arrow. Both very scenic.

tchoiniere

Myer, I agree that there was way too much backtracking.

Here is what I revised my schedule too. This is why I like laying out trips this far in advance.

Day 1 Fly into Las Vegas. Go to Hoover Dam
Day 2: Vegas
Day 3: All Day at Zion
Day 4: Zion / Drive to Bryce
Day 5: All Day at Bryce
Day 6: Sunrise at Bryce. Drive to Page
Day 7: Visit Page. Drive late in the day towards Grand Canyon
Day 8: Complete Drive to Grand Canyon
Day 9 Grand Canyon
Day 10: Visit Sedona. Is the out of africa safari worth the time?
Day 11 Visit Sedona / Drive to Phoenix
Day 12: Phoenix-Presumably a Day game.

Fly Back from Phoenix (red eye maybe?)

Myer

Now you're planning almost the same trip I did last year.

Depending upon your interests, Page may be getting too much time.

If you're interested in Lake Powell, then fine.

I did a second walk of the Riverside Walk (different lighting in th AM) and drove from Zion (went to Bryce first to shorten the drive to GC) to GC.

I got to page around noon time stopping at "the best dam view" for 15 minutes and then on to Horseshoe Bend 30-60 minutes. Both very much worth the stops and price (free).

I then drove over to Antelope Canyon (15 minute drive without actually going into Page) and took the truck drive there for the hour tour and some spectacular photos.

Then I drove to GC entering by the East entrance at about 5 - 5:30. I checked into Bright Angel and took the shuttle to Hopi Point for sunset. The drive from Page to GC is less than 2 1/2 hours.

Then next morning I walked along the Rim right near my cabin and watched the sun come up.

My biggest mistake was driving to some of the overlooks for AM sun and leaving to go toward Sedona. Since the GC stop was an afterthought to shorten the drive to Sedona, I didn't hike down at all. Consequently, GC was rated at the bottom of the sights I saw. One hour down and then back up would have given me a better perspective of GC. From above it's a waste in my opinion. A large bowl.

Similarly, if you don't hike down into the hoodoos at Bryce, you're doing yourself a disservice.

As far as hiking is concerned. Basicall I only do "easy". However, I'm mostly non-stop all day.

The trip is now getting more efficient.

BibE1

I guess I don't see a great deal of backtracking in the first itinerary, other than the trip down to Phoenix. And that's only a little over 2 hours from Flagstaff so you're looking at 4-4.5 hours of backtracking there. Since you'd be going through Sedona on the way down or back, you're not travelling exactly the same route each way. Just doesn't strike me as excessive.

Comparing it to your second itinerary, you've got the trip to Hoover Dam which will take at least 2 hours of driving round trip, maybe more depending on traffic. So basically, you've redone everything to save at most 2-2.5 hours of driving, but now you'll have to pay for the one way car rental. I'd seriously reconsider and stick with the loop you had for UT/AZ originally.