We're planning a 2-week trip to the Southwest this August. Our current plan is to fly in and out of Las Vegas. My partner really wants to see Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce and Canyonlands NPs. I really want to see Arches, Mesa Verde and Santa Fe. Can we both be happy, or is this just too ambitious for 2 weeks? (We'll split our time between camping and hotel stays.) Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You may be interested in my trip report from last summer.

Click on my screen name & scroll down.

Hope it helps!

You can do all of those locations in a 2 week period, but it's going to give you limited time at each location. If you were to drop one, I'd say Santa Fe because of it's distance from the other places. Flying into Las Vegas and out of Albuquerque would help, but flights and one way car rentals are more expensive.

Two weeks would give you 1 nights at Las Vegas, 2 nights at Zion, 2 nights at Bryce, time to drive scenic Hwy 12 and see a little of Capitol Reef, 3 nights in the Moab area to see Canyonlands Island in the Sky District and Arches, 2 nights in Mesa Verde, 2 nights in Santa Fe and 2 nights at the Grand Canyon before driving back for 1 more night at Las Vegas ...in that order unless you fly out of ABQ, then do two nights at Las Vegas and then do the Grand Canyon first.

The round trip is about 1700 miles round trip starting and ending in Las Vegas and if you just drop Santa Fe then it's 1240 miles. If you flew into Las Vegas and out of ABQ then it's 1340 miles. (all miles are approx.)

Zion Campgrounds: South campground is first come, first serve. Nice campground, no showers in the park, but you can pay for them just outside the park at Zion Canyon Campground in Springdale. You can take the free park shuttles there. The Virgin River runs between the two campgrounds. Watchman campground has electrical sites and takes reservations if you want to make them. Most sites have shade trees.

Bryce Canyon Campgrounds Sunset Campground is a first come, first serve campground. North Campground is reservations only. There are $$ showers in Bryce. Both are in forest settings.

If you decided to drop Santa Fe, then I recommend a night at Capitol Reef National Park which has one of the nicest national park campgrounds. No showers but lots of trees and orchards to go pick fruit are nearby.

You might want to spend the first night in Moab in a motel. Devils Garden in Arches fills up first thing in the morning. Canyonlands has very few sites and fill up. If you want to camp in Arches you will either need to make reservation or be there first thing in the morning and I mean 7 A.M.! Only half of the 54 sites are first come, first server. Great location, but this place does get hot in the summer. No showers in park. There are many BLM campgrounds along the Colorado River on the Potash Road and Hwy 128.

Mesa Verde campground: Morefield Campground is really nice and I've never seen it fill up so you can take your time. There are $$ showers nearby at the store.

Grand Canyon Campground. The Mather Campground takes reservations and you might want to call and see if you can make them when you know better what nights you will be there. IF they are full, then just about 10 miles south of the Grand Canyon Village is a national forest campground called Ten X which is really nice too.

Utahtea

Sante Fe is an awesome place to visit. Don't skip that!

Hi C,

I would definitely make Santa Fe a whole seperate trip! You will want to come back anyway to spend more time, especially in Moab.

I checked out the campground at Canyonlands and didn't care for it. No shade. Just rocky and windy. You can camp on the BLM land bordering the park if you are "self contained", meaning your own porta potty. Don't try it without one, the fine is steep!

Have fun!

I'd say definitely not to fly in and out of Las Vegas. Frontier Airlines has good one-way fares, so I'd check into flying into Vegas and out of Santa Fe or vice versa. I agree Santa Fe is worth seeing for a couple of days. Taos, too.

Flying in and out of two cities may or may not be more expensive, but you also have to keep in mind one way car rentals! Sometimes they are very hard to find and can be more expensive. Just something to consider when making your plans.

Utahtea