My boyfriend and I have six days in November set aside to take a trip. We will be traveling with my nearly three year old daughter. We love the outdoors in general, especially hiking. We will be renting a car and we adore driving, but we can't seem to settle on a place to visit, so I thought I would come here to get some advice from you since you're all so helpful! Here are some places we were thinking about and if we can combine multiples into one trip, that would be even better!

-Four Corners
-Grand Canyon
-Petrified Forest
-Any of the National Parks in Utah

We're also open to any suggestions you may have! We're not picky, we just love to travel and would like to make the most of our first vacation!

Thanks!

Where are you flying into? When in November [it makes a difference, weather wise].

Forget Four Corners, per se. Not much there to make a whole trip out of it; but Durango area would be good if you are talking early Nov. Mesa Verde NP is really nice. Lots of info on here about the area. You would fly into Albuquerque and then drive about 3 hours to get to Durango. Weather can start to get cold though, so be prepared for that possibility.

Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque would also be nice, but again, weather in Taos and maybe even Santa Fe starts to get chancy.

Look at this thread for a suggested loop another poster asked about -
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...a-391683-2.cfm

Flying into Phoenix to Sedona on to your Utah park and then back south towards Petrified Forest.

I'm not sure I'd to Mesa Verde with a child that age.

Our travel dates are Nov 11th through the 16th. Haven't decided where we are flying into yet, it will depend on what we end up choosing to see.

Thank you starrs, that's extremely helpful!

I have several trip reports on Moab, Zion, and other Southern Utah areas with young kids. I think you can search my user name. Moab and ARches is a GREAT place to go with young kids. Easy hiking in/around Moab, you can rent a condo/bungalow/apartment in town for less/the same as a hotel and have more space. Plenty of kid friendly places to eat.

I would skip Mesa Verde with a toddler. Durango would be COLD. Zion would be very nice at that time of year. Bryce could be chilly, so could Capital Reef. Grand Canyon South Rim would be lovely. The big issue for you will be keeping down the driving distances. You will want to stop every 2 hours at a playground or something--or you will all be very miserable!!!!

I'm thinking we might do:

Phoenix > Sedona > Grand Canyon > Page > Four Corners (BF really wants to go here) > Chinle > Petrified Forest > Phoenix

This way the longest drive will be 4 hours from the Petrified Forest back to Phoenix. It means we'll be skipping UT (unless you count the Four Corners as UT), but I think it'll work out well.

Thoughts?

I think it's a great plan. Although some people advise against Four Corners, I like it. Yes, it's a tourist spot. Who cares? It's cool. When we were there horses were available for the kids to pose on. GREAT shots. I need to find that album and scan the photos.

It may be a little too kitschy for you, but we also spent the night in teepee hotel rooms at Holbrook AZ -
http://www.galerie-kokopelli.com/wigwam/

That's awesome! I think that's a fabulous idea!

Phoenix > Sedona > Grand Canyon > Page > Four Corners (BF really wants to go here) > Chinle > Petrified Forest > Phoenix

Sounds like a great plan! I would also add Monument Valley which won't be far out of your way between the Page (Lake Powell) and Four Corners. I'm assuming you plan to see Canyon de Chelly from Chinle. You can only see the park from the canyon rim unless you want to hike down into the canyon to White House Ruin (not sure I'd try it with a 3 year old) or take a guide tour with an Indian Guide.

As far taking a 3 year old to Mesa Verde, we took our oldest son there when he was 3 and I was a few months pregnant with the second one. We didn't let the age of our children stop us from going to any of the National Parks. We might have been limited in what we could do, but we still went.

Utahtea

Listen to Utahtea

She's helped me plan trips to the SW and her advice is always spot on. I went to Canyon de Chelly solely based on her recommendation. I'm so glad we went.

I topped that trip report. Here's the link -
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...m#last-comment

Definitely take a tour given by a Navajo guide -
Here's a website -
http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm...elly_tours.htm

We went with Bobby Van Winkle's niece, but his link doesn't seem to be working anymore.

We stayed at the Best Western in Chinle -
http://bestwesternarizona.com/hotels...-de-chelly-inn
and the front desk clerk made the arrangements for our tour. We were picked up at the hotel and returned there. Everyone was so very nice. The hotel is a basic, clean motel with a restaurant adjacent to it in the parking lot. We were happy with both.