Help with 2004 summer vacation
 

Hi,
I`m a newcomer to Fodors and have loved reading everyone`s input on southwest vacations! So many of you went on trips in 2003 but now it`s time for me to start planning our upcoming summer trip and need some help. We have an itinerary planned for 12 days and hubby has chosen the spots and it`s now up to me to do the rest. I have done alot of surfing and reading and am beginning to realize this is going to be ALOT of driving! I could use your input!

Day 1: Fly into Vegas from Ok and drive onto GC (an all day ordeal!)
Day 2: GC
Day 3: GC
Day 4: Drive through painted desert to Monument and hopefully take a guided tour. Then drive onto Blanding for overnight.
Day 5: Blanding to Needles part of Canyonlands, visit Needles, drive onto Moab. Overnight in Moab.
Day 6: Visit Arches in the a.m and then Island in the Sky (Canyonlands) afternoon, returning to Moab for another overnight.
Day 7: Drive Moab to Capitol Reef, do the 90 min. scenic drive in CR then drive onto Bryce (SOOOO much driving this day!!!)
Day 8: Visit Bryce, overnight again in Bryce (town of)
Day 9: Drive onto Zion and visit Zion. Overnight in Springdale
Day 10: Drive Springdale to Vegas. The rest of the day in Vegas.
Day 11: Vegas
Day 12: Fly back to OK

I am overwhelmed by the amount of driving involved here and alot of you say it is so scenic and worth it. Hubby is determined we are going to do all of this just as HE has it planned(men!) We will be taking my 14 year old nephew with us. No one so far seems to have planned our route so I need some advice on if this is doable. I am using mapquest for driving distances and times. Someone says the drive from GC to Monument is 5 hours!!!!! But mapquest shows 3 3/4 - who am I to believe??

Also I keep reading to do the hiking in the a.m. or late afternoon in order to beat the heat. But not all of our itinerary(with the long driving times between places) allow that.

HELP! and thanks in advance.

Yes, this is going to be a lot of driving in a short time. Yes, it probably can be done. You are only going to get a small taste of each place.

From Grand Canyon to Monument Valley is about 3 3/4 hours drive. From GC to Blanding is about a 5 hour drive. Just realize these are straight driving times. When you leave the Grand Canyon on Hwy 64 to Cameron there will be many scenic overlooks that you might want to stop at.

I'm assuming when you say "Painted Desert" you are referring to the area on Hwy 89 between Cameron and Hwy 160 because driving to the Painted Desert National Park will be 420 miles and will take about 7 hours to get to Monument Valley.

One day to see both Arches and Canyonlands isn't really enough. Unless you plan on hiking into the Grand Canyon, I would give up one of those days and spend the extra day in Moab area. One day for Canyonlands, Dead Horse State Park & the Potash Road and the other day for Arches and scenic Hwy 128. This way you COULD do some hiking in the early morning or late evening.

From Moab via Capitol Reef and Hwy 12 to Bryce can be done. My DS did it with his wife.

I probably won't have to tell you, but on the day you leave Zion you will probably want to spend most of the day there before having to head back to Las Vegas. It will be a great time to take an early morning hike.

Hiking in the summer in the SW is hot and dry. I always take my Misty Mate personal Air cooler with me on hikes. It really works!

http://www.mistymate.com/mmp16.html

Utahtea

Thanks utahtea for your valued opinion. It`s nice that people like you are willing to read all of our questions and offer your personal experiences to those of us who need some guidance. I`m going to show my hubby yours and others comments in hopes that he will be open to a change. We really thought 2 full days at the GC would be needed, but except for maybe a short hike down Bright Angel and back we were planning on doing one rim drive on one day and one on the next. I would love to see some of these parks at sunset as I love to take pictures but we`ll just have to see how the trip pans out in the end.

swissquilter, for a trip like yours, utahtea is THE best source of information on this board, especially on trips in the western US, so I would take her advice VERY seriously. I personally don't do driving vacations any more, but if I do one, I'll be asking her LOTS of questions!

The Vegas-GC drive will by necessity include a stop at a supermarket to buy LOTS of bottled water, I hope. Spending a vacation like this dehydrated is no fun at all.

Utahtea I AM referring to the painted desert section on Hwy 89- didn`t realize there was another national park by this name - thanks!

I agree with Utahtea that you should add Dead Horse Point SP when you are near Moab. You can go there just before sunset, and spend a pleasant hour on your way back to Moab from Island in the Sky. Arches NP does deserve most of a day.

At the risk of adding something else to a busy itinerary, I think you could stop by Hovenweep NM for a couple of hours, especially if you stayed in Bluff instead of Blanding. The disadvantage of this suggestion is that you end up in the Needles District closer to midday, when hiking is hotter. Hovenweep is an incredible place, and it can give you somewhat of the feel of Mesa Verde without having to go further out of your way.

Swissquilter,

I agree completely with Utahtea's advice. I live in Utah and hike and camp all over frequently. If it were me, I would cut the Grand Canyon by a day and add it to Moab. A full day in Arches is defintely worth it. I also think you will have better photo ops here than at GC. GC is SO overwhelming, it's hard to get photos that do it justice. The red rock country is the opposite. Everywhere you point your camera is fabulous. If you use a film camera, be sure to use a UV filter or else stop down at least a 1/2 f stop for best results. The light is so intense, it fools automatic light meters and your pictures will be overexposed.

Have a wonderful time. You'll wish you had longer.

Thanks everyone for the tips! The plan has been changed somewhat and is still not finalized but what I have in mind is still the 2 days in GC (which we just might change to 1). Then from Blanding to Moab skip the road into Needles as it is a long side trip, and drive straight onto Moab. Have the afternoon in Moab and head out to Arches late afternoon and stay for the sunset. Then for the next day I found an all day "Tag-along-tours" where it is half day by a/c jeep and half day by boat inside the canyon, incl a lunch. I thought this would be a nice change to doing all the loops in the parks in our own car - as if we`re not going to be in it enough as it is. Since Blanding to Moab is not a long drive I thought we could also check out Dead Horse sp, as recommended.