PHX - GCNP - Antelope Advice
 

Seeking Itinerary Input:
My family is heading to AZ March 10.
Here’s our working itinerary, but I’m getting mixed feedback on Travel Forums.
We have a 9-month-old, 13-year-old and are driving a 25’ RV.

Sunday
3pm - land in Phoenix
Pick up RV
Head to Cottonwood (Distant Drums RV Resort booked)
*will the drive on I17 between Phoenix & Cottonwood be safe once it gets dark?

Monday
Montezuma’s Castie
Red Rocks Crossing
89a to William’s for an early dinner
Enter South Rim to camp at Mather (booked)
*getting feedback this is too much in one day & too late to head into the park. I’ve also read timing to enter after sunset helps to avoid traffic 🤷‍♀️
*Google Maps shows 3 hours; one commenter said 6 “hands on the wheel”

Tuesday
GCNP

Wednesday
Head to Page
3:00 Antelop Canyon (booked)
4:30 Horseshoe Bend
*wanted to camp at lone Rock Beach, but getting feedback it’s too cold & inconvenient

Thursday
Head back to Phoenix
Stop at Dinosaur Tracks (conflicting reports on how long this takes, some say 30 tops, 1 guy says it’s an hour detour)
*some people said this drive will take us 7 hours! Google Maps says 4 & 1/2

I’ve done so much research to try to make this a good trip & am nervous it’s too tight. I am open to making necessary adjustments, and want to be realistic, but please be kind to this mama trying to plan a magical vacation.

In general, I like to do my driving in daylight because the deer and elk are about all over the place in the park. It would ruin the whole trip to hit one.

March is not high season so I would not worry about crowds getting into the park.

Yeah, I think we are going to make an adjustment there so that we aren’t driving into the park after dark

any particular reason youre renting am RV and not staying in hotels? Nights at the GC and other places at high elevation will be below freezing at night - not ideal RV weather.

Page seems like an outlier here. Thats a loooong drive for a 1hr visit to Antelope Canyon and an overlook at horseshoe bend.

maybe consider dropping Page and spending a day or 2 in Sedona since youll be going right by there.

Antelope Canyon is a bucket list item. People I know who’ve been say it’s well worth it.

we’re getting an RV so we’ll have the ease of amenities at all the stops instead of having to eat out every single meal & pack our family in & out of hotels every night. My in-laws RVed across the country for a year and said they thought it would be a fun experience for us. We do have winter sleep gear for the 2 nights at GC at night when the generator can’t run.

lot’s of people RV at GCNP in March!

I’ve done a similar trip but not in an RV and my trips were not in March. I think maybe the longer time could be for driving the RV as we drove PHX to GC in a day with a late start as I had flight problems. I had planned to fly to PHX the night before but that didn’t happen and we still stuck to our plans with a stop in Jerome.

it was extremely dark when I got there and a bit nerve wracking because there were animals out. I didn’t want us to hit any but it was fine but such a very long day. When heading to Page, we thought we were going to miss our timed 1pm boat tour and I swore we left early enough. We actually were an hour early. It had to do with daylight savings which starts this weekend so something to be mindful of.

I assume you are doing upper Antelope canyon. While mostly flat, a metal walkway was added and made things a bit more difficult but not impossible. So another mindful thing to be aware of as being with a small child as I think the pandemic changed it being one way in and out. No bags are allowed in ou will have to leave them on the bus but you can take small see through items.

Dinosaur tracks is something I find pretty cool and you take as long or as short of time as you need. It’s is a long way back to Phoenix and it is out of the way but something I think is worthwhile as I wouldn’t have stopped if I didn’t think that. I once stopped there and GC on the way back to Phoenix.

I am sure you all will have a great time.

Oh my goodness! The time change!!! I’ve emailed our tour guide to ask, because now my head hurts.

Not just the time change, but Arizona does not change and sone areas have Navajo time. Good to check with the tour guide.

Page and adjacent parts of the Navajo Nation that use the Page schools do not observe daylight time, however the rest of the NN is on daylight time. So driving the highway through the NN north to Page will be on daylight time, then you switch back to standard time getting near Page. It doesn't make sense, but it's the way it is. Antelope Canyon is in the standard time part of the NN.

The 2 national monuments along Hwy 89 are both good, the teenager will like the blowhole at Wupatki NM.

https://arizonaoddities.com/2010/10/...onal-monument/