Plan my Itinerary: Arizona & Utah
 

My wife and I along with our 10 & 8 year old children will be flying into Las Vegas next summer (late July, early August). We would like to see Hoover Dam, North Rim GC, Bryce Canyon, Zion Nat'l Park, Las Vegas, and possibly the South Rim, Lake Powell, or any other worthwhile destinations in the area.

We like to stay on the go and see as many things as possible. We do not mind driving and will take a longer route if the view/scenery is better. We will have 10-11 days for this trip. A final night in Vegas with a Cirque du Soleil show would be great, but more than a day in Vegas is not what we are looking for. Can you suggest an itinerary with lodging. Thank you very much!

I think you'll find that posters here are happy to share information about specific sites, but to ask someone to plan your whole vacation for you is a little much! Get out a map and trace the places you want to go. Measure the distances. Figure out what you want to do: hiking, rafting, etc. I don't think your kids would be very happy just sitting in the car racing from one place to another. Once you've done some research on your own, then come back with specific questions and I'm sure you'll get lots of help.

We went from Vegas to GC south rim to Mesa Verde, then Durango, Denver, a week at a dude ranch north of Ft Colllins, then west across Colorado and down Utah seeing several of the "rock" parks -Arches, bryce, etc, then back for a night in Vegas and fly home.

I would highly recommend Mesa Verde for 2 days with one night at the lodge inside the park. Our kids loved it more than any of the other parks.

You could do it in 11 days without the ranch stay.

Icuy route is pretty ambitious at over 1,400 miles (without Denver and over 1,800 miles with Denver) if you want to do most of the parks on the route! Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Mesa Verde, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, and Zion. This really would be a world wind tour!

I would recommend at least two nights at the major parks so you have one full day to really see the parks. I would also either do the North Rim or the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Your time would be better spent seeing something different. If this is your first time to the Grand Canyon, the I highly recommned the South Rim. We were there the first week of August and it wasn't crowed like advertised!.

I would suggest doing a circle.

Day 1: Las Vegas, Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon

Day 2: Grand Canyon

Day 3: Exit the Grand Canyon going east on Hwy 64 to Cameron, AZ. Stopping at the scenic overlooks of the Grand Canyon as you exit the park. Make your way to Lake Powell. If time permits do the tour of the Upper Antelope Slots Canyon. Tour take about 1 1/2 hours.

Day 4: Lake Powell. The 1/2 day float trip on the Colorado River out of Page, AZ is SO much fun. I highly recommend it! Your kids will have a blast. This is calm water...no rapids. If you do the early morning run, then after you get back to Page, AZ you can go do the easy hike to Horseshoe Bend so see where you floated.

Day 5: Drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. Spend the day exploring.

Day 6: Drive scenic Hwy 12 to Torrey, Utah.

Day 7: Capitol Reef National Park

Day 8: Drive to Zion Naitonal Park

Day 9: Zion

Day 10: Spend some time in Zion before driving to Las Vegas

Day 11: Las Vegas

Here is a great website on the area:

http://www.so-utah.com/

There are other great choices in the area like Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, but that would require deleting something else.

Utahtea

Thank you Utahtea! I am excited about our trip and the float trip sounds great. We did a float trip in the Grand Tetons a couple of years ago and loved it. I do have a question for you about the GC. What is the biggest difference between the North Rim and the South Rim and why do you recommend the South Rim? Thanks again!

Hi noblesm,

Last night my website was down so I didn't give a link to my pictures of the area. It's working now, but my server does go down from time to time.

http://www.utahtea.lithium.com/pictu...ation.list.htm

I've been to both rims and IMHO the South Rim is more Grand! (pardon my pun)

I've been trying to figure out how best to explain this. Look at the palm of your hand. Lets say that the wrist is the South Rim. From your wrist you have views down 5 fingers (canyons). Lets say that the end of your ring finger is the North Rim. You have a view of just that finger (canyon) and even if you get to the junction of the palm and finger, you get a good view, but you can't see down all the other fingers (canyons). Hope that explains it.

You get more different views and you get to see more different canyons at the South Rim.

Utahtea

Thank you for the explanation. It makes sense to me and I guess that explains why 90% of GC visitors go to the South Rim. I am planning my trip as we speak and I again thank you for your insight. I am going to add the trip to the slot canyons, the float trip, and the scenic drive to Torrey based on your recommendations!

Sure wish I got some kick backs, I'd be rich! LOL!

I'm sure your children will really love the float trip. There was a 5 year old on our raft and he had a blast!

Some other points of interest if you drive Hwy 12 between Bryce and Torrey are:

Kodachrome State Park is not far from Bryce and has interesting scenery.

Escalante State Park just outside of Escalante. There is a little petrified wood here and a lake to go swimming in...nice on a hot day!

Anasazi Indian Village State Park in Boulder, Utah might be interesting to your children.

Depending on how much time you have, you might be interested in driving the paved part of the Burr Trail from Boulder, Utah. It's worth the drive! You will have to double back.

When you leave Capitol Reef you can drive back to Zion on Hwy 12 and enjoy the views again or you can take Hwy 24, Hwy 64 & Hwy 89. This is a nice drive but not as scenic IMHO as Hwy 12.

Utahtea

I agree with Utahtea. I thoroughly enjoyed the float trip from Page as well. I took the bus ride from the Grand Canyon South Rim to the starting point. That bus driver was so informative. He talked to whole time telling us all kinds of interesting stories about the Grand Canyon & yes, about many people who've fallen / driven over, unfortunately to their demise.

If you have time, the 1/2 day horseride (mules actually) down into BRYCE CANYON is great fun too, & gives you more scenery viewpoints than just on top.

Just so you know, the float trip can be taken from the Grand Canyon or from Page, AZ. It's a lot cheaper if you take it from Page. It's also a shorter bus ride and all the bus drivers from Page tell about the area & history too.

Utahtea

Thanks everyone! I have made notes of all the suggestions and I look forward to the trip.

My family and I are taking a similar trip next June. We have family in Salt Lake. It is conceivable to fly into Vegas, rent a car, see the National Parks in So. Utah and then fly out of Salt Lake?

We are also considering a trip to the Grand Canyon area.

Is Las Vegas the best entry point for this area or would an approach to the South Rim work better from Phoenix, so the Sedona area could be included? Would there be a way to include some of New Mexico?

Thanks!

Noblesm -
We recently returned from a 12-day tour of Utah/Grand Canyon. If you click on my screen name, you'll find our itinerary and most of our trip report (which is very long). We chose the North Rim because we had both been to the south rim several times before. The nice thing about the North Rim is the lack of people. You don't get the huge views that you get at the South rim, but there are more trees and it might be more comfortable temperature-wise in the summer months. We loved it. We flew into LVegas and drove straight to Zion NP which is less than a 3 hr drive. Spent the next full day and night there. This trip, we skipped Bryce because we were there the previous year and wanted to spend more time in Capitol Reef this time. Don't skip Bryce. It's a remarkable place. It's only about 86 miles from Zion, so you don't have to spend the night especially if you're heading out Route 12 to Capitol Reef. We stayed 2 nights each in Boulder and Torrey on our way to Moab where we spent 3 nights. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. We have lots of pictures of our trip at www.pbase.com/peterb - have fun planning!

uvm -- It would be helpful to know the amount of time you'll have on your trip. If you have enough time, you could fly to Vegas and visit Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands on your way to Salt Lake City. With less time, you might prefer to fly to Salt Lake City and limit your park visits to those in the Moab area. Either way can be a fabulous vacation.

AJ -- You'll get more helpful information if you provide some details about what places you are considering, how much time you'll have, etc. Also be sure to let us know if Vegas is important to you as a travel destination, as opposed to merely being a point of entry into that part of the country.

We plan on our total trip being around 10 days or so, but if someone said you NEED 11 or 12 we could probably extend it. I have to say that you people are fantastic. The only other time we used a forum such as this was for Disney and we wound up talking to a bunch of kooks. Thanks again, Tim Braden (NJ)

We did that tour a couple of years ago. Here's what we did and it worked out well. We spent about 3 nights in each location-only 2 days in LV. If you want to leave something off, skip Lake Powell unless you want to rent a power boat or take the guided boat to Rainbow Bridge. Las Vegas - Zion - Bryce - Page, AZ - NR GC - Las Vegas. That took us 2 weeks and was a comfortable pace. It takes 5-6 hours just to drive from the NR GC to the SR GC. My suggestion would be to skip Lake Powell and the South Rim for this visit (the North Rim is just as stunning). Otherwise, you're going to be spending a LOT of your vacation time in the car.

Mystere is a great show. I would also recommend staying at the Treasure Island hotel. That's where Mystere is performed and it's a smallish casino hotel in an excellent location. If you can, arrange it so you stay your time in LV on a weekday. You'll pay almost double for the same room on the weekend.

Noblesm- This past summer, my family (2 children, 11 and 14) did a slightly abbreviated version of what you're planning, and it was fantastic. I can't count the number of times we said "Wow" in our week. We did GC north rim, which we thought was plenty spectacular and refreshingly uncommercial. Then on to Zion (our favorite), and finally to Bryce. In Zion, we definitely recommend hiking the Narrows (a walk up the canyon in the river), taking one of the naturalist-led shuttle tours, eating at Oscar's, and staying at the Desert Pearl Inn in Springdale. We were there three nights and could easily have added more. In Bryce, the mule ride into the canyon is fun. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and it was too cloudy to see the sunrises and sunsets we heard are so spectacular.

My suggestion: Though you do drive through spectacular scenery, drive less and explore more. Pick 3 or 4 destinations in your 10 days, and really enjoy them.

Thanks again to all who replied to this. I have copied all of this info to a Word doc and will review it often before our trip. All of our lodging is set except for the last night in Vegas. I keep reading about all of the different resorts/casinos and I can't make up my mind. I just wish July would hurry and arrive!