Not sure if you are coming from Jackson or Yellowstone before heading to Yosemite so just work your way to Idaho Falls, Idaho then take I-15 south. Since you will have already been to Salt Lake City, take I-86 to Twin Falls, Idaho. See the falls before heading south on Hwy 93 to Wells, Nevada. Take I-80 to Reno and then pick up Hwy 395 south to Lee Vining and enter Yosemite on Tioga Pass (hwy 120). I'd highly recommend taking a short detour on Hwy 50 over to Lake Tahoe.

Utahtea

I like option #2 alot.and then going on to monument-mesa verde-moab.
i wonder if you might think of leaving moab to capitl reef on to bryce via hwy 12 and from bryce it would be a breeze getting to salt lake city on interstate 15 it is only 260 miles from moab to bryce i think.

when you leave the rockie mts after yellowstone or
jackson i would hustle for reno, then down 395 and over tioga pass into vosemite valley.The drive from reno to yosemite vally is supposed to be 5 hrs and I think 6 hours behind the wheel would do it. then on to S.F. leaving yosemite on hwy 120 or 41 if you visited mariposa big trees.after S.F.-monterey-
down the coast-L A area and back to vegas.this post and the ones above are for routing and not scheduling.

Thank you again for your tips and suggestions!

I have been concentrating on the first half of our trip, and today it looks like this:
Day 1: Paris - LV
Day 2: LV
Day 3: drive LV - Springdale (Zion)in the morning, hike Zion in the evening
Day 4: Hike Zion in the morning (Angels Landing), drive Springdale - Page in the evening
Day 5: Page - float trip on Lake Powell in the morning, Horseshoe bend hike in the evening
Day 6: Page Antelope Canyon hike early in the morning, drive Page - GC (via Cameron)after the hike (Lodge in the park!) Sunset in GC
Day 7: GC during the day, drive GC - Monument Valley in the afternoon (Lodge in Goulding, will keep trying for "the View")
Day 8: Scenic drive and horseback ride in Monument Valley in the morning, drive Goulding - Cortez in the evening (havn't found lodging in Mesa Verde yet, will keep trying)
Day 9: Mesa Verde full day sightseeing
Day 10: drive Cortez - Moab in the morning, maybe visit Dead Horse Point State Park on the way, hike Arches in the evening(or not)
Day 11: Moab Arches NP in the morning, relax in the evening
Day 12: Moab - Maybe the La Sal Mountains loop (thank you Dayle for that tip)or other Moab adventure.
Day 13: drive from Moab to Torrey (Capitol Reef)in the morning, visit Goblin Valley on the way,maybe hike Capitol Reef in the evening (depending on the time we spend on Goblin Valley)
Day 14: Capitol Reef in the morning, eat homemade pie at Grifford Ranch house, pool and relax in the evening
Day 15: Drive Hwy 12 between Torrey and Tropic (Bryce Canyon)see the Burr trail, the Anazasi museum in Boulder, Calf Creek Falls, Kiva Coffee House
Day 16: Canyon trail ride in Bryce Canyon in the morning, drive up to Salt Lake City in the afternoon.
Day 17: Drive from Salt Lake City to Yellowstone West (will try to find in park lodging, no luck yet)

So the program is still ambitious, but I believe it is doable. Any comments or suggestions?

Sounds like a great trip so far. As time gets closer, those folks who made reservations in Mesa Verde and Yellowstone last year will start to cancel, in the mean time, make a cancelable reservation at a motel/hotel nearby and if you get in park cancel it.

I would suggest an afternoon of river rafting in Moab. That would be a great way to cool off so you aren't driving all day or sitting in a motel room.

We did Arches and Canyonlands last Sept.-Make time to do the Delicate Arch hike @ sunset from the Wolfe Ranch park area, Need at least 1 1/2 hrs. to hike up without rushing (480 ft gain, 3 miles round trip), take at least 2 liters of water per person and flashlight for after sunset on the way down. It's open slickrock with exposure to heights and no shade but this was absolutely the highlight of our Arches visit. We had 99 + degrees in late Sept. so bring light colored breathable materials to wear. Hat and sunscreen too. Do the Windows section in late afternoon for best pictures and Double Arch Landscape Arch. Double O Arch in the early morning. Have a brunch or pool break in mid-day. Most days we were in the park until sundown. We liked Buck's Grill House for food in Moab. We spent a morning driving the points with a picnic lunch on the Canyonlands loop. Bring food, plenty of water . . there is nothing out there.

The only other advice would be to leave more time getting from point to point especially in and around Yellowstone. We had 4 nights in the park and we felt rushed. We spend almost 1/2 day in the Upper Basin. Well worth the wait for the Grand Geyser eruption we waited only 1 hour for . . . so much more than Old Faithful. We had a road delay north of Jackson leaving Grand Tetons that had us parked for almost 2 hours! Have fun!

A few years ago we went to Yellowstone, stayed maybe 4-5 nights in the park, traveled a different route each day. Yellowstone has so many different geological sites, you get a great vacation from this one park. I agree with the post above, we were lucky to see Grand Geyser go off, and lots of buffalo on the SE side.

Went to Arizona and Grand Canyon last year. Stayed 'on the rim', not expensive. Keep checking for others' cancellations and rooms opening up. There is an easy level trail along the rim in front of the hotels. Sunrise moose outside our window, sunset and ice cream on the rim. 2 nights minimum, don't be one of those visitors who only stay an hour!

We did a loop to Monument Valley, Canyon DeChelly, Painted Desert, and Petrified Forest in 1 week.

<i>Day 10: drive Cortez - Moab in the morning, maybe visit Dead Horse Point State Park on the way, hike Arches in the evening(or not)</i>

Dead Horse Point State Park is NOT on the way to Moab from Cortez. It is something you can do after reaching Moab.

<i>Day 12: Moab - Maybe the La Sal Mountains loop (thank you Dayle for that tip)or other Moab adventure.</i>

While the La Sal Mountain Loop is a nice drive, with your limited time in the area, I'd concentrate on Arches and Canyonlands instead. One thing I love about Arches is that it is only 5 miles from town and makes for a great place to go watch the sunset in the evening.

Otherwise your trip is coming together nicely.

Utahtea

this trip is coming togeather very well. i would still be open minded to spending a night in the san juan mtns.ouray or telluride. this is one of my top areas and great for moumtain hiking.only if you have a day to spare.your trip planning skills are showing!

emalloy - I actually found lodging in Mesa Verde when I called yesterday. But they don't accept 5 people in one room, and only had the upgraded Kiva rooms available for my dates. 2 Kiva rooms/night for 2 nights is a bit out of my hotel budget...

If I were to stay one night in the park and one night in Cortez, wouldn't it be better to stay the first night in the park (driving in from Monument Valley) and the second night in Cortez (late check-in after visiting Mesa Verde all day)?

But if I do that, can I still leave the car somewhere inside the park after check-out, while we do the hiking and sight-seeing? This question actually goes for GC aswell, where we have 1 night in the park.

lizzie3 - an afternoon of river rafting in Moab sounds great! Do you know if you have to book activities like that in advance, or can you play by ear once you are there?

Carol-Kurczak - I realize we will probably leave Yellowstone a little frustrated, but hopefully with plans to go back. For a first trip this will be a taste of a little bit of everything. Once we have favorite places I will plan next trip a year ahead to get exactly what we want.

Utahtea - thank you, I am using all the tips I get from you all to improve the plan! I have noted your comment on Dead horse point, will see if we can work that into the plan differently.

paulhelmick - We will try to leave room for improvisations and keep a list of nearby activities for each location. There is just so much to see and so much to do!

grendel, Your plan to do one night at MV and one in Cortez is fine and will give you a half hour head start towards Moab the next day, if it is still your plan to go there next. There is a parking lot near the VC so leaving a car there for the day would not be a problem, but we loved doing the mesa top loop in our car and stopping at the pull outs for views across to the dwellings.

At Grand Canyon, you can just leave your car near your lodging and walk over to the rim or the bus pickup near Bright Angel Lodge. There is parking near Bright Angel but it fills up so getting a spot can be hard, last time we were there we parked over near Maswick where there was plenty of room. We were there in April and I would expect it to be more crowded in August.

If you want an activity to do on the way to Moab from Cortez, you could do a quick trip into the Needles district of Canyonlands Take 491 west to Monticello then north on 191 about 14 miles to 211 into the Needles District. Stop at the VC and take the short hike to Cowboy Camp at the very least here. An alternative plan would be to go up to Arches and take a hike to one of the arches that is most beautiful at sunset.

Sounds like lots of us would like to go along with you on this trip.

the reason for staying in the parks is twofold. first is the obvious time saving. secondly at g.c. and yosemite valley you are dealing with large canyons and they are ever changing in morning and evening so you want to be there.I think this would be less of a factor at m.v.

I think it's probably best to book a rafting trip at least a little in advance. There are several companies that do them and you can book online.

I only mentioned Dead Horse Point because you had it on your list to do on the way to Moab. I actually prefer going to Canyonlands Island in the Sky District which is out the same road.

I agree with emalloy that if you have the time and want something to do on the way from Mesa Verde to Moab, then the Needles District of Canyonlands with a quick stop at Newspaper Rock would be my choice too.

Utahtea

Sounds like you have a great trip shaping up.

Although you have cut back on the itinerary somewhat, I would suggest you consider the amount of time you are spending in each area. It appears that after you leave Las Vegas, you have planned the following:

1 nt Zion area
2 nts Page area
1 nt Grand Canyon
2 nts Mesa Verde Area
3 nts Moab area
1 nt Capitol reef area
1 nt Bryce area
1 nt SLC
And then continuing on to Yellowstone.

This still seems like quite a bit of changes of hotels and driving in this period of time. With only one night in Zion and the Grand Canyon, you will have very little time to enjoy each place and will be constantly checking your watch to see when you should pack up for the next peice of the journy. You are currently looking at 8 hotels in 11 days time.

You might consider two nights each in Zion and the Grand Canyon to slow the pace down and to enjoy each. Every place on your current itinerary sounds great, but you seem to be spending a lot of time near Moab (which admittadly has a lot to do), but spending significantly less in Zion (which I personally prefer) and very little time at the Grand Canyon.

If you add time to Zion and/or the Grand Canyon, you could probably take a night away from the Moab area. You could also consider adding a night to Zion and using Zion as a base for a day trip to Bryce (1.5 hour drive between Bryce and Zion), rather than back tracking to Bryce from the Moab area. Your current itinerary has you almost completing a loop from Zion to Moab and back to the Zion area (Bryce). If you visited Bryce right after Zion and headed north from Moab to directly to SLC, you would likely be able to add a night at Zion and the Grand Canyon, cut many hours of driving, and only lose Capitol Reef from your current itinerary.

Everything that you have planned sounds great, so it will be hard to cut further - but with three children in the car I would suggest staying a bit longer in each place and eliminating some of the drive time that you have planned.

RE:Day 14: Yellowstone upper loop. Motel in West Yellowstone.
Day 15: Yellowstone lower loop. East side exit to Cody. Rodeo in Cody that night. Motel in Cody.
I'm not going to comment on the first part of your trip, I think you have plenty of advice already.
We did a Yellowstone (YNP)trip last fall, stayed 3 nights in the park and wished we had booked a fourth night. If your primary interest is seeing what is unique to YNP, the Geysers, hot springs etc, most of them are around the lower loop, and you can easily spend at least 2 days geyser gazing. Geysers are fascinating! If at all possible stay in the park, it eliminates wasted time driving in and out of the park, and is not expensive, especially if you're saving all that gas money. We stayed at Lake Lodge about $130 if I remember right, or you could try Lake Village also, Grant village is a little too far south I think. Drive in from West Yellowstone, look at the Norris Geyser basin and then continue south around the lower loop. If you can't get lodging in the park, yes spend the night in West Yellowstone, the next day continue around the lower loop, it will take at least 2 hours to drive from Madison to West Thumb and that's without getting of of the car. Traffic in the park in mid-July will be horrible.
The north loop is more driving and scenery, and driving through Dunraven pass was slow even in late September. Driving from Lake Village to Cody is gorgeous but very time consuming and will take most of Day 15.
Leave out Jackson entirely, you are going to Yosemite and will see plenty of stunning mountains there. Jackson itself is really not that interesting and as mentioned above the drive from Cody will take a lot longer than 3 hours, more like all day. It would also mean not going to Cody. That would give you an extra day at YNP, you do the Upper loop on Day 16, and leave back through West Yellowstone, it would still be a 10-11 hour trip to Torrey, you might want to split the drive and stay overnight halfway.
A travel guide suggestion, buy a copy of Frommer's guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, it is a small paperback $15 Canadian, and it is filled with great suggestions on how to plan your YNP trip.I found it a great resource.
I do agree with many of the others that you are trying to do too much,travel time is very underestimated on Google maps. have a great trip

Thanks for tips and suggestions.

I hope you are still following, because I have a change in mind, and would like to know what you think.

Our loop is currently starting in LV and going to Zion, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde and Moab.

From there I originally planned for us to go to Capitol Reef and then to Bryce Canyon before continuing on to SLC and Yellowstone.

I am now considering two options:

1. We reduce our stay in Moab from 3 days to 2 and add one day in Yellowstone (from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 days)

OR

2. We take out Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon from our itinerary to add one day in Yellowstone and two days to the California part of our itinerary. Why? Because of the temperatures expected in Utah and Arizona. The heat worries me more than the driving hours, yet we do not want to miss out on destinations which will be within reach.

Any thoughts?

Less Moab or leave out Capitol Reef and Bryce?

rather than miss canyonlands and bryce i would try to do most of what you have listed for days 14&15 in one day. it is only 110 beautiful miles from torrey to tropic.

grendel,

If you are still set on doing the whole itinerary in one trip - then skip the La Sal Mountains, as utahtea recommended. I only suggested that if you were going to break up your ambitious plans into 2 separate trips and still wanted to see some high elevation Rocky Mountains.

I would never recommend to anyone to skip the seeing the Teton Mountains! Yosemite is a one of a kind place, but so is Jackson Hole. Besides, it just right on the route anyway.

Also, on the drive from Torrey to Tropic, you may not be able to do the hike to Calf Creek Falls. It's 5 miles round trip and mostly in the sand with very little shade. It's not something I would recommend for the middle of the day in August. Plus, the small campground there and the even smaller parking lot will probably be full by the time you get there.

Good luck!