trip out west horses and rafting
 

we are bring our two exchange students out west in June.
will fly in from South Carolina, probably to Vegas or Phoenix.
#1#1#1 priority is to see the wild horses.
#2 take a moderate whitewater rafting trip
#3 rustic lodging with horseback riding available
but not a dude ranch experience (to expensive)
#4 some interesting easy hiking, think petrified forest, arches, something like that

Any Ideas??
THanks
Becky

This will get you started with where to see wild horses in Utah. http://www.nmautah.org/view.htm
There is rafting available in the Green River Utah area.
If you go there also check out Moab and Arches National Park and at least one more of "The Big 5".
If you fly into Las Vegas, be sure to see Hoover dam either going out or coming back.

How much time do you have for this trip?

Do you plan to use motel/hotel/ranches for the whole trip or are you also doing some camping? In any case it is a little late to get lodging in/near the parks, so decide on where to fly into and get that set.


I check the fares and rental car prices for Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Vegas, Phoenix and Denver when considering a trip to the area.

If you have three weeks or a month, you could visit Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands.

I know there is a place east of Moab on rt 128 that has horses, if you google lodging with horses near Moab it will probably pop up. You could visit Arches and Canyonlands from there.

There are outfitters in Bryce that do horseback rides in the canyon also. Grand Canyon has mule rides from both rims.

If you click my name and scroll down, you will find several TRs in the area that might give you some idea of where to visit.

Thanks for the replies.
We are thinking 7 to 10 dayseven 2
We are not considering camping,
Rustic cabin are as rough as I am willing to go. (Poor sleeper).although we are batting around the idea of renting a motor home.
So, with this info I'll go to the computer and map out a plan. THANK YOU!

Suggest using some of these books that are my standard library
You can buy all of them for about the price on night's motel room.



There are several books that truly address the Maze, Moab and other area that I use:

1. As above, but less detailed for Utah: Fodor's Utah: with Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Capitol Reef & Canyonlands National Parks (Travel Guide)
2. >>>>>Hiking (family): Wow Utah Canyon Country - <<<<<<<
3. Back road 4-wheel driving: Canyonland National Park Favorite Jeep Roads and Hiking Trails. White Rim Trail (road) is the premier scenic area in Island In The Sky. This book has an excellent description of that 110 mile road.
4. Touring guide focusing exclusively on Utah Parks for driving, hiking and Mountain Biking: Zion to Escalante, Utah and its companion Escalante to Moab. In Kindle and paper back format. This book gives a life-saving mile-by-mile driving guide.

vaga

I love this site. Thanks for the replies.
Hey RVvagabond, we are considering renting an RV.
I looked at CruiseAmerica and it look much cheaper to rent
out of Vegas (than Salt Lake).
What do you think if we rented an RV in Vegas and worked our way to
toward Canyonlands, seeing the wild horses in the Needles range and rafting somewhere in the Colorado river.
We really want to avoid crowds. we want these exchange students to see the vastness of the west.

Sorry for delay
Russians gave me a bad cold

I RV'd full time for four years.
IF money is not the major driver, I always favor RV.
No bed bugs and constant source of food at a cheap price.
Purchase a camping book like Woodalls or Good Sam that lists all campsite, with description and phone numbers. Google those names.

From LV is the cheapest.
Careful on length. Optimum for driving in parks is 28 feet.
But longer is more comfy.

I don't know what roads lead to a horse as RVs are not back country vehicles.

Needles: I'm going there (again) in May. Really not RV roads. It favors high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicles. Elephant Road is considered one of the worst in Utah. I've been up/down three time. Each is nasty.

Zion: You will be driving through a tunnel where an escort is required.

Fully read the contract - word for word. Inspect every inch for interior/exterior damage and have that recorded on the inspection sheet.
There is a price per mile after the free ones. Also emergency coverage. Check EVERY appliance before leaving. Insure that you have operator manuals.

Google: renting rv considerations

Vaga