trip west
 

My wife and three boys (10, 13, 15) are traveling to the Mt. Rushmore area for a family reunion in mid July. We're trying to plan something for a couple of weeks before that in California, Utah. Any ideas of where to spend some time? the boys love just about anything physical or anything interesting. Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks

Where are you starting from? I would try for either Yosemite or one or two of the southern Utah National Parks.
Do you want to do one loop car rental or fly or take a train in between?

Have they been to Grand Teton and Yellowstone yet? That is not too far from Rushmore and one of my favorite National Parks. Look for lodging in the parks and they will probably tell you they are all booked, but call and keep calling and in the mean time make a cancellable reservation in West Yellowstone or Cody for some of the Yellowstone time and Jackson/Jackson Hole for Teton.

If they have done them up then my next suggestion would be some of the Utah parks. Zion, Arches and Canyonlands will be very hot during the mid day, but if you scheduled hiking etc for early and late in the day and stayed at a place with a pool to relax in in the middle that might work. Bryce and North rim are at higher elevation so might be more comfortable.

Another idea would be to go to Dinosaur NP, which will probably also be cooler.

Great advice from emalloy. Utah would be a blast and your boys would love it, but mid-July will be blistering hot.

Yellowstone is awesome - the thermal features and abundant wildlife are incredible. It will be crowded but most national parks will be at that time.

Would you be flying or driving to Mt Rushmore after your time elsewhere?

Yeah, ideally we'd know from where your trip is originating, and how you will travel from place to place.

Taking what clues I can from the "Trip West" part, and projecting the scorching temperatures quite possible for July in South Dakota, I would suggest the possible contrasts of Northern California for the other leg of your trip.

It is 1400 miles from San Fran to Rapid City, and an optimum trip would see you zig-zagging all over California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming on the way.

Crater Lake and the Oregon coast could be a target as are San Fran, Sacramento, and the Nor Cal coast (perhaps Mt. Shasta, and <b>poss</b>ibly Reno).

Surely somebody in the group would delight in a baseball game hosted by the Giants or the A's?

Definitely Salt Lake City, and Definitely Yellowstone, and with all that the options are endless in terms of entertaining 3 sons.

Our trip is originating from the St. Louis area and we will be driving.

thank you all for your replies. They've definitely gotten the conversation started in our home.

Now that we know where you are starting from and driving your own vehicle, we can be more helpful.
I'll give it a shot. Day 1 St. Louis to Colby KS-9hours. Day 2 Colby KS to Moab Utah-9 hours. Day 3-4 see Arches and parts of Canyonlands National Parks. Extend the trip to California if you want to. Otherwise, head from Moab to West Yellowtone MT-9 hours via Salt Lake City. Spend several days in Yellowstone. Leaving Yellowstone go by way of Devil's Tower on the way to Rapid City SD. When you are ready to head for home, you should stay near Sioux City IA.

Utah's national parks will consume all your time.
Zion and Arches are the most popular.
Zion has many hikes while Arches is a driving tour.
Bryce is also a driving tour.
Moab is Mountain Bike Capitol of U.S.

A good utah guide book is suggested.
Suggest
http://www.amazon.com/Driving-Hiking...ce+arches+zion

or a much smaller book

http://www.amazon.com/Utah-Guide-Sta...ce+arches+zion

Kindle books can be read on PC/Macs with an app from Amazon.

May be too late to secure accomodations in the more popular spots

RVvagabond does not have a clue what he/she is talking about.

RVvagabone has traveled those parks for the past 20 years, so spirobulldog has a lot to learn.

Spiro - please pose the gps coordinates of the dinosaur tracks found in Kolob National Monument? Or the petroglyphs in Zion? Where is the petrified wood found in Zion?

RVvagabond wrote:

"Utah's national parks will consume all your time.
Zion and Arches are the most popular.
Zion has many hikes while Arches is a driving tour.
Bryce is also a driving tour.
Moab is Mountain Bike Capitol of U.S."

"Utah's national parks will consume all your time."
This could be so but there are some very worthy sights between

"Zion and Arches are the most popular."
Maybe, I'm not sure

"Zion has many hikes while Arches is a driving tour."
Zion does have many hikes but Arches has at least as many. With a driving tour through Arches you wouldn't get into Double Arch. You wouldn't see Delicate Arch closup at sunrise or sunset. You wouldn't see Landscape Arch. You wouldn't go on the Fiery Furnace hike (though this takes several hours it is really an easy family event). And more.

"Bryce is also a driving tour."
Even a short hike down into the hoodoss is a requirement to get a feel for the park. Navajo Loop going down and Queens Garden is the most popular. Without getting out of the car you will see nothing. For those with physical issues a stroll along the rim is the next best thing to a short hike down into the hoodoos.

"Moab is Mountain Bike Capitol of U.S."
So?
I spent 4 1/2 days in Moab. A couple hiking around in Arches, half day rafting, most of a day in Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point State Park and then one of the highlights - we hike around the bottom of Fisher Towers and saw some climber at the very top of The Corkscrew (Ancient Art). This is the spot where Katie Brown and Alex Honnold filmed the Citibank commercial that was airing a month or so ago and Xmas time a year back. Remember the view from the hellicopter?
And I didn't ride a bike or mountain bike the whole time I was there.

Interesting that I have no interest in dinosaur tracks, petroglyphs nor a petrified forest.

My interests are in wildlife and scenery.

I vote for spiro.

Vaga,

I don't consider Arches or Bryce to be a "driving tour"

Zion and Arches are not the most popular. That would be Zion and Bryce.
http://travel.utah.gov/research_and_...or_statistics/

I'm gonna take a stab at the specifics, too, using 'July 15' as the date for SD, and using 'July 1' as your departure date.

Firstly, in the interest of getting to the meat of the trip quickly, is there any prayer that the troops could stand 850 interstate miles (12 hours) to get to Denver on that first day?

Then I'd have you stay in Denver for two nights, assuming you could find something to entertain the boys with, in Denver, while affording some rest after the long first day.

Nearby Aspen, CO wouldn't be a terrible idea for a 3rd night, just to see the area. Beyond that you'll come to a fork in the road (er, <b>a fork in your decisions</b>), where you'd either go south and see some of Utah's parks (as argued about above) OR go to the north and spend a couple of nights in SLC (south is likely hotter, but maybe <I>it won't even matter beyond a certain temperature</I>).

The drive between SLC and Reno is hot, dry, and mostly boring no matter which path you take, but there again, if you expedite the process you can spend perhaps 3 night in the San Francisco area.

Nights:

1-Denver
2-Denver
3-Aspen
4-Salt Lake City
5-Salt Lake City
6-Carson City, NV ???

Didn't want to suggest going all the way from SLC to SF in one day, so Carson City would let you have just <b>8 hours of boring, hot road</b> that day, <b>and let you reach Sacramento (early the next day) in time for a little sightseeing (<I>"Old Sacramento"</I>) enroute to San Fran.</b>

7-San Fran
8-San Fran
9-San Fran

10- Eureka, CA (no, I didn't say "Yreka, CA", don't get confused) <b>(more ideally, though, something farther north, AFTER a drive on highway ONE</b> (in addition to some #101)<b>Crescent City, CA would be better to set you up for the next day</b>.

<I>Next day you visit Crater Lake, OR <b>(Eureka, CA to Bend, OR is perhaps too far [356 miles, 6.5 hours] IN ADDITION to wanting to see Crater Lake in one day</b></I>. (if you hit the ground running, you can do it!)

11- Bend, Oregon

(Bend to West Yellowstone, Montana, is 670 miles/11 hours on the road)

But it would set you up for

12- Yellowstone area
13- Yellowstone NP
14- Cody, Wyoming (??)

(then 390 miles/6 hours [of dull scenery] to Rapid City, SD, where you'd arrive on the 15th per <u>my</u> schedule <I>[as I don't know what yours is] )

Too funny..RVvagabond doesn't seem to like to get out of the RV and hasn't learned much about the parks. Bryce and Arches are driving tours???!...probably the worst way to approach those parks if you want to really appreciate them.

It would help to know how many miles you could envision your family driving. You mentioned California in your original post and that would be my advice if you have not been.

We have both lived in California. We have done Southern California as a family, and we are finally taking the kids to the Bay Area for a longer vacation. (Ages 17, 15, 12). There is such a variety it's more a question of what you want to leave out. I can give you both my itinerary and some other things you could consider that we aren't doing.

But if you'd really rather drive less, I like NM's idea of Colorado. One place we did not get to in Colorado was Canon City, but they are well known for their rafting and zipline tours. I think those would be a blast for a family with three boys.