Visiting Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion - help best time and how long
 

Looking to visit the south rim of Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion next spring or fall. When is the best time to visit and will 2 weeks be long enough? Any thoughts where to fly into and rent a car. Coming from PA. Would like it to be warmer weather not cold. Would May or Sept be better. This will be just my husband and myself. Any suggestions where to stay. Nice places but not super expensive. Looking for going for our 25 th wedding aniversary.
Thanks

<b>When is the best time to visit</b>

April - mid-May and October usually have ideal weather (maybe a chance of snow in early April). Will avoid most of the crowds too. May or Sept are good but warmer and usually with more crowds. Much earlier and you could run into snow at these high elevations, much later and you hit the summer rush.

<b>Any thoughts where to fly into and rent a car.</b>

Las Vegas is a popular starting point since you are including the Utah parks, probably Phoenix would be 2nd most popular but it's an 8 hour drive from Phoenix to Bryce (4 hours to south rim). Check cost of flights and rental cars from both cities and decide.

<b>will 2 weeks be long enough</b>

Probably too long for just those three parks, unless you are heavily into hiking. For many people a night at Bryce, two nights at Zion and maybe 2 nights at the GC is enough. Perhaps open up the trip a bit to include Moab (Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah) and maybe Navajo country (Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley) and Page, maybe another southern Utah park or two.

<b>Nice places but not super expensive</b>

Try for the lodgings inside the parks, especially at Bryce and Zion.

Lucky you! With 2 weeks you can do the entire Grand Circle.

http://www.us-parks.com/the-grand-circle.html

If it were me, I'd go in early/mis September.

Both times are great, If you go in September you could return in May and give us a report on which you liked better. You can get rainstorms in the afternoon either time but they are more likely in September and late May. You will have longer days and sleepier snakes in the spring. Do the Grand Circle and stay in the parks if you can.

Sounds like a great trip.

Just did this in a cross country trip in February....

I'm partial to flying in and out of Salt Lake. Spend that night in Park City or even Sundance (Robert Redford's resort, great eco friendly resort, amazing sunday brunch at the trees restaurant). Sundance is a little out of the way but special...hey you have two weeks.

Head to Moab next (5 hours from Park City), consider staying at the Gonzo Inn then eating bfast at the Moab diner for Green Chile Eggs. From there do the grand circle thing as mentioned above...avoiding Las Vegas as it is pretty out of the way and boring as all hell to get there. Unless you like glitz/gambling!!! If thats the case don't miss vegas and consider flying into SLC and out of Vegas.

Capitol Reef Ntl Park is cool, it is in the middle of nowhere, but the drive around Grand Staircase/Escelante is awe inspiring. Kind of like Pebble Beach in the desert SW. It will take a long time to get from Moab to Bryce if you do the Escelante drive...it is worth it though.

Stay at the Best Western (Ruby's) outside of Bryce Canyon (less expensive, tons of amenities, easy in/out) unless you have the $$$ to stay in the park lodge.

Zion is great, stay in the lodge in the park but head into Springdale (I think thats the name of the little art/hippy town). Great art galleries/restaurants/etc.

I can go on and on if you want more

We've been in the area at both times and both are excellent times to visit.

I agree that with two weeks you can expand the area you plan to visit. However, if you decide on the Spring, then Moab, Utah home to Arches and Canyonlands can get pretty crowded with 4 wheelers.

For the three parks you mentioned, I'd fly in and out of Las Vegas only because that's where you will probably find the best deal on air fares. It's also a good jumping off place and close to Zion if you decide to end there.

Utahtea

Thanks for all the info. Like the idea of extending to the other parks and flying into Salt lake. I welcome more info. for all the parks, lodging, hiking and food.

<b>if you decide on the Spring, then Moab, Utah home to Arches and Canyonlands can get pretty crowded with 4 wheelers.</b>

Good point! The week of the Jeep Jamboree is crazy, with hundreds of jeeps filling the roads in town as they head out each morning, and all the hotels filled. Avoid that week in Moab at all costs (unless you are a jeeper).

However the rest of the spring isn't too bad. Here's a link to the Moab calendar, in 2009 it looks like the Jamboree is April 4-12. http://www.discovermoab.com/calendar.htm

I was in Moab last year for the 3rd week of May.

The weather was great and there really weren't crowds.

You can see my pictures from Bryce Canyon 15-16 Apr 2008
That is convenient time to visit Utah.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuzan3/...7604747099176/
Incredible place!

LOVE the replies so far....
Looking for more information though....
We will be taking a trip in the spring (April). I have free flights to anywhere but Las Vegas seems the cheapest to fly into and leave out of when it comes to renting an RV or CamperVan….. We will have 2 kids with us (age 30 months and 16 months at time of trip).
We plan on driving and sight seeing the following places.
If anyone can give us information on where to park the RV or campervan (the cheapest places) or which routes are best that time of year (April).
Zion, canyonlands, Moab, Bryce, escelante route, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Denver, Colorado Springs and the Rockies…

FAMfromNY,

How long do you have for your trip because if you are making a round trip, you are looking at 2,400 miles to cover? That's just to much to cover in two weeks. Will your trip be early April or late April?

RV's are pretty expensive to rent and get 7 - 10 MPG. You will probably want to make sure they have enough front facing seat belts for the kids carseats.

For route I'd do it in this order, Sedona, South Rim of Grand Canyon (Note the North Rim will still be closed in April due to snow), Lake Powell (you will drive right by), Zion, Bryce, scenic Hwy 12 though Escalante and over Boulder Mountain to Torrey, Capitol Reef National Park (you will drive right by) then over to Canyonlands and Arches National Park both in Moab Area, when you leave Moab take scenic Hwy 128 up to Interstate 70 and drive into Denver. I think you will find most of the Rocky Mountain National Park still closed in April. I'd return I-70 and I-15 to Las Vegas.

We've only been camping in Zion in early April and the weather can range from very cold to nice. There could still be snow on the ground in Bryce. Capitol Reef might still be cold to mild. Moab area might be a little warmer. The cheapest places to camp will be in the national parks and they are my first choice too. In Moab, I'd try for the BLM campgrounds along the Colorado River either on the Potash Road 279 or Hwy 128.

Utahtea

our trip will be 1 month and will be most of april and a little bit of may. We're also looking into colorado springs and woodland park colorado. our mission from this trip is to find a location that we would like to move to. We want to make sure we visit before we buy a house anywhere. Thanks!! :)

With that much time I'd add in the North Rim of the Grand Canyon too. I think the North Rim is one of my favorite memories of AZ. It just "feels" like I expected NPs to feel like.

<b>With that much time I'd add in the North Rim of the Grand Canyon too. I think the North Rim is one of my favorite memories of AZ</b>

North rim is a great place, it feels much less commercialized than the south rim area, *but* note the facilities (lodge, restaurant, campground, gas station etc) are only open from roughly late May to mid-October due to snow, so plan the trip dates accordingly if you wish to include a stop there.

We're looking at a may '10 trip, probably traveling South from Bryce/Zion, to GCNP. Would you see the north rim, or the south? I've read that the views are quite different. Can you compare them? I don't THINK we're looking to go down into the canyon, so that's probably not a consideration. THX

To nimblefingrs,

I prefer the S. Rim because I think you a better feeling to how grand the canyon really is. I always like to recommend the S. Rim for first timers too. I think there's more to do at the S. Rim. On the other hand, the North rim is less crowded.

Where are you headed after the Grand Canyon?

Utahtea

I'm with utahtea...for a first visit, the south rim is better. You're viewing way more of the main canyon from the south rim. You can travel along the rim to different viewpoints over many miles.

The north rim is on a side canyon so you'll only see a tiny fraction of the canyon from there. All the viewpoints are clustered in a much smaller area compared to the south rim. Don't get me wrong, I actually prefer the north rim but only because I've visited the south rim many times before. For a newbie though, stepping up to the south rim for the first time will take your breath away with a vista that just isn't possible at the north rim.

UTea, The PLAN, at this pt, is to survey the west, hitting highlights. Next May, so there's lots of room 4 change. Start w/ Mt. Rushmore, hit Yellow stone, Bryce Canyon, Zion, GCNP, then AZ, perhaps Hoover Dam, then PHoenix, Tucson, Tombstone in 1 arc. Sound ambitious?

I think I see why Peter says to see the S rim 1st as a newbie. The awe-inspiring vista is what I want the kids to see. They're older now, and will be tougher to impress.

Is the area likely to b crowded in late May? We're thinking of trailer camping there, and may want to see sunset/rise, as well. That has been suggested. Any thot's?

nimblfingrs
We just did almost exactly the same arc you are thinking of. Took us 5000 miles, 15.5 days/15 nights from home in deep South Texas. We could not have done it camping--all the putting up/pulling down time and slower driving. We were really hauling with some long days to do what we did. You don't say how long you have.

You can look at my Trip Report--I can't remember exactly how to put in the link but it's under my name and called Just how many western National Parks CAN we see in 2 weeks?

Tex,
I'm hoping to do it in 15.5 days as well. We have 6 travellers, and 4 who could drive. We like road time, and the scenery should be outstanding. My son WANTS to hit Cedar Point OH, by CLV, as well as Chicago Cubs. It's his senior trip... then the rest.

OPEN question to anyone: I last pop-up camped in the 70's, so how long is set-up? We'd prolly rent one...

As I said, this is to be a survey, just hitting hi-lites. We won't be going on any Grand Canyon tours, much as I'd love to.
Since we're all adult size, I don't see us doing hotel rental, tohugh that's what we did for his siblings' trips. For his brother's, we surveyed CA, and hit all 5 MLB teams in CA...

Does it seem doable?

THX,
PB

P.S. We loved our time in TX: DFW, Hou/Galveston.,and the Alamo...