Which airport
 

I am planning a trip to the Moab area in early June. Although it appears that GJT is the closest airport, we will be flying from Las Vegas and are finding better and cheaper flights flying into and out of SLC. According to Mapquest, Salt Lake City is a little over a hundred miles further than GJT. I know nothing about the roads in that part of the country. What does this add to actual driving time? Is there someplace interesting where we can spend a night half way on the return? (We are thinking of adding Capitol Reef NP and that would add more driving time so it might be good to break that trip up.)

Thanks

I think you will do better flying into and out of Las Vegas.
Rental cars are a bit cheaper in LV. Make a loop seeing Bryce, Zion, Rt. 12, Capitol Reef, Moab (Arches & Canyonlands), Monument Valley, south Rim Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam on the way back to Las Vegas.

I wouldn't fly at all. It's about a 7-hour drive from Las Vegas to Moab. You're only going to save three hours by flying by the time you count airport time, and if you are going to more than one park, you'll save even less. If you don't mind the drive, just do it all by car. You're going to have to rent or extend a rental regardless, and it's almost always going to be cheaper to extend a rental, especially in Las Vegas, where car rentals tend to be cheap.

If you fly to Salt Lake City, it's still a 4-hour drive, so you really aren't saving any actual time at all by flying there. You would certainly save time if you flew to Grand Junction, however, but if it's cost-prohibitive, you don't have any other good choices.

Thanks for your replies. We have already visited Bryce and Zion (twice) and were only interested in Arches and Canyonlands for this time.

Unless you opt for GJT, do consider just driving from Vegas. If you go up 15 to 70 then down 191 it is only about 6 and a half hours drive. It will take more than that to get to the airport, check in through security, fly to SLC, get to the rental car and drive to Moab from there. It will be much less costly also.

There is a small airport in Moab also that will probably not show up on the sites, but you might check that as well as GJT.

There are flights into Moab now. They may fly from SLC to Moab. Check it out. It's 4 hours from SLC to Moab. Its about 4 hours from Torrey (just outside Cap Reef) to SLC. You could do a loop--drive from SLC to Moab. Then over to Cap Reef and then up to SLC. The only place I stop between Moab and SLC is Price. They have a good dinosaur museum there. Between SLC and Torrey there isn't much. Unless you drove from Cap Reef to Goblin Valley State Park and then drove the 4 or so hours up to SLC. But there basically isn't much between here and there.

I've flown into Moab a couple of times. I think 1 or 2 flights a day. There is 1 gate. It's pretty hilarious actually. If flights are on time, it can't be beat. The negative is, that if a flight is cancelled, then it is really hard to get another one. It will show up on expedia and sites like that(normally does for me anyway). GJT is a very nice scenic drive to Moab. Personally, Vegas or SLC is a long way off. Heck, Denver is about as close as Vegas.

DO NOT MISS Goblin Valley. Also right by Goblin Valley is probably the easiest/best slot canyon to do--Little Wildhorse Canyon. Not to be confused with Wildhorse(you want Little Wildhorse). Goblin Valley would be a nice stop from SLC to Moab. Or, it's not that far from Moab Airport to Goblin Valley. If you haven't don Capitol Reef, it is worth doing too.

I alway put a plug in for www.deserthighlights.com. This is canyoneering. Very safe, very cool, very addicting.

If you happen to be into Indian Petroglyphs/Pictographs, right near Goblin Valley is Horseshoe Canyon/Great Gallery. This is the canyon where Aaron Ralston was found. Blue John Canyon is a branch off of Horseshoe Canyon. He was actually trapped in BlueJohn, but walked out in Horseshoe. This is a detached section of Canyonlands. Very remote.

The drive beyond Bryce Canyon NP on Route 12 through Escalante, Boulder, Capitol Reef NP is incredible. I would highly recommend driving, although you need to stay in Escalante or somewhere on your way to Moab. Lots of interesting places to stop along the way, like Goblin Valley as spiro mentioned above.

It seems kind of silly to me to fly from LV to SLC in order to drive to Moab. Just drive from LV.

And I would recommend the first leg of that drive to go up hwy 12. If you haven't taken that yet then you absolutely need to. You can drive right past Bryce, or you can spend half a day reminding yourself why it is a national Park. Stay in Torrey overnight and see Capitol Reef.

Then the second leg head west on I-70 and enjoy that drive through the San Rafael Swell... really amazing.

If you really don't want to drive but don't mind layovers then consider flying into Moab itself: http://www.discovermoab.com/airline.htm