Road Trips 2024

[audreyh1]

What are the lodgings like, because I know at in some national parks like Yosemite, the few hotels are booked maybe up to a year in advance and a lot of places require driving like 20-30 miles at least away from the park.

The lodgings were fine although our “cabin” at the old Bright Angel lodge was a bit cramped. Still staying several nights on the south rim was fantastic. They have a shuttle system to take you to all the trailheads, lookouts and various other places. So once you are there you don’t need your car. We only used the car once to drive out to Desert View which was well worth it. The food was good too. We enjoyed breakfast at El Tovar and enjoyed dinners at the Arizona Steakhouse.

Another option is Williams AZ which has the Grand Canyon hotel and a daily train to the Grand Canyon south rim. Williams is much closer than Flagstaff and has other hotels too. I would still advise a night or two at the South Rim even if coming by train. I think the train arrives at 11 and leaves at 5. That’s a short visit. Also Tusayan has several hotels and it’s only 7 miles from the south rim. It might have a summer shuttle.

 

[Lsbcal]

We took a fly-drive trip to Las Vegas -> Moab, Utah -> Torrey -> Bryce Canyon. Along the way we saw 5 National Parks which we had previously seen over the years. Got very lucky and the weather was great. The longest stay was in Moab which is a nice little tourist town with good restaurants. Visited Arches National Park for several days and made liberal use of AllTrails (download trails before driving to park) to find our way about.

On one day the trail we took was not well known (Ring Arch) and we saw nobody the entire day. We found a wash with large shade trees and did watercolor sketches of a large rock formation while eating our lunch. Here are our almost completed sketches (DW on left ).

We also visited Canyonlands from the Moab location.

Then we drove to Torrey, Utah to see Capitol Reef. Here is a pic from the top of Chimney Rock hike. You can do a 3 mile loop hike and see some super scenery. Not many people on this hike either.

There is a small grassy park near the visitor center with nice picnic tables. The Gifford house sells very popular little pies. DW favors the cherry pie. This part of the park showcases the small Mormon farming community which was composed of 10 families with pretty basic living conditions. Interesting history.

From Torry we drove through the fantastic Grand Staircase Escalante area to Bryce Canyon. Just did rim walks to look down on the scene.

We finished the trip with a drive through Zion park's eastern section and back to Las Vegas.

 

[finnski1]

We took a fly-drive trip to Las Vegas -> Moab, Utah -> Torrey -> Bryce Canyon. Along the way we saw 5 National Parks which we had previously seen over the years. Got very lucky and the weather was great. The longest stay was in Moab which is a nice little tourist town with good restaurants. Visited Arches National Park for several days and made liberal use of AllTrails (download trails before driving to park) to find our way about.

On one day the trail we took was not well known (Ring Arch) and we saw nobody the entire day. We found a wash with large shade trees and did watercolor sketches of a large rock formation while eating our lunch. Here are our almost completed sketches (DW on left ).


View attachment 51180View attachment 51179

We also visited Canyonlands from the Moab location.

Then we drove to Torrey, Utah to see Capitol Reef. Here is a pic from the top of Chimney Rock hike. You can do a 3 mile loop hike and see some super scenery. Not many people on this hike either.
View attachment 51182
There is a small grassy park near the visitor center with nice picnic tables. The Gifford house sells very popular little pies. DW favors the cherry pie. This part of the park showcases the small Mormon farming community which was composed of 10 families with pretty basic living conditions. Interesting history.

From Torry we drove through the fantastic Grand Staircase Escalante area to Bryce Canyon. Just did rim walks to look down on the scene.
View attachment 51183

We finished the trip with a drive through Zion park's eastern section and back to Las Vegas.

Very nice. Was out there in 2022

 

[TheWizard]

We had two road trips in 2023, one in the old Mustang and a longer one in the F-150, 30 days and 6648 miles.

But this is 2024 and RT24 will start on Monday, 9/23, driving the new Mustang convertible to Yellowstone at the furthest extent, with five nights reserved there.

I'll be getting MLB games in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis on the way out and picking up the girlfriend at the Bozeman, MT airport.

Should be around four weeks total once again...

 

[simple girl]

But this is 2024 and RT24 will start on Monday, 9/23, driving the new Mustang convertible to Yellowstone at the furthest extent, with five nights reserved there.

Yellowstone is amazing, one of our all-time best trips. Enjoy!

 

[Ronstar]

DW has knee replacement therapy 3 times a week through early July, so I needed to plan a road trip between therapy sessions. So we're going to Manistee and Traverse City, Mi for the weekend