planing the great trip west

[maggie cooke]

hi everyone thanks in advance planning a trip from toronto to grand canyon and back , stops along the way would be denver las vegas wondering if spring or fall is best not sure of route have max of 30 days due to $. would like to go to the national parks grand canyon painted deserthelp please

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

My personal preference would be to go in fall, as you'd have more options for places to go. In spring, there will still be some areas, especially in mountainous areas, that are still in full winter mode and may not be accessable. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is one of those areas that could be closed if you went in the early spring (or late fall).

You could make the trip to the Grand Canyon and back in 2 weeks, so if you've got a full month, you've got a ton of time to explore other areas and parks. You really could go anywhere in the west. There are dozens of national parks just in the 4 corners area, but you could also consider California or areas farther north, like Yellowstone.

So having said that what kind of "help" are you looking for?

[maggie cooke]

just places that you would not want to miss not camping just hotel would like to see yellowstone this is probably once in a lifetime so want to most things

[maggie cooke]

thank you micheal

[glc]

Parks such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are great places to visit in mid-late September and early October. Most of the summer crowds are gone and it's before they start getting snowed in.

[Southwest Dave]

I'm another who loves to travel in the Fall, it's a wonderful time !! You won't want to leave it too late to travel though and I would recommend you head towards Yellowstone first, if you are to go there. In the Grand canyon area there are many great National Parks like Zion, Bryce canyon, Capital Reef, Arches and Canyonlands in Southern Utah, Mesa Verde, Black canyon and Rocky mountain NP in Colorado, they are just a few possibilities between Denver and Vegas, not to mention Monument Valley, Colorado National Monument, Currecanti Rec area and so on. I would open a good map and search the forums for more info and as you start to get dots on the map and a picture starts to form, then we can help to fill in the blanks.

Take a look at the RTA Maps in the tool bar above where you can create routes and find attractions. You might find the nps pages helpful to locate parks and get all the info on them you could wish for, here.

Enjoy the planning, it's part of the fun !!