Trip from San Francisco to LA with Las Vegas and the canyons (once more)

[jfj]

Hi all,

my wife and I will be doing a roadtrip in September. We arrive at the 7th of September in San Francisco and have a flight back from LA at the 29th of September.

After doing a lot of reading (in this great forum and countless travel guides :) ) we are still not entirely shure about our route and would appreciate any suggestions on our (preliminary) route. We wanted to try and stay a few days in certain places (like cedar city) and visit sites in the area.

Day 1 San Francisco (Arrival)
Day 2 San Francisco
Day 3 San Francisco
Day 4 San Francisco to Monterey
Day 5 Monterey
Day 6 Monterey to Santa Barbara
Day 7 Santa Barbara
Day 8 From Santa Barbara to Las Vegas
Day 9 Las Vegas (Visiting Death Valley)
Day 10 Las Vegas
Day 11 From Las Vegas to Cedar City
Day 12 Cedar City (Zion)
Day 13 Cedar City (Bryce)
Day 15 Cedar City (Zion or Bryce)
Day 16 From Cedar City to Flagstaff
Day 17 Flagstaff (Grand Canyon)
Day 18 Flagstaff (Page)
Day 19 From Flagstaff to Palm Springs
Day 20 Palm Springs (Joshua Tree Park and Desert)
Day 21 Palm Springs to LA
Day 22 LA
Day 23 LA
Day 24 Departure LA

Thanks really a lot for any help!
Greetings from Austria!

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

You have obviously been doing your homework and have come up with a nice trip. A couple of things I would consider doing differently would be firstly not to use Cedar City as a base for Zion and Bryce. This would add considerable 'back and forth' driving time, time that you could be enjoying in the park. For example you would spend around 4 hours of the day driving to Bryce and back and over 2 hours to Zion and back. For Zion NP I would recommend the wonderful little town of Springdale UT which is on the doorstep of the park from where you can catch the free shuttle bus into the canyon area. I would recommend a couple of nights there before moving on to Bryce canyon where you have the likes of 'Rubys Inn' for lodging right by the entrance, or in Tropic where there may be cheaper options.

You will be driving through Page on route from Bryce to Grand canyon south rim so I don't see the point in driving all the way back there from Flagstaff. If you want to spend time around Page [Lake Powell/Antelope canyon/Glen canyon dam ] then you may as well do it on the way down. Near to the east entrance to the south rim is Cameron Trading post which is also a lodging option closer to the GC and might make for a better choice on route to GC.

The one place that stands out to me by it's absence, is Yosemite NP. I would consider heading down the coast as far as the Cambria area and then heading to Yosemite and on to Vegas via the Tioga pass and Death valley. That's a personal choice but thought it worth a mention for you to consider.

[jfj]

Hi!

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome and the helpful suggestions. It would indeed be nice to include Yosemite, so we tried to adapt our route a bit. The one thing we are not entirely sure about: Would you recommend to stay at Grand Canyon for two days, or is it better to stay there just for one whole day and extend the stay somewhere (most likely yosemite) for one day?

07.09.2012 San Francisco
08.09.2012 San Francisco
09.09.2012 San Francisco
10.09.2012 SF to Monterey (via Muir Woods, Berkeley)
11.09.2012 Monterey
12.09.2012 Monterey
13.09.2012 Monterey to Cambria
14.09.2012 Cambria to Yosemite
15.09.2012 Yosemite
16.09.2012 Yosemite via DeathValley to Las Vegas
17.09.2012 Las Vegas
18.09.2012 Las Vegas to Springdale (Zion)
19.09.2012 Springdale (Zion)
20.09.2012 Springdale to Tropic UT (Bryce)
21.09.2012 Tropic UT (Bryce)
22.09.2012 Tropic UT via Page to Flagstaff
23.09.2012 Flagstaff (Grand Canyon)
24.09.2012 Flagstaff (Grand Canyon)
25.09.2012 Flagstaff to Palm Springs
26.09.2012 Palm Springs (Joshua Tree Park/Desert)
27.09.2012 Palm Springs to LA
28.09.2012 LA
29.09.2012 Departure LA


Best Regards,
Jürgen

[Southwest Dave]

Hey, that's looking pretty good !

I think it would be nice to have at least a day and a half at the GC, and that could give you an opportunity to make tracks from GC towards Palm Springs, instead of going back to Flagstaff. You could leave after lunch and stop in Kingman or Lake Havasu for example.

Another thing that I would consider is to have one day in Monterey and break the journey to Vegas with a night in the Bishop area. That would give you a little more time in Yosemite as well as a little time to explore Death valley on route to Vegas.

As well as the wonderful destination points you will come across many wonders along the road that you will want to stop and enjoy for a short time. The journey is half the fun !