September 2015 Road Trip - Route Advice

[Robm11]

Hey all
I am planning a road trip around some national parks in west USA for 18 months time.
We have planned quite a fast trip but its how we travel. Everything on the trip we think is a must see we just wanted to know if this route is do-able at all? And if anyone had a better route to see everything we want to see?

1 Fly to Billings, pick up car - drive to Red Lodge
2 Beartooth Highway - Cody - Yellowstone - Lake Lodge
3 Yellowstone, see as much as we can today - Lake Lodge
4 Yellowstone (Old Faithful) - Tetons - stay in Jackson
5 Looooong drive to Moab, get up early and maybe have time to stretch our legs in Arches that evening. Which is the quickest route?
6 Jeep Tour seeing Shafer trail in Canyonlands, go to Dead Horse Point and back to Arches for sunset
7 Drive down to Monument Valley, do the 17 mile tour and spend the evening at the view
8 Up early to watch the sunrise, then drive across to Grand Canyon South Rim. Spend the day there at various view points
9 Sunrise at Grand Canyon, then scoot down to ride route 66 across to Oatman, possibly also stopping at Seligman. Then up over Hoover Dam to arrive in Vegas by night to see it all lit up.
10 Day looking around Las Vegas
11 Up early (if no hangover!) then drive across to Zion to spend the rest of the day there. Would it be possible to do Angels Landing in an afternoon? Night at Springdale
12 Drive from Zion, up to route 50 and across the "loneliest road in america". Something I have always wanted to do! Spend night in Virginia City
13 Drive down past Lake Tahoe, spend a few hours there, then drive across the Tioga Pass into Yosemite.
14 Full day in Yosemite, then drive over to San Francisco early evening (done this drive before, not scenic so just want to get it done late at night)
15 Full day in San Francisco
16 San Francisco - Fly home

[Robm11]

Thanks in advance for any replies!
Robert

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

This trip seems, on its surface, to be doable, but I will warn it is a very fast and tiring pace. 2.5 days really isn't a lot of time to see Yellowstone and the Tetons, and you don't really have a full day at any of your other National Park stops once you factor in the drive times.

If you are ok traveling at that kind of pace and don't really want to "dig in" to any of the places you'll be visiting, then you should be ok. I still might try to scale back a bit and include an open day, so you have at least a little flexibility if you decide there is something you want to explore more in depth, or if you just want a more relaxing day somewhere without a specific schedule to have to keep.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I think you have a great trip to look forward to and as you are aware it will be a 'fast trip' giving you an overview of each place then that's fine.

From Jackson you can head to Provo by way of I80 from Evanston and take I15 for a short way and then 191 through Price.

To go from Springdale to Virginia City via US50 is also a full day on the road but you could cut a bit out at the start and take UT56/NV319/ US93 to US50. You might just squeeze a little time to visit Cathedral Gorge SP on the way.

[Robm11]

Thanks! Yep fast pace but we want to see as much as possible, then can always come back to the places we like best :)

Southwest Dave - we were planning that route, but instead of Cathedral Gorge spending a little time in Great Basin NP. Decided against it though as would make the day too rushed even for us!

[Southwest Dave]

Yep that's what I was thinking, the Great Basin NP is a great place to visit but would be too time consuming with the distance you need to cover that day, both the caves and Wheeler peak drive take up quite a bit of time as well as just detouring into the park. There are great places throughout your trip that you won't have the time to visit this time around, but once you have completed this trip, I'm sure you will want to be back for more !