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Hi
Myself, brother and other halves are looking to do a 3 week road trip starting and ending from Las Vegas in mid august 2014, would like to take in best of Middle western America, places like Grand Canyon, Denver , Cody, Cheyenne, Yellowstone , Salt Lake City and anywhere else of interest. We are from the United Kingdom so not that familiar with the scale of the area. We would appreciate any guidance on a a workable route.
Thanks
Dave Turner
Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !
You're right, the huge scale of the US can be deceiving when it comes to trip planning. Three weeks is a nice amount of time and you can certainly complete a loop as you describe in the time you have, but as you continue to research you will find a thousand and one options within a smaller circle and realise that 4 days in Yellowstone alone is barely enough, it's huge !
Much will come down to what pace you are all happy to travel at and whether you prefer to be more relaxed and spend quality time in a few places, or if you prefer to keep on the move and see less of a lot more. You will find lots of info searching the forums and the road trip planning links in the tool bars above, including the map centre where you can create routes or simply search for attractions in the areas you are interested in. Our recent trip from Vegas to Yellowstone didn't include Denver or Rocky mountain NP, but it might give you a few ideas to consider and info on Yellowstone. You can find it here. The trip was enjoyable and perfectly doable although we were on the go the whole time, but that's just how we like it. You could i
Once you have a few more dots on the map and decided how many days you might want to spend in Yellowstone and other major attractions we can help fill in the blanks and answer any further questions. I would recommend you look further into Southern Utah where you will find the incredible National Parks of Capitol Reef, Bryce canyon and Zion NP, the North rim of the Grand canyon in AZ could also fit in amongst these. [not to mention Arches and Canyonlands but you can only do so much] If you didn't go as far north as we did to Glacier then cutting across to Denver and back through Utah to GC could work out nice.
Dave.
Dave is right that much will depend on the 'dots' you choose and the pace you choose to see them at, so it might help to roughly outline the trip you've already described and see where it gets you to and what that all might entail. I'll look at your loop in clockwise order, although you describe it in counter-(anti-)clockwise order and you can certainly do it either way.
Heading north from Las Vegas, and following US-89 more than I-15, you'd pass within visiting distance of Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park on your way to the Salt Lake area. From there, I'd recommend staying on US-89 all the way up to Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone. The section between Yellowstone and Denver is where you'll really get a feel for the 'wide open spaces' of the American West, and this is the section where a close examination of the different possible routes and smaller-scale attractions along them will be required to suit your own needs. Whichever route you choose, aim for Estes Park CO and Rocky Mountain National Park. If Cody WY is on your list for its namesake famous showman, note that his grave site and a small museum is in Golden CO just west of Denver. Next up would be the drive to the Four Corners area and while, again, there are multiple ways you can go, I'd suggest using US-285 to Poncha Springs and then taking US-50 through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and then US-550, the Million Dollar Highway, down to Durango . Next use US-160 west to Mesa Verde National Park, make a short detour north on US-163 to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and continue on to the Grand Canyon. Finish your loop on I-40 and US-93 over Hoover Dam and back into Las Vegas.
Again, those are just the highlights! All-in-all, that will take about 2500 miles of driving plus any side trips you decide to include. Eminently doable in three weeks, but you will have to apportion your time judiciously.
AZBuck
Hi Dave
Thanks for the tips, will start looking more closely at realistic dots on route and get a base plan together for you guys to look at.
Thanks again, dave t
Keep up the good work Bro. I'll relax and let your fingers do the work (planning)
Hi bassman welcome to RTA !
The perfect team perhaps ? Looks like Dave's the planner and you're happy to trust him. Perhaps it's in the name, My names Dave and I'm the planner in our family !
Dave.