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Planning a one week trip this summer beginning in Farmington, NM and ending up in San Diego, CA. Want to see the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam for sure but would like advice on best things to see on this route without spending needless time driving. Would like to spend last 3 days in San Diego. Any advice?
Welcome to RTA!
Is this a one-way trip? It's about 900 miles from Farmington to San Diego including the stops, going the most direct routes. Some of them aren't interstate quality, but beautiful routes instead.
You could take US-64 west out of Farmington over to US 160 in AZ. Once in the Kayenta area, that's a gorgeous stretch of road all the way to US-89 south and then west on AZ 64 into the Grand Canyon. That's a good day's drive, then spend a day at the Canyon.
Out the south end of the GCNP on AZ-64, west on the 40 and then north on the 93 (divided highway) via Hoover Dam into Las Vegas -- another 5-6 hour drive plus time at the Dam, and into Las Vegas.
From Vegas, it's usually around 6 hours into San Diego, depending a lot on what day of the week it is and how bad the traffic is, especially through San Bernardino/Riverside Counties.
There's lots of things to see and do in San Diego in 3 days.
Donna in San Diego
Instead of taking 160 I would head a little north and take 163 through Monument Valley to US89. Between the GC and Hoover dam you could detour onto an old section of route 66 through Seligman to Kingman, it just gets you off Interstate and Seligman is a quirky old '66 town that's worth a wander for around for a short while.
To help a bit with Donna and Dave's suggestions, out of Farmington take US-64 west to Shiprock, then US-491 north to US-160 west to 4 Corners. Go stand in 4 states, then back to US-160 to US-191 north to US-163 through Monument Valley. 163 ends in Kayenta, then take US-160 to US-89 to AZ-64 into the Grand Canyon.
If you don't want to go to 4 Corners, you can take CO-41/UT-262/UT-163 to US-191 to US-163 into MV.