Thanks for the tip on the float trip, brisgirl. I had seen one out of Jackson on the Snake river and had been toying with that idea. I didn't know there was an option in Page also. Thanks for passing that along.
I'm definitely interested in doing some swimming in the Firehole river in Yellowstone. I think the kids will get a kick out of that!
Thanks for your response to my original post. I have been lurking here every time we do a roadtrip but I decided to finally join.
Day one Fly to Salt Lake City from east coast arriving around lunch time and seeing the sights
Day two get up super early and drive down to Bryce Canyon and stay overnight
Day three Bryce Canyon am to stop at Grand staircase several hours and drive to Torrey
Day Four Drive through Capitol Reef am and then over to Mesa Verde NP and visit in late afternoon
Day Five Mesa Verde early Am then drive 2 hours through Canyonlands to Arches - visit Arches PM
Day Six Drive from Moab to Jackson staying two nights and experience Teton one of the main reasons for our trip - horseback riding, hiking and maybe float on snake river in the evening
Day Eight drive into Yellowstone for two nights and seeing Yellowstone, the other main reason for the trip
Day Nine drive back to SLC to fly out
Seven national parks in 9 days. Should be a great trip. I have will look into the alternate route to Jackson, I have no real specific driving plans for that yet. Just looked at Mapquest to get time ideas and routes.
Patchdog,
I would highly recommend the float trip in Page. Takes about four hours but it is the best four hours you will spend. Hope you look into it.
Thanks for all the tips so far. I'm still toying with the idea of adding in Mesa Verde and also the question of whether to break up the Moab to Jackson run with a stop over in Park City or elsewhere. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good place to stop and/or cheapish, clean lodging? We've booked a room in Jackson for July 4th and it's an expensive town, so if we could save a little $green on the night before that would be ideal.
thanks!
Your time in Arches will soon disappear whether you break up the run to Jackson or not, and personally speaking, I think you could easily spend a couple of full days there, especially when including Canyonlands. It's going to be getting on in the day by the time you arrive in Arches from GC with a side trip to Monument valley anyway, and next day you could spend all day in Arches and not see near all of it. Of course it's your decision to make and if Mesa Verde is high on your 'to do' list, it's certainly possible.
Good points all. I've seen Mesa Verde before and it was truly memorable for me, but that might be one to save for a Colorado trip. The spouse and kids have never seen it, though.
I'm not sure we're going to try to include Canyonlands, but maybe. My thought was it's another cool SW landscape feature, but we've already got a lot of those so if I was going to add something in I'd add in Mesa Verde for variety. Of course Canyonlands is right there, so that's a big advantage. If we decided to go to Canyonlands are there any particular can't miss short hikes or other features we should see?
The 'Islands in the sky' section is a nice drive to 'Grandview point' where you can take a short hike to the very end of the mesa for some great views. On the way there is a short hike to Mesa Arch with a view of the 'Washer woman' rock and the 'Shafer trail 'overlook is another quick stop. There is also 'Green river' overlook and 'Dead horse point State park' to consider.
A wonderful place !
Im curious as to why the airline said no to flying into one airport and out the other. I was hoping to use my southwest points to salt lake city and home to ct from Omaha.
Hello Iwats and welcome to RTA.
I doubt you will get your answer from the original poster as they haven'y been active on the forums since mid 2011. It's quite common for people to use different airports for arrival and departure, so I have no idea why, other than perhaps the airmiles they had didn't cover the extra cost. The best thing to do is check with your airline.