Chicago - LAX in August: I-80 vs I-40

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Any suggested route Denver - Tusayan? It should be, i guess, around 8 good hours of driving.

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Not from Denver it wouldn't be. I'm presuming you are referring from Grand junction to Grand canyon ? It will most likely be closer to 9 hours. From Durango it would be under 8 hours.

I would actually recommend heading to Cameron and the Cameron Trading post near to the east entrance of the park and drive in that way instead of going all the way to Tusayan. That way you follow the same path as the Colorado river into the main canyon area and do not start in the 'middle' of the south rim. This would also give you time to stop at Monument Valley for an hour or two and not have to double back from Tusayan towards the east entrance to visit the viewpoints along Desert view drive.

If you are spending the night in Durango I would take US 50 as described in post 2 [Monarch pass, Currecanti] and drive down US550 aka 'The Million dollar Highway', which is quite spectacular! It'll most likely add a couple of hours to the trip, but it's worth imo and you could stay in the either of the wonderful mountain towns of Ouray or Silverton.

Another option would be to take US285 to CO 112 [Del Norte] to US 160 over 'Wolf Creek Pass' and through the 'Hotsprings town' of Pagosa Springs.

My software says the *fastest* route from Denver to the GC is I-70/US-191/US-160 and in through Cameron. It's possible to do this in a day and a half with an overnight in Grand Junction.

No way to do this in 8 hours - it's almost 700 miles!

If you want to go via Durango or Pagosa Springs as Dave has suggested, you should take 2 full days.

I would suggest you leave Denver early in the morning and take US-285 to Poncha Springs, then US-50 to Montrose, then US-550 to Durango and spend the night.

Next day, take US-160 through Cortez and go through 4 Corners. Then take US-191 north to US-163 and go through Monument Valley. You won't have much time to really explore it, but just the drive through on 163 is worth it. At Kayenta, get back on 160 and take that to US-89 past the Cameron Trading Post, then take AZ-64 into the GC.

For planning purposes, you need to allow about 3.5 hours to get from MV to GC.

NOTE: If you take the fastest route, you can take US-163 through MV instead of staying on 191 all the way to 160. You could also take US-6/UT-128 through Castle Valley into Moab to get from I-70 to US-191.