North America Trip in 2013

You could find that having four car free days in SF to be counter productive. Many of these companies charge by the week or the month. Often the longer you rent, the cheaper it gets. Depending on which day you arrive, it could also be to your benefit to see what the rate is on different days and at different times of each of those days. Have you put all these alternatives into the search?

Michael is right... it could cost you more (in time and money) all this hopping on and off. Frankly, I still think that all round you could be a lot cheaper off (air fares and car rental), if you did a round trip from Denver. You have the time to head from Denver to Yellowstone, down to California, across to LV and the Grand Canyon, the four courner States and back to Denver.

With forty seven days you have more than the time to do it in a leisurely way.

Lifey

Thanks for the all the advice guys it is greatly appreciated.

I have done a check on car hire for the dates I have requested and stopping and starting the hire car is almost half price the hire company want for a full term and there is a $750 one way drop off fee!!

As the flights have already been booked (as this is part of our round the world trip) we have to finish in L.A to catch our flight to Peru.

Is the time I have given myself in each place enough to see the best of the best and enough time the national parks to all its glory!

Hi Ben. You sure have a great adventure to look forward too !

Theres nothing much wrong with your plans at all and they will work fine, but here are a few thoughts of how you might be able to tweak it a little.

Part 1

I'm not sure if you have any particular reason for going to Boulder on day 2,[or any day] but it would seem to make more sense to go there as part of your onward journey north, or perhaps after RMNP on the way back. You could then spend days 2 and 3 in the Colorado/Manitou Springs area and then make your way to Cheyenne or beyond. I would recommend a visit to the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs.

I'm not a fan of using one place as a base when it means out and back journeys like you have in Rapid City that will add miles to your journey. You have to remember that the US is huge and a fine example of this is where you are thinking of staying in Casper to break the journey up to Rapid City. If you are going to Hot Springs and Custer etc, to break the journey up via Casper you are adding an extra 140 miles to your journey. Going up to Rapid City and then back down to Rushmore and then back up to Rapid City will add time when you could do it all while in the Hot Springs/Custer area. Only small things but they can add up and give you less time out of the car exploring and taking in the natural wonders. If you went more direct you might have time to visit Badlands NP.

Coming back I personally would find another night [perhaps one less in Yellowstone] and rather than going back to Cheyenne I would head south to Rock Springs/Flaming Gorge Res and through Steamboat Springs and Grand Lake to RMNP via the spectacular Trail Ridge road, providing it's open. You need to check the status before travelling as it's the highest continous road in the US and winter can blow up there in the summer.

Part 2.

I think you are underestimating the time needed at the National parks of Grand canyon and Zion. I would take a day out of each of the Cities and have more time for the natural wonders. You won't have time to enjoy the GC while travelling from Flagstaff to Kanab and visiting Wupatki. You want at least a full day at the canyon and then to go from Kanab to Bryce to Zion in a day will not let you do justice to either of those two really. You could make it to Zion the same day but would really need to spend a full day there to enjoy it the following day and spend another night. Of course you could also build a detour to Monument valley into the equation. If you are tied down with your bookings in the City I would probably concentrate my time at the GC and leave Sunset Crater and Wupakti and add a day to Zion and spend one less in Yosemite for a better balance.

Beatty to Yosemite valley via Death valley would be a long day with sight seeing, you could either stop in Lee Vining or if spent a second night in Zion you could perhaps end your day at Furnce creek or Stovepipe Wells.

Hi Southwest Dave

Thanks for the info, that all seems like a more sensible idea! We can also re-visit the cities if needed. I have done a spreadsheet of my trip and was wondering if you could have a look at to see if it is achievable without being under too much presuure everyday to get to where we need to go!? I dont know how to upload it on this website so any suggestions would be brilliant

Thank you for your all your help

Ben

The link is - https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5a...HQyS0VCdjJIMlE

Please let me know what you think.

Your trip as a whole will work out OK, but trying to plan hour by hour rarely works. It's good to have the knowledge of whats there, but you might not get to see it all. That's not a bad thing it's just some places you will want to stay at longer and others for not as long. A good example is day 4 where you plan to drive over 200 miles and see 3 attractions, whereas a trip to Cave of the Winds and a tour that could easily make it lunchtime before you leave for the Falls and then a 65 mile journey to Royal Gorge where you need the best part of a day alone to make the journey and expense worth while. Another example is Desert view drive in GC, there are many viewpoints and you could spend most of the morning working your way to the village area, and then you have much more the other side to see going out to Hermits Rest via Shuttle bus.

You also appear to have mapping program times as a guide that do not allow for fuel and food stops, rest breaks or any delays such as congestion and construction. Build an extra 20% travel time into the equation for a little 'wiggle' room.

Other than that, and as previously mentioned a little rushed between Vegas and Beatty I'd say your good to go, nice job !

Although I prefer entering the south rim via the Watchtower, given your time restrictions I would recommend staying in Tusayan near the south entrance and go straight to the village area, up to Hermits rest and then exit along Desertview drive. Williams would possibly be a cheaper option of going that way but Tusayan is the nearest if you can find affordable lodgings. HANG ON !......... If you are camping during this trip why not stay at Mather campground right by the village in the National park ?

Hi Southwest Dave

Wow, that amazing thank you for the input. I will have a play around with the time between Beatty and Vegas as I tried to space it out as even as possible. Also will look at tweaking day 4!

Yes we will be having camping equipment so any tent campgrounds along the route to save us some money would be amazing. If you haver stayed at any you can recommend in the parks would be also very helpful. Bearing in mind I will be travelling with a woman who needs a shower almost everyday!! :-)

Ben

I have also re-tuned it again slightly to see if this is any better!

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5a...0VmYURlakFQR0U

Maybe not the cheapest but here are a few places I have been in an RV and have tent sites and most have facilities but I will leave you to check that out.

Garden of the Gods campground. A nice site that now I have thought about could make a good base to explore Garden of the Gods and Cave of the Winds in the same day and perhaps stay another night and visit Royal Gorge the following.

Rubys Inn is pretty cool and right by the entrance to Bryce canyon.

The National park campgrounds I have stayed at and would recommend [all good value] would be Moraine park [Facilities?] RMNP, Mather campground Grand canyon with showers [I think] The Watchman at Zion. It has flush toilets but not sure about showers. [ 20mins up the road is the Zion River resort which is lovely, though not cheap.] Yosemite has the choice of 3 'Pines' campgrounds in the valley, all in a lovely setting and I believe showers are available to campers at nearby Curry village. [FlushToilets on site?]

We travel out of the main season when it's quieter, but you can expect them to be busy in the main season.

You're looking pretty good ! If you wanted to spend a bit more time in and around Denver you should be able to visit Cave of the Winds on day 5 from Garden of the Gods. So day 4 would be Denver to Royal Gorge to Manitou Springs[?] and day 5, visit the 'Gods' and Wind cave perhaps. They are just along the road from each other and would save a bit of driving in and out of Denver.

Depending on how early you set out and how much time you spend at Badlands, you could consider shortening your journey to Yellowstone the next day by heading on to Spearfish or Sundance instead of staying in Rapid City again. It might be pushing it, but if you stopped over in Sundance and felt good in the morning, you could consider a detour to Devils Tower, but that's the sort of thing you can work out as you go.