3 Week Denver-Moab-Idaho Falls-Yellowstone-Denver Loop : Advice Please?

[BlackrazorNZ]

Thanks all for the... forthright feedback, it's appreciated :) Especially around Yellowstone - looks like the average travel time my map planner gives me might not apply there!

Shopping itself to be fair is not a major concern, the better term would probably be 'quiet days' i.e. days without a whole lot of travel pre-planned so we can just chill out. But I think given the amount of ground we're trying to cover, you're probably right about weighting too much on those. Ideally, we'd also prefer not to be putting down huge miles in a day more often than necessary.

I'll do some more working and come back with Plan C :)

[Southwest Dave]

Shopping itself to be fair is not a major concern, the better term would probably be 'quiet days' i.e. days without a whole lot of travel pre-planned so we can just chill out.

To be honest there are no better places to enjoy quiet days than when in the midst of nature. I would much rather be 'chilling out' in the likes of Yellowstone than I would Idaho Falls or Denver. We appreciate we are all different but sometimes another perspective helps.

[BlackrazorNZ]

Holy moly guacamole - just started costing some of these stops up - $450-600 a night in Jackson for anything approaching a normal hotel room! Is it just that much of a resort town?

[Midwest Michael]

Yes, it's absolutely that much of a resort town. It's one of the premiere - i.e. most expensive - resort towns in the US.

I guess I haven't shopped it (I've camped on my visits to the area) but that still seems kind of high. What are the dates you're looking at? If this is Labor Day weekend (first weekend in Sept), then I'd expect the prices to be even higher than normal.

[BlackrazorNZ]

Ah... that's it... the date I had in the schedule was the Friday night of the first weekend in September.

In any case - thanks everyone for all the thoughts - in the end, I cheated - my wife and I have decided that the 3 week pace was going to be too rushed, so we're going to save up extra and make it a 4 week trip.

Once we add in the additional week, it's much less hectic - get to spend 4 full days travelling through Yellowstone, can fit Vernal/Dinosaur into it comfortably, and take US50 from Colorado to Grand Junction via Salida - and still have plenty of rest time.

I'll post some pics once we're actually on the trip :)

[Southwest Dave]

just started costing some of these stops up - $450-600 a night in Jackson

You do pay a premium for Hotels near Yosemite at the best of times and I think I mentioned earlier about rooms and cabins within the park that suddenly don't seem too bad value. The cabins (or lodge) at Canyon village meant we could have a full day off from driving as there was a path leading directly to the rim of the Grand canyon of the Yellowstone.

I'll post some pics once we're actually on the trip :)

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Your going to have a lot of fun but if you have any more questions in the meantime, don't hesitate to ask.