Grand Canyon to Albuquerque

[jandujar]

Does anyone know how long it takes to drive from the Grand Canyon to Alburquerque? We plan on driving from San Diego to Williams, AZ (arriving around 5:00 pm); spending the night, then heading to the Canyon early a.m. I heard it was an hour in, and hour across and an hour out to Flagstaff. Allowing some time to see the Canyon, means 4 or 5 hours from the time we leave our hotel in the morning. How many more hours to Albuquerque? We have one driver. Can we make it, or should we plan to stop for the night maybe in Gallup, NM? Thanks for any help!

It depends on your route. The most direct route from South Rim Grand Canyon Village is a bit over 4 hours to Gallup, and an extra 2:00 to Albuquerque. This includes about 1:40 to get from GC to Flagstaff using US180 from Valle (jct SR64).

However, if you use the east rim drive for sight seeing, and take SR64 out to Cameron and US89, then down to Flagstaff on that road, (total about 90 miles), then you combine some of the return route WITH the sightseeing and save a little time.

By the way -- "one hour across" -- doesn't leave any time for stopping to gawk. A more reasonable schedule for a quick look would be 1.5 hours to get there from Williams, 2 or 3 hours for sightseeing to the Desert View (park exit), and 1.5 hours back to Flagstaff. THEN 5 hours to Albuquerque. So, total time to Albuquerque would make it about an 11 hour day. Bob

[jandujar]

Thanks! This is exactly what I needed to know!

I added a little more to the last post, FYI

[jandujar]

Thanks. Sounds like we should maybe plan to stop for the night in Gallup if it's going to take 11 hours to get to Albuquerque. I'm the only driver and the day before, I'll be driving to Williams from San Diego. Don't want to burn out on the first two days of our cross-country trip!

[imported_tom]

take your time in GC it is THE best in THE US no i am from AL

[Randy]

It really depends on if you want to stop at all
the sights on the way. Halfway between the Grand
Canyon and Williams is Flintstones Bedrock city,
a must see if you have kids. Be sure to visit the
Bedrock City Jail, but only if you have a good
ticker. Also, it's a tough thing to leave the Grand
Canyon after only a few hours. Highway 180 between
G.C. and Flagstaff is very senic. You'll travel
through the San Fransisco mountains and pass Humphrey's
Peak, the highest point in Arizona. There is also
the Meteor Crater between Flagstaff and Winslow that
is worth seeing once. If you have never visited The
Petrified Forest N.P., you might want to stay in
Holbrook then visit the Park in the early morning
hours when it looks the best. If you've never been
to Winslow, you'll want to stop and "stand on a corner"
there. In March of 2003, my son and I visited the G.C.
from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and then on to Bedrock,
saw a white Buffalo by Humphrey's Peak, visited the
Crater, drove through the Petrified Forest, and made
it to Gallup at around 7:30 p.m. The best way to figure
your route and time is to visit Mapquest or Rand McNally
on the net. Happy Travels.
Randy.