Month-long trip west with 3 kids

[Patty Barry]

I am planning a trip, about 30 days roundtrip, from Baltimore,MD to the western US. We will leave around April 12 or 13, 2005 and return in mid-May.
My children will be 12, 10, and 5. We love to tent camp. Seeing Nationa/State Parks is a priority.
I am planning on spending time in Utah: Zion, Bryce, Arches. Also, Colorado: Rocky Mountain Park, Sand Dunes.

(We have already done the Arizona thing: Grand Canyon, Sedona, Saguaro, etc), so don't want to redo that.
I don't want the driving to overwhelm us, although the kids are great travelers. Money is not too tight, but no need for luxurious accomodations. We homeschool, so any must-see for educational purposes would be great to hear about too.

Thanks!

You might want to add Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado, Canyonlands National Park, Dinosaur National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park in Utah.

You are going pretty early in the spring and it can get cold in some of these places for tent camping. Is it possible to move your dates a couple of weeks and be gone for the month of May or even into early June?

Utahtea

Thanks for the suggestions - I will be checking them out.

Due to my husband's work schedule, the dates are pretty inflexible. We don't need (or even necessarily want) to camp all the time. I realize that it will be too cold in some of the areas to tent camp - we are happy to hotel it.

Love to hear any more ideas!

[Robert Schaller]

With 30 days, I'd think you can increase the geographical area over what's been mentioned so far. Why not take a look at manifest destiny and the great westward migration? Places of historical interest could include the great explorations (Lewis and Clark, Smith, Pike, and others), mountain men (Bear Lake rendezvous, museums, etc), the Mormon experience during their migration to the Salt Lake Valley, the Oregon Trail, the California Gold Rush, mining in general, the Pony Express, the Indian experience on the Great Plains and the Indian wars, the experience of Army life in the West, the coming of the railroads and what the effects were, the era of the great cattle drives, the advent of irrigated farming and its effects on the Plains (then and now). There is simply no end to the stories and sites you could include with this kind of theme -- and those are the stories many of us believe forged the American soul, work ethic and psyche. If you want some suggestions for sites associated with any of these topics, or all of them, let me know and I'll assist however you wish. Bob