Hi --

First, cheers to a great site - I've found a wealth of information on roadtripping! This is my first roadtrip and the posts here have really helped me plan for my trip.

My companion and I are flying into (and out of) Vegas in September; we're renting a car (a convertible, yeah!) to drive the Grand Circle. We have 13 days and would like to see as much as possible (we've never been to the southwest)! Ideally, we'd like the trip to be mostly geared towards visiting national parks, a few local towns, and 3 or 4 nights of camping at different destinations.

I'm not sure if our trip is going to be in a clockwise or counterclockwise route, but so far our list of destinations include:

Vegas (to pick up the car)
Zion
Glen Canyon (Antelope Canyon)
Bryce Canyon
Grand Staircase
Capitol Reef (and scenic highway 12)
Canyonlands (Island in the Sky)
Canyonlands (Needles)
Arches
Durango?
Mesa Verde
Four Corners
Monument Valley Canyon de Chelly
Flagstaff/Sedona/Walnut Canyon? or Tuba City?
Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam (if there's time)

All in all it's about an 1800 mile trip, not counting random off-shoots.

The problem is I think I'm being overly optimistic about how much we'll be able to see in 13 days and since we've never seen any of the stops on our route I don't know what to cut out, if anything.

Any suggestions or helpful tips anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks and happy roadtripping!

Kelly