Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Bryce Canyon - Yosemite - Death Valley - Las Vegas

[chamstra]

I am currently trying to plan a trip for 11 days for me and my parents. I am having trouble deciding which national parks are worth visiting and which I may have to skip due to time restraints. Here is the list of place I would like to visit:
- Bryce Canyon NP
- Zion NP
- Grand Canyon NP (maybe north rim since we are going to Bryce Canyon)
- Yosemite NP
- Death Valley NP
- Kings Canyon/Sequoia NP
- Las Vegas (flying in and out of Las Vegas)
- Hoover Dam

I am open to other suggestions as well, but given the amount of time we have, I don't think we could visit all of the parks. What parks would you suggest we visit and what route would be best to take. I have been reviewing a lot of the posts out there and don't know if the 10 hours from bryce canyon to yosemite would be a good use of our time. Is there a better route we could take? Also would it help if we flew into San Fransisco and then out of Las Vegas so we don't have to make the trip from Yosemite to Bryce Canyon and can instead go Yosemite - Sequoia - Death Valley - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Bryce Canyon - Las Vegas.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

All of the places you've listed are great stops, but which ones you can do and fit into your available time really is going to depend upon what you want to see most and what sort of pace you want to go at. The reality is that you've listed 8 things you want to see, and you'll need a good couple full days of driving to get to everything so something will have to give if you want to spend more than a couple hours at any of these places.

One big question, when is this trip going to take place. The time of year could play a big roll in how you can do this trip.

Of all the places you did list, the first I'd likely drop is Sequoia, not because it isn't a great park (it really is one of my personal favorites) but since there is no direct route across the Sierras through the park it is the most difficult to work into your current plans. If you did the San Francisco start, for example, you could go from Yosemite to Death Valley via Tioga Pass (assuming this is a summer/fall trip), but if you went to Sequoia, you'd have to go all the way around via the Bakersfield area to get back to Death Valley and or Las Vegas.

Another option would be to simply skip California, and save that for another day (you might even be able to squeeze in Death Valley if you focus only on Utah/Arizona.)

And if you're going to eliminate something in Utah, then I'd say Bryce would be the one to go, again, mostly because it is the farthest away so from a time perspective it would be the biggest savings.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

You don't say at what time of year you are travelling and that could be a key factor with deciding where to go and by what route.

All the National parks are "worth it" and unique in there own way. Flying into San Fran and out of Vegas is a viable option but would possibly only save you a day of travel. Another major factor is how much time you are intending on staying in any one place.

With 11 days your itinerary could look like this, Day 1] Arrive Vegas, Day2] to Grand canyon via Hoover dam, Day 3] Grand canyon [South rim] and to Cameron or Page, Day 4] Bryce canyon, Day 5] Zion NP stay St George [?] Day 6] Towards Yosemite via Tonopah [Lee Vining and only if you are travelling when Tioga pass is open] Day 7] Yosemite Day 8] Yosemite and make headway towards Sequoia NP. Day 9] Towards Death valley. Day 10] Death valley and back towards Vegas.

It is just an example of many options and as you can see you will be on the move for much of your trip but if you wish to cut back you will have to make the tough choices.