September road trip Yellowstone & Grand Canyon

[hansj]

Hi,
Me and a friend have 10-14 days in september and wanting to go to yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon and maybe death valley - Is this practical to do and actually get to see and experience stuff?
We are very active people and love nature and adventure activities.

We are looking at just hiring a car and then camping, do we need to have booked camp grounds or can we just arrive and get a spot on the day (not sure how bsy september is).

A few questions we have are
- should we start grand canyon and go up to yellowstone, or from yellowstone and work our way down?
- whats the best airport to fly into? (we are coming from London and wanting to keep the cost down)
- Is there other places along the way we should go to, (keeping in mind the length of time we have)
- also we have heard you can bungee jump from a helicopter into the grand canyon and are keen to do this but haven't been able to find any company that does it - do you know of any?
- we are wanting to do some white water rafting as well, and wandering the best place to do it.

If you have any other info that would help please let us know.

Thanks so much for reading this, i look forward to your thoughts.

[Mass Tim]

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

Given the finicky nature of weather in the mountains, it might be better to start at Yellowstone and work your way to the Grand Canyon. If your plan is for a one-way trip, your rental car costs will be higher since you will incur a one-way rental fee.

This time of year can still be busy, but not as much so as the peak summer travel times. If you have any doubts that you will be able to find a place to stay, then by all means make reservations. That said, you should be able to find open camping spots along your route in those campgrounds that are still open. Some can close quite early in the year because of weather concerns.

[Lifemagician]

Which city you choose to fly into, will depend on the cost of flights, and the cost of car rental, all of which can differ greatly from city to city, and even from different locations within a city. Why not look at Las Vegas, Denver and Salt Lake City.

In the case of SLC, you could make it a figure eight trip, avoiding the one way drop off fee. Probably from Denver as well, although Denver is just that bit further. You would do the northern part of the trip first, and then make your way to the south, calling in on Zion, Bryce, etc., on your way to the Grand Canyon, and finish in Vegas - from where Death Valley can be done as a day trip.

Lifey

[Southwest Dave]

Having "10 to 14 days" makes quite a difference to whats possible when you consider that potentially 3 or 4 of them could be spent driving plus the International flight times. Salt Lake City would be your best bet for flying into and you could avoid the one way drop off fees [and possible extra flight charges] by flying back out from there as well. It would 'only' add 250 miles as opposed to flying out of Vegas, with Phoenix being another possibility.

Even if you have 14 days, you can say goodbye to the best part of 3 of them spent in and out of airports, flying and adjusting your body clocks. For that reason I wonder if you would be better off to choose Yellowstone or the Grand canyon and create a trip around one or the other. From Vegas you could visit Zion, Bryce canyon, Antelope canyon and Monument valley with GC for example, or you could relax more and just enjoy time in Yellowstone and the Tetons, or add either Glacier NP, or a trip to Custer State park, Mt Rushmore and Wind cave NP etc.

I believe that all bungee jumping in and around the Grand canyon is done by private individuals/groups who bring their own gear in and out with them. I am not sure that even that is permitted in the NP area.