Summer Grand Tour

[Pwillie]

We are leaving Friday on a tour of NM, OR, WA, WY with a 2 day stop in Denver CO before heading back home to Houston, TX. Route suggestions and attractions would be greatly appreciated. I got overwhelmed reading all these wonderful posts and am short on time. Originally we were support to start in CO and have had to change directions at the last minute due to a family emergency. Thank you so much for any and all input received.

Paula

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

With thousands of alternative routes and attractions your info is a little vague to start offering meaningful suggestions. We don't know if you have any destinations in these States which are huge, what your interests are or how long you have for the trip. If you could start with telling us the basics of your trip we can then offer some meaningful advice rather than just throwing out a random list of places. You will alos be passing through other great States to get between these points with lots of great options, Utah and Idaho as two examples.

[Pwillie]

Sorry it's been a bit crazy. We're starting out in Houston Texas traveling to Albuquerque New Mexico. From there to Springfield Oregon and Bend Oregon to Blue Mountains, Washington, Yellowstone in Wyoming. Our final leg home will take us through Denver, Colorado (his sister is having surgery on the 10th). It's a lot to cover so we want to hit the best sites! This vacation was supposed to happen later in the summer.

We have decided on a couple of sites thanks to your attractions option on mapping like the Billy the Kidd Museum and maybe the Blue Hole. But we would like to see some of the reservations if they're ane along our path.

Thank you so much for your input.
Paula

[Southwest Dave]

From home it will take a day and a half [or so] of driving where depending on which route you took, you could spend the night in Lubbock or possibly Amarillo. Albu to Springfield is a minimum 2.5 day drive but you don't say how long you are planning for this leg. If you take US550/CR5500/US64/491/191 you could stop the night in Moab, home to neaby Arches and Canyonlands NP. [If you have more time you will be close to Mesa Verde NP] Moab to Twin Falls ID is around 450 miles and would give you time to see the Snake river canyon and Perrine Bridge and again time permitting, nearby is Shoshone Fall aka The Niagara of the west. Twin Falls to Bend is a comfortable day on the road, but have you considered time to visit Crater Lake ?

East of Portland is the lovely Columbia River Gorge as you make your way to Olympic NP. You should then allow an overnight stop to get to Yellowstone, Coeur d' Alene being a nice place to break the journey. We usually recommend at least 3 to 4 days to spend in Yellowstone and it's neighbouring park, the Grand Tetons. If you spent your last night in the area in Jackson WY you could make it to Denver in a day, although you could take a detour to RMNP.

Woah ! Do you mean that you need to be in Denver for the 10th ? If this is the case you are biting off way more than you can chew in my opinion! You have 7 to 8 days of solid driving and you really need 3 days in Yellowstone leaving you only 3 or 4 days for extra sight seeing. Thats a heck of an imbalance between time in and out of the car and I would seriously reconsider going all the way to Oregon and Washington with so little time. Why not take a more relaxed approach to Yellowstone and take in a lot more sights that you won't have to enjoy through the windscreen.

[howard]

We have decided on a couple of sites thanks to your attractions option on mapping like the Billy the Kidd Museum and maybe the Blue Hole. But we would like to see some of the reservations if they're any along our path.

If you click on the thumbnail below you'll see a map showing the reservations in the vicinity of the Four Corners – where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah all meet.



I’m not sure what your intended route from Albuquerque to Oregon is, but if you were to head west from Albuquerque you could stop by Acoma Pueblo, then continue on to Gallup.

From Gallup, US Hwy. 491 goes straight north all the way to Shiprock, NM and Cortez, CO. Another possible route would be to head from Gallup over to Window Rock, AZ, then go north on US Hwy. 191, which would take you to Canyon de Chelly National Monument and up into Utah.

Or, if you were thinking of a route that takes you somewhere farther west, like Las Vegas or into California, you would just keep going west on I-40 from Gallup.

Anyway, those are just some ideas. Southwest Dave has offered you some great suggestions as well. I must that say I agree with Dave that it seems like you’re trying to cover a lot of miles in a fairly short time, and it might be a good idea to scale things back a little.

Enjoy your trip!

[Pwillie]

Thank you so very much for all your input and suggestions. This is a relaxed roadtrip with no definite parameters except we have to be in Colorado on the 9th/10th.... I've already learned of places I'm not familiar with thanjs c to th I should thread....