Moving from Fort Worth to SF with dog

[bathompso]

Hi everyone!

Hoping for some advice and feedback on an upcoming road trip. My husband and I will be moving from Fort Worth to San Francisco this May. Fortunately, most of our possessions will be moved by professional movers separately, so we’ll be packing just what we need in our car. The biggest challenge is that we’ll also be traveling with our dachshund. We’ve driven long drives with her before, so not so worried about her behavior, but more the limitations of where she can visit and stay with us.

A few more details: we’re still hammering out specific dates and length of the trip, so we're open to your recommendations. We’re trying to turn this into a little vacation and would like to take a week to two weeks to make the trip. Between the dog and some health limitations, we probably won’t be able to spend a whole day hiking anywhere, but would like to experience some National Parks/National Forests. Finally, since we’ll soon be living in California, we know that we can save some other potential stops for future trips without the dog (Las Vegas, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, etc.), so we’re not trying to cram every possible stop into this trip. I also have every intention to drive highway 1 again, but we're looking forward to starting our life in California with a drive up the coast.

Below is the rough itinerary we’ve come up with. Any feedback you can share? Any places we need to add/drop or any stops we should add time to? I’d love to make this a full two week trip, but I need to convince my husband and make sure there are dog-friendly options along the way. Thank you in advance.

Day 1: Drive from Fort Worth to Carlsbad Caverns
Day 2: Board the dog at the Carlsbad Caverns day care and spend the morning in the caves; Drive to Santa Fe in the afternoon/evening (Do we need a full day here? Is there hiking the dog could enjoy nearby?)
Day 3: Explore Santa Fe; Hike at the National Forest
Day 4: Drive to Grand Canyon/Sedona
Day 5 and 6: Grand Canyon and Sedona (Thinking about staying in Sedona and driving up to the Grand Canyon for some hiking with the dog in the morning, since she’s only able to hike in the South Rim. Could potentially board her for the day if we really need to spend more time exploring the places dogs aren’t allowed, but again, we couldn't make it all day hiking. If we do that, I’m thinking about adding a day here and spending the second day in Sedona.)
Day 7 or later: This is where things get if-y. We’d love to spend a night in Death Valley to look at the stars, but are not sure it’s worth it to drive so far north, especially with the dog. Could try and make it back in the future. If we make this stop, Day 8 we’d stop at Sequoia National Forest and drive on to the coast. Day 9 drive Highway 1 to SF. If we skip Death Valley, I assume we’ll drive 40 into California on Day 6 and maybe stop at Mojave? Days 7/8 we’d head toward the coast and then on to SF via Highway 1, maybe still trying to detour to Sequoia.

Thanks in advance!

[howard]

Hi! and welcome to the forum.

Day 2: Board the dog at the Carlsbad Caverns day care and spend the morning in the caves; Drive to Santa Fe in the afternoon/evening (Do we need a full day here? Is there hiking the dog could enjoy nearby?

a. The drive from Carlsbad to Santa Fe will take about 5 hours, so I would try to get on the road early in the afternoon.

b. Two days would be even better :-) There’s plenty to do and see in Santa Fe.

c. There are hiking and mountain bike trails all over the area. You shouldn't have any problem finding a good spot.

Here are some websites that you might find helpful. Have a great trip!

Dale Ball Trail system

Trails Alliance of Santa Fe

Pet-friendly places in Santa Fe

Santa Fe National Forest

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

Not knowing how long you have makes it difficult to make meaningful suggestions as there is a huge difference between 7 and 14 days, 7 days to be precise. ;-)
I wouldn't use Sedona as a base to visit the Grand canyon, probably best one night there and another nearer the GC, Flagstaff or Tusayan perhaps. There is also the Cameron Trading post on US89 near the east entrance, which is the way I would recommend you enter the canyon. You could also consider a side trip to Monument Valley from there.

I think you might be under estimating distances and time such as Howard alluded to above at the start of your trip. The same thing with detouring to Sequoia and driving to the coast in the same day is not really possible, not when trying to actually enjoy the park, so you will need to plan on staying in, or near to the park. In the same fashion, if you were to join the coast around Morro Bay/ Cambria for the night, then you should plan on spending another night on route to SF to be able to enjoy it, Monterey for example.