Western Parks Road Trip

[Midwest Michael]

Your auto club should be able to provide you with maps, and it could also get you some discounts at places like motels.

Some national park campgrounds will have showers - sometimes pay showers - others won't, but rangers can usually direct you to places outside the park they are available. The National Parks website will have all of that information available for you. I find that state parks actually have showers more often than National Parks/Forests.

T-shirts won't be hard to find. Most parks have a visitors center or book store where they'll sell shirts and other souvenirs, and they're usually not priced too bad. Stores just outside the parks will frequently also sell stuff, that may be cheaper, but it can be of lower quality.

[Lifemagician]

Our auto club is a part of a group that have arrangements with AAA. What kind of benefits can we expect?

That is something your automobile club will be able to tell you.... exactly what their arrangement with AAA is.

All I know is that I regularly get maps and tourism information from the AAA with my membership from home. Be sure to take your membership with you. When I travel in the US and see a discount for AAA members, I always tell them that I am a member of a club which has a reciprocal arrangement with AAA. Sometimes I get the discount, and sometimes I am told they only take AAA. You never know, but it is worth asking.

Lifey

[Pujsek]

Now that the fourth one said yes, Yellowstone in back in the picture. Can you tell me the best way to get there from Zion and the best way from Arches? If we go that way, we'll go to Crater Lake after Yellowstone and then down to the coast in California.

[Lifemagician]

Did you have a good look on your maps..... to see which route would not have you backtracking? According to my atlas there are several scenic routes which could take you there, from either place.

Lifey

[Pujsek]

I tweaked our itinerary a bit and now we need to know the best route to get to Grand Teton from Capitol Reef. We have some backtracking in Utah and around Grand Canyon but nothing major.

[Southwest Dave]

You will notice when looking around the forums is that there is no single 'best', but there are options. First off, are you looking to do the trip to the Tetons in one day where 'best' might mean 'quickest', or with an overnight stop, 'Best' might mean 'scenic'. The other thing is where would you have travelled to Capitol Reef from, Zion or Arches direction ? US191 is a nice route and you could stop at Flaming gorge Res but if you are looking for quick, then I5 north would be an option.

[Pujsek]

We will probably take the scenic route and just make an overnight stop.


Do you thing there will be room at Natural Bridges campground (first come first serve) if we arrive there on Sunday 3rd July?

[Lifemagician]

It would be prudent to have accommodation for that busy and popular holiday weekend booked as soon as you can.

Lifey

[Pujsek]

I know. We'll make reservations for everything we can as soon as reservation windows open. The only problem is that campground at Natural Bridges is first come first serve.

On 4th July we'll be staying at a campground for which we can make a reservation (Devil's Garden campground - Arches) and on 5th of July we are planning on staying at Willow Flat campground (Canyonlands) which is also first come first serve.

[Midwest Michael]

I don't believe Natural Bridges takes reservations.

Sunday the 3rd could be tricky, because I'd suspect you'll have quite a few people who will be set up for a long weekend, staying through Monday. When I camped there, it wasn't a holiday weekend, and it filled up by late afternoon. There were only a couple of spots left when we arrived around 4 pm, if I recall. If you can arrive early, you'd probably be able to find something, but if you get there late, you could have a problem.

However, the nice thing about Natural Bridges is it is surrounded by BLM land, so if you're willing to rough it, you could easily find a place to park yourself for the night. There are also some other parks not too far away, like Goosenecks State Park.