Quote Originally Posted by KCmike View Post
I was hoping to drive about 12 hrs the first day and then about 8 the second day. Keeping in mind I get the advantage of the time difference as I head West.
The problem is that you are underestimating how far that will get you. As GLC mentioned, online mapping programs are just fantasy.

20 hours on the road will get you to roughly Cedar City, Utah - and that's a reasonable place to shoot for your second night. The problem is that Cedar City is still more than 400 miles away - or at least 7-8 hours from Anaheim, making it very difficult to get there in time for an early afternoon flight, especially when you'll also have SoCal traffic to fight through, potentially pushing up your travel times significantly.

If you can make it to Hayes the first night, then you'd be set up well to make it to Grand Junction, and then Vegas the second night. However, yes, any program that tells you that you can make it from Vegas to Anaheim in 4.25 hours is flat out lying to you. Making it in 5 would be typical, but I'd give yourself 6 to make sure you're at the airport on time.

As always, I trying to add more to my itinerary than I can bite off. Is the Grand Canyon worth two nights? I'm just worried that it might be I've seen it for half the day and won't want to drive back into the park from Tusayan the next day. Is Tusayan my best bet if I can't stay in the park?
Again, you're overestimating how far you can get in a day. Yes, you can get from Anaheim to GC in a day, but that's going to take up nearly the entire day (9-10 hours). You certainly won't be spending half the day at the canyon. If you get a place very near the Canyon, maybe you would be to take a quick look at the sunset, but anything you see would just be a small taste.

While you could easily spend all of the day at the Grand Canyon, considering all the miles you need to get back home, I would recommend you still cover some miles that day. At the very least, you'll need to head back down to Flagstaff - which will give you much cheaper rooms - to put you at the maximum distance you should be looking at for a 2 day drive to KC (1200+ miles via the Interstate). Getting to Winslow or Holbrook would make your drive home more pleasant, especially with kids. Amarillo is really the place you'll need to target for the overnight stop if you start out from Flagstaff or Winslow.