Minneapolis to Zion National Park

[CitanXV]

My best friend and I are heading out to Zion National Park from Minneapolis in late May (We are 28 now but when we were 18 we took a 7000 mile road trip after graduating HS). It is the first road trip that just the two of us have taken since 2001. My wife came with us 2 years ago out to Moab….but road tripping and camping is not really her style. Plus I think she was freaked out by the 4 hour session of “6 Degrees of Separation” we played while going through Iowa and Nebraska!

We were going to try to shoot all the way out to Eastern Utah in one day but decided that we would just take our time and do the drive out there over 2 whole days. We both decided that since we are no longer in college and have had “real” jobs for a few years now we probably don’t have to go quite as cheap as we used to.

I can't wait to leave!

[Rollin']

Have you been to Bryce Canyon NP? Capital Reef NP? Goblin Valley State Park?
If not take Hwy. 24 and Hwy. 12 on the way to Zion and you can see all of them.
Highway 12 and 24 are two very scenic highways.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the R.T.A forums !

As Rollin' has pointed out there are many other great parks and places to visit. What sort of time frame do you have?

but decided that we would just take our time and do the drive out there over 2 whole days.

Over 2 days you will have to cover around 750 miles each day that will be over 13 hours a day travel. If you have the time why not slow up a little and enjoy some of the places on route.

Have a great trip.

[Midwest Michael]

I think you might want to add even another day (at least) getting out to Utah. Its possible to do 750 miles in back to back days, but it is very grueling, and doesn't leave any time at all for stopping or seeing things along the way. As Dave mentioned, you'd be looking at 13 hours, at least, of on the road time for each of those days. I know when I was 18, that wouldn't have seemed like a big deal, but now that I'm about your age, I know I would rather take things a little easier and have some time to actually enjoy things. (Although, even at 18, I don't think I would have been foolish enough to try to make that trip in one day).

[CitanXV]

Cool, thanks for the advice!

We are going to be gone for 7 days total so depending on if we see what we want to see in Zion I had thought about taking a different route back. I will definitely check out those two highways. Goblin state park seemed very unique…..and it looked like the kind of place you could stop by for a hour or two to see.

We are probably going to haul out to Denver straight in one shot, did it two years ago and was fine. Then take the full next day and a half to get to Zion. We are leaving late afternoon on the first day and don’t have to be to the park to mid-day day 3.
I also was foolish enough to take a 53 hour 2500 mile driving trip with some buddies to Maine and Back via NYC when I was 21…….And I was the only one who drove stick so I had to drive the whole way! Mistake!