Feb 2010 Road trip L.A. to ??

[crzzzr]

Great site everyone - very useful tips.

We're wanting to travel from L.A. the first week of Feb 2010 and looking for a road trip for about 8 days or so. Ultimately we want to end up in vancouver as we are headed there for the winter olympics.

Currently we have two options we are considering:

Trip 1: L.A. all the way to Vancouver via coast.

Trip 2: L.A. to Denver, then fly to Vancouver.
via Las Vegas, Antelope Canyon (Page), Bryce Canyon, Zion Park, Monument Valley, etc ...

Obviously with winter we would not want to do too much snow driving for delays, etc. We also don't want to spend the entire time in the car of course, but are looking to do something a little different as we have travelled the area several times before.

Any suggestions/comments?

[Mark Sedenquist]

Great site everyone - very useful tips.

Thanks and welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! February going up the coast could be beautiful -- in fact, the weather is usually much nicer (in terms of clear skies) in February than in the summer months (which for us would be in July and August) -- However, given the options, I would suggest you spend five days or so exploring northern Arizona & southern Utah -- here's a great route and then fly direct from Phoenix to Vancouver. It really doesn't make much sense to drive to Denver and then fly -- you could hit some serious winter weather in the Colorado Rockies and miss your connections to Vancouver.

Mark

[crzzzr]

Thanks for your comments/suggestions.

How would this trip go?

L.A.
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Page
Monument Valley
Moab
Vail
Denver

We would have say 8 or 9 days to do this with probably 2 nights in Vegas ... most people seem to say that I-70 will be generally fine except that you may need to allow for an extra day or so if a bad storm hits.

Is there much snow likely in the lower national parks at that time of year?

Is it the MOAB to DENVER segment that is the problem in winter?
If so, what about exchanging MOAB - DENVER for MOAB - SALT LAKE CITY?

Thanks for your help.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

There is simply no way to answer your questions regarding weather with any degree of usefulness. Remember that snow in the mountains in winter is a near certainty but when and where, exactly, it will hit can not be predicted even 5 days in advance let alone 5 months. Also note that all three of the cities you mention, Denver, Salt Lake City and Vancouver, have been awarded the Winter Olympics, so draw your own conclusions. I would think that you were on the right track when you noted that you may need to allow an extra day for possible bad weather. So make your plans on a basis other than the totally unpredictable weather, build in some margin for the inevitable, and plan on enjoying your trip.

AZBuck