Community Forums

bgtrees · 08-11-2019, 10:36 PM

Lived in N Utah for 6 years. Had 6in o snow one Memorial Day week end, but the canyon areas are quite South. You will experience some typical early Spring weather as far as variable temps, but not to be concerned too much about moisture. That is high desert country. Just outside of Escalante is a Mormon Info center that has a nice film that tells about settling Boulder and the infamous Hole in The Rock or Hole in the wall. If you want to spend the day in your Jeep and traveling through the desert, you could be rewarded by seeing the Desert Bighorn Sheep as well as marveling at the strength of the early settlers of this area. Wear good climbing shoes and a length of strong rope will make the trip down the Hole in the Rock to take a dip in Lake Powell before climbing back to your Jeep. This is an all day trip, but a sure trip in area history.

Trees

MoBird · 08-12-2019, 11:03 AM

While you are in our beautiful SW don't miss spending a couple days at Goulding's Trading Post and Campground in Monument Valley.

It is on the Arizona/Utah border, south of Moab and we believe it is the prettiest of all of the parks you are planning to see. Many of John Ford's western movies were filmed there. They show free John Wayne movies, filmed in the area, at the visitor's center in the evening.

You can drive an extremely scenic 17 miles dirt road through the park in your own rig and/or hire a native Navajo (the park is on Navajo land) driver to take you further into the park for either a half-day or full day tour. Well worth the money.

Just north of Monument Valley is Gooseneck State Park and the Dugi cutout--both spectacular sites.

We have traveled all over Utah and Arizona, several times. Monument Valley tops our list of "must see and do"! We stayed in an RV park in Bluff, Utah for two days to see all the sites in that area and then went on into Monument Valley. After leaving Monument Valley we continued SW to Grand Canyon.

Nanci · 08-12-2019, 04:39 PM

Nice, full hook up easy in- easy out campsite close to the entrance to Meteor Crater. Sites rather close but good to get to the Crater.

bladerunner4 · 08-12-2019, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lass

Have been reading a lot of the travel info posts and will be using a some of the suggestions from forum members but still need some more details on things to do. I will also plan some down time at each location for some relaxation and just take the day off. Thinking of 5-6 weeks for these areas but can easily extend the dates.

In mid May 2020, we'll be spending 4 days at Trailer Village at the Grand Canyon an plan to do some of the day bus excursions inside the park. Not really sure about a lot of hiking but may do short trails. Any other suggestions for the Grand Canyon?

Next will be Zion River Resort for another 4-5 days and plan on doing some of the shorter trails just to see more of the park. Are there any trail roads where I can use the Jeep Rubicon? For site seeing, not off roading.

Bryce Canyon is where I need more help and can't decide how long to stay. Will be staying at Ruby's and would like to see the Grand Staircase. From Google maps, it looks like some dirt roads are available to visit Kodachrome for a day trip. Next, I'd like to head up on route 12 to Escalante and take BLM 200 and Spencer Flat Rd for another day trip. Is this worthwhile and doable?

We'll also do the Arches, Moab, Mesa Verde, Meteor Crater etc. on the way back home but haven't planned that far out.

Great info in some of the other posts. If you're in Moab visit Canyonlands, it is amazing and there is a fantastic off road trail. Also if you're staying in Trailer village ask for a spot in the new section. The old section euphemistically called the classic section and does no have a level spot in it. Be prepared to drive to showers and laundry. Also Monument Valley has a great trail you can drive, a jeep would be handy. The loop is about 19 miles and make a nice day trip depending on stops, hiking etc.

lass · 08-13-2019, 05:53 AM

Well, I thought that I had the trip planned out but with all of these great suggestions I’ll have to spend some more time with the maps to coordinate activities. I scheduled extra time at each location and should be able to incorporate some of these new ideas.

With 6 nights each at Trailer Village, Zion RV Resort, and Ruby’s, we should be good. Just trying to decide if we should do a couple of days in Escalante or go straight to the Arches/Moab. I also want to stop at Mesa Verde before heading back to Florida.

I like the idea of joining a Jeep tour so that I won’t be alone. Also, Can I request a specific site at Trailer Village or do they just assign one and that’s it?

Las

Nanci · 08-14-2019, 06:41 AM

I just have to throw in Page AZ too. We went to Antelope Slot canyon on the way from the Grand Canyon to Zion. It is still one of the highlights of our travels.

DWeak · 08-15-2019, 03:00 PM

I didn't take the time to read all of the posts so I will apologize up front if this is a repeat. IMHO 2 or 3 days is more than adequate at Bryce Canyon... a couple of hikes and the bus trip. We spent 6 days there and that was WAY too many. Also I would stay at Kodachrome instead of Ruby's. Maybe 5-6 nights there and do Bryce, Kodachrome, and close areas. I think they have a few sites with water & electricity. Try Torrey, UT, Wonderland RV Park... close to the highway but really nice park. You are close to Capitol Reef which is huge and better hikes than Bryce. Take hwy 12 from Bryce area. A couple of 8% grades but good hwy and great scenery. Enjoy you trip!

Edit: https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/ko...n/campgrounds/
Here is the link to Kodachrome State Park (the have 13 full hookup sites). Also at least one day hiking there.

mjd190 · 08-15-2019, 03:33 PM

I guess we all have our own ideas of how long to stay somewhere. We thought 5 nights at Ruby's was perfect, and the three nights at Grand Canyon was one night too many. I would add Page and antelope canyon rather than staying 5 nights at Grand Canyon. We (mostly me) like amenities like a swimming pool so Ruby's was great for us. We did drive to Kodachrome and hike, and we also did a hike further down the road. I can't remember the name of the canyon, but it was a tough drive in our car, but would be perfect with your jeep. The lower calf creeks fall was a lovely hike. Six miles, but mostly flat. If you have time Goblins state park is a fun day trip.

lass · 08-15-2019, 04:47 PM

Appreciate all the input but want to clarify the amount of time at each location. After doing a 6400 mile trip this summer, and being busy every day by driving, hiking, site seeing, I decided that I’ll just schedule some downtime at each location. I’ll be driving about 2000 miles just to get to the Grand Canyon so (we) decided that we’re not going to be in a big hurry this time.

I have read every post and will be adding many of the recommendations to my itinerary and if I need to double back to some locations, that’s OK.

Great recommendations, please keep them coming.

Im researching RV sites at Arches / Moab but haven’t decided how long to stay. A guy that I used to work with bought the KOA but after seeing rates at $100 a night, well that won’t happen.

wmiii · 08-18-2019, 08:14 PM

This has been interesting.
We'll be heading to Utah in Sept and I am trying to figure out an intenarary as far as times for the parks we want/need to visit.
With so many great locations, it very easy for me to get overwhelmed.

Wm

Diesel-Lover · 08-19-2019, 06:58 AM

Firstly: When you cross from CO to UT make sure you stop at this is the place national monument. Kid you not, when you see the vista the very same words will spill from you!

SLC is well a town to behold, laid out on a graph paper and numbered similarly with the Temple in the center and n,s,e,w streets then when ya get into the foothills you get avenues and names.

Lots to see, look at any guide.

Up north from city lots of ski resorts with yes summer stuff. So its desert beauty and bring lots of memory chip kodachrome in the days of old. Every where you turn its a pic to be captured. Bryce is my fav, picturesque and lots of easy trails some don't like the no dog woof but we rest ours, just take em out and about before and after the hike. If you have a compact nimble rig you can take it with ya to the trailhead and go for two hikes, one before lunch, and then one after lunch. Zion is right next door again lots of trails some not so easy but again wow. A week would be good between the two. Arches is a day or two depending on how much you like, Elephants, is a neat one, Monument Valley another and so on, kodachrome valley, painted desert on and on its personal as to how much time you want to spend. One trip we spent 2 weeks in Grand Canyon hiking the canyon and also the BLM around there. North Rim vs South Rim is agian a personal choice. If you can hike the canyon wow, take the raft trip super wow, the new platform with glass bottom (havent been there ourselves!).

If you have off-road vehicle this is your area, lots and lots of places to go on jeep trails, motorcycle, mountain bike etc. Including the Moab trails.

Just make sure you keep your whereabouts known to some people and check in with em religiously. Been thinking of spot go type thing for safety, too many lunatics out there some with dangerous weapons for easy killings and no national database in this era!

bladerunner4 · 08-20-2019, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lass

Appreciate all the input but want to clarify the amount of time at each location. After doing a 6400 mile trip this summer, and being busy every day by driving, hiking, site seeing, I decided that I’ll just schedule some downtime at each location. I’ll be driving about 2000 miles just to get to the Grand Canyon so (we) decided that we’re not going to be in a big hurry this time.

I have read every post and will be adding many of the recommendations to my itinerary and if I need to double back to some locations, that’s OK.

Great recommendations, please keep them coming.

Im researching RV sites at Arches / Moab but haven’t decided how long to stay. A guy that I used to work with bought the KOA but after seeing rates at $100 a night, well that won’t happen.

We completed a 5 week 7000 mile trip in July to the big 5 and a number of other attractions/locations while we were out there. Every day was either travel or at the parks/attractions. Just too much to pack into 5 weeks. We should have spent another 2 weeks and built in some down time to decompress. In Moab we stayed 4 nights at Spanish Trails RV park. $58 a night, it was one of the nicest parks we stayed in on our trip. Have fun.

wmiii · 08-25-2019, 08:23 PM

We are leaving Yellowstone later this week, hoping to spend a couple of days at Gros Ventre outside of Jackson.
Then take a few days down to Utah.

At this point, I'm thinking of a week or so in the SW area. Like maybe Cedar City (?) to visit the parks in that area.
Then another week in Moab for that area.

Does that make any sense ?

And recommendations of places to stay would be appreciated.

Thanks for your ideas

Wm Mayberry
2003 National Tradewinds 375LE
2011 Honda CRV

twogypsies · 08-25-2019, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmiii

At this point, I'm thinking of a week or so in the SW area. Like maybe Cedar City (?) to visit the parks in that area.
Then another week in Moab for that area.

Does that make any sense ?

Depends on what you want to explore from Cedar City and Moab.

If Zion, then stay in Zion itself at Watchman campground or just outside in Springdale where the free shuttle would pick you up.

Moab is good for Arches NP and Canyonlands but if you're thinking of others it would be too far.

If you want to do Bryce NP then move. Ruby's is good - just outside the park and again, the free shuttle will pick you up.

Capitol Reef NP deserves another move to that area.

It's best to stay in or near the national parks to make best use of your time. Driving a long way to spend a few hours in the park is tiresome. You probably wouldn't do it more than once and these parks deserve more time.