Wyoming, Utah, Colarodo

We do the smallest possible road from point a to point b.
We've opened more than a few farm/cattle gates to get through.


We don't often turn around. Have had to back out of a few places though....
 
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Hahaha. I am a godzilla driver, at least for now. I have been to some of the most popular parks many times. RV'ing for the last 3 years and I am going to these places in RV all over again. And I am yet to complete a few important ones.

The reason I posted this question is for the tips I gathered from you folks. For example I would not have found out about Mesa, Hopi villages, Goblin, Escalante, Black Canyon and the "why not just do the mighty 5 of Utah" kind of perspective. Certainly helps with planning and avoid missing these places. Please keep it going.

@ducksface - the blackish gravel road on this post (https://www.thorforums.com/forums/f28/how-we-rv-27696.html) is looking Jurassic. Google once led me into a gravel road like this but I turned back.
PS- 1) Moab is a nice town, but traffic is crazy!! Great retaurants tho!!

2) If you are brave... Shafer trail described by my brother 46 yrs ago in his VW beetle, as "Like driving down inside a Dixie cup"....
1st pic was last week- note large 6-pack truck on lower part (middle actually)..., 2nd pic is 1978. When we did then, there were a couple cars at the bottom that didn't make it... :)

Note boulder just downhill of truck- still there and can be seen in 1978 pic.

My wife said NO to doing in our Promaster RV.
 

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If you are brave... Shafer trail described by my brother 46 yrs ago in his VW beetle, as "Like driving down inside a Dixie cup"....

My wife said NO to doing in our Promaster RV.

We drove Potash Road into Shafer Trail from outside Canyon Lands all the way up to Islands in the Sky a few years ago in my Ram 3500 4x4 (not dually). There were a few spots where we had to be careful. We ran into a guy driving a Honda minivan (rental!) at Thelma and Louise Point overlooking the river. He asked how long before the road got better. I don't know if he made it out, at least with the van in one piece!
 
Different strokes for different folks but going to popular places has never been on our list of must sees. Back in the day we would move from base to base, with a stop at grandma's, and never get to see what was out there. We had to get from one AFB on one side of the country to another AFB on the other side. Then find a house, move in, enroll the kids in school, get 'settled' and then back to work on the line. We promised ourselves when we retired we would take our time and see the stuff we missed. We're doing that now. Safe travels.
 
We've been travelling since the very beginning when we were teenagers.
It will soon be 50 years.

When my peers would ask why we lived in the modest house near the corner of
Dark In The Daytime and Homeless Blvds,
or how we managed to go to Bora Bora;
I'd ask them what their mortgage was on their mcmansion, then tell them of my $181 mortgage vs their $3k to $8k mortgage.
Then tell them my modest house came with
A TRAVEL PLAN PACKAGE equal to their mortgage minus $181.

Some of you have some catching up to do.
We lived life early.
Please enjoy.

Think of what you'll have seen if you have 50 more years.
Then you'll understand those of us who have already seen it.:flowers:
 
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PS- 1) Moab is a nice town, but traffic is crazy!! Great retaurants tho!!

2) If you are brave... Shafer trail described by my brother 46 yrs ago in his VW beetle, as "Like driving down inside a Dixie cup"....
1st pic was last week- note large 6-pack truck on lower part (middle actually)..., 2nd pic is 1978. When we did then, there were a couple cars at the bottom that didn't make it... :)

Note boulder just downhill of truck- still there and can be seen in 1978 pic.

My wife said NO to doing in our Promaster RV.

When I was poor and gas was 90 cents, for thrill I would take my front wheel drive Nissan sedan and drive across Sierra Nevada mountain pass and Idaho mountain pass for winter driving experience across snow. I am somewhat old now and also have kids. Shafer trail sure is mouth watering, I will just enjoy it from afar if I get close to a vista point :)

Climbing down Bighorns (climbing up was a breeze), and the temporary road they had from Mammoth Hotsprings to Gardiner MT last year was the most I did in recent memory with my RV. I would press on the brake somewhat firmly and let the RV rolldown in 3rd gear but the fool's algorithm in Progressive Drive App decided I brake hard and bumped my insurance rate.
 
'You have arrived at your destination.'

As seen on every early Google map, Yet seldom actually seen.

(a 7ft tall 'art' installment at my place as seen from the road. It's due for a repaint)
 

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Much appreciate it Greybear, so kind of you. Hard to find people like you, if you happen to be in the Houston area my drive way is yours to use with 30 amp connection and water (give me a holler).

I have attached an all of Utah plan, still selling it to my kids and wife. I will draw up an all of Colorado plan and see what it looks like.
Well if you are going to plan two different vacation routs, do one this time and the other next time. First trip we flew to Florida, rented a car, went up to and through the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway, back down through most civil war parks, and then headed back west driving. We took out time. We went on three more driving across the country. One with our class C and two with our fifth wheel. Been in Colorado and loved the small old gold mining towns. We did the five parks and then some with Yellowstone as well. Did Yellowstone early in the year with few around and twelve feet of snow on the side of the road. Saw a lot of bison in Yellowstone at that time. If you want to see parks that many want to see and pack it, go when most will not.
 
Well if you are going to plan two different vacation routs, do one this time and the other next time. First trip we flew to Florida, rented a car, went up to and through the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway, back down through most civil war parks, and then headed back west driving. We took out time. We went on three more driving across the country. One with our class C and two with our fifth wheel. Been in Colorado and loved the small old gold mining towns. We did the five parks and then some with Yellowstone as well. Did Yellowstone early in the year with few around and twelve feet of snow on the side of the road. Saw a lot of bison in Yellowstone at that time. If you want to see parks that many want to see and pack it, go when most will not.

Thanks @mlp. That's what we are inclining to now. This video proves why speeding through these wonders is a bad idea (this guy in the YT video sure has great presentation skills that I dont have :))

 
Wyoming, Utah or Colorado

Garden of God is stunning and you can walk around and see everything. It is to beautiful for words.

1805 N 30th St, Colorado Springs, CO 80904

Put this on your stop!
 
Hike Bryce Canyon.

Folks, I had a 12 day trip planned from Houston to Rocky Mountain to Dinosaur National Monument to Yellowstone to Arches to Canyonlands to Carlsbad to Houston. I want to add 4 more days to the trip and I feel like I should spend that time in Utah or Colorado area. But I am all ears if you have other recommendations within WY, UT and CO.

If you had 4 extra days to spend in WY or UT or CO, where would you be? Splitting time between places is fine with me. I had scheduled only a day (and night) at Rocky Mountain and that's what made me think I should add days and spend more time.

I recommend Bryce Canyon. Hike through the colorful canyon and up on Angel’s Landing (I think it’s called) Also, think about Zion National Park.

In Carlsbad, go to White Sands National Monument. It’s amazing rolling Silica sand dunes. There are ten places to camp there.
 
Folks, I had a 12 day trip planned from Houston to Rocky Mountain to Dinosaur National Monument to Yellowstone to Arches to Canyonlands to Carlsbad to Houston. I want to add 4 more days to the trip and I feel like I should spend that time in Utah or Colorado area. But I am all ears if you have other recommendations within WY, UT and CO.

If you had 4 extra days to spend in WY or UT or CO, where would you be? Splitting time between places is fine with me. I had scheduled only a day (and night) at Rocky Mountain and that's what made me think I should add days and spend more time.

I've been to all of those - happy to help:

Canyonlands is a mini "Grand Canyon" - beautiful and a lot of hiking opportunities (if that is your interest) - I did a day there and barely scratched the surface, so 2 or 3 is probably the desired. It's only about 20 miles (from memory) from Arches, so you can basecamp somewhere and do both. Portal Resort in Moab would be a high-recommend from me, and it's like 3-4 miles from the Arches entrance.

Arches - mostly a car-tour. You can get off and hike, but they are mostly short walks to see the arches up closer. A lot of it is geologically and environmentally sensitive, so there is only so much you can do. 1 day is easy to see most of the sights, 2 days would be ideal but any more than that may get boring. They are awesome at first, like any interesting view, but sort of like looking at the bison at Custer Park in South Dakota - the first one is fantastic, but after #435 on the same road, you sort of start cruising by.

Dinosaur National Monument - it's a day trip as well. The Vernal area is "meh" - I would just stay in the park if you can. The dinosaur area is very "managed" and it is basically a rock wall inside of a museum type of building. The longer-items would be hiking or touring the park in vehicle. My wife and I liked the petroglyphs that look like aliens.

The drive out to Vernal can be a variable - lots of truck-based oil-shipping in that area, so probably add 20 or 30% to your assumed drive-time.

My recommendation would be to add the 4 days to see Zion (1 or 2 days) and Bryce Canyon (day trip from Zion base camp). My wife and I like WillowWind in Hurricane, UT for seeing Zion - you won't get anything near the park during high season if you haven't already reserved it, but WillowWind should be doable and it is a great location / great park. You can do a daytrip to Bryce from there if you have a runabout vehicle (we tow a pickup behind our motorhome - not sure what your situation is). Zion would not be friendly for arriving in a motorhome.

At Zion - as a trick - it is only viewable by the trams (free) - it's a hop on / hop-off road-train thing. The visitor center parking lot fills more or less instantly, but we always find (easy) parking about a ¼ mile from the Zion gate in a private parking lot behind a coffee shop that is on the main drag through Springdale - I think it's called "Canyon Coffee" or something like that and they rent the parking spots with a kiosk for $20 all day. You can walk in from there (easily).

Carlsbad - not really an opinion, I assume you mean the cave stuff. I have been through but haven't stopped, if it's like the Craters of the Moon in Idaho, it's a 1-day thing.

Colorado - from Moab it's a short drive to Colorado but I think it would be the Grand Junction area, Vail, etc. I guess the question is when are you going? I live in the mountain west, we are still getting rain (and some snow) (today).
 
If you can, try to work in Bryce Canyon in Utah. This is one of our favorite places and we've hit all 50 States. It's very easy to pick up Zion from there. We prefer these two to Arches and Canyonland
 
I've been to all of those - happy to help:

Canyonlands is a mini "Grand Canyon" - beautiful and a lot of hiking opportunities (if that is your interest) - I did a day there and barely scratched the surface, so 2 or 3 is probably the desired. It's only about 20 miles (from memory) from Arches, so you can basecamp somewhere and do both. Portal Resort in Moab would be a high-recommend from me, and it's like 3-4 miles from the Arches entrance.

Arches - mostly a car-tour. You can get off and hike, but they are mostly short walks to see the arches up closer. A lot of it is geologically and environmentally sensitive, so there is only so much you can do. 1 day is easy to see most of the sights, 2 days would be ideal but any more than that may get boring. They are awesome at first, like any interesting view, but sort of like looking at the bison at Custer Park in South Dakota - the first one is fantastic, but after #435 on the same road, you sort of start cruising by.

Dinosaur National Monument - it's a day trip as well. The Vernal area is "meh" - I would just stay in the park if you can. The dinosaur area is very "managed" and it is basically a rock wall inside of a museum type of building. The longer-items would be hiking or touring the park in vehicle. My wife and I liked the petroglyphs that look like aliens.

The drive out to Vernal can be a variable - lots of truck-based oil-shipping in that area, so probably add 20 or 30% to your assumed drive-time.

My recommendation would be to add the 4 days to see Zion (1 or 2 days) and Bryce Canyon (day trip from Zion base camp). My wife and I like WillowWind in Hurricane, UT for seeing Zion - you won't get anything near the park during high season if you haven't already reserved it, but WillowWind should be doable and it is a great location / great park. You can do a daytrip to Bryce from there if you have a runabout vehicle (we tow a pickup behind our motorhome - not sure what your situation is). Zion would not be friendly for arriving in a motorhome.

At Zion - as a trick - it is only viewable by the trams (free) - it's a hop on / hop-off road-train thing. The visitor center parking lot fills more or less instantly, but we always find (easy) parking about a ¼ mile from the Zion gate in a private parking lot behind a coffee shop that is on the main drag through Springdale - I think it's called "Canyon Coffee" or something like that and they rent the parking spots with a kiosk for $20 all day. You can walk in from there (easily).

Carlsbad - not really an opinion, I assume you mean the cave stuff. I have been through but haven't stopped, if it's like the Craters of the Moon in Idaho, it's a 1-day thing.

Colorado - from Moab it's a short drive to Colorado but I think it would be the Grand Junction area, Vail, etc. I guess the question is when are you going? I live in the mountain west, we are still getting rain (and some snow) (today).

Nordic, it is very very helpful. Much appreciate it. We have driven across Zion in our MH last year (Thanksgiving weekend I think, I dont know why everyone is saying only shuttle service is allowed, may be so during summer) but I only spent about 4 to 5 hours in Zion and did not really hike, especially the Narrows which I learned about only very recently, except for stopping at one place for lunch and hiking down to the river bed. Zion is on our list for the up coming trip because it is close to Bryce, and if it gets too crowded or if they put up the "shuttle only" sign we will do Zion on our next Las Vegas trip. I will call Zion (hopefully they pickup and answer) before I make plans, I was going to book RV sites near the east entrance.


We had been to the Horseshoe and the Antelope Canyon last year and that's when we drove across Zion and missed Bryce and Capitol Reef in favor of Antelope.

Been to Whitesands and Carlsbad as well. We are going to Carlsbad again only for my sister to see it.
 
Garden of God is stunning and you can walk around and see everything. It is to beautiful for words.

1805 N 30th St, Colorado Springs, CO 80904

Put this on your stop!

I convinced my wife and kids to fly to Denver so they dont suffer the boring 1000 mile drive. We will meet in Denver and continue our trip. If we do Durango, then we will drive to Durango via Colorado Springs, and will certainly keep GoG in mind. Durango puts a huge dent on our route and schedule, so still debating. But the train ride is something for my kids to experience.
 
Extra Dsys

Close to Yellowstone is Custer Nation Battlefield, Mount Rushmore, Crazy-horse Monument, The Badlands, Glacier NP, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verda, Great Sand Dunes are all worthy sites. You will just have to look at your route and see what can be seen close by. I have been to all with the exception of Glacier.
 
Durango only value is the Silverton train.
It's a large part of the day.
Pagosa Springs is the same if you don't stay to have a group bath. Buy gas, then leave.
There are great ruins in Aztec or Bloomfield (someone here will know more)
 
Ther are beautiful things to see in all of them so just enjoy your time and have fun and be safe
 
Many good recommendations above. My wife and I have been to nearly all of them, in some cases multiple times. No matter which you decide to take in, it's unlikely that you'll regret taking the time to visit any of them.
 

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