hi guys i am in need of sone help on planning a usa holiday based around the grand canyon area, i am looking for some ideas or suggestions on an itinery really.

so far i am thinking of flying into las vagas maybe two days there , then driving to the canyon but not sure how long to spend there was thinking maybe a couple of days for sight seeing ,then onto monument valley not sure how long to spend there, i would like to go on to moab maybe a couple of days there, then i am stuck as where to go on from there maybe heading back to vages via utah ,any ideas suggestions would be most welcome,

does this sound doable or is it to much travelling

also any tips on who to book a flight with,is premium economy worth the extra i am 6 ft 5 so need some leg room

thnking of early october

thanks in advance

Sooo much to do out that way. Vegas is an option. If you’re not that bothered about Vegas I’d suggest perhaps consider flying to Phoenix and get straight up to the Canyon.

Personally I’d suggest at least a couple of days at the GC. Maybe get a guide or do some organised things down to the bottom and back up. I’ve never done it but hear good things about the north rim also. Easier to combine with a Monument Valley visit. GC will be cold that time of year with possibly snow on the North Rim.

Monument Valley was great. Bear in mind this is within the Navajo reservation so it’s dry. If you want a beer in your hotel take some with you. If you want to really explore Monument Valley you’ll need to take organised excursions. You can drive your car around the main ‘trail’ where you get to see all the famous butes.

Other suggestions – a few days in Sedona before you head back to Phoenix? Canyon de Chelley is another I’ve not made it to yet.

Go – you’ll have a great time. Just allow yourself a couple of nights in every place. Maybe just one at Monument Valley.

It’s a great area to visit. Our itinerary (over a 3 week period) was:

Fly into Vegas, stay a couple of nights – plenty to do, even if you don’t gamble (which I don’t)
Grand Canyon for two days (stayed at the hotel on the south rim – needed booking well in advance and was $$$)
Hoover Dam
Lake Powell (on the advice of my American brother-in-law). Boat trip on the lake.
Bryce Canyon
Zion Canyon
Las Vegas for a night
Death Valley
Lone Pine
Yosemite National Park (Tioga pass may be closed in October – worth checking)
Sequoia National Park
Monterey
San Francisco
Route 1 down to Morro bay
Santa Barbara
Back to Vegas for a couple of days

Lots of driving, but a fantastic holiday. We didn’t have kids then, so were happy to do long days, and 1 night in a hotel. We’re doing it again next year and will swerve most of the cities, and will stay a few days in each location.

Bryce Canyon is impressive, in its own special way.

This was early in the year, April, btw. I walked some of the way down the main trail towards the bottom of the Grand Canyon. There were signs at the top saying something like ‘If you try to walk to the bottom and back in a day, you will die horribly and we will present a huge bill for choppering out your miserable, dessicated, half-melted remains’. So I arranged to meet the OH back at the top in four hours, turning back after two. I got half way. I’m confident I could have done it all. I was UK riding fit. YMMV.

The Borax Mine visitor center in Boron, California is worth a visit if you’re passing. I won’t say why.

I was pretty under whelmed by the GC. Its a big valley. I stayed north rim which is pretty much empty in comparison to the other side, basic, not much there and that’s the appeal. Take a Mule ride down to the ranch, stay over and return.

I was underwhelmed having been to the better Bryce and Zion. They were just more human in scale, spectacular but just more touchable. Zion has the Narrows, which was fun as a days walk/scramble/climb.

Vegas for two days is perfect but if youre there longer there is actually tons you could do but the best thing about vegas is the leaving.

Moab and Fruita are best nearby biking. Moab is a cool little happening town with the Arches nearby.

We did:

San F (Enjoyed)
Yosemite (Evergreen Lodges, quite nice out of the main area though)
Sequoia
Vegas (Worth a couple of nights)
Hoover Dam
Monument Valley
Grand Canyon South (Stayed there too long 3 nights, Cycled the road)
Moab (Loved it, did a few trails, hire Turners)
Salt-Lake City flight back to LA, drop car
Los Angeles (Okay but just a big city, saw the space shuttle)
Then finally back to SF

Loved it, especially the driving.

Tips: yeah make sure you have money for them 😉

I enjoyed driving the most so don’t skimp on the car. Less time in Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, and perhaps more time in Moab!

Incidentally I watched a decent runner get up and down the Canyon in a few hours – so I think the paranoia comes about form less fit tourists!

Grand Canyon is great but I would strongly recommend a longer guided trek into the canyon proper if you really want to make the canyon come alive… it’s difficult to appreciate the scale if you don’t go into it – and ideally along it. Still, if you are fit, and it’s not too hot, you can probably get down to Plateau Point for an overlook of the river (which you mostly can’t see from the Rim) and back along the Bright Angel trail from the South Rim, which is probably the simplest way to do that without a guided trek.

Also, read this book afterwards. Read it before and you might not fancy it… Death In Grand Canyon

Zion and Bryce Canyon are close by and definitely worth seeing. If you’ve got a head for heights then the Angel’s Landing hike in Zion is spectacular.

From Bryce you could drive up Utah State Route 12, which is a cracking road, and then head to Moab from there.

Arches NP and Canyonlands NP are very easily reached from there and provide some more epic scenery. Then you could head south to Arizona and see Monument Valley (I wouldn’t bother diverting to Four Corners!) which is definitely best seen by horseback with a guided ride.

There’s a good chance you’ll be bored of looking at exposed sandstone by the end of it, but it’s amazing stuff.

Meanwhile in Vegas… well, the Hoover Dam and the new bridge are impressive engineering feats but it doesn’t take long to exhaust their charms. I’d spend more time in Arizona and Utah than Nevada, for sure!

I don’t think I would bother trying to fit Death Valley and California in as well – you’d never stop moving. The main thing I would say is to give yourself time to stop and spend time in areas. Lots of tourists in (particularly) Bryce and the GC drive up, take pictures from the edge, and move on. Stay two nights in the area so you can have a whole day to explore at a leisurely pace (Bryce doesn’t need more than a day, for sure, but Zion has plenty of interesting areas to explore)

Loads of great advice on potential destinations here so I won’t repeat all of that. Just to say we did this trip a few years ago, flew in and out of Vegas, spent 3 weeks driving round the Grand Canyon. Best holiday ever.

Pick a few key destinations (for us it was Flagstaff, GC, Monument Valley, Moab, Bryce, Zion plus a detour out to the west coast to meet up with an old friend) and play the rest by ear. Landing up in crazy half-deserted motels is all part of the fun.

We went in November, had no problems with the weather at all but we might have been lucky. There was some snow at the Canyon, just enough to make walking down interesting (and a good excuse not to try to do too much of it!).

Zion and Bryce Canyon are close by

Well they are if a 300 mile 5 hour drive with loads to see between are ‘close’.

I walked / ran from the South Rim to the bottom and back in a day. Its not easy, it gets hotter as you descend, and remember once you get down, you have a huge climb with no available water to get back out again.

So, contrary to all the notices it is achievable, but I would only do it if you are feeling fairly fit, have loads of food and water and are competent walking the steep trails.

Moab is ‘awesome’!!!!

Vegas for two days is perfect but if youre there longer there is actually tons you could do but the best thing about vegas is the leaving.

That’s what I was going to say. I spent a week or two there, have no desire to return. The entire place is designed to part you from your money, and when I went I didn’t have any.

Here’s a pro tour in the area that should give you a few ideas:
http://www.trekamerica.com/tours/cy.html

If you can get out to Moab and see Arches National Park it’s fantastic. Other than that, you WILL have some long drives. It’s a BIG place and you need to travel. LV is worth a couple of nights for people watching, Zion is wonderful, most anything out there is fantastic to see on a massive scale. Don’t bother with a convertible, get a decent sedan car as you need comfort for the drive. Roads are good.

I was pretty under whelmed by the GC. Its a big valley.

😀

As above, get a decent car because everything is further apart in the US than it looks. We did San Fran, Yosemite, Zion, Hoover Dam, GC, Santa Cruz and Big Sur, and that was more than two week’s worth. We drove past Vegas, had no interest in it.

Zion and Bryce Canyon are close by

Well they are if a 300 mile 5 hour drive with loads to see between are ‘close’.

Yeah, by American standards they are 🙂

If you’re thinking of cutting into California to the Sierra’s, then I can recommend Lake Tahoe. However, I’ve done the drive from Vegas to Yosemite and Vegas to Tahoe before in one day and it is one long day!

thanks guys this is just what i wanted , any pointers on who to book a flight with or is it much of a muchness is peemium economy worth the extra

thanks again

norwegian airline (or something) is cheap to LAX, I’m told – no idea about other airports

I wouldn’t go to Las Vegas if I could avoid it – shit town IMO

GC is a big valley but pretty impressive. We didn’t go far into it but I reckon that’s probably the way to get a proper idea of how MASSIVE it really is; from the top it’s just a big wide hole.

I enjoyed Zion and Bryce far more. Didn’t have time to go further up into Utah but I’d do so before Vegas or GC if I had the time over again, and I’d take time to drive the mountain routes rather than freeways too

(Bryce is pretty high – not sure what the weather would be like when you’re there)

Meteor Crater is another option to visit. Don’t do what I did and spend too long getting there and find it’s closed though. Access is gated so you can’t just view it whenever.

Could stay in Flagstaff as an option. I understand there may be some riding about too. Apparently there’s even skiing in the winter somewhere round there. It’s surprisingly high round there.

I was pretty under whelmed by the GC. Its a big valley

You’re joking, right? Please tell me it was a joke, or some subtle play on words I’m too thick to appreciate.

Plenty good stuff above. I’ll second Route 12 though. One of my favourite cycling roads, maybe tops out of 3 USA bike touring trips. A good link from Route 12 to or from Monument Valley is via Hanksville and Blanding. Constant red sandstone scenery. Hanksville to Blanding is 140 odd miles with nothing but a small store at the campsite Lake Powell. Natural Bridges NP is just off the direct route.

Hankville has 2 or 3 motels and a couple of diners/gas station so would be OK for a night stop.

I walked / ran from the South Rim to the bottom and back in a day. Its not easy, it gets hotter as you descend, and remember once you get down, you have a huge climb with no available water to get back out again.

So, contrary to all the notices it is achievable, but I would only do it if you are feeling fairly fit, have loads of food and water and are competent walking the steep trails.

When I was there a few years ago, I was chatting to some random guy on the South Rim who’s buddy had started running down the canyon from the North rim at stupid o’clock in the morning. Random guy was meeting his trail running buddy at the top of the South Rim just after dawn with some supplies (water and some energy bars if my memory is correct). Trail runner was then gonna turn around and run back to the North Rim – all in one very long day. F**king nutter! 😉
Still, it’s not much longer than a marathon (~14 miles each way) but with ~5000ft elevation difference each way

I really do think that the sign-posting is somewhat over the top. Assuming the OP is actually a mountain biker (gasp!), then they are probably reasonably fit. I’m sure the park service can quote many examples of 300lb+ sedentary types without water and wearing inappropriate footwear & clothing who get themselves into trouble…

We did a three day GC tour on our honeymoon. It was all arranged by these guys:
Just Roughin’ It
This was booked way in advance though as the guides need to get permits to stay in the canyon. They supplied us with packs, tents, stoves and food etc and we hiked down in one day, then back up in two. We set off really early each day and only hiked until around noon as it just got so hot, this was in early September though.