USA Road Trip R66 etc

[mattyn1]

Essarell said:

Re the Grand Canyon is go for the North Rim instead, you’ll be that way anyway if your doing Monument Valley etc, views are far better (the North Rim is a 1000ft higher and it gets a lot less visitors.

Have had a quick look at this while in a rather dull Teams meeting this morning. Can't seem to find a helicopter tour from North Rim, so broad plan:

Day 17: Monument Valley sunrise, then scenic drive, and head to Holbrook via as much of R66 as possible and stay in the Wigwam motel (Mrs is very keen to do this).
Day 18: Head up to Grand Canyon South Rim and get the helicopter tour from Tusayan/GC Village in the early afternoon. Then do South Rim for sunset (maybe the shuttle). Stay in Tusayan.
Day 19: Do GC Eastward scenic drive but head to Page to see Antelope Canyon (or at the very least, Horseshoe bend, back along to Navajo Bridge and head to possibly Jacob Lake overnight, or even North Rim Lodge if it is open.
Day 20: Explore GC North Rim, same accommodation overnight.
Day 21: Early start, Drive to Zion NP, Angels Landing, and take in as much of the scenic drive as poss. Still arrive Vegas after sunset.
Day 22: As per the plan above.

Have to say the anecdotes of crowds at South rim did bother me, so this advice and a broad plan (i know it needs fettling) sits quite nicely. Thank you!!

[Truckosaurus]

You don't have to move far from the visitors centre at the south rim to find a quiet spot.

There's not much aviation around the north and south rims as it is too far for helicopters from Vegas and there's restrictions on overflying the national park areas so you can't see anything.

As others have said, the key to planning a big (or small) roadtrip is getting the balance of driving with actually stopping off at places for a good look - or feeling like you have to hang around somewhere that doesn't meet expectations because The Plan says you are there all day.

[mikef]

Truckosaurus said:

There's not much aviation around the north and south rims as it is too far for helicopters from Vegas

We flew with Papillon Helicopters from Tusayan at the entrance to the Sourh Rim, it looks as though there are still heli tours from there

Quite exiting to skim out just above the scrub then see the canyon open up underneath you

[Whistle]

We stayed in kanab when we did Zion, loved the road through the valley and tunnels.

[mattyn1]

Whistle said:

We stayed in kanab when we did Zion, loved the road through the valley and tunnels.

Look at that!

Where would you advise I start from if I was travelling to Vegas?

Edited by mattyn1 on Wednesday 24th May 16:51

[mattyn1]

mikef said:

We flew with Papillon Helicopters from Tusayan at the entrance to the Sourh Rim, it looks as though there are still heli tours from there

Quite exiting to skim out just above the scrub then see the canyon open up underneath you

From what I can see there are two helicopter operators and a fixed wing operator from that airport.

Nothing so far at the north rim that I can find.

[mikef]

mattyn1 said:

mikef said:

We flew with Papillon Helicopters from Tusayan at the entrance to the Sourh Rim, it looks as though there are still heli tours from there

Quite exciting to skim out just above the scrub then see the canyon open up underneath you

From what I can see there are two helicopter operators and a fixed wing operator from that airport.

Nothing so far at the north rim that I can find.

Its was around 5 minutes from the South Rim to the North



Click image for a not very good video, I had just got my first NTSC camcorder...

[mattyn1]

That’s epic.

[mikef]

It was great. To answer your question “Where would you advise I start from if I was travelling to Vegas?”, our regular trip when we lived in San Fran was SF to Yosemite, over Tuolumne and Tioga Pass to Mono Lake (warning, infested by a thick blanket of flies in summer), down to Bishop for an overnight stay (lots of fishing motels with stern warnings about not cleaning trout in your room), then through Death Valley, Zabriskie Point, Pahrump (complete with Brothel Museum) and over the mountain into Vegas. I’ve never tired of doing that run

[Whistle]

mattyn1 said:

Look at that!

Where would you advise I start from if I was travelling to Vegas?

Edited by mattyn1 on Wednesday 24th May 16:51

We followed Route 66 to Williams then did the following

Williams to page (3 nights) via the Grand Canyon stopping at various view points.
We paid a visit the Antelope canyon (this is a must, we did the lower canyon)
We did horseshoe bend at sunrise in page

Next stop Moab ( 3 nights) via monument valley.
At Moab (3 nights) we did Arches national park & Canyon Lands National park

Next stop Richfield for 1 night

We then took the scenic route to Bryce canyon for the afternoon then red canyon and onwards to Kanab (2 nights)
While at Kanab we did Zion national park and had a day off chilling round the pool.

We set off early and drove to Vegas and stayed at the Palazzo and bagged a mega room upgrade. (Premier suite for $100 a night more than our standard room)
After 4 nights in Vegas we set off for LA via Death Valley.

[Essarell]

GreatGranny said:

Very jealous Essarell.



What made you decide on a pick up?


Cheers

I was thinking of your comment today, we detoured to Atomic City and this was our Lunch Stop:

[mattyn1]

@Whistle. Those pics are spectacular. The Forrest Gump Point and Horseshoe Bend pics are the photos that have seen many times and is probably the one that triggered the need for this trip.

Reading some mixed reviews about Antelope Canyon regarding its entry policy. We will decide on that when the time comes.

Will do some map plotting and post this weekend, but thanks, I now have a much firmer plan for that part.

Edited by mattyn1 on Sunday 28th May 11:44

[mattyn1]

So a required thread revival.

Last week we both had some good news in that the extended leave has been approved. So we have five weeks that starts the evening of 19 July 24, and ends at August Bank Holiday 24.

Daughter does not want to go. Shame really despite offering to take a mate too but she will be 17 then so can’t really blame her!

Planning about to start in earnest!

Fascinated by the temps reported in DV this summer …….. can’t bloody wait!

[Rollin]

Don't forget the Moki Dugway.

[Kinky]

mattyn1 said:

Fascinated by the temps reported in DV this summer …….. can’t bloody wait!

Just don't get lost ......

https://us.cnn.com/travel/death-valley-visitors-lo...

[RDMcG]

Always liked Death Valley........a few pics I took:

[mattyn1]

Looks so cool RDMcG!

[RDMcG]

mattyn1 said:

Looks so cool RDMcG!

Cool would not be the current temperature.......

[Whistle]

This was the temp at furnace creek when I was there this time last year. The heat was a bit surreal.

[mattyn1]

So it has been a while but having got the festive bit out of the way and finally got the youngest to decide yay or nay (surprisingly it was a yay), we are all systems go in the detailed planning phase. Committed now we have booked the flights

We have shortened a bit and driven by a real want to do the PCH at the end we are minimising Death Valley to a sunset/sunrise, and avoiding the Area 51 -Reno - Tahoe loop, and instead going from DV to Yosemite. Some chunks of R66 missed too to take in Colorado and Bryce/Zion etc.

Some good driving routes I think, and really into the advice re Grand Canyon North Rim - seems a win of gigantic proportions.

Some mileages blank as I have yet to work the exact route.

Day	What	Miles	Sights
1	Heathrow T3 Hotel	-	-
2	Fly to Chicago	-	-
3	Chicago		Willis Tower, Deep Dish Pizza, Navy Pier
4	Chicago-Springfield Il	200	R66, Joliet Prison,
5	Springfield-St Louis	120	Gateway Arch
6	St Louis-Springfield Mo	215	R66
7	Springfield-Oklahoma City	293	R66, OK Memorial
8	Oklahoma City-Amarillo	257	R66, 72oz Steak Challenge
9	Amarillo-Albuquerque	387	R66
10	Albuquerque	-	Rest day, Breaking Bad locations
11	Albuquerque-Canon City	374	Las Vegas NM Longmire Locations,
12	Canon City-Colorado Springs	50	Skyline Drive, Royal Gorge Park
13	Colorado Springs	50	Up/down Pikes Peak
14	Colorado Springs-Glenwood Springs	200	Independence Pass, Aspen, GW Caverns
15	Glenwood Springs-Durango	300	Million Dollar Highway
16	Durango-Monument Valley	170	Four Corners Monument, Forrest Gump Point, Monument Valley Sunset
17	Monument Valley-Holbrook	190 +	Monument Valley Sunrise, Scenic drive, Wigwam Motel
18	Holbrook -Grand Canyon South Rim		GC Helicopter Tour, Sunset
19	Grand Canyon South - Page	-	Antelope, Horseshoe Bend
20	Page – Grand Canyon North	317	GC East Scenic drive, Navajo Bridge
21	Grand Canyon North - Las Vegas	267	Bryce scenic drive, Zion NP, Vegas Strip dusk drive
22	Las Vegas	-	erm – Vegas!!
23	Las Vegas-Death Valley		Hoover Dam, R66
24	Death Valley - Bishop		Poss the long way, R66, DV Sunrise,
25	Bishop - Yosemite	-	Tioga Pass
26	Yosemite	-	more Yosemite stuff
27	Yosemite-San Francisco	184	Golden Gate Bridge
28	San Francisco	-	Alcatraz
29	San Francisco-San Simeon	288	PCH, Big Sur
30	San Simeon-Los Angeles	250	PCH, Santa Barb, Sunset Ranch (Hollywood sign)
31	Los Angeles	-	Universal Studios
32	Los Angeles-Santa Monica Pier-LAX	40	H’wood Blvd, Rodeo drive, Pier, Venice Beach, LAX, Ditch Car, Shower, home!

Edited by mattyn1 on Wednesday 17th January 08:24