USA Road Trip R66 etc
Discussion
djc206 said:
Looks good. The only thing I’ll say is that Day 21 strikes me as ambitious depending on where you plan on staying the night before?
I think quite a bit is ambitious and I am a trifle nervous…… but in for a penny etc!Planning on staying at the North Rim Lodge, get up, do sunrise, breakfast and head off, wanting to arrive in Vegas after dusk!
mattyn1 said:
I think quite a bit is ambitious and I am a trifle nervous…… but in for a penny etc!
Planning on staying at the North Rim Lodge, get up, do sunrise, breakfast and head off, wanting to arrive in Vegas after dusk!
Personally I’d can Bryce then. Doing rim to Bryce to Springdale, parking up and taking the bus up and down Zion and then back in the car to Vegas is a looong day and you’re not going to really get to enjoy either of the parks. Zion is impressive from the valley floor but to really appreciate it you’ve either got to walk the narrows or better still hike Angels Landing. Bryce is easier to hop in and out of the car and go “oooh” take a picture and keep moving but it’s a bit out of the way.Planning on staying at the North Rim Lodge, get up, do sunrise, breakfast and head off, wanting to arrive in Vegas after dusk!
North Rim to Bryce is 3hrs+
Just to drive from the Bryce visitor centre out to Bristlecone and back without stopping is an hour, even a whistlestop tour will take 1.5 and that’s really rushing it and assuming no queues anywhere. I just checked my photos and even without doing any hikes in Bryce we were there for about 3 hours last time. That was in winter with no traffic.
Bryce to Springdale (for Zion) is 2 hours
Zion in summer is busy so parking, tickets, bus transfer, ride up and down the valley. That’s bare minimum an hour and a half and like I said that’s viewing the whole place from a bus window.
Springdale to Vegas is 3hrs.
I love a good whistlestop myself and I’ve been to Bryce and Zion in the same day before but not before a night in Vegas!
All just my opinion of course but I can only imagine how my wife would react to such an itinerary once we got going…
mattyn1 said:
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.
Having just done one may I heartily recommend a Maverick helicopter ride to the grand canyon from Vegas - jaw droppingWe 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 |
| 31 | Yosemite | - | more Yosemite stuff |
| 32 | Yosemite-San Francisco | 184 | Golden Gate Bridge |
| 33 | San Francisco | - | Alcatraz |
| 34 | San Francisco-San Simeon | 288 | PCH, Big Sur |
| 35 | San Simeon-Los Angeles | 250 | PCH, Santa Barb, Sunset Ranch (Hollywood sign) |
| 36 | Los Angeles | - | Universal Studios |
| 36 | Los Angeles-Santa Monica Pier-LAX | 40 | H’wood Blvd, Rodeo drive, Pier, Venice Beach, LAX, Ditch Car, Shower, home! |
Crappy phone-pic for attention
djc206 said:
Personally I’d can Bryce then. Doing rim to Bryce to Springdale, parking up and taking the bus up and down Zion and then back in the car to Vegas is a looong day and you’re not going to really get to enjoy either of the parks. Zion is impressive from the valley floor but to really appreciate it you’ve either got to walk the narrows or better still hike Angels Landing. Bryce is easier to hop in and out of the car and go “oooh” take a picture and keep moving but it’s a bit out of the way.
North Rim to Bryce is 3hrs+
Just to drive from the Bryce visitor centre out to Bristlecone and back without stopping is an hour, even a whistlestop tour will take 1.5 and that’s really rushing it and assuming no queues anywhere. I just checked my photos and even without doing any hikes in Bryce we were there for about 3 hours last time. That was in winter with no traffic.
Bryce to Springdale (for Zion) is 2 hours
Zion in summer is busy so parking, tickets, bus transfer, ride up and down the valley. That’s bare minimum an hour and a half and like I said that’s viewing the whole place from a bus window.
Springdale to Vegas is 3hrs.
I love a good whistlestop myself and I’ve been to Bryce and Zion in the same day before but not before a night in Vegas!
All just my opinion of course but I can only imagine how my wife would react to such an itinerary once we got going…
Your advice is acknowledged and understood. Thank you for that detail, you talk sense. I also fully appreciate how reactive and dynamic the decision making will need to be …….. and deffo don’t want to set up to fail. North Rim to Bryce is 3hrs+
Just to drive from the Bryce visitor centre out to Bristlecone and back without stopping is an hour, even a whistlestop tour will take 1.5 and that’s really rushing it and assuming no queues anywhere. I just checked my photos and even without doing any hikes in Bryce we were there for about 3 hours last time. That was in winter with no traffic.
Bryce to Springdale (for Zion) is 2 hours
Zion in summer is busy so parking, tickets, bus transfer, ride up and down the valley. That’s bare minimum an hour and a half and like I said that’s viewing the whole place from a bus window.
Springdale to Vegas is 3hrs.
I love a good whistlestop myself and I’ve been to Bryce and Zion in the same day before but not before a night in Vegas!
All just my opinion of course but I can only imagine how my wife would react to such an itinerary once we got going…
DodgyGeezer said:
I'm not brilliant with heights (don't freak out either though) and thought the helo was fine
I told her last night her fear was irrational and there was more chance of her being hurt by a spider,………. Yep she is utterly terrified of them too! We don’t seem to have got on today…… she isn’t keen on flying either ….. planes but especially helicopters! On paper this holiday is not ideal!
mattyn1 said:
DodgyGeezer said:
I'm not brilliant with heights (don't freak out either though) and thought the helo was fine
I told her last night her fear was irrational and there was more chance of her being hurt by a spider,………. Yep she is utterly terrified of them too! We don’t seem to have got on today…… she isn’t keen on flying either ….. planes but especially helicopters! On paper this holiday is not ideal!
mattyn1 said:
I told her last night her fear was irrational and there was more chance of her being hurt by a spider,………. Yep she is utterly terrified of them too!
We don’t seem to have got on today…… she isn’t keen on flying either ….. planes but especially helicopters! On paper this holiday is not ideal!
Does she get car sick as well? Sounds like you’re onto a winner….We don’t seem to have got on today…… she isn’t keen on flying either ….. planes but especially helicopters! On paper this holiday is not ideal!
I think the wife just needs to grow a pair and overcome it…… she admits it’s irrational and she seems to want to overcome it.
It’s a good challenge isn’t it. Partly the reason for heading toward the Royal Gorge Bridge…. Walk over that and she can do anything.
Spiders though are a different ball game!
It’s a good challenge isn’t it. Partly the reason for heading toward the Royal Gorge Bridge…. Walk over that and she can do anything.
Spiders though are a different ball game!
I can recommend horse riding in Monument Valley which will give you a slightly different perspective on the place. We did sunrise at Forest Gump point followed by a two hour ride around and it was a real highlight of our visit,
We had planned to also hike the Wild Cat trail but figured we'd covered most of it on horseback. The scenic drive is definitely worth it but don't just drive to John Ford Point and come back which a lot of others seemed to be doing. After enjoying some Navaho fry bread we turned right whilst everyone else was turning left back to the visitor centre.
The following day on route to the Grand Canyon, it's worth a stop at Meteor Crater, it's only about 5 miles off I40 and doesn't take too much time.
As this is a Route 66 tour then you really need to drop into Williams as well, which was the last town bypassed by the interstate back in the 1980's so it still retains a bit of an old Americana vibe. The main street is mostly full of shops selling tourist tat but there is a genuine 1960's diner called Goldies which is worth a stop. There are also a few classic cars lined up outside the gas station museam which are usually worth a look.
In Page, Horseshoe bend and Antelope canyon won't take all day so I would recommend visiting the gun range at Gun Fighter Canyon, they also have ranges in Williams and Flagstaff and all offer the chance to get hands on with some serious hardware if that's your thing. I was most impressed with what a natural Mrs Jurbie was with an automatic rifle.
We had planned to also hike the Wild Cat trail but figured we'd covered most of it on horseback. The scenic drive is definitely worth it but don't just drive to John Ford Point and come back which a lot of others seemed to be doing. After enjoying some Navaho fry bread we turned right whilst everyone else was turning left back to the visitor centre.
The following day on route to the Grand Canyon, it's worth a stop at Meteor Crater, it's only about 5 miles off I40 and doesn't take too much time.
As this is a Route 66 tour then you really need to drop into Williams as well, which was the last town bypassed by the interstate back in the 1980's so it still retains a bit of an old Americana vibe. The main street is mostly full of shops selling tourist tat but there is a genuine 1960's diner called Goldies which is worth a stop. There are also a few classic cars lined up outside the gas station museam which are usually worth a look.
In Page, Horseshoe bend and Antelope canyon won't take all day so I would recommend visiting the gun range at Gun Fighter Canyon, they also have ranges in Williams and Flagstaff and all offer the chance to get hands on with some serious hardware if that's your thing. I was most impressed with what a natural Mrs Jurbie was with an automatic rifle.
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