|
Route
Las Vegas → Valley of Fire → Zion → Bryce → Highway 12 → Capitol Reef → Moab → Arches → Canyonlands → Monument Valley → Page → Grand Canyon → Route 66 → Las Vegas
Distance
2125 km
Duration
10 days, ~30 hours on the road
9 nights, six national parks, one state whose geology does all the talking Best Months April-May and September-October Summer cooks the canyons; winter closes Bryce's rim with snow at 2700 m The Parks Zion — the canyon from below Bryce — the hoodoo amphitheatre Capitol Reef — the fold in the earth Arches & Canyonlands at Moab Grand Canyon — the last word Signature Roads Highway 12 over the Hogback US-163 into Monument Valley The Zion–Mt Carmel switchbacks Desert View Drive along the rim |
Route Map
Open in Google Maps The Plan A loop through the Colorado Plateau, where the earth spent two hundred million years writing its autobiography in red sandstone. Six national parks in ten days, and no two of them repeat a trick. The order is the argument. Zion from the bottom, Bryce from the rim; Highway 12 — the best road in America nobody outside Utah has heard of — to Capitol Reef; two Moab nights for Arches and Canyonlands; US-163 running dead straight at Monument Valley; Page's slot canyons and Horseshoe Bend; and the Grand Canyon as the only possible finale — the one thing here that cannot be over-anticipated. The driving is the easiest on this site — empty highways, fuel everywhere — which is why it works as a family trip. The effort goes where it should: being at the right rim at the right hour.
|