12 night trip: CA to UT & CO Natl. Parks
I am planning our summer roadtrip for June. Time is tight this year and I think I only have 12 nights. Might be able to squeeze in a few more nights if needed. Main goal is visiting the NP's in So...
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I really enjoyed hiking the Narrows in Zion, and also it was fun to ride the shuttle to the north end and coast my bike almost all the way down to the CG. On your way from Zion to Bryce, you'll drive through Red Canyon (there are a couple of short tunnels there and a pretty NF CG). Try to allot an hour to hike the Arches Trail, a couple of dirt road miles north off the highway. These arches are different from what you'll see in Arches NP, and it's not a long hike but a bit of uphill climb.
Personally, the bugs at Great Sand Dunes would be a huge negative. Are you sure you want to put up with that? I would suggest skipping that place and RMNP. Instead, from Durango you can take the Million Dollar Hwy north through Telluride and Ouray for some mountain scenery that IMO is better than RMNP. If you like it, detour around to Telluride also and see the waterfall east of town as well as pretty Trout Lake just to the south. There's a nice state park CG at Ridgeway. Then continue north and take a driving tour through Colorado National Monument; there's another nice state park CG north of there at Fruita. From that point it's a short hop to your planned stop at Dino Monument.
One more detour to think about, between stops 4 & 5 the kids would probably have a blast playing hide and seek among the sandstone fissures bordering the CG at Goblin Valley SP; or at least allot an hour to see the giant sandstone mushroom-like hoodoos in the valley.
Personally, the bugs at Great Sand Dunes would be a huge negative. Are you sure you want to put up with that? I would suggest skipping that place and RMNP. Instead, from Durango you can take the Million Dollar Hwy north through Telluride and Ouray for some mountain scenery that IMO is better than RMNP. If you like it, detour around to Telluride also and see the waterfall east of town as well as pretty Trout Lake just to the south. There's a nice state park CG at Ridgeway. Then continue north and take a driving tour through Colorado National Monument; there's another nice state park CG north of there at Fruita. From that point it's a short hop to your planned stop at Dino Monument.
One more detour to think about, between stops 4 & 5 the kids would probably have a blast playing hide and seek among the sandstone fissures bordering the CG at Goblin Valley SP; or at least allot an hour to see the giant sandstone mushroom-like hoodoos in the valley.
