Southwest trip planning

MoRookie wrote:
How many nights do I need to book for each of these campgrounds Trailer Village Grand Canyon, Watchman at Zion and Ruby's Inn at Bryce. Still haven't decided on campground for Capitol Reef. I think we will try for Dead Horse state park to visit Canyonlands and Arches. And then on to Durango

You stated earlier that you have 2-3 weeks for the trip. Does that include driving?

Since it seems you're a very active family who enjoys hiking you might have to make some choices.

You have listed 5 national parks and then you're off to Durango. In order of best hiking I'd list them as: Arches, Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef and finally Grand Canyon. So you might want to schedule your time around that.

Grand Canyon for a casual visitor is more of a 'looking at' park rather than a hiking park. Yes, there's awesome hiking but the trails are long and difficult and not geared to a short stay. I'd really advise that you hike down the Bright Angel Trail for a short distance, at least. It will give you an altogether different perspective of the canyon. However, don't plan to reach the bottom for a day trip. It's an extremely difficult hike both down and up. Go for a 1/2 mi to 1 mi and enjoy. The Rim Trail is very nice and mostly flat so you can go as long as you want. I'd say 3 days for this park.

For the others you're going to have to judge by the amount of time you have, including driving time.

Good Luck!