Utah?Next trip plan good distraction! Ideas needed :)

Three must sees: Arches, Zion and Bryce....maybe Canyonlands. You need reservations FAR in advance for any of them.

jdc1 wrote:
Three must sees: Arches, Zion and Bryce....maybe Canyonlands. You need reservations FAR in advance for any of them.

Ok thanks. I could see if they are taking reservations for this summer still..: is it hard to get them
Last minute?

Check out the itinerary from Adventure Caravans tour of the Western Parks for more ideas. They take the entire month of September for their usual tour.

No way to tell about the travel situation. However Zion is very hot in summer, often well over 100 deg., as is Arches. Both are overrun with tourists, Arches so bad that they have frequently closed the gates. Zion will have a line stretching out for miles outside the gate, and I hear they are also thinking about closing the gates on occasion. Bryce is higher and cooler and less popular, Capital Reef is less crowded but also hot. The mob scene is reportedly because of the ad campaign that Utah Tourism ran in big eastern cities and Europe.

All of these crowd predictions are based on normal years, this year will be an outlier.

Glacier isn't so crowded, Yellowstone is crowded. There are Lassen, Rainer, Crater Lake, North Rim of Grand Canyon and Olympic which are cooler. With three weeks you better pick one or two parks to concentrate on.

As for Alaska couldn't you fly up and rent an RV?

During the summer, anything below 7000 feet is going to be hot. As long as you know that and are prepared for the heat, go get 'em!

Zion is particularly great for young bikers -- you can ride your bike all the way up the canyon (on pavement) and then coast back down, enjoying the scenery. We have done that many times -- it never gets old. Stop for an ice cream at the lodge on the way up! And there is no traffic on the road -- cars are banned, and the buses are very courteous.

Kodachrome State Park is not too far from Bryce -- great campground, and great scenery at the state park itself.

Good luck -- I sure hope we all get to travel this summer.

thanks everyone. Yep, hope we get to travel!
As for Alaska, one of the issues is we may end up with a cruise credit rather than refund. so we'd have to take the cruise next year, so would just go to Alaska then.... So far we've had a refund for the RV and the Vancouver hotel.... just waiting to see what happens with the cruise and flights.....

It's the heat that has put us off going to Zion etc. and the crowds... I wonder if they'll be quieter this summer,.. hard to guess..problem is with kids, we can only go in the holidays.. I'd go now if we could... kids are home.

The other NP we would consider is Olympic and exploring up that way. We've only been as far up as Portland, we were going to head home via Crater Lake and Lassen but the temps were 100+ and the Excursion A/C wasn't working, so we headed back to the coast to avoid cooking ourselves in the truck ha ha .

“problem is with kids, we can only go in the holidays.”

I’d trade that “problem” with you anytime. DD is 40 and working.

You'll have to keep track of the situation in Moab. Right now, all CG's are closed, including private, BLM, and National Parks. No boondocking allowed anywhere. The message is they don't want outsiders there as their medical facilities are pretty limited compared to how many people visit there. Current order expires April 15th but I'd expect an extension.

Keep track of the current situation here: Discover Moab.

Hard to know what things will be like come this summer. We still have reservations for the WA and OR area, but it's sure an unknown situation this far out.

If you get to go, check out this post on everything Moab: A Primer on Moab

in canyonlands be sure to check out Mesa arch.
bumpy

Bumpyroad wrote:
in canyonlands be sure to check out Mesa arch.
bumpy

There are some parts of Canyonlands that a passenger car can get to but for the most part a high clearance vehicle is needed and better yet a 4WD. The two overlooks are impressive tho, but even those need some driving on dirt and rock roads.