What to see Denver to Phoenix

By all means, what ever you do, take a side trip into the following three:

1. Arches NP
Arches is right next to Moab Utah. For dinner try out the Moab Brewery. Try their Scorpion Pale Ale.
2. Canyonlands NP
3. Dead Horse State Park (right next to Canyonlands).

Then, if you have the time, drive through Monument Valley. Many famous westerns were filmed there such as John Ford's "The Searchers" with John Wayne.

Moab for Arches NP, Island In The Sky section of Canyonlands NP, Bluff, Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley (actually just into AZ). Trust me, that will keep you busy!

Sunset Crater, Sedona/Oak Creek, Painted Desert are all worth the stop in AZ.

To hot in Az. right now, will reopen 1st. of Nov.

Some other options might be Great Sand Dunes NP, Durango, and Mesa Verde NP. If you’ve never been there, the Durango-Silverton train ride is worth the trip. In northern AZ there’s Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, the Sunset Crater and the Painted Desert along I-40. Then, too, the Oak Creek Canyon-Sedona area is pretty and there’s Montezuma’s Castle along I-17 to Phoenix. Too many choices for two weeks and just some suggestions to check out. There’s ample opportunity to hike around most of them. In two weeks the heat will start to relent. Nice up north, still hot in the desert but beginning to cool off at night.

rfryer wrote:
Some other options might be Great Sand Dunes NP, Durango, and Mesa Verde NP. If you’ve never been there, the Durango-Silverton train ride is worth the trip. In northern AZ there’s Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, the Sunset Crater and the Painted Desert along I-40. Then, too, the Oak Creek Canyon-Sedona area is pretty and there’s Montezuma’s Castle along I-17 to Phoenix. Too many choices for two weeks and just some suggestions to check out. There’s ample opportunity to hike around most of them. In two weeks the heat will start to relent. Nice up north, still hot in the desert but beginning to cool off at night.

X2
Add Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Montrose, CO

Supercharged wrote:
To hot in Az. right now, will reopen 1st. of Nov.

After Nov. the best places to see in Az will be far too cold and snowy for RV'ing.

We kinda slid away from OP's request of SE UT but many good suggestions (Great Sand Dunes is the other side of CO for example).

Do not agree with mileshuff at all about best places after Nov too cold. Yes, the higher mountain areas will be down in temps but you can see mountains in many states. The desert and lower elevation places are very numerous and beautiful.

And, as beautiful as AZ is, it is not in SE Utah. :-)

Much depends on the time you have. Often people with rentals try to do 4 weeks worth of stuff in 2 weeks. If you are doing 300 mile days there is not much time to actually see anything.

Our first RV trip was a rental, out of Denver, for 15 days. We covered about 2200 miles & came back busted.

Lauren wrote:
We kinda slid away from OP's request of SE UT but many good suggestions (Great Sand Dunes is the other side of CO for example).

Do not agree with mileshuff at all about best places after Nov too cold. Yes, the higher mountain areas will be down in temps but you can see mountains in many states. The desert and lower elevation places are very numerous and beautiful.

And, as beautiful as AZ is, it is not in SE Utah. :-)

I've lived in AZ since the late 60's and love it here! Sure there are some great places to visit in the desert regions in the winter but for me, the absolute best places are in northern and eastern AZ. Seems most Phoenicians rarely travel to such areas except perhaps Flagstaff and Grand Canyon. Sitting at Luna Lake near Alpine to watch the Eagles over the lake is peaceful. Greer, Williams, Sedona, Monument Valley, Chinle etc. are some of my favorite areas. Some of those see little snow but getting to them in winter can be difficult in an RV. In the winter we do travel to Bisbee, Benson, Wilcox, Tombstone and surrounding areas.