Best Route from FL to the GC

Timetocamp wrote:
...Hello. We are new to RVing. We have a 26' travel trailer and are looking to make a 4 week trip from FL to the Grand Canyon. We are wondering who can offer the best route there and back with some places to camp on the way and back....

I-10 to Mobile. US-98 to US-49 to I-20. Get around/thru Dallas and take US-287 to I-40.

Four weeks may seem like a long time, but you will have to pick and choose what you want to see and how much you want to drive.

There is a lot to see just along I-40. In Amarillo, there is Palo Duro Canyon State Park which has a nice campground and the Big Texan on Old Route 66. In New Mexico, Tucumcari still has dinners along Historic Route 66 and numerous murals painted on buildings plus other attractions such as the foundry and dinosaur museum at the community college. Santa Rosa is another Route 66 town and has the The Blue Hole and Santa Rosa Lake State Park which has a nice campground. In Albuquerque, the Pueblo Cultural Center and Petroglyph National Monument are worth visiting in my opinion. In Grants, there is the Mining Museum. Just South of I-40 going West from Grants are El Malpais National Monument, El Moro National Monument and the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. Acoma Sky City is said to be the longest occuppied location in the U.S. They give tours of the pueblo and there is an RV park next to the casino.

Homolovi Ruins State Park is near Winslow where you can stand on the corner. Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest National Park are not far from the Arizona/New Mexico border.

In the Flagstaff area are Sunset Crater National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, and Walnut Canyon National Monument. Sedona/Camp Verde/Cottonwood are about an hour South of Flagstaff with Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well National Monuments, Tuzigoot National Monument, Palatki and Honaki Ruins, V-Bar-V Heritage Site, Verde Canyon Railroad, Fort Verde State Park, Cathedral Rock, Gold King Mine, Jerome State Historic Park in the area.

All this before you even get to the Grand Canyon.

Between the Grand Canyon and Arches potential attractions are:
Monument Valley
UT-261 the Moki Dugway
Goosenecks State Park
Hovenweep National Monument
Natural Bridges National Monument
Bluff Fort
South Fork of Mule Canyon and House on Fire
The Valley of The Gods
Sand Island Petroglyphs
Edge of the Cedars State Park
Dinosaur Museum

In the Moab area in addition to Arches are:
Kane Creek Road
Potash Lower Colorado Byway
Upper Colorado River UT-128 Scenic Byway
Sago Canyon
Dead Horse Point State Park
Canyonlands National Park
Needles District
Newspaper Rock

Oh I forgot to mention this will be this summer.

Travelers World at San Antonio TX take the all the day tour that picks up at the office.
Rusty's RV Ranch Rodeo NM it is dark sky country and the night skies are incredible and drive up into the Chiricahua Mountains.
Leave Rusty's and go to Tombstone AZ by the way of Bisbee.

We're headed to the Grand Canyon again this spring and beyond for a couple of months. Places we'll stop on the way to the Grand Canyon include New Orleans (WW II Museum), Galveston (beach camping), San Antonio, Carlsbad Caverns, Alamagordo, Saguaro NP, Sedona.

Besides the Grand Canyon, you could easily spend weeks in the Four Corners area at the great NPs mentioned, and so many state parks too, like Goblin Valley in Utah with its interesting rock formations. Kids would enjoy that, along climbing the ladders at the ruins in Mesa Verde.

Moab is a great base for the Arches area, and there are lots of campgrounds there and nearby. Plenty of kid-friendly hiking opportunities. Don't miss Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands NP and the Dead Horse Point State Park.

Four weeks is a good time frame for this trip. You know your kids. My kids have survived three such trips and they were 4 and 7 for the first trip and 12 and 15 for the last. All national parks and similar for sight seeing.

I would heed the warning about Arches. Go through Sedona AZ instead. Add Four Corners and maybe Zion. I would add the Hoover Dam. That is still on our list. I agree with Paw Paw and Gram about Carlsbad Caverns. I don't think the detour north is too bad. You end up in Northern AZ anyway.

Where are you in FL? That will affect whether it's worth talking time on Gulf States on the way over.

OK we've made the trip many times from North Central FL.

The simple way is this:

Get on I-10N and stay on it until you approach El Paso,
Go thru El Paso to Las Cruces NM and get on I-25 N
In Albuquerque turn onto I-40 W
Follow that to Flagstaff AZ and get on Hwy 180 there which runs in the Grand Canyon South Rim.

Now is that the way we would go? No but it is the simplest route.
A variation is to get off I-10 at Van Horn TX (before El Paso) take TX Hwy 54N to US 62 and turn right on 62. That will bring you past Carlsbad Caverns which are well worth a stop. That depends on your available time.

There is a campground right outside the park (White City), leaving there take US 62N to Carlsbad (town) and get on US 285 to Roswell. Turn onto US 380W which will take you to I-25.

On I-40 in AZ you'll drive thru Petrified Forest NP, which is worth a drive thru. You'll go by the Barringer Meteor Crater past Winslow. Which may or may not be worth a stop to you.

OH a couple of tips, to find Campgrounds use Rvparkreviews.com

Keep the speed down to 60 mph max when pulling the trailer unless you like replacing blowouts. Trailer tires are not rated for high speeds. The blowouts will always occur in the middle of nowhere.

Time of year?

Spring, summer, fall 2017 will be a poor time to visit Arches due to road work inside the park.

Such a trip can take a few days in the interstates at 6-8 hours driving a day.

Or a month at a better pace of five hours driving per day.

You will see more variety of scenery moving you route north. Though Texas is long and the western half of the state can seem like just miles and miles of miles and miles.

Natchez MS

Nacadoches, LA

Hill Country of central Texas - Fredericksburg, TX

Carlsbad Caverns

White Sands

Grants, NM or Mesa Verde NP

Walnut Canyon near Flagstaff is a half day stop

We loved Zion, Cedar Breaks, Capitol Reef, Arches/ Moab, Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley this past Oct & Nov. Spent five weeks in Utah.

Also loved Valley of Fire State Park a bit north of Las Vegas.

Frankly with the ages of the kids, I'd recommend the Tennessee / NC mountains, maybe as far west as the Mississippi River if making the trip after school is out.

The younger one is going to get tired of moving and sightseeing every day of two. The older one will likely want something like an amusement park or water park a couple times.

The older one will likely go into withdrawal since her phone won't get a signal at many of the national parks and monuments in the west, or for hours of driving off the interstates.

Get the older kid involved in planning the trip, and even daily navigation. Use the excuse that they will need to know how to do this in a couple years when they get a drivers license.

Kids like trips more if they get to pick a stop or three, and do s little research on what there is to do/ see.