lbrjet wrote:
4 corners is on the way from Monument valley to Mesa Verde. It is a tourist trap but is also one of a kind. A family photo of each person in a different state is something your kids would never forget. I enjoyed Valley of the Gods way more than Monument Valley, which is very commercialized and crowed, not to mention an awful road to drive. Driving up the Moki Dugway to Natural Bridges NM is also highly recommended. Have a geeat trip.
I'm still on the fence about 4 corners actually. Since it's generally on the way from Monument Vally to Mesa Verde, I'll leave it "on the list" and we'll just see how things are as we get to that point. Just about the whole itinerary is "open" from my point of view after GC and Zion.
I agree with you on VoG, from what I've seen it looks like just the remote feeling experience I'd like for a day or two. However I'm not sure about getting our Class A in there.
I'd forgotten about the Moki Dugway. Just the thing for our toad as long as I don't need a ton of ground clearance :)
bukhrn wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but your itinerary seems awfully ambitious, unless you're just going to do the Clark Griswold headbob, I mean you could easily spend 4-5 days at some of those,as we did in Grand Canyon, Zion, Moab area,not to mention a LOT of driving time.
We went at a relaxing pace & saw all we wanted, we certainly could have spent less time at some, but I don't think we would have enjoyed it as much.
No, it's not you. I recognize it's definitely not slow paced. As I mentioned above, it's more or less open after GC and Zion (places where I think I will have to make reservations). I intend the list to be just a list of possibilities where we'll adjust on the fly. I have followed the experiences of other families here and on different blog(s) and have based my plan on what they've done - but at the end of the day we will make our own way.
It would not surprise me if we take some downtime after Zion and spend a few days at Lake Powell, then take off for another week of sightseeing and then slow down somewhere in CO after that and come home. That may mean skipping some things, which is ok. I intend to keep making trips like this for as many summers as we can, so we can come back and visit favorites and/or see new stuff.
The way we used to travel before kids was kind of like this - sightsee and stop at lots of places in a geographical area, then next time we headed out that way gravitate towards our favorites and dive deeper into the details. There is a place in Virginia that is that way to us. I think we know many parts of it in and out, but then we go back and discover something else.
I honestly think that Colorado is going to be that way for us, but we'll see. It will not surprise me if next year we just spend 2 weeks in that state.
