Too ambitious?

[suprz]

We live on the east coast , and want to visit tombstone AZ, the Grand Canyon AZ, and Monument Valley UT. Is this doable in one trip? This would be when we purchase our Class C motorhome. As far as time restraints, it would be a 2 - 3 week trip at the most. I'm not opposed to driving in shifts to get out there.

[djsamuel]

suprz wrote:
Thanks for all the replies, we have discussed the trip last night and have come to a few ideas/goals we are going to strive for. 1- we will take a total of 3 weeks to do the trip. 2- we are going to bypass going to Tombstone. 3- we are going to leave on the trip right from work on a friday. That will hopefully give us a few more hours of time. The most I've driven when on our last big trip pulling the popup, was 10 hrs straight with one bathroom break. So we are hoping that the class c will be better suited to long trips. (bathroom on board, food onboard) I'm now also planning a trip to the florida keys too..... "bluewater key rv park" oh to dream...... LoL

This sounds better. A few years ago, my wife, daughter and I drove in a car from Orlando to Mesa Verde, Arches NP, Bryce Canyon, Zion NP, Grand Canyon (North Rim), and then down to Carlsbad Caverns in about 3 weeks. It was great. This September, my wife and I will be heading from Orlando with our TT to Grand Canyon (South) and then to Moab to see Arches and Canyonlands. Will be taking about 2 1/2 weeks. When we retire, we'll take more time, but this is for our 30th wedding anniversary and it is planning out nicely. Sometimes due to work constraints, I need to squeeze in the driving a bit to enjoy places. We're used to piling on the miles when we drive to NJ from Florida non stop to see family. I'm not going to approach that type of driving on this trip.

[kohldad]

With three weeks and dropping Tombstone you can have a great trip. You didn't mention when you were going, hopefully not in July or August when the campgrounds are packed and it is hot. In May is great since still cool enough at night to stop for a short night.

If you make it 4 or 5 hours down the road after work before stopping for the night it would be great, especially if this will get you out the heavy traffic zone. Then I would do one day of heavy driving, say 14-16 hours at max. Make sure to stop every couple hours to stretch your legs and bathroom break. Do not try to drive through the night, that is just asking for trouble, even if sharing the driving. A couple minutes here and there won't add up much but will be much appreciated by your bodies. Then slow down and take it a bit easier. You will enjoy the trip much more if you consider the whole trip the adventure and not just your destination.

Even taking 5 days out and back (500 miles/day), you would still have 13 days to sightsee.

[suprz]

Thanks for all the replies, we have discussed the trip last night and have come to a few ideas/goals we are going to strive for. 1- we will take a total of 3 weeks to do the trip. 2- we are going to bypass going to Tombstone. 3- we are going to leave on the trip right from work on a friday. That will hopefully give us a few more hours of time. The most I've driven when on our last big trip pulling the popup, was 10 hrs straight with one bathroom break. So we are hoping that the class c will be better suited to long trips. (bathroom on board, food onboard) I'm now also planning a trip to the florida keys too..... "bluewater key rv park" oh to dream...... LoL

[Bumpyroad]

GordonThree wrote:

cjoseph wrote:
I say go for it. Don't let the naysayers tell you that you won't see everything, so don't go. Go for what you WILL see, not for what you WON'T!

agreed indeed

as one naysayer to the trip as originally planned,it is an ill conceived plan. a more enjoyable trip can be sketched out covering more interesting sights. I mean I have been to tombstone, and would stop by if it is on my way but it adds totally many miles/hours to the drive. it sort of reminds me of a trip my friend in Italy wanted to take in the western US, he had no real concept of the distances involved and the fact that he wouldn't be driving at 80 mph on the autostrada.

I say take the trip but plan it "smarter".
bumpy

[GordonThree]

cjoseph wrote:
I say go for it. Don't let the naysayers tell you that you won't see everything, so don't go. Go for what you WILL see, not for what you WON'T!

agreed indeed

[cjoseph]

As a fellow Easterner who has been West once, yes, it's doable and worth it.

(I have flown to Vegas a few times and driven there once, but that doesn't count.)

Before RVing, the wife and I did 9,800 miles by car with a tent. We only had 26 days. We pulled into our driveway at 11:30 on a Sunday night, and both had to be back at work the next day. It sure was worth it.

That was 1998 and we haven't been back since. We want to, but its hard to carve that kind of time from a busy work schedule.

We are saving vacation and giving our bosses fair warning for 2016. That is when we will do it again. This time in the Class A with two kids. We hope to take 4 weeks, maybe a few days less.

Yes, we will drive the wheels off. Yes, we will drive in shifts to get there. Yes, we will pass many great sites. But, we will expose our children to some of this country's greatest treasures. We have already given them the gift of the great outdoors here in the East, and they love it. I can't wait to see their faces when they see some of those unbelievable sights out there.

Does such a trip make sense when you add up the miles, gas money, seat time and more? That depends on the value you place on the destination.

I say go for it. Our reasoning was to go see what we could and we'd know what to do on the return trip. I never thought the return trip would take us this long, but life happens.

A quick recap of our 1998 trip:

Badlands
Mount Rushmore
Crazy Horse
Devil's Tower
Yellowstone
Grand Tetons
Jackson Hole
Lake Tahoe
San Francisco (Muir Woods, Trolley Museum and a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway)
Yosemite
Sequoia
King's Canyon
San Diego
Las Vegas
Zion
Grand Canyon
Bryce Canyon
Rocky Mountain NP

Is this trip doable in an RV --NO WAY!

We had a nice-driving Volvo. Many of these stops were just overlooks. We managed to hike a bunch. We rode our bikes around Yosemite and across the Golden Gate Bridge. A couple of these stops were dinner breaks at restaurants with overlooks. We pitched our tent on the beach in San DIego for a couple nights. We did a lot of the driving tours with pull outs. But, we knew we were on a tight schedule. We only had one reservation and that was at Yellowstone (two nights).

I wish we could go west 3 or 4 years in a row and take more time in more places, but that's not in the cards. The gas money alone makes it a once in a while trip for us.

I agree that you will need at least three days out and three days back.

I have driven home from Key West in three days, and that was leaving lots of driving time on the table. The DW has driven the MH on a short stretch. This year and next, she will drive it more to prepare for the big trip. She wouldn't touch the TT, but has no problem with the MH. The drive west is much easier driving until you get to the mountains. We will make serious time through the flatlands, then settle in to the tourist thing.

On our 1998 trip, we left home on Friday after work at 4:15. We pulled into a hotel near Badlands NP at 9:30 Saturday night. Our journal says we stopped to sleep in a truck stop at 2:30am and were back on the road at 9am Saturday. We were on the driving tour on Badlands Loop Road at 8:30 Sunday morning.

I don't expect to keep that pace in the MH with the kids, but they travel well. They can keep themselves occupied for hours.

I say go for it. Don't let the naysayers tell you that you won't see everything, so don't go. Go for what you WILL see, not for what you WON'T!

[Jim_Shoe]

So, 5700 mostly expressway miles to see 3 places that are a total of 600 miles apart in a new (at least to you) Class C.
Take a camera and a roll of film so you can take pictures of each of you standing next to the "now entering" and "now leaving" signs at each place.
That's all you'll have time for. You can't even fly into any of those three places in anything larger than a single engine Cessna.
OR, fly into Las Vegas and rent a car so you'll have time to actually visit what you want to see.
This spring and summer find some CGs near home where you can spend a few weekends finding out what you need but don't have and what you have but don't need. And how everything works.

[Bumpyroad]

RFCN2 wrote:
Or drive to see the glass platform over the canyon. .

reportedly a dreadful drive to get to it and horribly expensive to visit it.
bumpy

[agesilaus]

Yellowstone is a parking lot all year long except for the dead of winter.

[GordonThree]

I feel an ambitious trip / timetable is worth it. It's not like once you go, you can never go back. You don't need to soak in everything every site has to offer on your first visit.

Years ago I visited most of Utah (skipped the Zion area for another time), then headed to the Tetons in Wyoming and ended by seeing a few highlights of Yellowstone, in only two weeks. I averaged driving about 500 miles per day, just me and a brand new sports car. This was before I bought the TT, so I was moteling it.

I know now what areas in that region I'd like to visit again, and also have a better idea of when to visit... Yellowstone mid-June was a parking lot.

[Crowe]

Too ambitious-yes. You spend too much time in the vehicle and not enough time having fun. Figure roughly 50 mph on average, determine the number of days it's going to take for just driving, then decide if what's left is enough. Since you are talking over 2500 miles to get out there, it's a min of 5 days out and 5 days back. Put 7500 miles on a vehicle in 3 weeks, drove 4 straight days to get home and felt like I never had a vacation. Shift driving is fine but when on unfamiliar territory of nothingness it's very easy to fall asleep at the wheel, and with the shape the roads are in it will be almost impossible to sleep PLUS the most likely won't be able to be buckled in.

[tahiti16]

Supr it is amazing how we never seem to discover what we have right near us until it nolonger is! By the way tell your son Semper Fi and thanks for his service!

I agree with the others, while stationed in NC I did plenty of bonzi runs with how many miles can I cover, continued after my service when I took MC vacations. Always said I had to go back to work to rest afterwards.

One other thought are you buying a new RV? If so can you pick it up in AZ? Then you fly out or even dry what you are planning on towing out and only drive the RV home.

[Dick_B]

Do the math. How many days and how many hours just on the road.

[Matt_Colie]

Suprz,

You have gotten a lot of great and accurate responses, but as far as shift driving, you will find that it is difficult to rest in any MH that is underway. What you have to remember about a Class C is that it is really a cabin, plopped onto a truck or bus chassis. The ride is very much like a schoolbus. Ever ride in the back of a schoolbus?

We have a very gentle old Class A and one of us can sleep underway, and an 1100 mile day is still a real stretch and very wearing. Our realistic limit is about 550 miles (just like trucks) and that is with two drivers and at least one navigator. If you want to do more, I suggest that you lease a coach as close to what you plan to buy and do a few short runs like Providence to Bangor on Rt-202 (No blue roads allowed) or to Buffalo any way you want (the tolls will be a killer for that run). If you do either of those in a weekend, you will have a much better idea of what you are setting yourself up for.

Other idea, lease the RV for three weeks but pick it up near one of wanted locations. Drive the big circle, give it back and fly home.

My favorite quote these days is from Charles Kuralt — "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."

Safe Travel however you do it.

Matt