Valley of the Gods Road question.

Roy&Lynne wrote:
Check this out

When ever I have a question about a road, I check You Tube. The link above will take you to an dashcam video taken by an RVer a year ago March. We have it on our list of places to visit next year.

Excellent

There are some questionable DIPS in the road in Valley of the Gods...thus shorter recommendations. We did 24/25 foot motorhome with no problems but you could also park in the beginning before any dips (near Moki dugway should there be a spot) and travel in your towed the rest of the way.

We did not stay overnight but trust me next time we are going to stay overnight or two or three.

When we last visited the area we drove from the Valley to Cedar Breaks in 2 days:

- up the Dugway 261 to 95 (Natural Bridges) to 276 to Halls Crossing ferry (camp)
- ferry to Bull Frog. 276 to 95 to Hanksville. I wanted to take Burr Trail west, but it was closed due to a recent storm and mud flow.
- 24 through Capitol Reef to 12
- 12 (scenic) to Bryce
- 89, Panguitch, 143 to Cedar Breaks; this is upland forest and grass lands, with lava flows.
- 143 N to Brian Head (11,000 ft) down past ski resort to I15 (this is curvy and steep, as might be expected to a ski resort road)
- I15 to Cedar City, then west to Caliente Nevada and California.

Look at this area in a Sat view or Terrain mode to see where it crosses mountains and forests.

RoynLynne that is a great video. Thanks. Rexlion I just checked out Cedar Breaks and that looks like a good stop after we finish checking the Page area. The route from page to Cedar Breaks looks interesting too. It will be mid July for our visit to Monument Valley and Page so the cool will be a welcome change.

AZ Dot, Forest Service and NP all put the North Rim and Hwy 67 opening at mid May.

Cedar Breaks NM and Panguitch Lake area are also at high elevation, thus cooler.

Grand Canyon North Rim has terrific boondocking areas just outside the park gate. There's also a lovely national forest campground right on Hwy 67 at the park entrance called DeMotte Campground. Take the next gravel road to the west just about 1/8 mile past Demotte and it will lead you to very nice boondocking sites. In May I think you'd even get a site at the park's campground without reservations. Check their opening times though.

GCNR CG is usually booked up so if you want to go there make reservations ASAP. There is a commercial CG in Jacob Lake but it's a bit of a drive into the park. Also, like most NPS CG the CG in NR has no services.

Stay in a RV park for a night or two if it's too hot when you get to Garden of the Gods/Monument Valley. No sense driving so far and passing them up. Besides that's the West where it's dry heat! You won't be sweating and dripping like in the east and it will cool down perfectly when the sun goes down.

Yes, the North Rim is higher elevation and definitely stop there. Bryce National Park will also be a 'cool' one to visit.

Thanks for the heads up. Your post got me to thinking so I checked out Monument Valley/Valley of the Gods for average temperature for June. Came up a toasty 90. While hooked to electricity, the A/C could keep us cool inside. However, at least some of that time we'd boondocking. That trailer could get down right hot.

So I'm thinking of substituting a trip to Grand Canyon NP-North Rim. Checked their average temperature, and it's in the 70's. I guess that's due to the higher elevation.

Desert Captain wrote:
Third week in June? Seriously? Anyone else think it might just be a tad warm? :h

:B