Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Western Sites - Travel Guide Help

You could drive from Vegas to the parks in Utah, then drop down to the Grand Canyon. Then head over to Mesa Verde. You could also drive across New Mexico. White Sands National Monument is beautiful. You can drive into the white sand desert and it looks like you are driving through snow. The Million Dollar Highway in SW Colorado is a another good suggestion. Beautiful drive.

If you went north, you could drive through the Tetons, Yellowstone, Big Horn Mountains, Devil's Tower and then drop down toward Denver. It really depends on how much driving you want to do each day. Little Bighorn battlesite in Southern Montana is fascinating.

Really there is so much to see and do it's difficult to decide. If you want any more detailed information on the sites I have listed, PM me.

Scott

On the Hoover Dam thing, don't take a tour (ie bus) out there. The one I tooked completely sucked. We spent about 15 minutes at the Dam and the rest of the time driving around or on a boat, all with an idiot yammering at us.

I third, fourth, or fifth the suggestion for Zion. It's a must-see. This time of year is pretty good to do the Virgin River Narrows hike, which winds through the narrow canyon carverd by the river. Gorgeous!

Adrien, as the others have indicated, the Grand Canyon is a must. Next, in my view, would be Bryce, which is flatout stunning and which I rank ahead of Zion.

I never made it to Bryce, but if what you say is true, I'll have to see it myself, and soon!

Thanks all for the suggestions...

The trip went as follows:

Vegas to Hoover Dam (fine trip, nothing to mention, really). I thought the Hoover Dam woudl be bigger, actually. What do I know. Oh well. It certainly was worth the price of admission to have gone and actually seen it.

Next, we drove through Flagstaff (a one horse town) and had some dinner. Then we drove north up to the Grand Canyon and compaed out near the old Grand Canyon Airlines field (pretty spooky coming across an abandoned airport terminal in the middle of no-where off of a fire-road). I was sure that a chainsaw weilding maniac was going to come chasing after us.

Grand Canyon was, well, grand. Definitely worth going to, but not the highlight of the trip.

We travelled East and North through the Painted Desert, which is one of the most awe-inspiring and gorgeous stretches of highway you will ever see.

Next, we headed West to Zion, but made a quick stop at the Coral Dunes, which is a huge dune field just south of Zion. Really pretty - and you can go off-roading on the dunes, too. We camped in Zion that night and then the next day took a trip up the canyon and hiked a bit. Gorgeous and huge rock formations taht make you feel small and insignificant.

Later that day, we headed to Bryce Canyon. Echoing the sentiments earlier, I agree that Bryce might be the most beautiful place in the U.S. It's indescribable what Bryce Canyon looks like from that elevation. Visibility of nearly 150 miles!

We then drove North-East through Utah up to Arches. Going 110 miles per hour is fun, especially when you're alone for hundreds of miles at a time on the road. We visited Moab, and had some 3.2 beer. What a truly sh*t town Moab is. At one end, they make those blue urinal cakes that have that particular smell to them - you know what I mean - well, the whole town smelled of this stuff. It's kind of gross, then you get used to it - which is also kind of gross.

Arches was neat - it had some of the most unique and dramatic rock feautuers of the whole trip.

Next up was a drive through eastern Utah, which, again, is some of the most unique, desolate, beautiful, harsh, varied and interesting terrain I have ever seen. It's truly like driving on Mars or Jupiter or something (never mind that you can't drive a car on a ball of gas).

Then, we travelled over the Rockies and into Denver (having lost a half day on the planned trip and losing our desire to camp another night in Rocky Mountain National Forest). Denver was fun - lots of hot chicks. We got drunk on regular strength beer.

We then went backwards to Breckenridge for the second bachelor party. Got very little sleep - drank a little too much Bourbon, and then went white-water rafting on the Arkansas river. Good times, cute guide.

It's good to be back, home, though.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions. I wish that we could have made Mesa Verde - maybe next trip.

Welcome back.

I wish the Hoover Dam tour was what is was before 911. The best tours had you going down internal stairs and following the path of water leaks. You saw more of the internal workings on the dam. You needed a hard hat.

Too bad many other national treasures are forbidden like this one is now.

Wow....I live in Utah and I know less about the recreational stuff around here than most of you guys. Excellent report.

Maybe I need to get off my duff and see some of the great parks in the south end of the state.