Seeing how this is the first real post, I thought I’d start it off with excitement and hope for the future. That is a few road trip ideas out west. Additionally this is also an example of the kind of research that goes into planning my trips. There are a few elements that came about to creating these three specific trip ideas.

The first element is that I have the southwest companion pass until the end of 2016 and 70k miles left to blow through (more to come about it in the future). Since southwest is mostly a domestic carrier (though Costa Rica for Spring Break ’16 is possible, anyone want to join?), I started to think about places in ‘merica I wanted to visit.

The second element is that despite having lived in California, there are still a lot out west that I have not explored. I took to google maps a while back to create a list of places I’d like to visit or would like to return. Additionally, it’s been three years since I’ve gone back to Cali to hang out with the gang there (where we’ve had a few pretty awesome trips) and I’ve recently had a few messages with them about heading out there again.

The last element was hearing a podcast about roadtrips on The Extra Pack of Peanuts, especially since they’ve mentioned a few I’ve done. Anyways, that got me thinking. With great hanging out and camping with Kevin two weekends ago (post to come), we’ve identified three trips. Since these are ideas, feedback would be great.

Yes, I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon (or any of these listed places). This loops links up several of the National Parks throughout Arizona and Utah. Additionally, it links up several of the most photogenic places you’ve probably seen online. Here would be the itinerary:

• Flight into Las Vegas. Being a big tourist town, there are plenty of flight deals and cheap car rentals. Plus it’s at most 22k miles on Southwest from Raleigh.
• Havasu Falls: First stop would be a 3 day backpacking into Supai Village from Hualapai Hilltop on Havasupai tribe land to visit Havasu Falls and several others.
• Grand Canyon: Spend a couple of days visiting the rest of the grand canyon. Any recommendations of top hikes are welcome
• Vermilion Cliffs National Monument: Got to see the waves.
• Antelope Canyon: More pretties on Navajo land. Though the entrance fees would start to add up at this point.
• Bryce Canyon: Up into Utah. Sick of the color red yet? Again suggestions welcome.
• The Narrows and Zion National Park: Hiking up a river? OK!
• back to Las Vegas

I’ve never been to Yellowstone either, but I have been to Glacier National Park. This is a bit longer drive and less specific destinations, but it’s a tour of Montana and Wyoming. I’ve also heard of cool backpacking in Idaho where you get to hike in the middle of a stream/canyon. Really, this just begs me to do the continental divide at some point in my life:

• Fly into either Salt lake City or Boise. Jackson would be even better but probably more expensive and Southwest doesn’t fly there.
• Grand Tetons
• Yellowstone
• Gallatin National Forest: Yellowstone without the geysers
• Glacier National Park
• Bonus: you can visit Banff as well. But it seems like the Canadian Rockies deserve their own thing (EDIT 2020-5: oh yes they do, see 2019 trip report).
• Maybe drive down through Sawtooth National Forest or something in Idaho. I’ll need more research to complete this loop
• Return to Salt Lake City of Boise to fly out.

This was originally thought to be one large trip with big sky loop, but it seems too much and colorado deserve its own. We might do something like this during the upcoming labor day. However, we will have to abbreviate it since we only have 6 days. For one thing, there is just so much in Colorado that you really could make any type of loop you want. (EDIT 2015-8 as I prep for our Denver trip):

• Fly into Denver. $258 super sale from Raleigh direct. I want to say we only used 16k miles for the booked flight this labor day (with companion pass). First thing is to just chill around Denver and get use to the altitude. There is the Red Rock amphitheater with a nice loop trail for a short hike (I’ll post that at some point).
• Rocky Mountain National Park: There are plenty of hikes as described by backpacker.com, but lonely planet has a more condensed popular list. The 2 I’d want to do for the 1st timer would be Longs Peak with Chasm Lake and Mount Ida.
• Hanging Lake Trail and drive through Glenwood Canyon on I70.
• Maroon Bells and hikes around this area. There is a specific hike from Aspen to Crested Butte that I want to do eventually.
• Arches National Park: Quick cross the boarder to Utah. Seems like one day is really need for Arches.
• Canyonlands National Park: While you are over there anyways. Canyonlands is a few times bigger than Arches, so probably plan for 2 to 5 days depending on what in Canyonlands you want to see and if you want to backpack. There are 3 sections to Canyonlands: Island in the Sky, Needles, and Maze. Camping is pretty limited in both Canyonlands and Arches, but the secret is the Bureau of Land Management campsites (I will confirm on our up coming trip). Also, there are backcountry campsites that you can access if you reserve a backcountry pass. This is a good guide of the hikes around the park.
• Mesa Verde: Back in Colorado
• Then make your way back up to Denver stopping at small towns like Telluride or Crested Butte and national forests. One of the forests is the Rio Grande National Forrest (Wheeler Loop). The Dragon eggs seem pretty cool. Otherwise, the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve seems pretty cool too from Meg’s Denver friends’ pictures.