Been to Hart Prairie many times but never did the lava tubes. Heard it stays very cool all summer.
OT: Desert trip help
- Thread starter Briccnerff
- Start date
Here are some random thoughts on a summer trip through the Southwest.
- St George is about two hours from McCarren Airport. A pleasant small city where you could probably have little trouble renting a condo or house for a night or two. A little farther north is Cedar City. Another pleasant place with a nice Shakespeare Festival.
- Zion NP is 45 minutes from St George. If I were to recommend one thing to do on a trip to the Southwest, it would be to go to Zion and hike The Narrows. If you are all in good shape, try out Angels Landing. BTW, the town of Springdale is really pleasant.
- Bryce Canyon is great, but there is one way in and one way. Can be frustratingly crowded in the summer. Cedar Breaks National Monument is almost as good as Bryce, and is also surrounded by a great National Forest - Dixie. The whispering aspens are terrific.
- The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is about 100x better than the South Rim, but is hard to get to. Distances are really far and you can find nearly entire days chewed up driving and inevitable kid stops. If you do make it to the North Rim, chances are you will pass through Page Arizona. Go check out Corkscrew Canyon (aka Antelope Valley). Its on the Res, so you have to get driven out to the site.
- If possible, skip the Navajo Reservation. It is one of the poorest places in America and they've been hit super hard by the coronavirus. Take hard pass on the Four Corners site.
- The drive from Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef through the Grand Staircase-Escalante highway is one my personal top five drives.
- Mesa Verde is a great park to take the kids.
- Moab is cool small city, but is crowded in the summer. My experience is they have a lot of crappy hotels in Moab - so plan carefully. OTOH, it's a great stop off for Arches and Canyonlands + Dead Horse Point State Park.
- To the South, Sedona is a great town. The Red Rocks are amazing. Lots of hippies and crystals. A place for the family is Slide Rock Park - just north of Sedona. The only problem with Sedona/Flagstaff IMO is they are far from the interesting places. I categorically rule out the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, but I tend to be snobbish around overrun national parks. Did I mention the North Rim is far better?
- I do like Northern New Mexico a lot. Avoid Albuquerque except for the airport (a trip into Vegas and then out of Albuquerque or even Salt Lake city is a nice way to take in a lot of sites. Taos and Santa Fe are both fun, but your kids will have to tolerate spicy foods with a lot of chiles.
- Southwestern Colorado is great - except for Cortez (skip). Durango, Telluride, Ouray (hot springs!) are all great.
Agree on Sedona being a great town, but disagree on Sedona being lots of hippies and crystals and not interesting. In 12 years of going to Sedona 3 plus times per year, we have rarely encountered hippies and crystals.
Don't know what you mean as "far from interesting places." Guess it depends on what you mean by interesting. Flag is interesting in a lot of ways. There is the Lowell Observatory, and a lot of great history. I mentioned the Lava Tubes. If the trails are open around San Francisco peaks, the hiking and views are terrific.
As for Sedona, there are endless trails with a wide variety--steep arduous climbs, cool walks through creek beds, and beautiful, endless views of red rocks. There is also a history of western movies made in Sedona. There was (maybe still is) a great picture in the gatehouse at Slide Rock State Park of Charles Bronson and Alan Ladd from the 1954 movie Drum Beat.
A couple of places that have not been mentioned that are close to Sedona and interesting day trips are Jerome, Arizona, about 45 minutes via 89A. It is an old mining town reborn as a tourist town with lots of cool shops and haunted buildings that have been on Ghost Hunters. There is the Haunted Hamburger, and our favorite, The Asylum, a converted insane asylum that is now a hotel and restaurant. If you take 89A above Jerome, there is a park at the top of the mountain, where the temperatures are 5-10 degrees cooler than below.
Cottonwood is also an interesting town, in particular Old Town Cottonwood. Jerome and Cottonwood are booming with a local winery industry and restaurants and tasting rooms. One of the more active winemakers is Maynard James Keenan from the bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. He has a tasting room and novelty store/barber shop/vinyl record store up in Jerome, and he has one or two tasting rooms and an Osteria in Cottonwood. Have never seen him at his shop/restaurants, and he keeps a low profile.
Just tell them you will be in the house for 14 days. They have no idea what you will do.
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't meant they're not out to get me.
Explain why the North Rim is better. I haven't been.. but others that have been to both say SEEING the Grand Canyon from the top.. the south side is better just because the sun is largely behind you when you look into the canyon.
South or North Rim?
South or North Rim?
It's a can't go wrong situation, just depends what you prefer.
North Rim is nice because it's way less crowded. It's a big 'ol hole in the earth so views are good either side. Whenever I see shots like below, it's North Rim. Quieter, more rustic, more dispersed camping (outside NP boundaries).
They are just different. This time of year the North is much cooler, with many less people and a lot more nature to explore without people around everywhere.
I can't say I noticed too much of a difference in 'seeing' the canyon from one side or another, but could be there's a difference.
And I'm pretty certain they would not allow you to have a campfire on the South Rim side.It's a can't go wrong situation, just depends what you prefer.
North Rim is nice because it's way less crowded. It's a big 'ol hole in the earth so views are good either side. Whenever I see shots like below, it's North Rim. Quieter, more rustic, more dispersed camping (outside NP boundaries).
Didn't mean to disparage Sedona or the area at all. The place is sublime. I just meant it's a long drive to other attractions like the North Rim, Zion, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, etc. Northern Arizona is an amazing place. I had a really good time camping on the Mongollen Rim (just remember to bring water). Totally agree on Jerome, too.
Vastly less crowded, a simply amazing drive on Route 67 through the Kaibab Plateau. For me, much closer* to the places I want to go to in Southern Utah and the Arizona panhandle - Vermillion Cliffs, Zion, Page, etc. I also like that the North Rim (and West Rim) are higher elevation than the South Rim.
*closer is relative. There are long distances no matter where you go.
It's a can't go wrong situation, just depends what you prefer.
North Rim is nice because it's way less crowded. It's a big 'ol hole in the earth so views are good either side. Whenever I see shots like below, it's North Rim. Quieter, more rustic, more dispersed camping (outside NP boundaries).
This is correct. One thing I would strongly suggest is not camping there with your girlfriend on the first day of deer season. That was an oops. I tried finding the campground we stayed at 25 years ago, but can't find it on the map. Must be at a nearby National Forest or BLM site - no hunting within national parks. Was no more than 200 yards from incredible cliffside views.
Edit: Found it! Saddle Mountain campground. The campground is on BLM land (BLM means literally anything goes) right next to the national park.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...f78059a0072cdaa!8m2!3d36.303032!4d-111.994572
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If you have Disney+ you can see NatGeo's Into the Canyon which might make for some interesting background info.
Thank you to everyone. We’ve decided to stay closer to home instead. we’re going to Ocean City MD. We will get out west eventually and use your advice. Thanks again. Be safe!
Good call for this year. I usually do multiple road trips to So UT/No AZ/SW CO between spring and fall but think I'll be passing this year.
Enjoy OC!
We were going someplace, but opted for the pool and a cold one.
No masks, no no-masks, no hassles.
No masks, no no-masks, no hassles.