Pre-match: Road Trippin' 'Round The West

Thinking about lassoing up the l'il Q's and going on a two-week road trip through the American West this summer.

Provisionally, I'm considering landing in Las Vegas and renting a camper-van, with a kitchenette and a solar shower. Then heading out to Zion, SLC, Craters of the Moon, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Dinosaur, Arches, Grand Canyon, and return the van in Vegas

I haven't been west of 10th Avenue in ages. Any thoughts on must-see locations that I've totally forgotten or gross oversights/undersights in planning?

That's quite a bit of ground for two weeks. I'm not sure how much more you'll get out of Arches once you've been to Zion. If you do Teton, I highly recommend landing the camper outside of Teton for the nights. Those campsites are super crowded...I guess they do have some family oriented evening programs and such, but I've been happier a little farther out. The driving is so pretty there that you really don't lose anything by going 30 minutes outside the park.

I am not much of an outdoor nature lad, but while you are at it, you might as well visit Monument Valley, 4 Corners, and Bryce Canyon. You have no plans to hit up California?

Last year we did Yosemite and Sequoia. Started in San Francisco, looped around clockwise visiting Berkeley, Lake Tahoe, Nevada slots, Yosemite, Sequoia, King's Canyon, Hearst Castle, Big Sur, Stanford and back to San Francisco. Well worth it in 10 days.

Yosemite and Sequoia probably a bit much of a detour on a two week trip for you.

It's a lot of shortish (3-5 hour) hauls. That's pretty much the only reason I was thinking of stopping at SLC and Dinosaur, to break up the long drives lest the kids wound and eat each other.

Anyone have any camping tips for families?

As far as tips go, it depends on what you're into. When I was a kid I was pretty happy to just hike and run, but my sister needed more "activities." How excited do you get about things like fishing and cooking? For some those are work, others the highlight. How old are your kids?

I have had really good luck trip planning picking people's brains on the Backpacker magazine forums.

Lake Havasu or Lake Mead is nice in the summer

Glen Canyon.





In general, I like tooling around the little towns. Especially in the SW, it's same planet, different world.


Also, if you like ghost towns, there are lots of the them in the southwest.

I'm a fan of Ryolite, a little bit outside Las Vegas, but there are loads of them.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/rhyolite.html

My neighbors did a trip where they rented a camper and drove around the grand canyon. Then they went up to Lake Meade and got a houseboat.

If you're flying into Vegas consider this:

http://www.desertusa.com/nvval/

Mesa Verde is cool.

http://www.visitmesaverde.com/

In case of snakebite, suck out the poison!

Distances can be pretty deceiving out there. Last summer I did a mostly Wyoming trip, starting in Denver - Vedawoo - Brooks Lake - Fitzpatrick Wilderness - Grand Teton - Gros Ventre. We were pressed getting that into two weeks.

Laramie is strange - It seems you can see almost any other house's backyard from your own. I rented a Jeep Liberty, which was absolutely incapable of maintaining speed. I had the damage waiver on it, and I'm sure the 2000 miles I put on it wore it down like 25,000 anywhere else.

Some randomness from along the way

It's been a long time since I have been in Montana. There is nothing like being tweaky in bear country though. We saw some good tracks and scat a couple days walk up into the wilderness area, and that was about a week or two after that person getting eaten last summer.

Oh, btw, I did eat a cheese wheel. It was a large burger patty dipped in cheese, dipped in batter, deep fried. So...yeah, twigs and whatnot.

I'm assuming the patty was the better part of an entire cow. I have seen a few griz, but never deep in the backcountry or in a place I felt particularly exposed. Black bears on the other hand...I've probably seen hundreds. They aren't nearly as intimidating, but I have had one follow me for half a day while hiking solo. I also had one that was ripping boards off of a cabin, trying to get at cabinets from the backside. I had quite a few run ins with that bear, including one where I sprayed him and one where I hit him with a large thrown rock.

Last year in Yosemite and Sequoia, we saw 10 different bears. Two practically walked up to us on separate occasions.

Those were all black bears. Black bears are much more common generally and in the parks they've become pretty used to people, and also used to getting food.