*Updated Summer 2022

Our original trip was way back in 2012 – two adults and two dogs. (There was more than one dog bowl meal of McDonald’s hash browns along the way.) In the decade since the trip, we’ve travel and see a lot – done a ton more road trips – and thought it was time for an update.

This summer we are planning a long road trip from Los Angeles to Denver, Colorado. When researching the route, we realized we could either go North through Las Vegas, Central Utah and enter Colorado around Grand Junction, or, we could head South through Flagstaff Arizona, Santa Fe New Mexico and enter Colorado near Trinidad and through Colorado Springs.

Instead of picking one over the other, we decided to go North on the way there and South on the way back. WooHoo- checking cities and national parks off the bucket list left and right!

Our Northern Route

Planning

According to a quick search, the entire drive is about 16 hours – which means that straight through would probably be closer to 18 hours for any human person (food, gas, bathroom, just like time outside of the car). We’re not trying for a land-speed-record here, and really want to take in the scenery. So, we’re planning on taking about 5 days to make the drive.

*Quick Side Note : We measure everything based on the LA-to-Mammoth vs. LA-to-Tahoe metric. Essentially, driving from LA to Mammoth (about 5 hours) doesn’t seem so bad, but adding in the extra few hours to Tahoe (total about 8 hours) and the trip is excruciating. So we typically try and top out our daily drive time about about 5-6 hours.

Depending on how fast you want to travel vs. how much you want to see along the way – I’m going to list our preferred stops and sights and then list a few extras along the way that are definately worth a stop if you want to spend some extra time.

Stops and Overnights

Day 1 : Time to Fly

Having explored Southern California and Las Vegas, we’re going to put in the most driving here and get out to St. George, Utah for the first overnight. I realize this is just at the very tippy-top of our preferred drive time, but, on any multi-day road trip, I get most energized when we make some really great distance in on the first day. Plus, St. George and the National Parks surrounding it are going to give us at least a day away from the trip to recuperate

Why St. George?

We’ve said this a ton, but St. George is one of our favorite destinations for outdoor adventures. For a road trip, St. George is great because it’s got tons of accommodations of all sorts (hotels to tents to two-floor personal TeePees) and a pretty good dining scene. It’s worth a trip all of its own.

For this trip through, we’ll be using it as a jumping off point to see more of Utah’s Mighty 5 National Parks. We’ll be stopping in St. George for a great night sleep (at an affordable rate) before heading into Zion and Bryce Canyon.

Stops Along the Way

If you’ve never made the LA to Las Vegas drive, there are some really cool, iconic sights. While some of them are just passing by on the interstate, some of worth a dedicated stop.

• World’s Tallest Thermometer – I love ol’ timey Route 66 style stops.
• Seven Magic Mountains – Colorful roadside stop before you get to Las Vegas
• For more stops along the way : Check out This list of 27 pretty cool things to see.

Other Travel Options

Las Vegas : This one is kinda a no-brainer. A lot of people roll into Vegas as their first stop, and we’ve spent a ton of time in Vegas over the years. I don’t think this is a good stop for Road Trips though. With resort fees added onto rooms, open parking garages & just general distance between the car and the room, it’s just not perfect for leaving stuff in the car overnight or finding good and affordable accommodations. In my opinion, Vegas also isn’t great for just an overnight.

Big Bear : This overnight is a great option if you’re looking to take the trip really slow. Only 2 hours from LA, this mountain town has some really fun home rentals and year-round good hiking. This isn’t a good stop-along-the-way though because there aren’t many quickly accessible sites or hikes that make the added time worth the stop.

Day 2 : National Parks

Driving through Utah is a great opportunity to see some of the US’s most iconic National Parks. It’s here at these stops that America really separates itself out from the rest of the world – these are pretty much exclusively US style attractions and helped give rise to the original United States Tourism Industry.

Zion

Zion is Utah’s oldest and most visited National Park. With countless hiking trails and also camping and canyoning, Bob and I are most looking forward to hiking up to Angels Landing. It will definitely test my fear of heights, but I know I’ll feel awesome when it’s done. (We might want to invest in that GoPro before we go so I can grip the cliff side and not worry about the camera!)

We could hop out and do a shorter hike like The Lower Emerald Pools Hike or Weeding Rock Hike, but instead, we’re going to drive through and try and stop at the Canyon Overlook Trail – a short 1 mile, out and back hike with one of the most spectacular views in the park.

Getting to this hike will already carry us to the other side of the park – passing through the Zion tunnel – and put us on our way to the next National Park.

Bryce Canyon

I’m really interested in getting to this area around sunrise or sunset and  I know Bob wants to take the 37 mile round trip drive to see all the popular spots. Known for its massive HooDoo’s, Bryce Canyon National Park is another of America’s treasures. We’ve never been then and don’t know what to expect- will they actually be as tall as they look? How close can we get?

It’s about an hour – an hour and half from Zion to Bryce National Park, which should put us in the Bryce area just around lunch time-ish. Dogs are only allowed on the Rim Trail between Sunset and Sunrise Points – which looks like it follows the ridge from the parking lot and back.

**Since we first took this trip, we’ve visited Bryce again and there are now several great food options for travelers. Also, we returned without our dogs and were able to hike down along the Queen’s Garden Loop (slippery when wet) and got to get really close to the HooDoos. Even on our return trip, we didn’t get to stop in at the Mossy Cave Hike though – and we’ll make sure to hit it up on our return.

If everything goes according to plan (ie not too much traffic) – we’ll still have a few hours of daylight and have only spend about 2.5 hours in the car. Add to that, we should have pretty stretched out legs from the hiking and be ready to drive for a bit.

Our next major destination is Arches National Park – it’s about 4-5 hours away, which would put us in pretty late. So we’re going to stop along the way and overnight in Green River, UT – about 3.5 hours and only a half-hour from Arches so we can arrive there early.

Other Travel Options

Cross through Utah can really be a choose-your-own-adventure of National Parks. Sure, they’ll add drive time (typically 3-5 hours apart) but dividing the drive between days makes everything totally do-able.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument – Great for camping, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, off highway vehicles, kayaking and river runs. Also, as with all the parks in Utah, this park is a photographer’s dream location.

Capitol Reef National Park – Home of “Waterpocket Fold” – a crease in the Earth’s surface that run 100 miles long – and has Petroglyphs from the ancient Pueblo people. The National Park system has a lot of great info about planning your trip, including 1-2 hour scenic drives, hiking trails and guides for camping several days.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park – Coral and pink sand dunes all along the horizon! Perfect for camping and hiking, these sand dunes along the horizon makes for awesome photos.

Day 3 : Getting to Colorado

We’re going to get up early in order to get to Arches National Park early – hopefully beating the crowds.

Arches

Arches National Park has the world’s largest collection of natural stone arches in the world. If that doesn’t get you excited I don’t know what does!! Bob definitely wants to take engagement photos under as many arches as possible, so I hope you are looking forward to the Love Arches photo album!

With so many photo stops and parking that relatively close to the arches (so we can just roll the windows down and let the dogs stay in the car) – we’re planning on spending more time in this park than the others we’ve seen so far – probably 2 or so hours.

Heading out around noon should be just about the perfect time to head towards our next overnight – Aspen (about 4 hours away). I mean, I’ve heard about Aspen my whole life – it seems silly not to stop in since we’re basically driving right past it.

Aspen

**Since our original drive, gone back to Aspen and Snowmass and highly recommend visiting if you can find deals on accommodations. (It is an expensive city) 

Some of the most interesting spots we’ve visited in Aspen are :

• Summer Hiking Overlooking Aspen – many hikes are walkable from most spots in the city
• John Denver Sanctuary – This is a really relaxing small park beside a stream. Pretty much every rock has a lyric chiseled into it.
• Snowmass Ice Age Discovery Center – Small museum housing locally found dino bones.

*We’ve actually spent a whole weekend in Snowmass. It’s a great spot to use as a hub for exploring the wilds of Colorado.

Other Travel Options

We’ve traveled to this section of Colorado twice now. There are a handful of cities and towns each with unique experiences. If you’re up for adding some extra time on the road in Colorado, we’d suggest :

• • Carbondale : When I think Carbondale, I think fly-fishing and Hot Springs. I’d aim for visiting here in the afternoon.
  • Gleenwood Springs : This was the largest tourism based city in the area. I always think of SUP surfing in the Colorado River, but we’ve also spent the afternoon at their massive hot springs, the adventure park, and even zip-lining over the Colorado River.
  • Beer Tasting : Brewing in Colorado isn’t limited to the major cities, each town in this area is also home their own best of Colorado Beer.
  • Rodeo : There are several rodeo throughout the year in this area. These are really different than the types of rodeos that travel through big cities – smaller and more community oriented.

Day 4 : Getting to Denver

Arriving in the afternoon the day prior, we’re planning on spending at least half a day in Aspen; split between sightseeing and you know drinking coffee. The total drive time is expected to be somewhere between 3 – 4 hours.

We’ll head out just after lunch, with a stop in Breckenridge to drop off the dogs for a few days of boarding.

Have you road tripped through Utah or visited any of the State or National Parks?  Please let us know any secret or special stops we should make and places we definitely shouldn’t miss!