So I've got this one way drive one way fly back tour penciled in but will listen to advice. The front end of my itinerary is set in stone as I'm really doing this to spend a couple days in Arkansas at my FILs new home and med school he's heading up. After we leave Arkansas we're just blowing through Oklahoma and Texas other than lunch at Cattlemans in OKC, some quick hikes and shots around Wichita Mountain National Wildlife Preserve, and dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo before we end up in Roswell for the night.
Then we're getting up at a reasonable time doing some tacky tourist %*^* around Roswell in the midmorning, then driving for a quick stop at Pistachioland and its winery before going out to White Sands National Monument. After a couple of hours there, we'll drive up to Santa Fe to eat dinner at Maria's and grab a beer or six at Second Street Brewery. We'll be spending the night at La Fonda.
The next day we'll be getting up predawn to head out to Tent Rocks to get sunrise photos of the titular rocks and hike the slot canyon (only a 2.6 mile hike). Then we're split between returning to Santa Fe to do some of the old buildings around there and after grabbing lunch there or going to the Native American Indian museum and eating at the Native American restaurant there with some wine tasting at Gruet and St Clair. Regardless of which city we kill a couple of hours in after Tent Rocks we're going to Marble Brewery in Albuquerque for a few beers and then eating at El Pinto. Then we're driving over to Farmington to catch a little shuteye.
Fourth day of the SW portion of our trip, we're getting up early to grab Sunrise shots of Shiprock then driving up to Mesa Verde National a Park to do the 9 am tour of the Cliff Palace and then maybe hike around a tiny bit depending upon when we get released from the tour. Lunch will be a quick early lunch at the Shiloh Steakhouse in Cortez Colorado to split some country-fried elk and bacon wrapped bison sirloin. Then it's the three hour drive up to Dead Horse Point for some quick vista photo shots at the Visitor Center and Dead Horse Point Overlook. If we're doing well time wise we'll do the three mile or so round trip hike to the Rim Overlook and Big Horn Overlook. That should put us no later than 4 pm so we'll drive down to the 45 minutes to the Grand View Point in Canyonland's National Park -Island in the Sky district plus a couple of vista points at Orange Cliffs, Shafer Canyon, and the Visitor Center. That should be around 5:30 or so. Then we'll do the 40 minute drive to Arches National Park which will give us enough time to do the 15 min rountrip hike to Skyline Arch during the Golden Hour of sunlight and then hike the 40 min rountrip to the Windows section for sunset (we don't have time to do Delicate Arch up close as it's a 2.5 hour hike that's rough to get the famous shots, the viewpoint that takes like 10 mins is pretty far away and a bad angle). Then we'll do the little half mile hike at night to Double Arch to grab some Milky Way shots. We'll grab a burger and some beer at Moab Brewery, then drive over to our hotel in Green River hopefully crashing by 10:30 or so.
Fifth Day we'll be getting up just before dawn to drive over to Goblin Valley State Park for some sunrise shots. We plan on doing about two or two and a half hours of free form hiking getting shots of the various hoodoos. Then we've got a 1.75 hour drive to Capitol Reef National Park where we'll do a couple stops at Fruita then do the Scenic Drive....err drive. That should put us around 1 where we'll grab some fried rattlesnake cakes, salmon anticuchos and steak and green chili lettuce rolls at Cafe Diablo in Torrey along with Getting the pie sampler for takeout at SunGlow Cafe to try the sweet pickle pie, buttermilk pie, pinto bean pie and oatmeal pie. Then we'll take highway 12 as it's supposed to be more scenic than 24 to 62 to get down to Bryce Canyon by about 5 or so which gives 2.75 hours to play before sunset. We'll do a couple of the short easy hikes like Bristlecone Loop, Mossy Cave and the Rim Trail. We'll grab some sunset pics of the main Bryce view then head back to our nearby hotel at Ruby's Inn for dinner then quickly head back into Bryce for some Milky Way shots before heading to bed.
Sixth Day will depend somewhat on how the sunset looked the night before, if we got great shots we'll probably sleep in if not we'll get up for sunrise shots. Either way we'll be on the road by 10 to get down to Zion for a couple of the shorter hikes. We're definitely not doing Angels Landing as I don't want to burn the time needed for it as my wife wants to get down to the wave in Valley of Fire for sunset pics. Plus Zion is close enough to Vegas and we'll be coming back in Fall before we go to the Big Island of Hawaii. Then we're checking into our hotel in Vegas in the Silverton (for some reason everything in Vegas that day was triple the price of normal Saturdays no clue why so I decided to say screwit and stay at a cheaper one...which is still expensive then) quickly showering and the grabbing some food at the Buffet at Ceasars before catching the 10 PM show of Absinthe also at Ceasar's.
Then we've got two more days in Vegas to rest and recover plus drink, eat and gamble before flying back on a red eye.
Then we're getting up at a reasonable time doing some tacky tourist %*^* around Roswell in the midmorning, then driving for a quick stop at Pistachioland and its winery before going out to White Sands National Monument. After a couple of hours there, we'll drive up to Santa Fe to eat dinner at Maria's and grab a beer or six at Second Street Brewery. We'll be spending the night at La Fonda.
The next day we'll be getting up predawn to head out to Tent Rocks to get sunrise photos of the titular rocks and hike the slot canyon (only a 2.6 mile hike). Then we're split between returning to Santa Fe to do some of the old buildings around there and after grabbing lunch there or going to the Native American Indian museum and eating at the Native American restaurant there with some wine tasting at Gruet and St Clair. Regardless of which city we kill a couple of hours in after Tent Rocks we're going to Marble Brewery in Albuquerque for a few beers and then eating at El Pinto. Then we're driving over to Farmington to catch a little shuteye.
Fourth day of the SW portion of our trip, we're getting up early to grab Sunrise shots of Shiprock then driving up to Mesa Verde National a Park to do the 9 am tour of the Cliff Palace and then maybe hike around a tiny bit depending upon when we get released from the tour. Lunch will be a quick early lunch at the Shiloh Steakhouse in Cortez Colorado to split some country-fried elk and bacon wrapped bison sirloin. Then it's the three hour drive up to Dead Horse Point for some quick vista photo shots at the Visitor Center and Dead Horse Point Overlook. If we're doing well time wise we'll do the three mile or so round trip hike to the Rim Overlook and Big Horn Overlook. That should put us no later than 4 pm so we'll drive down to the 45 minutes to the Grand View Point in Canyonland's National Park -Island in the Sky district plus a couple of vista points at Orange Cliffs, Shafer Canyon, and the Visitor Center. That should be around 5:30 or so. Then we'll do the 40 minute drive to Arches National Park which will give us enough time to do the 15 min rountrip hike to Skyline Arch during the Golden Hour of sunlight and then hike the 40 min rountrip to the Windows section for sunset (we don't have time to do Delicate Arch up close as it's a 2.5 hour hike that's rough to get the famous shots, the viewpoint that takes like 10 mins is pretty far away and a bad angle). Then we'll do the little half mile hike at night to Double Arch to grab some Milky Way shots. We'll grab a burger and some beer at Moab Brewery, then drive over to our hotel in Green River hopefully crashing by 10:30 or so.
Fifth Day we'll be getting up just before dawn to drive over to Goblin Valley State Park for some sunrise shots. We plan on doing about two or two and a half hours of free form hiking getting shots of the various hoodoos. Then we've got a 1.75 hour drive to Capitol Reef National Park where we'll do a couple stops at Fruita then do the Scenic Drive....err drive. That should put us around 1 where we'll grab some fried rattlesnake cakes, salmon anticuchos and steak and green chili lettuce rolls at Cafe Diablo in Torrey along with Getting the pie sampler for takeout at SunGlow Cafe to try the sweet pickle pie, buttermilk pie, pinto bean pie and oatmeal pie. Then we'll take highway 12 as it's supposed to be more scenic than 24 to 62 to get down to Bryce Canyon by about 5 or so which gives 2.75 hours to play before sunset. We'll do a couple of the short easy hikes like Bristlecone Loop, Mossy Cave and the Rim Trail. We'll grab some sunset pics of the main Bryce view then head back to our nearby hotel at Ruby's Inn for dinner then quickly head back into Bryce for some Milky Way shots before heading to bed.
Sixth Day will depend somewhat on how the sunset looked the night before, if we got great shots we'll probably sleep in if not we'll get up for sunrise shots. Either way we'll be on the road by 10 to get down to Zion for a couple of the shorter hikes. We're definitely not doing Angels Landing as I don't want to burn the time needed for it as my wife wants to get down to the wave in Valley of Fire for sunset pics. Plus Zion is close enough to Vegas and we'll be coming back in Fall before we go to the Big Island of Hawaii. Then we're checking into our hotel in Vegas in the Silverton (for some reason everything in Vegas that day was triple the price of normal Saturdays no clue why so I decided to say screwit and stay at a cheaper one...which is still expensive then) quickly showering and the grabbing some food at the Buffet at Ceasars before catching the 10 PM show of Absinthe also at Ceasar's.
Then we've got two more days in Vegas to rest and recover plus drink, eat and gamble before flying back on a red eye.
