16 Day RV Family Trip from Las Vegas to Denver

First Post!

Our family of four took a Summer of 2016 RV Trip Vegas to Denver. This article is written to help others who want to consider the same. Its a great family bonding experience. With some advance planning (6 months ahead) you can put your own family adventure together. This is best read with a road map if you want to follow the route. Mostly major roads.

Day 1 – Arrived by plane into Las Vegas and overnight. Take your pick of hotels. Add an extra day or arrive early if you want to walk the strip. Nothing great for kids here so we arrived late and headed out in the morning.

Day 2 and 3– RV rented nice nearly new RV from Apollo about 5 miles from Las Vegas strip; Saturday departure is hectic and company understaffed to handle the demand. Long wait delays trip from 10am to 3pm. Recommend departure during a weekday and arrive early before opening of business. Business uses First Come First Served method to serve customers based on arrival time. Consider arriving early (pre-opening) in a rented car rather than taxi and then drop car at airport or offsite after RV is departed. Having a rented car will give you flexibility if you are like me and want the freedom to drive to a store if the line is too long at the RV rental place. We had a 4 hour wait. (I have another blog to post on that experience).

Depart to Utah via RT 15 and stopped for food provisions along the way in Mesquite, NV. Rt 15 to Rt 9 to arrive in Springdale just south of Zion. 2 night stay at Zion Canyon campground. Town bus runs to Zion and no car needed. Grocery store nearby. Walking and hiking in Zion until dusk. Drove to Bryce Canyon from Zion in a car with relative (Do not recommend driving RV to Bryce due to tunnels and mountain roads). Tip: Add extra day to see Bryce and rent a car.

Day 4 – Drove to Arizona (did not take RV through RT 9 into Zion and instead went a safer secondary road from Sprindaleto Kanab), Rt 89A to Rt 89 to Rt 64 to South Rim of Grand Canyon. Long drive across southern Utah with grand staircase view (Rt 89a) for much of the drive and stops along the way. Long day drive could have overnighted half way or visited North Rim viewing area instead. Arrive Grand Canyon Trailer Village RV Park at dusk and rented bikes for 24 hrs. Beautiful place; lots of wildlife, elk, etc. Easily could have stayed another night and hiked more extensively into Canyon and relaxed.

Day 5 – Route 64 to Rt 160 Drive to Mesa Verde Colorado. Visited Lake Powell dam, Navajo Nat Park and 4 Corners for photo opp. Lots to see along the way and if time, Lake Powell has boating tours and is a top destination for UTAH residents with boats in summer. Camped at Cortez Mesa Verde KOA. Nothing spectacular but just an overnight stop to see Mesa Verde next day.

Day 6 – Mesa Verde visit takes 4 hours minimum. Very interesting. Need reservations from Nat Park Service in advance to get to walk on Pueblo ruins with a guide. Wish we had done that. Rt 491 to Rt 191 to Moab UT and camped at Moab Valley RV Resort. Things to do here include off road ATV riding. We visited Arches Nat Park for an evening viewing. No time left to see Canyon Lands Nat Park. Needed extra day to fully experience the area.

Day 7 – Early am drive north on Rt 191 to Provo, UT about 4 hours. Detour to Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Lunch in RV. Parking for RV up to 27 feet (no bigger here but we had 27 foot – got lucky). Tickets were purchased in advance. Cave system at top of mountain. 90 minute hike up mountain on nice trail – paved. Need water and carry sweatshirt for cold cave at top. Very cool stop. Guided tour inside cave. Must have tickets. 30 min cave tour. 60 minute walk down. Harder than the walk up but so worth the experience. Next stop – 5 hours to Bear Lake, Idaho State Park . North on Rt 15 then take RT 89 (Scenic ride) just north or Ogden, UT to get to Bear Lake. Awesome scenery during late day setting sun. Finding Bear Lake State Park is on other side of lake and need to drive around north end of lake. This took us a little time to figure out without any advance directions and we arrived in dark, found camp site in the dark.

Day 8 – Awake to Bear Lake sunrise and the setting is spectacular. We decided to stay awhile and the kids swam in lake. Pre 4th July and it’s a big rec area for locals to tailgate on the beach. We loved this place and want to go back someday. Must be gorgeous here in autumn. Late AM head North to Jackson Wyoming on RT 89. Some interesting tourist stops along the drive. Drive to Jackson, WY and we checked into Virginian Lodge Campground at about dusk. Rode a town free bus to downtown Jackson to see shops and elk antler arches. Great ice cream shop in Jackson.

Day 9 – Drove RV to Jenny Lake @ Grand Teton and hiked trail around lake and paid for a boat ride back. Back to Virginian Lodge camp ground and went to a rodeo (Sat night) on a free bus right from rear of Virginian Lodge. Nice way to roundout the day. Jackson might just be my new favorite place.

Day 10 – Drive to Yellowstone. First stop Old Faithful and spent some time here. Lots of geysers and great area to walk on boardwalks. Join Yellowstone Association (Not Grand Teton Association) to get discounts on merchandise, clothing, etc. in Yellowstone. The Grand Teton Assoc membership does not get Yellowstone Discounts and that’s where we bought most gifts. Drive around and stop. Lots to see in Y Stone. Drive to Fishing Bridge RV Park. Settle in and took sunset tour on a vintage taxi with sunset over Lake Yellowstone (nice!).

Day 11 – Cruised in RV up to Roosevelt area of Yellowstone, Northwest Yellowstone and drove all around. Black bear siting, Bison in the North. We toured all day in the RV and stopped anywhere that looked good for photos, picnic, etc. So much to see. Back to Fishing Bridge campground.

Day 12 – Check out of Fishing Bridge Campground and head north east to Mammoth Spring area and North Entrance. This is a good last stop as the Mammoth hot springs are dried up now. Exit N Entrance Rt 89 to Rt 90 and drove to Billings MT. We arrived at Billings KOA. Nicest KOA we found, situated on Yellowstone River in Montana and easy walk from camp site. Super clean KOA!

Day 13 – Drive to Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer’s last stand). A 2 hour stop for us. Head to Devils Tower via RT 212 trough Broadus (Indian Reservation country) and on to Rt 112. We stopped here and hiked around the Tower. Then South through Deadwood, SD through Lead, SD to Mt Rushmore Palmer Gulch KOA in Hill City, SD (Huge campground, restaurants).

Day 14 – Rented a car from Palmer Gulch campground (pre-reserved) and we toured Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Wall Drug, and back to Mt Rushmore for nightviewing.

Day 15 – Drove South toward Custer, SD to Windcaves National Park. This as not a scheduled stop for us and we did not have time, otherwise there were caves to explorte (tickets required). The kind of caves that are deep in the ground and some are real adventure cave crawls if desired, others are not. Prairie dogs everywhere. Continued South toward Colorado. Side detour to Scotts Bluff, NE to see Oregon Trail, Pony Express story. Not much time spent here. Back on the road to CO. We camped a few miles off the highway 25. Wish we had time to get into the Rockies.

Day 16 – Drove to Denver airport to rent a car for a fewhours so we did not have to sit in the airport. Then to Apollo RV office to return RV (Pam drove RV and I drove rented car). Drove to downtown Denver and walked around the city for lunch, etc.
Flight home.

If you want to make a family memory, this voyage is unforgettable! Estimated Costs: RV $2,800 with insurance and "unlimited" miles, Fuel $600, Campsites $1,000; Tolls $0, Provisions/Food $600, Flights (get some frequent flyer miles with award credit card and get the flights for nothing). Add in some special events and its a few bucks more. This should give a good idea of what kind of money it takes to do this.

I will post the 2017 voyage from LA to Seattle if there is any interest. Thanks for reading!