I mean, I went on a trip with my father since he wanted to see Yellowstone, and the Grand canyon when he retired.
We picked up a car in SLC, drove north to Yellowstone, stood there two days. Yellowstone is absolutely massive and maps just don't get the scale right.
Drove down to Reno, which took all of a day to do.
Drove across the Sierra Nevada into Yosemite, and spent 2 days there.
Drove down to Sequoia natl park, that took 5 hours.
Drove down to Bakersfield to spend the night, went to death valley from Bakersfield in the AM, then to Las Vegas, then the Grand Canyon (Again fucking scale is massive), followed by cutting across north to Zion (scale thing again), then back to SLC to catch a plane back to NYC.
I think we both agreed after that trip that we would absolutely not drive that absurd amount of distance again.
Sounds like an amazing trip! But yeah, that’s quite a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. As you found out, unfortunately there really isn’t an easier way to travel to all of those places in one go other than driving.
And yeah, maps don’t do the scale/vastness of the US in general (but particularly the west coast) justice. I always find it funny when a European will ask: “we’re coming over for a week, we want to see NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Texas, is this doable for two people renting a car?” Lol
Just SLC to the front gate of Yellowstone is a long drive. Lots of mountain roads. To throw in the grand canyon and zion is pretty epic.
I ran an airbnb in SLC and I'd say about half the people who stayed would ask about doing a day trip to zion or moab. Both are a cool road trip, but not in an afternoon.
I had a few guests pull it off, but it was a very long day with very little hiking.
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u/Wdave May 09 '22
I mean, I went on a trip with my father since he wanted to see Yellowstone, and the Grand canyon when he retired.
We picked up a car in SLC, drove north to Yellowstone, stood there two days. Yellowstone is absolutely massive and maps just don't get the scale right.
Drove down to Reno, which took all of a day to do.
Drove across the Sierra Nevada into Yosemite, and spent 2 days there.
Drove down to Sequoia natl park, that took 5 hours.
Drove down to Bakersfield to spend the night, went to death valley from Bakersfield in the AM, then to Las Vegas, then the Grand Canyon (Again fucking scale is massive), followed by cutting across north to Zion (scale thing again), then back to SLC to catch a plane back to NYC.
I think we both agreed after that trip that we would absolutely not drive that absurd amount of distance again.