Third Year: The Desert Southwest

We are preparing for the third leg of our Park to Park Tour, and we want to share some of the plans, because planning is perhaps the most important part of pulling of a successful visit to National Parks.

The 1920 Park to Park Highway Tour began in Denver and ended in Denver. Spanning 76 days in total, the tour planned to visit 12 National Parks — out of only 16 parks that existed at the time. Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, and Mt. Rainier, were the first four parks in 1920 and among the seven that we visited in 2021. Crater Lake, Lassen, Yosemite, General Grant (Kings Canyon), and Sequoia were the next group, which account for five of the seven parks on our 2022 journey. And then a century ago the trip was meant to visit Zion, Grand Canyon, and Mesa Verde. As it happened they only made it to two of these, Zion was excluded because of difficult terrain and lack of accessible roads for early touring cars.

But for us, in 2023, Zion will be the first park we visit, and we’ll find our way to Mesa Verde too. Grand Canyon will be saved for another trip so that it can get the time and attention it deserves. Nonetheless, part three of this 21st century Park to Park Tour will cover seven amazing parks.

We’ll fly in to Salt Lake City, where our friends from Peace Vans in Seattle have agreed to meet us with a converted Mercedes Metris pop-top. We’ll have a full camper that can sleep up to four on a chasis that is no larger than a typical mini-van. We were do pleased with the Peace Vans Metris that we had to do it again. When Harley and the team offered to drive own to SLC, how could we resist?

After some prep in Sale Lake, we’re off to Zion for five days. We’ll have three days at Bryce Canyon and three at Capitol Reed, followed by five days at Arches and Canyonlands (combined). Some time at Lake Powell will be followed by a couple days at Mesa Verde and a few a Black Canyon of the Gunnison, from which the van will be driven all the way back to Seattle.

Along the route we’ve also planned some diversions like Mystic Hot Springs, Goblin Valley State Park, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, the Four Corners, and Dinosaur National Monument. It’s a lot for 30 days, but we’re up for it.

That’s the plan anyway. Like always, we have meticulously laid out the itinerary day-by-day, but we’re prepared to abandon it at any point if something causes an issue or seems more appealing that what we laid out. As we’ve learned, the best parts of the trip are often the serendipitous unplanned parts.

With that, we need to pack some bags and prepare for our flight to Salt Lake City. Stay tuned for updates from the road!