Colorado to Zion, DL, San Diego, Moab, RIfle Falls

[familyfun5]

Hi. First off you all are such great help and I enjoy the tips even to places I am not currently planning on going to but it makes me plan far into the future.
We are taking a 2 week RV tour. Here is our tentative itinerary and would love any thoughts, tips ect…
For instance, Moab; I selected this largely because it’s a great stopping point on the way back home. But any “not miss” thing to do here? And Zion; I intend to get to RV park about 10:30 and get into Zion by 12:30. We are also spending the full next day. We will be hiking with young kids (young being almost 1 and just turned 2, then two almost teens), what are the great hikes but are not too taxing?
Any thoughts on changing/adding/excluding places? Should it be two days at the Zoo or make one day at the Zoo and one day at Wild Animal Park? I was thinking the babies would enjoy a second day at the Zoo more and we would not have to fit it all into one day. I also really wanted to fit in Bryce but cut it. Is Bryce worth fitting in or is it just like Zion and Moab?

I also tend to over plan making all beyond tired. That said, does this seem doable?

Thur---Heading out after work, babies sleeping, stop at rest area for nap.
Fri--- Arrive at RV park Zion 10:30, in Zion by12:30, back to camp 6pm
dinner and swim
Sat---Full day in Zion 9-3, back to camp swim, naps, dinner and relax
Sun---To Disney Land, leave camp 5:30 (babies sleeping first couple hours) arrive in DL 1:30
– 10:30
Mon---Full day at DL 8-8, drive to San Diego (babies sleeping entire way) get to camp 11:30pm
Tues---San Diego Beach day, relax at camp, recoup from DL
Wed---Zoo
Thur---Museums in Balboa Park 9-4,back to camp dinner, relax maybe kids swim
Fri---Sea World (thought of switching with beach day, but then Sea
World on a Sat?)
Sat ---Beach day, tour aircraft carrier museum
Sun---Zoo, leave from Zoo (9-4, babies should be fast asleep for a couple hr), stop near Vegas (11pm)for sleep.
Mon---Arrive in Moab (1 ish) reservation for chuck wagon dinner and show, swim, walk through town
Tues---Full day in Moab
Wed ---hike in morning or swim, leave 12 (babies sleep for 3hour drive) arrive Rifle Falls 3ish, caves, dinner ect…
Thurs---full day at Falls ( no Glenwood Spgs, lived here done that)visit with 18 yr daughter and her 24yr boyfriend (yikes!!!) I want to skip the visiting with the boyfriend, not sure I can get away with that though
Fri---Leave 9, home by 1, clean and turn in camper by 4
then sleep for two days for our "vacation"


Any thoughts? All are welcome

 

[CPT Tripss]

Bryce and Zion are very different parks . . . you would see amazing things at either/both. I don't want to tell you to shorten Moab as I have never been there but I really like Bryce and Zion.

 

[sharig5576]

Arches National Park is in Moab. It is beautiful and amazing with the highest concentration of natural arches in the world.

 

[GrandBob]

I agree. Moab not only has Arches NP, which is gorgeous, it also has Canyonlands NP. You can easily spend 3 days or more here without getting bored. But the primary attraction, IMO, is Arches NP. Take some hikes -- it's amazing!

-Bob

 

[CPT Tripss]

I agree. Moab not only has Arches NP, which is gorgeous, it also has Canyonlands NP. You can easily spend 3 days or more here without getting bored. But the primary attraction, IMO, is Arches NP. Take some hikes -- it's amazing!

-Bob

Bob's advice . . . "take a hike." Is appropriate at every National Park I have visited! Getting off the pavement is the way to go.

 

[ScooterL]

Definitely do NOT miss Arches National Park when you're in Moab. I'd skip Canyonlands this time - it's a bit of a drive from Moab, and not nearly as interesting as Arches. Arches has a pretty long "scenic drive" where you can stop at several places and do a relatively short hike, which seems like it might work better since you have small children. One thing you could do - there's a hike called "Park Avenue", which starts at one end of this canyon and ends on the other - one of you could take the two older kids and hike from one end to the other while the other drives with the two younger ones to the opposite end.

In Zion, as I recall the hikes to the "Weeping Wall" and the Emerald Pool are pretty easy.

Bryce, Zion, and Moab are all very different. I prefer Bryce over Zion myself - it's cooler up there, for one thing, and I like the looks of the "hoodoos" more than the canyon walls of Zion. It's quite a distance between Zion and Moab, whereas Zion and Bryce are fairly close. Unless you go to Bryce on your way to Zion and just do a drive-through I'm not sure how you would fit that in, though. And I assume you are taking I70 to I15 to get to Zion, so Bryce would be a long way off that route, unless you want to take highway 89 instead of I15.

 

[loydandmel]

We did Moab two years ago. I have never seen anything like it. Beautiful. We did lots of offroading. There is a beautiful city park that the kids will love. We went the 1st week in June and it was not too hot. If you do any hiking talk lots of water. The climate is very dry lots of chap stick and lotion. The main street is lined with shops. There is a fun place to visit if you have time called the Hole in the Rock. It's a house cut into the side of a huge rock. We also did some offroading through Canyon Land it looks similar to Arches.

 

[skiingfast]

In SD I would do the zoo and animal park. You can get the zoo done in a day so it's not worth two. If your not sure about that much animals I would goto the beach.

FWIW I would say Zion and Moab are similar and Bryce is different. If you wanted to mix things up combine Bryce with one of the other two.