Planning a Summer Roadtrip to the Southwest US with my Friends After High School Graduation. Any Help Appreciated!
My friends and I, who are currently enrolled in our final year of high school, have been attempting to plan a road trip for about a month now. We have settled on the Southwest United States, but being from the midwest, more specifically Iowa, we know very little about the region that we want to travel to. We are planning on a maximum group of five people, likely with a mix of girls and guys, and I believe we are driving a 2009 Acadia. All I know about the vehicle, seeing as how it's my friends, is that it has pretty decent gas mileage and has enough seats for all of us. Ideally, the trip will last anywhere from ten days to two weeks. On the way, we will be stopping in Denver, Colorado to stay with some of my family friends overnight, and we may even spend a full day there. This would obviously already chew up 2 days of the trip, as the driving alone will take roughly 8 or 9 hours. Some major points that we want to see are Moab, Utah (and its two lovely national parks,) Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, and likely Zion. Personally, I could do without the Grand Canyon as I believe Zion is much more spectacular, but I know some of my friends are keen to see it. I'd love to hear some opinions on that. We are also planning a stop in Las Vegas, where my friend's grandparents live. We figured this would be a a good break from nature to sleep indoors and get some showers under our belts for the rest of the trip. This is partially where the trip becomes a little more of a stretch. We considered driving to Yosemite via Death Valley and US-395 through the Sierra Mountains. I have heard this road is beautiful, and I'd quite like to see it. From here, however, I get sort of lost in the planning phase. After spending a night at Yosemite, we are not sure that there is anything really left to do for our trip, however based on our estimates, heading straight home from Yosemite, with maybe two or three nights at generic campgrounds sounds boring to us. We considered driving north to Yellowstone, however that is so far out of the way that it just does not seem practical. Obviously this is a lot of info to look over without any sort of visualization, but I appreciate any help anyone can give me. Just some extra info, my friends and I are pretty athletic, meaning we do not mind a couple hikes so long as they are pretty spread out across the trip. (We would hate to have a 5-9 hour drive followed by two days of 10+ mile hikes, but are willing to do so if there is really a site worth seeing.) We are also hoping to make the trip as cheap as possible attraction wise. We understand that a road trip requires gas, food and any costs that come with overnight sleeping, but we also know that some of the best attractions are the extremely cheap or entirely free ones. We would also appreciate any information on cheap campgrounds near a couple of the stops we listed or any stops you have to mention. Thanks so much, and hopefully I provided enough info for some good feedback. :)
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