Road Trip: Southwest
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 - Friday, May 09, 2025
2025 Road Trip Summary
One target of this vacation was four more state capitals.
This trip brings our capitals total to 41, adding four more with this adventure.
But while we were in the southwest, we visited almost three times as many
national parks (NPs) as we visited state capitals. We are not planning
on going to all the NPs, but will visit them when it is convenient - and visiting so many of them while we were in the area
was convenient. We obviously could have taken a completely different route to avoid so many of them... but we didn't.
During this trip we stopped in Las Vegas, NV, on the way to five National Parks in southern Utah.
But what is quirky about these two states - NV and UT - is that, except for visiting family and the three neighboring states
states to our home state, this is pretty much the first time we visited a state wherein we did not also visit the capital since
we've been visiting the capitals. We won't visit Salt Lake City, UT, and Carson City, NV, until we do two other roadtrips - the
Pacific Northwest, and the last three states, respectively.
The weather at the beginning of the vacation was generally acceptable, with temps varying from 93° in Phoenix, to the upper
50s and low 60s. Then we got into the mountains during the last week and we had frozen precipitation and some highs that didn't
get out of the 40s, with overnight lows in the 30s.
As we originally contemplated this trip, we considered what it would be like to rent an RV and tour the area and "be on our
own schedule", versus renting a car and staying in hotel rooms. As it got closer and the decision needed to be made whether
to rent an RV or book hotels became reality, we did further research.
Both options have benefits and drawbacks, but to us, the drawbacks to RV rental far outweighed the benefits.
The biggest benefit of an RV is that it affords the option to stay wherever at any time - if we want to visit a park longer,
we just stay there without being forced to leave because we have a hotel reservation in another town somewhere. We aren't hikers
nor tent campers, but an RV would have been a decent compromise. And driving around with a bathroom negates the need to find a rest
stop whenever it is needed. RVs tend to be considerably larger - at least those with kitchens and bathrooms - than a car is, and
since we were also visiting cities - capitals - on our trip, this would have potentially provided additional challenges.
The biggest drawback of the RV plan is the cost. Car rental is about $80 a day, and the hotels we stay at average less than $100
a day - so less than $200 per day. Some RV rental companies charge more than that for their vehicles per day. Plus some have mileage
per day caps and there are fees for exceeding those caps. We would need to find a rental company that would allow us to return the
RV to a different city that we rented it - and that added a fee. The MPG is usually horrible - like low-teens horrible. MPG doesn't
usually mean that much, unless one is driving 3,000 miles during a vacation and 15 MPG yields 200 gallons of gas, whereas 40
MPG yields only 75 gallons (and that's just the travel MPG as RVs use more gas to run generators). 125 gallons at a low $3.00 per
means another $375 dollars MORE for the RV. Our hotel stays usually include breakfast - 12 of the 13 nights on this trip do too.
But an RV rental would require breakfast making, food purchases, and clean-up too. And since our transportation in a park was our
home, we'd have to disconnect from any services in order to visit a park unless we wanted to do a lot of hiking - and some of the
NPs were were visiting were HUGE.
So when all was said and done, we went with renting a car and booking hotel rooms.
Trip statistics:
- 18 days and 17 nights.
- 3,636 miles driven, averaging 202 miles per day.
- Averaged 35.1 MPG for the entire trip - we filled up nearly every day due to not knowing when we may come across the next gas station.
- Walked at least 147,000 steps each, averaging at least 8,174 each.
- 4.053* pictures retained, and 33 videos. Keep in mind that some of the pictures taken from the car are taken 1) at speed, 2) with the camera focusing on something [more] nearby than expected - like the dashboard, and or 3) quickly before the sight passed by [usually at speed...].
- 40 meals eaten (NOT incuding some "dinner-snacks" [such as bread, cheese, and wine - not a full meal]).
- 3 exotic car spotted**: a Porsche Carerra 911 4S, a Porsche Targa, and a Bently Bentayga.
- Generally, most drivers used their turn signals and were decent drivers.
Trip highlights:
- 4 new capital stamps - now at 41
- 11 new National Park stamps - now at 23
- 12 additional cities / towns visited (not including any "hey, let's stop here" cities / towns)
- 0 new National Military Parks
- 0 new National Historic Parks
- 4 new National Monuments
* This was the final count of pictures from the memory card that was downloaded to the laptop. There were some images that were
either blurry or missed the mark altogether. Also, I usually take two pictures with the cell phone because there is no "preview"
wherein the camera has a 5 second preview so the shot can be confirmed before taking it again if necessary.
** I decided to start counting the Porsche 911 because the model sells for $150,000 and up, and is rarer than any other
model they sell. The lesser Porsches don't count.
NOTE: The images are toned, hued and adjusted for the settings on MY monitor. Your experience may vary slightly. IF you are having difficulty seeing images and they seem "washed out", you may need to turn down the brightness on your monitor.
All pictures [should] have a hover-over pop-up. If you see the thumbnail, hover-over it, and a larger version of the image
will appear in a window a little to the side. If you want to see an even BIGGER version of that image, you can either:
- left-click on it, look at it, and then click the browser back button
OR
- right-click on it, and select Open in new tab / window
This site doesn't have all the details, but a sufficient amount to give you enough of an idea about our trip. And for us to remember the highlights when we read this chronicle next month, next year, or next decade.
Day 1: Home
including travel to airport
Day 1: Phoenix, AZ
including capital
Day 2: Phoenix, AZ
including Papago Park's Hole in the Rock, Piestewa Peak, and Phoenix Art Museum
Day 3: Tucson, AZ
including Saguaro NP, and San Xavier Mission
Day 4: Pinetop, AZ
including Petrified Forrest NP, Navajo County Historical Society Museum, and the La Pasada Hotel in Winslow, AZ
Day 5: Flagstaff, AZ
including Picture Canyon, Walnut Canyon NM, and public library
Day 6: Flagstaff, AZ
including South rim and East station entrance Grand Canyon NP, Wupatki NM, and Sunset Crater Volcano NM
Day 7: Flagstaff, AZ
including Seligman, AZ, Chloride, AZ, Hoover Dam, Boulder City, NV, and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV
Day 8: Las Vegas, NV
including Las Vegas, NV, and Zion NP
Day 9: Hatch Station, UT
including Bryce Canyon NP and Capitol Reef NP
Day 10: Green River, UT
including Canyonlands NP and Arches NP
Day 11: Blanding, UT
including Four Corners NM, Yucca House NM, and Mesa Verde NP
Day 12: Pagosa Springs, CO
including Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
Day 13: Sante Fe, NM
including Aquarium and Botanical Gardens in Albuquerque, NM
Day 14: Sante Fe, NM
including Capital, Taos, NM, and Great Sand Dunes NP
Day 15: Colorado City, CO
including Garden of the Gods, and Pioneers Museum
Day 16: Cheyeene, WY
including capital, Wyoming State Museum, The Stanley Hotel in Estes, CO, Rocky Mountain NP, and Boulder, CO
Day 17: Denver, CO
including capital, and public library
Day 18: Denver, CO
including travel
Day 18: PA Airport
including travel
