Trip Planning: Nv, Ut, Nm

[+Rechercheuse]

Dear fellow cachers,

 

I posted a similar thread at the Nevada board, but I thought I might get some help over here as well.

We will travelling to Nevada and possibly Utah and/or New Mexico in June/July and are considering our

travel options. I need your help to take decisions and plan our trip...

 

a ) Route 1

Vegas to Reno to Salt Lake City and back to Vegas (or the other way round)

b ) Route 2

Vegas to Albuquerque to Salt LAke city and back to Vegas (or the other way round)

 

From a caching and interesting things to do and see point of view, which is

the nicer route, which one has more interesting spots? Any suggestion is appreciated!

 

We will fly into Vegas on 22nd June and leave from Vegas on 11th July.

We are planning to rent a high clearance vehicle, we don't mind moderate hiking (but as I suppose it will be very hot that time of the year, hence we will avoid rather long hikes). We like lost places, like ghost towns, ruins, old mines etc.

We've done quite a bit of caching in Red Rock Canyon, In and around Vegas, in and around Beatty and inbetween those places during our last two visits, but by fare have not seen everything.

 

We are not so much into urban caches and multis.

Night caching is not something we would do by ourselves, but we would

join another group for such activities.

We love meeting other cachers in general, so if there are any event

caches planned, or just a get together for a drink or two we will try to arrange our travel plans accordingly.

 

From the above mentioned constraints, can anybody please suggest some interesting caches along those routes?

 

Looking forward to your advice and suggestions and to hopefully meeting some of you again in June.

 

Thanks in advance

Rechercheuse

Edited April 8, 2006 by Rechercheuse

[Tahosa and Sons]

Vegas to Albequerque then North thru CO, hit the Sax's campout on the 4th of July then on the Utah would be a nice trip.

[+Rechercheuse]

Hi,

thanks for that suggestion.

Any particular reason for choosing this itinery over the other one?

Any caches you could recommend along those routes?

Thanks again

Rechercheuse

[Tahosa and Sons]

Hi,

thanks for that suggestion.

Any particular reason for choosing this itinery over the other one?

Any caches you could recommend along those routes?

Thanks again

Rechercheuse

 

The itinery (route) is a fairly pretty place to visit. Northern AZ other than the Grand Canyon is not all that spectacular. But I like the landscape as you approach NM. And NM is nice, but when you head North from Alb into CO, then you are into some awesome mountains. And it its nice with different places to see from CO to Salt Lake City. Route 70 from CO to Salt Lake is awesome.

As to caches I haven't hunted many down there, but I can remember one on I 70 in Utah that had some awesome scenery.

I have the next few days off and will look up some info and see what I can glean for you.

Keep in touch.

Tahosa

[+vulture19]

Well, this isn't from a caching standpoint, rather a great things to see standpoint...

 

Go into southern Utah - there are a large number of awesome National Parks and Monuments (Bryce, Zion, Grand Staircase/Escalante, Capitol Reef, Arches, and my absolute favorite place on earth, Canyonlands), and a larger number of smaller state parks. You can also hit the north rim of the Grand Canyon, which is 1000' higher and MUCH less visited than the south rim. And as long as you're in the area, you can make SW Colorado. If you are into lost places and have not gone to Mesa Verde NP, you are missing out on another awesome site (IIRC, it is the only UN recognized World Archeological site in the US). You'd be going when the Wetherhill (sp?) Mesa is open.

 

Along the way you can probably get some good caching in. No caches in the NP's or reservations (of which there are lot), but you can probably find some good stuff along the way.

 

Let us know what you do....

[+Rechercheuse]

Go into southern Utah - there are a large number of awesome National Parks and Monuments (Bryce, Zion, Grand Staircase/Escalante, Capitol Reef, Arches, and my absolute favorite place on earth, Canyonlands), and a larger number of smaller state parks. You can also hit the north rim of the Grand Canyon, which is 1000' higher and MUCH less visited than the south rim. And as long as you're in the area, you can make SW Colorado. If you are into lost places and have not gone to Mesa Verde NP, you are missing out on another awesome site (IIRC, it is the only UN recognized World Archeological site in the US). You'd be going when the Wetherhill (sp?) Mesa is open.

 

Along the way you can probably get some good caching in. No caches in the NP's or reservations (of which there are lot), but you can probably find some good stuff along the way.

 

Hi thanks for your feedback and great suggestions!

Yeah, I agree, those NP's are awesome! We have been to the region 10+ times and have been to most of

the parks you mention in southern Utah and Northern Nevada, some places we have even been to a couple of times.

Haven't seen much of CO yet and have been wanting to to to NM for ages.

 

I have the next few days off and will look up some info and see what I can glean for you.

Thanks for taking the time to look into that, that would be really great!

I have checked out the Event you suggested, but we had not planned on dragging our camping gear around

this time...Still thinking about it though, as I love to camp in the NP's.

The event we attended during our last trip was great, we had a blast.

Our baggage allowance is a littler lower than normally as we got a really good deal on the tickets...

 

Let us know what you do...

Here's what we've come up with so far regarding our itinary:

Vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, Arches, Salt LAke City, back down along I15 to Vegas

Any suggestions, recommendations along that route?

 

Thanks again to both of you.

Cache Safely

Rechercheuse

Edited April 12, 2006 by Rechercheuse

[+vulture19]

 

Here's what we've come up with so far regarding our itinary:

Vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, Arches, Salt LAke City, back down along I15 to Vegas

Any suggestions, recommendations along that route?

 

Thanks again to both of you.

Cache Safely

Rechercheuse

 

Don't know if this is your sort of thing. I've only recently started out here on the east coast and am hooked. This is about 30-40 miles north of Winslow.

 

Arizona Highpoint

 

Trail Info

 

It looks like a 6-8 hour roundtrip hike. I was going to do it last year, but we took a different route and didn't get close enough.

Edited April 12, 2006 by vulture19

[wendybirdy]

Let us know what you do...

Here's what we've come up with so far regarding our itinary:

Vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, Arches, Salt LAke City, back down along I15 to Vegas

Any suggestions, recommendations along that route?

 

Thanks again to both of you.

Cache Safely

Rechercheuse

 

I think your itinerary is awesome. I've been to every one of those places and have to say, great route. Way better than the Vegas, Reno, SLC, Vegas route. Those are some really boring drives. At least the route you have chosen is scenic, with lots of places to stop and enjoy along the way. Sorry, no advice for caches, I'm too new to the sport. But have fun!

[+Rechercheuse]

Wendybirdy and vulture19,

thanks for all your feedback.

 

vulture19

That cache sounds great, but I guess it will be too long of a hike for the hubby, especially in the summer heat. We usually do a few rather easy caches on our way from A-B to break up the trip and once we are at our destination we usually head out for a day of caching and go for the harder one's.

 

We are still toying with attending one or two events (Berlin Campout and/or Sax Man's Campout),

but have some issues with the gear we would need (limited baggage allowance).

On the other hand, I'd love to camp at Arches and Mesa Verde, rather than staying at a Lodge.

So we might pick up some cheap gear once we're there and donate it to goodwill or some other charity when we leave..

 

Will let you know the outcome, once our planning is finalized.

Some caches on my radar are these:

Grantsville

Orizaba

 

If you know similar caches you can recommend along our route, please let us know.

 

Thanks again for all your suggestions, keep 'em comin.

 

Rechercheuse

Edited April 16, 2006 by Rechercheuse

[azkul]

If you head to SLC, you'll probably be taking I15 North if you're coming from AZ. The mountains will probably be thawed enough to make the Mount Nebo loop, which is a pretty scenic byway in the middle of Utah (near Payson). Once you get to Provo & SLC, the wasatch front is an impressive mountain range. There are many canyons to venture up with hundreds of trails (and geocaches). A few places of note: Mount Timpanogos near Provo has a world famous cave. After a mile or so hike, you'll reach the entrance. This cave consists of a guided tour through one of the most unique caverns around. Another great place to travel is the Big and Little Cottonwood canyons to the east of SLC.

 

If you come from CO and travel farther north through Wyoming, you could come to SLC via the high Unita mountains. These are probably the most impressive mountains of northern Utah.

 

Hope that helps,

Azkul

 

My Nature/Landscape Photo gallery - http://www.thelensflare.com