Well, after our road trip in 2019 I ‘promised’ myself that would be the last one. And although enjoyable, maybe I pushed myself a little too much; I found it rather tiring.

Tuesday 14 May. And here we were preparing to jet off to Las Vegas to begin another trip, this time across Utah and Colorado over the next seven days.

It was an early start to the airport for the 07:00 flight to LAS.

As I mentioned in my recent post, I already had a route planned and all our hotels booked. But the route was always subject to change, and that’s precisely what happened once we were on the road and could see the progress we made each day.

Now back in Minnesota I’ve been editing >1100 images and have placed them in photo albums at the end of this post.

I also used my dashcam throughout the whole trip, so I’m busy editing >222 GB of footage into short videos, some of which are included in the narrative below.

When I was planning this trip, and in touch with my old friend and former colleague, Roger Rowe, he suggested I should play Willie Nelson’s On the Road Again as a background theme to our travels.

Well, I’m not a particular Willie Nelson fan, but his words certainly resonated each morning as we set out on each leg of the trip, that I’ve documented here with maps and descriptions of the many interesting places we visited along the way, over more than 1600 miles. And, my British readers will be surprised to learn, at a gasoline cost of only £0.06 (6p) per mile.

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Day 1: 14 May – Las Vegas, NV to St George-Washington, UT via the Hoover Dam (185 miles)
After a three hour flight from Minneapolis-St Paul (MSP) we landed in Las Vegas on time just after 08:00 and, having only hand luggage, were quickly out of the terminal, catching the shuttle bus to the car rental center south of the airport. Which was a good location for us as we were headed southeast to the Hoover Dam.

I’d booked an intermediate SUV through Alamo, and the pickup in LAS was quick and efficient. Choosing a VW Tiguan (with California plates) among several options on offer, we must have been on the road just after 09:00, heading for a supermarket en route to pick up supplies of drinking water, fruit, and other snacks for the trip.

Construction of the Hoover Dam, straddling the Nevada-Arizona state line, began over 90 years ago, and it was commissioned in 1935. What a magnificent example of engineering expertise of the time. Walking across the dam, and taking in its art deco features, you can’t help wonder at the sheer scale of its construction. And the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which opened in 2010, is the second highest in the USA and carries Interstate 11 and US Route 93 over the Colorado River. You can really appreciate the scale of this bridge in this video.

We arrived late morning, parked in the covered car park (worth it, at $10 a time, since the temperature was approaching 100°F). Later on we drove across the dam to the Arizona side (and a different time zone) to eat our lunch overlooking Lake Mead, and noting just how low the water level had become.

Then it was time to head north for our first stop of the trip in St George-Washington just over the Arizona-Utah state line.

The route we took passed through the Lake Mead National Recreational Area, offering great views of the lake and the mountains in the distance, before joining Interstate 15 for the final 70 miles.

Day 2: 15 May – St George-Washington to Bryce Canyon City via Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon N.P. (207 miles)

First stop of the day was Kolob Canyons, part of Zion National Park, some 30 miles north of St George-Washington.

There’s just a 5 mile road from the Visitor Center to an overlook point over the canyons to the east. This was our first introduction to ‘canyon country’ on this trip (we’d visited the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley in 2011).

Then, retracing our steps a few miles, we took Utah Scenic Highway 9 through Zion National Park eastwards to Carmel Junction.

Zion was heaving with tourists and this wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination the peak season. All campgrounds were full, and there was no parking available at the Visitor Center.

It was never our intention to take the shuttle into the canyon itself, but just drive through. And what a drive it was with magnificent red sandstone cliffs rising all around.

Even though we took our time to drive through the park, we realised that we would reach Bryce Canyon by mid-afternoon. And, rather than delay that visit until the following morning, decided to enter the park there and then, and actually benefitted by seeing some of the more iconic landscapes in the late afternoon sun. Landscapes to make your heart sing. As the park brochures states: Red rocks, pink cliffs, and endless vistas! The sandstone pillars reminded me of China’s Terracotta Army.

Day 3: 16 May – Bryce Canyon City to Moab, UT via Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument (290 miles)
We set out early on Day 3, knowing we had one of the longest drives of the trip to reach Moab. As we had originally planned to tour Bryce Canyon that morning, I had chosen a route to Moab taking in the major roads, knowing it was likely to be faster. But with the whole day to reach Moab, and discovering that the route across the desert, Scenic Byway Route 12 (SR-12), through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, is also designated as an All-American Road, and not as remote as I had imagined just looking at a highways map.

What an experience, and definitely a must-travel route if you are ever in that area.

Look out for the ‘Hogback’, where the road has sheer drops on both sides, just after 18 minutes in the video below.

Reaching I-70 by mid-afternoon, we made good progress to Moab as the speed limit on this interstate was 80 mph. A mostly boring drive, but with one spectacular section.

Day 4: 17 May – Moab to Grand Junction, CO via Arches N.P. and Canyonlands N.P. (231 miles)

Arches National Park is just a few miles north of Moab, and beyond the park entrance, there’s an impressive climb along the cliff face to enter the park proper. Admission to the park is by timed tickets, and I’d reserved a slot for 08:00 as soon as they became available in early April.

Arches is a ‘closed’ park, with entrance and exit the same, with a drive of about 18 miles to the furthest point, the Devil’s Garden Trailhead. I was quite surprised how fast and determined many drivers seemed to be heading there, until we also arrived there about three hours later and found there were no parking spaces at all.

But that didn’t bother us, as we were more than happy to potter along, stopping wherever we could and just taking in the most incredible scenery, and views of the La Salle Mountains to the southeast.

We spent most time walking up to the Two Windows arches and Turret Arch (I guess a little over a mile in total), where there were wonderful views over the park.

We saw the free-standing Delicate Arch from a lower viewpoint. The walk to the arch, about a mile, up a steep cliff face, and in the blistering heat was beyond our capabilities by that point.

After a picnic lunch at Panorama Point, we headed out of the park north to where UT 313 peels west from US191, towards the entrance gate to Canyonlands National Park. It’s a 34 mile drive southwest to the furthest point at Grand View Point.

Canyonlands is the Grand Canyon on a smaller scale, overlooking the Colorado and Green Rivers and their confluence to the south. It’s so vast it was hard to take it all in.

Late afternoon, and we headed north again to re-join I-70 for the remaining 81 miles to Grand Junction, CO and our next hotel stop.

Day 5: 18 May – Grand Junction to Durango via the ‘Million Dollar Highway’ and Mesa Verde N.P. (291 miles)
This was always going to be the most challenging day of driving, crossing several passes in the San Juan Mountains, on the ‘Million Dollar Highway’ between Ouray and Silverton.

I’d already done my research about the ‘Million Dollar Highway, read reports, and watched various videos on YouTube. Almost all said the highway was not for the faint-hearted, because of the gradients, sharp curves, and steep and deep drop-offs with no guard rails. Had it been raining heavily (we only had a short shower as we left Ouray), foggy, or icy I probably would have chosen another route to Durango.

However, looking back on this section of our trip, it was not as challenging as others would have you believe. We went slowly, and I used semi-automatic use of low gears whenever necessary. Frightening? No, it was exhilarating, crossing three passes at over 10,000 feet, the highest being Red Mountain Pass at 11,013 feet (or 3358 m).

There were few places to stop to take photos, although I was able to capture stills from the video footage.

Having left Grand Junction by 08:00, and even taking into consideration the slower traverse of the mountains, we arrived in Durango by early afternoon, so decided to continue on to Mesa Verde National Park, about 35 miles west, rather than leaving the visit for the following morning.

The park is a World Heritage Site, where communities of Ancestral Pueblo people lived for over 700 years, building dwellings on the mesa and cliffs. It’s hard to imagine what drove these Ancestral Puebloans to choose such sites for their houses and temples half way up sheer cliff faces. Caught in the late afternoon sunshine they were indeed impressive.

One location we stopped at was the Montezuma Valley Overlook (map). In July 1958, while leading an expedition to collect wild potato species in the USA, Mexico, and Central America, my PhD supervisor and mentor, Professor Jack Hawkes, stopped here and took the photo on the left below. Here I am at the same spot almost 66 years later.

Then it was back into Durango for the night, just in time to catch one of the best grass-fed beef burgers I’ve tasted in a long while.

Day 6: 19 May – Durango to Cañon City, CO via Chimney Rock National Monument (272 miles)
I’d chosen Cañon City as our next destination as I wanted to view the Royal Gorge Bridge (‘America’s Bridge’, and the highest in the country) standing 955 feet (or 291 m) above the Arkansas River.

This was just a travel day, with no scheduled stops. That is until we saw a sign, about 29 miles east of Durango, that the Chimney Rock National Monument was just 26 miles ahead. Well I’d never heard of this location, nor had spotted it on the maps I had prepared for the trip.

Anyway, at the turn-off, we noted that the monument was just a handful of miles south from the main road US-160E. What a find!

Chimney Rock National Monument is an Ancestral Puebloan site, with an impressive kiva on the summit of the mesa, and just a stone’s throw from the twin peaks, Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, that give the site its name. Fortunately there’s a dirt road almost to the summit of the mesa, and from there to the buildings is a quarter mile walk, and 200 foot ascent (which I did very carefully).

But what a view from the summit, all the way into New Mexico.

At Chimney Rock, we’d hardly dented our journey to Cañon City, and having spent just under two hours there, with more than 200 miles more to travel (and over several mountain ranges), we didn’t reach our destination until around 19:00. And we were lucky to find somewhere to dine, as it was a Sunday evening.

This next video shows the ascent into the mountains on US-160 beyond Pagosa Springs, crossing Wolf Creek Pass summit at 10,856 feet, and descending towards South Fork.

Day 7: 20 May – Cañon City to Denver via Royal Gorge Bridge and the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (184 miles)
Built in just six months in 1929, the Royal Gorge Bridge used to carry a road over the gorge, but is now closed to traffic. It stands within a resort and theme park, and pedestrians are allowed to cross – if they dare! It wouldn’t suit me; I suffer from vertigo.

I failed to find an unofficial viewpoint that would have given us a great view down the deep gorge, so had to make do with those from the resort car park.

Then it was off to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, just under 50 miles north, one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world. Petrified redwood stumps up to 14 feet wide and thousands of detailed fossils of insects and plants reveal the story of a very different, prehistoric Colorado.

Even though off the beaten track, so to speak, we were somewhat surprised how many other visitors showed up shortly after we arrived a few minutes after the opening time of 10:00.

The fossilised redwood trees are indeed impressive, buried in a volcanic mudflow or lahar 34 million years ago, as was the revelation that the monument is probably one of the fossil hotspots in the world. Here’s a film from the National Parks Service about the site.

We took the Petrified Forest Trail (about 1½ miles), viewing some of the redwoods, including Big Stump.

Then, we headed to Denver for our last night on the road, at a hotel near the airport, just as a major storm hit town with hailstones the size of marbles. In fact the last 60 miles after we joined US-285 and then I-70 once again, with several lanes of fast moving traffic, were quite a shock to the system after driving along relatively deserted rural roads for the previous week.

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But we reached Denver safely, enjoyed a good night’s sleep before departing for the car rental center around 08.15, in order to catch our flight back to Minnesota at 11:15.

It’s quite illuminating to compare the landscapes around Denver (big agriculture, and very flat with the Rockies to the far west of Denver) with the arrival into leafy Minneapolis-St Paul.

What a wonderful trip! It’s quite hard to choose the highlights, but from a landscape point of view I’d have to choose Bryce Canyon, and the ‘Million Dollar Highway’ and other routes over the Rockies.

Hotels were variable. We always choose a budget or mid-range chain. All we want is a clean room, bed, and bathroom before moving on the next day. What we did notice, however, is how much more expensive hospitality and accommodation has become in the US.

So that’s that for 2024, abroad at least. We are having a week away in East Anglia in the UK during September.

Will we make another US road trip in 2025? Maybe, but currently we’re more inclined towards a three day break in New Orleans, a city we’ve wanted to visit for a long time.

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• Day 1: 14 May – Las Vegas, NV to St George-Washington, UT via the Hoover Dam
• Day 2: 15 May – St George-Washington to Bryce Canyon City via Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon N.P.
• Day 3: 16 May – Bryce Canyon City to Moab, UT via Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument
• Day 4: 17 May – Moab to Grand Junction, CO via Arches N.P. and Canyonlands N.P.
• Day 5: 18 May – Grand Junction to Durango via the ‘Million Dollar Highway’ and Mesa Verde N.P.
• Day 6: 19 May – Durango to Cañon City, CO via Chimney Rock National Monument
• Day 7: 20 May – Cañon City to Denver via Royal Gorge Bridge and the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument