Tentative geology road trip/hikes to Southwest, March 2016
Katie and Ada and I had a great trip through the Southwest earlier this summer, and we’re thinking of doing a similar trip with our SF Bay Area Geology and Natural Sciences Hiking Group. The trip would run nine days, from Saturday, March 26th (early departure) through Sunday, April 3rd (late return), 2016.
Unfortunately, this trip requires a lot of driving (about 2,200 miles), but will include some amazing sites. The three full-day visits (with no real driving) will be Canyonlands and Arches National Parks (near Moab, Utah; one day in each park), and one day at the Grand Canyon.
Along the way, we’ll have short visits to:
- Berlin-Ichthysoraus State Park (in Nevada)
- Great Basin National Park (Nevada, hopefully a tour of the Grand Palace cave).
- A drive through Monument Valley in Navajo Land in Arizona
- Petrified dinosaur tracks in Arizona.
- Overnight at the CSU Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, CA.
I’m still working on the trip to design it so it won’t have too many long days in the car (e.g. we could get to Moab in two days, but three gives us time to see the Ichthysoraus fossils and the Grand Palace Cave), but the outline is pretty close to finished. Unlike our Death Valley trips, this one will be camping only–there are no hotels near most of our campgrounds.
Just a warning–we will be dependent on the weather. There’s talk about a big El Niño coming this winter, so Nevada may get so covered in snow that some of our routes aren’t plowed. My hope is to finalize the trip itinerary and costs by early fall, then see who commits to coming. Once that’s in place, we should be able to get a better sense of the road conditions by the start of the year.
If you have any thoughts or comments, feel free to add them as Replies at the bottom.
Map
Click on the map for an interactive Google map.
Outline
You can see an outline of the event in a Google Doc here. Included are a rough itinerary, estimated costs, and travel/carpool information.
Calendar
If you use Google Calendar, here’s a calendar where you can view our tentative itinerary.
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2,500 miles, 25 miles per gallon, 100 gallons at $4, that’s $400 gas for the trip. Divided by 3 people in a car. Am I forgetting something as far as calculating tranportation costs?
Hi Veronica, yes, that’s about the cost of gas. The $0.50 represents the approximate IRS reimbursement rate, which includes wear-and-tear, insurance, and the overall cost of the car. Each carpool should work out an acceptable price 🙂 I updated the Google document to reflect all this.
I am very interested. I love to hike, but with my bad knees I can only manage about 6-8 miles max per day. Would it be more strenuous than that? I’ve been wanting to go to these places for a long time!
Hi Anna, we probably won’t do more than that. Some days we may break up into two parts, with morning and afternoon hikes, but even then I don’t think we’ll do more than eight miles.
That being said, if there is a group that wants to undertake hiking down into the Grand Canyon, that’s certainly in the cards (and a long hike with a steep return!). We’ll also have a shorter hike along the rim, perhaps a small dip into the canyon as well.
This sounds really cool!
Hi Lee, good to hear from you. Very intense plan, can take up to 15 days out of work. I am very interested but do not have a car, live in SF, would need that somebody gives me a ride, share the expenses and the driving and whatever comes up. As it will a camping trip it is assumed that will bring my camping gear and we will make stops to restock food, water etc. Also are we going in caravan together or is point to point meetup. Let me know, be well, Rafael
Hi Rafael, it will be great to have you. Once we get all the details worked out, I’m sure someone will come forward seeking riders 🙂
As far as caravaning, we’ll try to do that as much as possible, especially on the shorter days. The first and last days will likely be “meet you there” days.
Very Excited!! 🙂
I would love to join. I am new to the area, and haven’t been on any hikes with this meetup group yet, but hopefully I will get to meet some of you before March. Though I can drive as well, the idea of driving there in a big van sound good to me. Probably less green house emissions than multiple cars, and multiple people can share the driving responsibilities.
Do most of the campgrounds have hot showers?
Hi Ravi,
The campgrounds for the first two nights do not have hot showers (fairly rustic campgrounds), nor does Dead Horse for the following two nights.Grand Canyon is our first stop with showers.
We should have several hikes soon (I try to do one a month, but I’ve been busy this summer), so you should have opportunities to meet folks before you have to commit for the long trip 🙂
Hi there, I am very interested in going, I prefer to drive on my own – have a camper type of van that does not have much room anyway. Also there is a friend of mine that wants to join in a similar situation. Is that acceptable for this trip?
Good question, I hadn’t thought of this yet. The campgrounds only allow a certain number of cars per site, so you may have to pay extra for your car if there is only you in it. I’m trying to work out all the final details before the end of August, so I should have a better response soon. I think the only campground where we may have trouble with limited car space is Grand Canyon, but we may also have limits in Dead Horse near Moab. Bottom line is I’d love to have you, you just may have to make your own campground/overflow vehicle reservation.
Hi Lee, that is fine – happy to pay for the extra car and also – when needed I can book my own site(s) for the campgrounds that require that. We can talk more on it as when you get into the more finite details of the planning.
Make sure you plan enough time to include http://www.moabgiants.com a new dinosaur museum featuring TRACKS, first of this kind in the world.
Hi Lee,
Is there any room left for the road trip?
-Lynne
I left a response weeks ago and never heard anything. I am very interested if there is space.
Thanks.
Hi Lynne, I didn’t see your response last week. I’m sending you an individual email with more details.
– Lee