Ultimate National Parks

Three weeks from Denver and back covering the Rockies, the Black Hills and the whole Utah canyon country, which makes this the most national parks they fit into a single trip. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK.

The first half is the northern loop: Rocky Mountain National Park, Cheyenne, two nights in the Black Hills with Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, Devils Tower and the Bighorns, Cody, then two nights in Yellowstone and two in Grand Teton. Dinosaur National Monument sits on the drive south.

Then Utah: Moab for Arches and Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and two nights at Zion. The Grand Canyon follows, then Page and Monument Valley. What sets this apart from their shorter Rockies trips is the finish. Mesa Verde in Colorado has cliff dwellings built into the canyon walls eight hundred years ago and abandoned within a century, and it appears on no other route they sell. Great Sand Dunes closes the trip, where seven hundred foot dunes pile up against the Sangre de Cristo mountains, and the operator rightly suggests seeing them at either end of the day.

Twenty stops over twenty-one nights, so the pace is real. As with their other Denver routes, Trail Ridge Road, the Yellowstone interior and the Grand Canyon North Rim are all seasonal and the page says nothing, so fix the dates with them. Several overnights are given as the park rather than the town. It suits anyone who wants the parks in volume and has three weeks to do it.