Family Bliss On the Go to a Southwest Road Trip
- Beth Bliss
- 2 minutes ago
- 7 min read
We went on a Southwest road trip in July 2016 with a 1yo boy and a 14yo boy. Here's the high-level itinerary, and then I'll describe most of it in more detail below.
Day 1: Fly into El Paso, TX (very late arrival)
Day 2: Alamogordo, NM & White Sands
Day 3: Ruidoso, NM
Day 4: Carrizozo, NM (Valley of Fire) & Albuquerque, NM
Day 5: Albuquerque, NM
Day 6: Sante Fe, NM & Bandelier National Monument
Day 7: Durango, CO (train ride) & Mesa Verde, CO
Day 8: Four Points, Antelope Canyon, AZ & Horseshoe Bend (staying in Cameron, AZ)
Day 9: Grand Canyon, AZ (South Rim)
Day 10: Hoover Dam & Las Vegas, NV
Day 11: Death Valley National Park, CA
Day 12: Sequoia National Forest, CA
Day 13: Hollywood (LA), CA
Day 14: Disneyland
Day 15: Fly back to Pittsburgh midday
We flew from Pittsburgh into Texas and got the rental car there. We drove out of Texas toward New Mexico first. While in New Mexico, we visited the New Mexico Museum of Space History, hiked the Akali Flat Trail at White Sands, had an unplanned detour to Capitan, New Mexico, and visited the Valley of Fire in Carrizozo before landing in Albuquerque to stay a few days with family and then to Santa Fe on our way out of the state.
White Sands is absolutely amazing to see in person, and I highly suggest it. Bring a sled to go sledriding down the dunes.
The unplanned detour to Capitan, New Mexico was because our 1yo loved spotting signs of Smokey the Bear during the trip, so we decided to visit the birthplace and final resting place of Smokey the Bear. I'm such a planner and have a hard time with spontaneity, but I highly suggest always leaving a little wiggle room in your schedules for unplanned stops. Many times these end up being the most memorable parts of the trip. For example, while in Capitan, we saw a random sign along the road advertising a rodeo that night. We stopped at a store to grab some little kid cowboy boots and went to check it out! The 1yo absolutely LOVED the rodeo and was going crazy every time he saw the horses run by!
Valley of Fire in Carrizozo NM is a lava flow from 1500-2000 years ago in the middle of the desert. Pretty awesome place to check out, but warning: it was HOT in July! We actually stopped to pick up some cowboy hats for us all around this time of the trip because the sun and heat was more intense than we planned for.
After New Mexico, we headed to Colorado. We explored Mesa Verde National Park before landing in Durango for a night. While in Durango, we had lunch at the Diamond Belle Saloon in the famous Strater Hotel and then rode an open air gondola on a train ride from Durango to Silverton, Colorado. Mesa Verde is such a cool place, but we didn't designate enough time to really enjoy it and it felt quite rushed. Durango is the coolest town, and I really recommend it. And the train ride is a MUST do for families!
Next up, we stopped at the Four Corners Monument where four states meet at one point: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. I don't know why but ever since I learned about this place in elementary school, I was fascinated by the idea and wanted to visit it. I will say, I was....underwhelmed. It's a cool touristy picture- all four of us stood in a different state at the same time. If you're driving nearby, it's worth the stop. But if you aren't, I wouldn't add significant detour time for this reason only. You stand in a long line for a few minutes taking pictures there and feeling rushed because you don't want to hold up the line longer.
We then went to Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend on our way towards the Grand Canyon. Antelope Canyon was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. These pictures cannot do it justice AT ALL. Antelope Canyon is bursting with beautiful colors and is just fascinating to walk through. I highly highly suggest going here. Horseshoe Bend was also brilliantly beautiful. I lived my whole life hearing about the Grand Canyon, but these two more often overlooked places were truly just as awe-inspiring for me. Neat thing to be aware of when driving around this area: you dip in and out of land that belongs to Native Americans versus the US. If it's summertime, this means you keep changing the time by one hour back and forth because they do not practice daylight savings. This very much confused us for a bit until we figured it out!
The Grand Canyon. Obviously amazing. What can I even say? We started at the Desert View Watch Tower, which I'd recommend. We then stayed at a cabin literally steps from the Grand Canyon. It was wonderful to wake up and watch the sunrise over the canyon. Additionally, this was a nice location because of having the different age groups with us. Jon and the 14yo were able to hike into the canyon some while I stayed back in the room with the 1yo while he needed naps.
After the Grand Canyon, we stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way towards Las Vegas.
Vegas doesn't sound like a place to go with kids, but honestly they really loved it. We had spent the majority of the trip hiking, sleeping in cheap places, and doing outdoorsy things. So a traditional hotel room and activities on the strip felt luxurious to us. The 1yo loved the fountain show at the Bellagio and the gondola ride in the Venetian, while the 14yo loved the roller coaster in the New York hotel. This brings me to important advice for any travel- do what everyone needs to do and that doesn't always mean you're all together all the time. For example, I mentioned how the 1yo and I napped while the 14yo and my husband went hiking at the Grand Canyon (okay, okay, I mentioned the 1yo napping, but this is the real story!). Similarly, the teenager and Jon went out late in the evening for the roller coaster and to see the strip lit up, while I stayed back with the 1yo so he could have a normal bedtime. Sometimes acknowledging and caring for everyone's individual needs is the best way to vacation happiness as a family.
After eating a HUGE breakfast buffet in "Paris" in Vegas (which was way too expensive and, although delicious, I would not recommend it!), we drove to Death Valley. While there, we visited the Badwater Basin Salt Flats and walked around the salt rocks at the Devil's Golf Course. They made a unique popping sound in the heat. Death Valley is a really cool otherwordly-looking place.
Finally, we ended our journey in California. We drove up north a bit to Sequoia National Park, and it was absolutely breathtaking standing beside the massive trees!
That being said, we chose to sleep in a yurt there, and wow was that....memorable. It could've been a beautiful and cool experience sleeping in a yurt; however, we didn't realize we needed to bring our own linens there (whoops, didn't pay attention to details!), and it was significantly colder than we had been experiencing on the rest of this trip. That is, we went from 116 degrees in Death Valley to 39 degrees at night in Sequoia National Forest. In the middle of the night, it was FREEZING in the yurt. We actually brought the 1yo into bed with us and put the mattress from the extra single bed we had on top of the 3 of us trying to use it to trap in heat. I obviously didn't sleep well at all as I was panicking that we were going to crush our baby. Around 4am, we all woke up and decided to bail! We started the drive to LA. I will say that if you're much better prepared than we were, the campsite was a nice place to be. We had a firepit and roasted marshmallows, and we had a place where we could hang up our hammock and all relax. Just be prepared for the cold nighttime weather!!
While there, we met up with some family members for dinner, did the traditional LA things like the Walk of Fame, and then went to Disneyland for a day. At the end of the trip, we returned the rental car and flew home to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles.
My main takeaways from the trip:
1.) I have always preferred flying over driving and never imagined I'd agree to a long road trip like this, but I ended up loving it so much. We made amazing memories on this trip, and I'd recommend all families do a similar one if possible.
2.) If you have a little one, pack about 1000 extra pacifiers. We lost so many on hikes during this trip!
3.) Maybe don't take a 1yo to the Southwest in July. It was brutally hot, and he was often in a front carrier pack (this was before we learned of the most wonderful carrier which I have said is the number 1 thing to buy for travel with kids--go to that blog to read all the reasons why and to follow links to get your own!). There were many times when he and I were just over the heat fully and I felt a little dizzy at Horseshoe Bend on the walk out, which tainted the adventure some.
3.) Leave unplanned time/open time in the itinerary so you can say yes to random spontaneous side trips like we did to see Smokey the Bear's birthplace and a random rodeo.
4.) Make sure you leave enough time at each destination to enjoy them all- we rushed through Mesa Verde more than we should have.
5.) Be honest about everyone's individual needs and try to meet them as much as possible. Sometimes that means one adult staying back to nap with the 1yo while the other adult takes the teenager on a hike in the Grand Canyon. And that's okay!
6.) Balance outdoors adventures and roughing it with some luxury or traditional touristy stops like Vegas and Disneyland.
7.) Don't sleep on Antelope Canyon! It's my must do from this trip!! And also the train ride from Durango, Colorado.
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