A few weeks ago, we took a last-minute, intentionally-unplanned trip to Southwest Colorado and the Grand Canyon. I thought I’d share the itinerary and outline of our days in case you are looking to make a similar trip from Arkansas through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and barely into Utah.
I’ll admit this whole trip was planned around screensavers from Windows. Several months ago, my husband sent me an email with a link to the picture from his computer screen that day and it was Mesa Verde National Park. He had traveled to the region in high school but thought it could be a totally drivable trip for us with a toddler. And, he was right.
We saw so many new sights and explored places we would not have seen in any other part of the United States or the world. Also, for us, it was not our typical way to plan. We decided the weekend before we wanted to go. Some might think we are crazy, and we are. But basically, all we needed were hotel reservations and the rest we just planned on the 16-hour drive. (insert Pinterest party on the road.
It was the best trip. We just woke up each day whenever Little Man got up and then each night we would talk about an outline for the next day. Not over planning our days let us go slow, kept it flexible if anyone got cranky, and we turned down the brown sign roads or pulled off at all the overlooks.
If you are looking for a fun family road trip that is casual, flexible, simple, and covers a lot but doesn’t cover it all, then check out our itinerary below! Each day is linked up to a full post about that leg of the trip.
Southwest USA Screensaver Epic Family Roadtrip to Durango, Colorado
- Day 1 – Get to Amarillo, TX or as far as you know you can drive on day one. Just know Colorado is a usual 2 day trip from OK, TX, AR.
- Day 2 – Goal is to get to Durango, CO and pull off along the way.
- Day 3 – Playday in and around Durango. Take an extra excursion to drive the Million Dollar Highway along the San Juan Byway.
- Day 4 – Explore Mesa Verde National Park.
- Day 5 – Ride the train and play in Silverton, Colorado.
- Day 6 – drive to Grand Canyon and enjoy the rim
- Day 7 – begin the trek home with a stop at the Petrified National Forest and Painted Desert.
- Day 8 – drive the rest of the way
As always, I used Trip Advisor and Pinterest to research for our trip and we just planned as we went. We did stay in Durango as a basecamp for the majority of our trip and just did day trips to surrounding communities. That worked well for us, but each of the main areas we went have options to stay, eat, and play as their own, individual destinations.
This was such a successful first family road trip for us. We anticipate coming back to this area when Little Man is older and there will be new and different ways we approach each part of the trip. One thing is for sure. This country we live in needs to be explored. Get out of your town or state and go see the wide-open ranges, snow-capped mountain, wildflower fields, rustic, red clay, and green meadows. There are so many adventures to take and towns to explore!
Did you see the first family vacation we took last fall? Check out our New England Adventure doing a little leaf-peeping and lobster eating.
