GA to Grand Canyon, January 2021 Trip!!

[Lil Bear]

I will probably post this in a couple different spots. I'm in the early stages of planning a trip from GA to Grand Canyon National Park in January. I originally was planning a trip to yellowstone via Rocky Mt. National park but after much finger pointing and laughing(at me for thinking this would be a good time to try that) I've decided to go a different route. Now this will be a trip with my baby boy and better half. She says we can't spend the whole time on back roads or not far from things or help if needed...since the baby and all. But I would still like to route it through some great to see areas and camp spots. Anyone who has any first hand experience in any of the areas we will be traveling through, I'm all ears!! I'm actually open and welcoming to any good advice and pointers and such. Any one looking to do the same trip maybe we can make it a group trip!! Thats the gist of it!! Hit me with your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and what else you got!!

 

[MMc]

You’ll love the Grand Canon. I have hiked a bit inside it, it is some of the most consistently hard hiking I have done. Going down first makes it so. Being fit helps.
Being from So Cal I am no help for your planing.

 

[grubworm]

there are a lot of combinations you could drive, but esentially you are looking at splitting at birmingham and heading up to memphis and getting on I-40 or dropping town to I-10 and hitting new orleans. I-10 will get you new orleans and then west thru houston and then san antonio which has the alamo and the river walk and tower of the americas, etc. then its a long desolate drive thru west texas where you can angle up north and shoot into new mexico around hobbs and that will put you in range of carsbad caverns and roswell and then go up to albuquerqe and either go up a bit more and see santa fe or go west thru arizona where you will go thru the painted desert and drive by meteor crater and then to flagstaff and up from there to the south rim.

I-40 will take you thru memphis which has some cool stuff to see and then thru little rock and over to ft. smith and then on to oklahoma city, amarillo, then at albuquerque and youre heading west thru arizona.

I-10 doesnt have camping that i know of, we always stop at rest areas. there is a nice big welcome center/rest area an hour before you get to new orleans and other nice big one as soon as you get into texas...after that, there are a decent number of just small rest areas along the way, most dont have rest rooms, just parking.

I-40 will have some camp grounds. we were going west from little rock and there were several state camp grounds along the way and we stayed at one that was right on a lake. after that, a few camp grounds and then once past oklahoma city going thru amarillo, its back to rest areas.

not sure how old your son is, but you are saying a 'baby', so you might not be wanting to rough it like you would if you didnt have an infant...not sure if rest areas would be OK with you having a baby. might just have to spring for a room a few nights until you get on location. arkansas is about the only state you'll go thru with nice state camp grounds.

if youve never been to new orleans or san antonio, it might be worth it to take 10 and check them out and to break up the trip some if you like. 40 doesnt have much other than memphis and rest of that route is scenery, not a lot of getting out and doing much. either route will take you the painted desert and that is a national park that you drive thru and is really cool. i'd definitely suggest doing that.

 

[Louiston]

Just be aware that the average temps at the south rim of the canyon in January are 44 for the high and 18 degrees at night.

Watch the weather closely, if snow is in the forecast it will probably/most likely/for sure, hamper your travel.

 

[Lil Bear]

there are a lot of combinations you could drive, but esentially you are looking at splitting at birmingham and heading up to memphis and getting on I-40 or dropping town to I-10 and hitting new orleans. I-10 will get you new orleans and then west thru houston and then san antonio which has the alamo and the river walk and tower of the americas, etc. then its a long desolate drive thru west texas where you can angle up north and shoot into new mexico around hobbs and that will put you in range of carsbad caverns and roswell and then go up to albuquerqe and either go up a bit more and see santa fe or go west thru arizona where you will go thru the painted desert and drive by meteor crater and then to flagstaff and up from there to the south rim.

I-40 will take you thru memphis which has some cool stuff to see and then thru little rock and over to ft. smith and then on to oklahoma city, amarillo, then at albuquerque and youre heading west thru arizona.

I-10 doesnt have camping that i know of, we always stop at rest areas. there is a nice big welcome center/rest area an hour before you get to new orleans and other nice big one as soon as you get into texas...after that, there are a decent number of just small rest areas along the way, most dont have rest rooms, just parking.

I-40 will have some camp grounds. we were going west from little rock and there were several state camp grounds along the way and we stayed at one that was right on a lake. after that, a few camp grounds and then once past oklahoma city going thru amarillo, its back to rest areas.

not sure how old your son is, but you are saying a 'baby', so you might not be wanting to rough it like you would if you didnt have an infant...not sure if rest areas would be OK with you having a baby. might just have to spring for a room a few nights until you get on location. arkansas is about the only state you'll go thru with nice state camp grounds.

if youve never been to new orleans or san antonio, it might be worth it to take 10 and check them out and to break up the trip some if you like. 40 doesnt have much other than memphis and rest of that route is scenery, not a lot of getting out and doing much. either route will take you the painted desert and that is a national park that you drive thru and is really cool. i'd definitely suggest doing that.

Thank you for the wealth of knowledge here!! Seriously, thank you! I definitely want to take the route that takes me by Roswell and meteor crater!! That would be awesome! Baby will be 7ish months old when we plan to do this. Also we are looking at making this a 12-15 day trip, so all sights won't be able to be seen.

 

[Lil Bear]

Just be aware that the average temps at the south rim of the canyon in January are 44 for the high and 18 degrees at night.

Watch the weather closely, if snow is in the forecast it will probably/most likely/for sure, hamper your travel.

Yeah I have considered the weather a great deal. That's why we aren't doing the route we had planned at first. I'm not too too worried just yet about it being to cold. I should be able to keep everyone warm (enough). I'm going to start researching and looking for a decent heater I can put in the tent. I actually wouldn't mind seeing some snow though!!

 

[Boppa's Travels]

there are a lot of combinations you could drive, but esentially you are looking at splitting at birmingham and heading up to memphis and getting on I-40 or dropping town to I-10 and hitting new orleans. I-10 will get you new orleans and then west thru houston and then san antonio which has the alamo and the river walk and tower of the americas, etc. then its a long desolate drive thru west texas where you can angle up north and shoot into new mexico around hobbs and that will put you in range of carsbad caverns and roswell and then go up to albuquerqe and either go up a bit more and see santa fe or go west thru arizona where you will go thru the painted desert and drive by meteor crater and then to flagstaff and up from there to the south rim.

I-40 will take you thru memphis which has some cool stuff to see and then thru little rock and over to ft. smith and then on to oklahoma city, amarillo, then at albuquerque and youre heading west thru arizona.

I-10 doesnt have camping that i know of, we always stop at rest areas. there is a nice big welcome center/rest area an hour before you get to new orleans and other nice big one as soon as you get into texas...after that, there are a decent number of just small rest areas along the way, most dont have rest rooms, just parking.

I-40 will have some camp grounds. we were going west from little rock and there were several state camp grounds along the way and we stayed at one that was right on a lake. after that, a few camp grounds and then once past oklahoma city going thru amarillo, its back to rest areas.

not sure how old your son is, but you are saying a 'baby', so you might not be wanting to rough it like you would if you didnt have an infant...not sure if rest areas would be OK with you having a baby. might just have to spring for a room a few nights until you get on location. arkansas is about the only state you'll go thru with nice state camp grounds.

if youve never been to new orleans or san antonio, it might be worth it to take 10 and check them out and to break up the trip some if you like. 40 doesnt have much other than memphis and rest of that route is scenery, not a lot of getting out and doing much. either route will take you the painted desert and that is a national park that you drive thru and is really cool. i'd definitely suggest doing that.

Just be careful in Roswell. Read my post in the unexplained thread.

 

[grubworm]

Thank you for the wealth of knowledge here!! Seriously, thank you! I definitely want to take the route that takes me by Roswell and meteor crater!! That would be awesome! Baby will be 7ish months old when we plan to do this. Also we are looking at making this a 12-15 day trip, so all sights won't be able to be seen.

not sure if you are north or south georgia, but another consideration would be to go to the GC taking 10 and then veer north and enter NM at Hobbs and that will put you close to Roswell, etc. and then after you are done at the GC, you can come back on 40 and that might be quicker and better since youre ready for home at that point and probably won't feel like being sidetracked.,

we do the GC a fair bit and usually make a loop where we go thru santa fe, taos and north thru the lower part of CO (durango, silverton, etc) and then hit the 4 corners and the GC and then come back dropping down to sedona and working our way east to carlsbad caverns and eventually getting back on 10 to new orleans, which we are half an hour from. we did a trip like that back in 2011 and we hit santa fe and taos and then pagosa springs into durango, silverton and then up and west to the arches natl part in utah and then the GC and after that hit sedona and went thru the lower part of AZ and NM and carlsbad caverns and then the river walk in san antonio and then home. took right at 2 weeks and we covered some serious ground. of course we didn't have a baby with us, so i'm sure that is a bit too hectic a schedule with a baby, but there are some really cool sights to see once you get into NM

 

[Odinsink]

I would love to see your planned route when you finalize it. I am in Florida and would love to drive to Glacier National Park. Would be a heck of a trip.

 

[Lil Bear]

@Odinsink I will let you see the route once finalized for sure!!! Glacier National Park is on my list of must visits also!!!

 

[grubworm]

@Lil Bear how'd your trip go? i didn't see if you posted it anywhere else...

 

[Lil Bear]

@Lil Bear how'd your trip go? i didn't see if you posted it anywhere else...

Man it didn't go!! To many things came up that didn't allow for the time off. Between this damn virus, work, and the baby things just aren't going how I wanted. But now we are trying to plan a fall trip up the east coast all the way to Acadia. Sometime in October. I also may be trading in my truck and getting a van to build out. Not entirely sure yet. We have been researching some builds on them. I like to mountain bike and the van may work best. Who knows though!!!! Seems like I can't get shit to line up right lately.