Planning a southwest road trip in the US? Read all the travel tips from our road trip in the land of cowboys and Indians here.
During our southwest road trip, we visit beautiful national parks like Joshua Tree NP, Arches NP, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion NP and many more.
Do you love nature? Then this itinerary is for you! Admire cliffs, deep red mountains, ancient national parks struck by lightning and feel small as you hike through the mighty rock formations of Arches national park.
But bustling cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas are also part of this multifaceted southwest roadtrip. Feel like having a beach day every now and then? Plenty of choice in and around California with many beautiful coastlines!
We did our southwest road trip with a Jeep Wrangler with rooftop tent and thus mostly camped “in the wild.”
We mapped out the perfect 21-day itinerary ourselves. Of course, depending on time and preference, you can change it yourself. Here are the details.
21-day southwest road trip USA
DAY 1: Dream of Californication
We arrive at the Los Angeles airport in the morning. Since in the US you are not allowed to pick up your car on the day of arrival, we took an Uber towards our motel for the first night. We chose to take a breather after the long flight.
We do so in Venice Beach, where the Pacific Ocean supplies Los Angeles surfers with sand and waves. Expect an eclectic vibe in and around Venice Beach where you can spend hours looking around at everything going on around you! Surfers, rollerbladers in bare torsos and skateboarders … a recognizable image from many American movies and series.
Must see’s in Venice Beach:
- Huur een fiets en fiets de kustlijn af
- Het wereldbekende Muscle Beach en skate park mogen hierbij niet ontbreken
DAY 2: Venice Beach
We wake up in Venice Beach and choose one of the nice breakfast cafes for an American breakfast. After a brisk walk through Venice Beach and a few practical arrangements, it’s Jeep Wrangler pick up time 😉.
Tip: buy a T&T American sim card. A sim card for 3 weeks costs around $90 but will save you a lot of money and time during a round trip of several weeks.
As of 3pm we may pick up our stay on wheels for the next 3 weeks. After the necessary exploration of our Jeep with rooftop tent, and a visit to Walmart to get through the first few days, we are ready to rumble!
Let’s hit the road!
We start our roundtrip in West America and head for Joshua Tree. We will spend our first night at a “dispersed campground.” These are places where you can spend the night for free (but without facilities). Legal wild camping, in other words. Through apps like “Park4Night” you can usually find these places.
We are approaching our final destination for today, Joshua Tree 61830 Division Street. It is pitch dark and via unpaved gravel roads we drive further and further into the dark. We finally arrive at something that looks like a large open plain. Our Jeep lights shine into infinity so it is hard to make out exactly where we are.
We pick a spot and set up our first camp of the trip. We may be completely alone here, yet we find that that is not quite the case. At night, we hear various animal sounds in the area. A coyote perhaps?
DAY 3 and 4: Joshua Tree National Park
Around 5 a.m., the sun hits and the first sunbeams shine over the desert plain. Only now we can properly see where we actually spent the night. A beautiful desert plain surrounded by mountains. It’s one of the most beautiful sunrises we have seen. Waking up in the middle of nowhere with no one around you: yes yes yes yes!
After breakfast, it’s time for our first National Park: Joshua Tree.
Before you can enter the park, you have to buy a pass. We opted for an “annual pass” since we have a lot of national parks on our schedule for the next three weeks. We buy our pass at the West Entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. If you plan to visit more than 3 parks, it is best to buy an annual pass.
We have high expectations and be assured … Joshua Tree does not disappoint. Could we have started with the highlight of our trip? The distinctive Joshua Trees together with the round rocks almost form an otherworldly landscape. Breathtaking!
This night we sleep in “Hidden Valley”, in the national park itself. For this we reserve a camping spot at the entrance of the park.
One of the hottest but most unique camping spot we have ever stayed at!
Here, you can easily spend more than 2 days! All hikes and detail info about our visit to Joshua Tree can be found here.
DAY 5: long drive towards mystic Sedona
We leave the beautiful Joshua Tree and with it the state of California and continue our round trip in West America towards Arizona: the famous Sedona is our next stop on the schedule.
Day 5 is a day spent in the car, but we don’t mind! American roads with their vistas are wonderful to drive on for hours.
In the late afternoon we drive into Sedona region and just driving into this region is impressive. Majestic red stone mountains with a beautiful sunset create high expectations.
Driving into the village center of Sedona, you find a beautiful, atypical, spiritual village, full of nice terraces, stores and eateries. After the long drive we keep it quiet today: we explore the village, have an aperitif and by dusk we drive a few miles out of Sedona towards Forest Road 535: a dispersed (= free) campsite where we choose our rooftop tent to prepare a nice dinner and spend the night.
DAY 6: Sedona: red rocks and beautiful hikes
Rise & shine! The alarm clock is set early, we want to make the most of our visit to Sedona.
Several hikes are scheduled today. Absolute must do today is looking for a famous “vortex” that everyone is talking about. You simply must have seen that one during your visit to Sedona.
You can find all the detailed info of the best hikes in Sedona here.
After an active day full of beautiful and impressive climbs, with as icing on the cake a sunset hike, we eat something in the village and continue our journey. We drive through a mountainous area full of elk (pretty dangerous when it’s dark 😉 ) and book a motel for the night since it’s already late and we could use a good shower after a day full of hikes.
We spend the night at motel Mountain View Inn in Flagstaff.
DAY 7: Visit to the magnificent and world famous Antelope Canyon
Up early again, because today a visit to Antelope Canyon is on our schedule.
From Flagstaff we have to drive a good 2 hours to get to Antelope.
After a lot of research and weighing our options between Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, we decide to go for the less touristy of the two: Lower Antelope Canyon.
Tip: if you’re planning a visit to Upper or Lower Antelope Canyon, plan ahead in your itinerary! We booked our tickets about 5 days before, but no longer had all the choices in terms of time slots. So the earlier the better.
Once we arrived at Lower Antelope Canyon, we still felt a bit like herded and hunted cattle.
This attraction is so heavily visited that there is little room or time to explore on your own. You are divided into groups by time slot, but about 8 groups per hour descend the Lower Canyon. Apart from the fact that not too much time was spent on historical info or time for pretty pictures, and there are usually about 15 people standing next to you in the narrow canyons, we are glad to have seen this natural wonder.
The colors, the narrow grooves, the sun deep into the rocks conjuring beautiful spectacles… Wow!
We booked our Lower Antelope Canyon tour through Dixie’s Lower Antelope Canyon Tours (https://www.antelopelowercanyon.com/)
Horse shoe bend
After our visit to the beautiful Lower Antelope Canyon, we visit Page. A typical American village, full of fast food chains. Let’s try a good old Subway.
Afterwards we drive to the famous Horse Shoe Bend. Here you pay an entrance fee of 10 dollars to enter. Once you arrive at the large (and again very touristy) parking lot, you walk the American way via a beautiful levelled path towards the Horse Shoe Bend.
It is worthy of its name, the view is beautiful and absolutely worth seeing once. Admittedly, day 7 takes the crown for us in terms of “touristy” attractions. Do not expect desolate or unique hikes where you feel like you are alone in the world. Rather, it’s languid hiking among lots of tourists and Americans venturing out of their cars. But no less beautiful for that in terms of natural beauty.
If you are around here, you can also possibly visit Lake Powell. We decided not to do this, but a boat trip on Lake Powell seems to be worthwhile!
Other attractions near Antelope, Page and Horse Shoe Bend are:
Visit Wave Trail (only accessible by draw months in advance!)
Hiking trail Buckskin gulch (you will need a day for this)
We end our day with a drive toward Olijato Monument Valley. Again, high hopes for this next stop!
DAY 8: Waking up at UNESCO World Heritage Olijato Monument Valley
We spent the night at a camping since you don’t have many “dispersed camping” options in and around Olijato Monument Valley.
Region Monument Valley is pretty much dominated by the “Gouldings.” They have the main accommodations in region Monument Valley: from basic campgrounds, condos to fancy hotels.
We booked Gouldings campground. Nestled among beautiful red rock formations, this seemed like the ideal place to stay for 2 nights and explore the region from here.
After a week filled with fun and sometimes challenging hikes, we fit in a “relaxation day” on day 8. Some cooking, reading, spending time by the pool during the overwhelming heat (41 degrees) is no luxury. We decide to do the scenic self-drive of Olijato Monument Valley by sunset, or golden hour.
Scenic self drive
To do this route, you buy an entrance ticket at the Navajo Tribal Park just before you start the scenic drive.
The scenic self drive costs $8 per person and is an approximately 25-mile loop that you can do at your own pace. Admission tickets are “first come, first served,” so in high season you may already be out of luck.
One requirement is that you must exit the scenic drive before 8 p.m. at night. So we went to buy our admission ticket around 4:30 p.m. to start the drive.
The scenic drive consists of 11 magnificent and impressive stops. You can find all the detailed info about our visit to Olijato Monument Valley here. Definitely one of the highlights during our trip!
After the scenic drive, we drove to the iconic Forest Gump point. The point where Tom Hanks in the movie comes to the realization that he has now walked long enough was filmed here. Do watch out a bit when taking a picture on the road. The passing traffic likes it a little less ;).
We ended the day with a second night at our campsite among the red rocks.
DAY 9: Up to impressive rock formations in Arches National park and a visit to Moab
Avid nature buffs like us don’t get bored easily with national parks, so today we have the next iconic national park on the schedule: Arches National Park.
From Monument Valley, we drive a good 3 hours towards Arches. On the way to Arches you pass the village of Moab. This was not initially on our planning, but what a must!
Be sure to stop here for a burger, a walk through the authentic village with nice stores or an American milkshake. Because we like it so much here, we decide to spend the whole afternoon there, buy some provisions (refill our water supply, fill up with gas,…) and in the evening we drive towards Devils Garden Campground to be able to explore Arches early the next morning.
DAY 10: Arches National Park
Today we climb out of our rooftop tent at 5:30 a.m. at the beautiful Devils Garden Campground. We want to visit the unique “arches” before the general public to take pictures. Last night we thoroughly reviewed which arches we absolutely want to see, because be sure: Arches National Park has countless and there are a huge number of stops in the park.
We drove our Jeep to the various highlights, including:
- Landscape Arch – America’s longest arch!
- Delicate Arch Trail (hike)
- Panorama Point
- Garden of Eden (mini arches)
From the various stops we do a number of short hikes. The Delicate Arch Trail was our favorite of these. By the time we arrived it was about 11:30 and unfortunately we were not alone here. Read: lines of tourists to take THE instagram worthy photo. The unrelenting heat (about 39 degrees) made us return in the early afternoon to cool off a bit at the Arches National Park visitor center.
Admittedly: Arches National Park is definitely worth a visit during your tour of Western America, but after very impressive parks like Joshua Tree and Monument Valley, Arches is one of the lesser parks up to that point.
Tonight we drive on towards Bryce Canyon. Again a longer drive ahead: a good 4 hours in the car, but a drive full of beautiful scenery, so definitely not a punishment!
We find a delightful dispersed camping spot near Bryce Canyon National Park. After a good 10 days of desert (and a lot of sweating😉 ), here we find ourselves in a totally different climate. Wooded environments with lots of greenery and a slightly milder temperature: we like!
DAY 11: Bryce Canyon: hoodoos and trees smashed by lightning
We wake up among the trees in Bryce, but we’re not alone… Our rooftop tent is surrounded by wild cows; good morning to you too!
After a hearty breakfast of bacon and egg, we descend toward the visitor center to inquire about visiting Bryce Canyon. Nay, we are not yet tired of the nature and national parks the US has to offer.
We spend the day in Bryce Canyon National Park and do a lot of Jeep stops. We find that when hiking we have to catch our breath faster than we are used to. Could we be a little tired from the past few days?
I quickly check the altimeter on my sports watch. Despite what the vistas over the vast plateaus make it seem, here we are at no less than 2800 meters in altitude! Whew… nothing wrong with our condition, then ;).
Since our camping spot was so good and we would like to wake up again among wild cows, we decide to go back to the same place to spend the night. A nice camping dinner and early into our bed, because tomorrow morning a promising hike is scheduled!
NOTE: Bryce Canyon and the region around it are hit almost daily by thunderstorms. This makes it especially dangerous for lightning strikes in the high places in the park. The back of the plateau is littered with trees that were struck by lightning. In the past, several people were also victims of lightning here. So do not venture into high open places or under trees during a thunderstorm.
- http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/moderatehikes.htm
- Camping in the park itself is also an option (North of Sunset Campground). First come, first served. ($20/night)
DAY 12: Wonderful Navajo hike in Bryce Canyon and a drive towards Zion National Park
Conclusion of day 11: Bryce Canyon is handsome, but we’ve seen prettier so far… Still, we read everywhere that you absolutely must hike the Queens Garden & Navajo Trail. These trails run right through the impressive “amphitheater” of Bryce Canyon.
We opt for an average hike of about 5 kilometers. And wow: this hike does not disappoint! It’s an average hike with some ups and downs, but with a temperature of 32 degrees, you still have a good work-out behind you.
DAY 13: Rivers and canyons in Zion National Park
Zion National Park means returning towards the state of Utah.
The drive to Zion in itself is worth it; beautiful vistas with high mountains. This national park absolutely does not disappoint either. So many national parks and yet all so different….
Are you looking for a real adrenaline rush? Then Angel’s Landing is a must do. Unfortunately, there have been dozens of casualties here in recent years. Therefore, it is not accessible these days without applying for a “permit” in advance. You have to apply for one at least 6 months in advance!
In Zion National Park, for the most part, you are not allowed to drive your car. So you leave your car at the park entrance and from there you can hop on the shuttle bus, which runs about every 10 minutes.
We were there in mid-July, read: blistering hot temperatures of about 40 degrees. Are you up for a challenge? Then “The Narrows” is the ideal hike to cool down. A beautiful, but challenging long hike that you largely cover through (sometimes knee-high) water. The Narrows is not accessible year-round because of the danger of “flash floods,” so be sure to read the current updates at the visitor center before you start.
We would rather stay in Zion National Park longer because of the natural beauty and impressive gorges, but after a hot, tiring day we decide to leave the park anyway and find a dispersed campsite a few miles outside Zion NP.
DAY 14: Majestic Grand Canyon
We wake up among several other campers by a small river. After much deliberation and a lot of Americans telling us “you can’t visit the southwest of the US without going to the Grand Canyon!” we do decide to add the Grand Canyon to our schedule.
This was not foreseen and given the days left and the region we are in, we decide to visit the less touristy “North Rim” of the Grand Canyon. According to a lot of Americans “the better and non touristy side”.
From Zion NP, this means a 2.5-hour drive. It is a beautiful drive, but once arrived we have to decide … the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is for us the “disappointment” of the whole trip up to that point. After only an hour of hiking, we decide to leave. About the same length back in the same direction from where we came, not our best idea… You win some, you lose some I guess 😉. We decide to stick to our initial plan and continue on to Sin City: hello Las Vegas!
Day of setbacks on our southwest road trip
As ultimate nature lovers, we are skeptical, but very curious about Las Vegas. The disappointment of the Grand Canyon continues when it turns out that Las Vegas is not exactly the place where people are waiting for a jeep with rooftop tent… Combine this with a scorching dry heat of 43 degrees and you can imagine: not the highlight of our trip!
After a very long day of driving, we decide to book an overpriced RV Campground about 10 kilometers outside of downtown Las Vegas: “Koa at Sam’s Town”. You pay a hefty $70 to sleep in your rooftop tent here. Las Vegas in July is hot: it doesn’t get cooler than 30 degrees at night. 1 tip for Las Vegas in July: book a hotel with air conditioning!!!
DAY 15 and 16: Las Vegas: casinos, wedding chapels and decadent hotels
We decide to put our down day behind us and head into Las Vegas with great enthusiasm. Since our house on wheels contains just about all of our belongings, we decide to leave it in a guarded parking lot just past downtown Las Vegas and take an Uber towards the city.
Las Vegas is everything you read about it and think you would expect and more: lots of bling bling, giant casinos in hotels, hotels and more hotels that seem bigger than an entire village. It’s something different after 2 weeks of desolate nature and beautiful national parks. We take about 30,000 steps, visit all the highlights, cool ourselves with lots of water and milkshakes and imagine ourselves in a cheap version of Venice, Paris and Rome.
Conclusion: Las Vegas is worth seeing once in a lifetime, but we gladly left Sin City behind after 1 day! 😉
Given the extreme heat (about 45 degrees), we decide to drive on to our next stop by late evening: Death Valley. The plan is to arrive in Death Valley around 10pm at the park’s most accessible camping spot: Furnace Creek. We throw open our tent and try to cool ourselves with wet towels to get through the night. The alarm is set at 5 a.m. to explore a bit of the national park, which is as big as Alaska, before the worst of the heat!
DAY 17: Too hot to handle in Death Valley: the hottest, driest and lowest place in the United States
Death Valley lives up to its name. It is the hottest, driest and lowest place in the United States (even the hottest place on earth!). Therefore, visiting Death Valley in July is not recommended unless you are very well prepared.
Make sure your tank is completely full, you carry more than 6 liters of water per person per day and enough food to get you through a few days. A common phenomenon is blowouts in Death Valley due to the extreme heat, especially in July. If you break down with your car always stay with your vehicle and do not hike in search of help!
At 5 a.m. it is “only” 33 degrees and we start our day.
We choose to visit 4 highlights because we want to leave Death Valley before noon, when the temperature is heading toward about 50 degrees.
- Badwater Basin
- The famous Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
- Zabriskie Point
- Dante’s View
Because of the heat, you can’t speak of long hikes here, but rather jumping in and out of the car to see the highlights. In the spring, there are plenty of wonderful hikes in Death Valley that are worthwhile.
The racetrack
An absolute highlight we went to Death Valley for is the racetrack. A world-renowned natural phenomenon of “moving rocks”. Because of the extreme weather conditions in July, this was not recommended as it requires a 4-hour drive with an experienced 4×4 driver deep into the heart of the national park. No drives are done here in the months of June, July and August, so doing this is at your own risk. Since we didn’t have a spare tire with us, we skipped this.
After 2 days of desert heat, we decide to book a hotel in Bakersfield; we could use some cooling off!
We spend the night at Country Inn & Suites in Bakersfield.
DAY 18: Back to some coolness and coastline: Pismo Beach!
The end of our southwest roadtrip is drawing near and we are slowly driving back towards some cooler temperatures on the coast. We choose to spend the last 2 days at the beach and in civilization after 3 weeks of desolate camping spots.
Pismo Beach is on the schedule. A cool town with a fun surf vibe, cool shops and beautiful sprawling beaches. After almost 3 weeks of heat, hikes and camping in the desert, we enjoy the freshness on the coast, visit some galleries (Chris Burkhard’s shop and photo gallery is in Pismo!) and do some shopping. We book Oceano Camp Ground to spend the night, here you can take your jeep on the beach!
DAY 19: Santa Barbara
After a relaxing day, evening and morning in Pismo Beach, we drive further down the California coastline toward Santa Barbara.
The other extreme after about three weeks of rugged natural elements and controversial states like Utah and Arizona. Santa Barbara is chic, sophisticated and you’ll find plenty of wonderful shops and eateries.
There is a Santa Barbara scenic drive you can do that takes you through the hills past all the celebrity villas. It’s a change from deep gorges, imposing red rocks and Joshua Tree’s 😊
DAY 19: Farewell to beautiful and luxurious Santa Barbara and taking our best friend back to LA!
Santa Barbara pleases us so we spend another half day here at the beach. From Santa Barbara it’s another 220 km or so to LA. We drive down the coastline, stop at typical American diners and, with much pain in our hearts, drop off our house on wheels. For the last night we book Trylon Hotel in Hollywood, an austere hotel but the ideal base for exploring Hollywood.
DAY 20: ending our southwest road trip in Hollywood
We conclude in rich & famous Hollywood with the typical hotspots:
- The Walk of Fame
- The Hollywood Sign
- Hollywood Boulevard
- Melrose Avenue
- Rodeo Drive
- …
DAY 21: End of our wonderful southwest road trip. Home sweet home… Here we come
What do I bring for southwest road trip in America?
For your tour of West America, be sure to bring the following items:
- Good walking/hiking shoes
- Sunscreen
- Insulated Camelbak water bottle
- Zip-off trekking pants
- Hiking poles
- Sun protection hat
- Liner for in your sleeping bag (can be slept in like this when it’s warm).
- A good powerbank
When is the best time to tour West America?
We did our southwest road trip in late June to mid-July. This was perfectly doable and we had beautiful weather, but if you’re going for a very active vacation, it’s best to go a little earlier in the year. April, May or June are ideal. Nice weather, but not yet the scorching heat in the desert that you have from late June and especially July!
We occasionally had to change our planned hikes or plans o.w.v. the extremely hot weather.
Which car rental company do I choose for my southwest road trip?
For our tour of West America, we booked our Jeep with rooftop tent through Indie Campers.
