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Visiting National Parks in AZ and UT: where to stay?

bbodb1

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RCI Weeks: LaCosta Beach Club, RCI Points: Oakmont Resort, Vacation Village at Parkway. Wyndham: CWA and La Belle Maison, and WorldMark.
bbodb1, We'll be staying South/Southwest of the park near Winter Park.
Since many of the family will only be able to stay a few days, I'm looking more for a scenic drive with perhaps small hikes, photo ops, etc.
Also anything of interest in the general vicinity in or out of the park would be appreciated.

I'm also doing some research on my end, but it's always great to hear others' personal experiences!
Thanks!

Winter Park is a bit further south from Granby (which is about 20 miles from the west entrance to RMNP at Grand Lake) so your drive will be a bit longer than ours but it was an easy drive when we were there.

Everything on Trail Ridge road is worth stopping and seeing as we spent our entire vacation in RMNP and would have loved to have spent more time there. We did do a couple of longer hikes but I can't remember the actual trail names and I do not have my park map handy. I do recall we hiked out to Lulu City (an abandoned city I believe the trailhead for this was the Colorado River Trailhead), around the Alpine Visitor Center (not just up to the 12K marker but crossed the road and went a few miles out from and back to the Alpine Visitor Center), the Onahu Creek Trail, played a lot on the Alluvial Fan (which is a fun area consisting of a water fall surrounded by rocks of many sizes - I have attached a photo of this area), and just about anything else that caught our attention. As were were driving and spotted something that looked interesting, we'd get out and hike a bit. Never disappointed.

There are a LOT of websites with maps and hiking suggestions but don't forget to check out the NPS map at:
https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/maps.htm
 

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WinniWoman

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Innseason Pollard Brook
Winter Park is a bit further south from Granby (which is about 20 miles from the west entrance to RMNP at Grand Lake) so your drive will be a bit longer than ours but it was an easy drive when we were there.

Everything on Trail Ridge road is worth stopping and seeing as we spent our entire vacation in RMNP and would have loved to have spent more time there. We did do a couple of longer hikes but I can't remember the actual trail names and I do not have my park map handy. I do recall we hiked out to Lulu City (an abandoned city I believe the trailhead for this was the Colorado River Trailhead), around the Alpine Visitor Center (not just up to the 12K marker but crossed the road and went a few miles out from and back to the Alpine Visitor Center), the Onahu Creek Trail, played a lot on the Alluvial Fan (which is a fun area consisting of a water fall surrounded by rocks of many sizes - I have attached a photo of this area), and just about anything else that caught our attention. As were were driving and spotted something that looked interesting, we'd get out and hike a bit. Never disappointed.

There are a LOT of websites with maps and hiking suggestions but don't forget to check out the NPS map at:
https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/maps.htm


Just got back from there and will post a review of the resort and activities when time allows.

It was awesome. We spent a full week- but just two Park days and then a trip to Boulder and also Red Rocks Park and Dinosaur Ridge and the Buffalo Bill gravesite. Did some nice things in Estes Park as well.
 
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