Rocky Mountain Road Trip: Seeing Three National Parks and Two Monuments on a Long Weekend

We refuse to let a holiday weekend go unused here in Colorado, especially when it’s the warmer parts of the year. Therefore, we’d been eyeing Memorial Day since temperatures started dropping the fall before. We had four days off with sunny, warm temperatures, and we knew we had to go somewhere.

With four full days, it had to be something bigger than usual. Eastern Utah seemed like a natural choice, as it was far enough that we had to stay a few nights and there is a ton to do and see. But southern Colorado and the Four Corners region had the same argument. The choice bothered us for months, until it hit us on our flight home from our Arizona trip to Saguaro National Park: why not make a big, circular road trip out of both places?

We could easily make the drive to southwestern Colorado after work on Thursday. We could probably do Mesa Verde National Park in a single day and even hit Four Corners Monument afterwards. Then, it’s only a two-and-a-half hour drive to Moab, where we could spend one day in Arches National Park and another day in Canyonlands National Park. The drive home from there was a straight shot down I-70 back towards Denver, and it would only be a short diversion to drive Rocky Mountain National Monument.

What a great plan it was! This was one of our best trips yet while living in Colorado, and we wanted to share our planning, tips, and ideas to make it even better. Don’t forget to check out our reviews of the individual national parks, but this was the “trip” that got us there.

Quick Summary: The Great Circle Road Trip through the Rocky Mountain, Four Corners, and Moab Regions

Being based in Colorado Springs, our trip naturally started and ended there – but you can easily substitute that for Denver if that’s where you live or are flying into. You could also pick it up somewhere else on the route, and you can also reverse the directions if that works better.

• Day 1: Drive south to Durango or Cortez, Colorado. We did this after work, so the day was really just spent driving; it is a gorgeous route and you could make a day out of it with stops. From Colorado Springs, the total is around 5-6 hours.
  • If you have the time: consider Great Sand Dunes National Park or Chimney Rock National Monument.
    • We stayed at the SpringHill Suites Durango, which was 40 minutes from the park entrance and nice and clean.
• Day 2: Visit Mesa Verde National Park, followed by a stop at Four Corners Monument, before driving on to Moab, Utah. The majority of your day will probably be spent at the National Park, which is worth it – make sure you have tickets for a tour!
  • Four Corners Monument is a quick, easy, and fun stop, but not a do-not-miss if you are tight on time. The drive to Moab isn’t far from either place – around 2.5 hours.
• Days 3 and 4: Explore Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. One day per park should be perfect unless you want to do some really intense hiking. Arches has started requiring timed entry tickets as of 2025.
  • If you are okay with early mornings and long days, consider visiting The Needles section of Canyonlands and/or doing some rafting on the Colorado River.
    • We stayed at the Voco Moab, an IHG brand, which is brand new as of 2025. 
• Day 5: Drive back to Denver/Colorado Springs with a convenient stop in Colorado National Monument. The monument is mainly a scenic drive with lots of scenic stops, plus a few hikes.
  • We recommend driving Highway 128 from Moab, which follows the Colorado River before meeting up with I-70. It adds less than 10 minutes to the total trip and it is unbelievably scenic.

Our trip was specifically planned for a four-day weekend, and there is so much more we could have added to this route if we had more time. We’ll add some of those ideas throughout and at the end of this article if you’re interested!

Day 1: Colorado Springs to Durango 

We left the Springs in the afternoon of a Thursday after work, so we didn’t have time to do much besides drive on this day. However, we were kind of disappointed that we didn’t have more time – southern Colorado, specifically west of I-25 in the southern Rocky Mountains, was stunning! We felt like we were driving through the Swiss Alps, especially in the Wolf Creek area.

If you left in the morning, you could easily add a stop at Great Sand Dunes National Park on the way south. The route takes you right past it, and the park can be a quick stop if you don’t have much time. Seeing massive, Sahara-like sand dunes against the backdrop of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains just a short distance away is really amazing.

Another great idea would be a stop at Pagosa Springs. This small town does indeed have natural hot springs, and you can buy a pass to soak at The Springs Resort. A stay there is high on our list.

Where to Stay in Durango (or Cortez)

We chose to stay in Durango for this night for a few reasons. For one, it was a shorter drive than the next best option (Cortez), and we knew we’d be driving relatively late at night. And for two, it had Marriott Bonvoy properties, which we prioritize due to our elite status and points-earning preferences. We were quite pleased with the SpringHill Suites – it was clean, had free breakfast, and was just a 40-minute drive to the national park entrance.

The alternative would have been the Holiday Inn Express Mesa Verde-Cortez. We like earning IHG points and the free breakfast at HIX’s are usually pretty good, and the location is even closer to Mesa Verde. We would have had no problem staying here if we were driving the route in the reverse direction.

Day 2: Mesa Verde National Park, the Four Corners, and Drive to Moab

The main event of this day was definitely Mesa Verde National Park – read our full review for the most details, but we’ll cover the big stuff again here. This park is in the southwestern corner of Colorado and preserves hundreds of ancient Native American ruins, including famous cliff dwellings.

Importantly, the best way to see Mesa Verde is on one of their ranger-guided tours, which must be booked in advance on recreation.gov. You will actually go into the cliff dwellings this way. There is a ton of stuff to see and do on your own, but you won’t want to miss the full experience.

Keep in mind that almost all of the big attractions of Mesa Verde, including the tours, are at least 30 minutes from the park entrance. If you stay in Durango, that can make a big difference as to what time you leave your hotel.

We spent about ¾ of the day in Mesa Verde before heading out to Moab via the Four Corners Monument. That stop is only about 45 minutes from the national park entrance, so it wasn’t a major diversion at all.

To be honest, there isn’t much to do at the Four Corners. It can be fun to stand in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah all at once, and take pictures at the quad-point. All around the site, there are Native American vendors selling authentic souvenirs and snacks like frybread. This is Navajo Nation, after all.

Overall, it was a cool little stop, but not a must-do if it doesn’t work for your plan. The drive to Moab was about 2.5 hours from there. Get gas and stock up on water wherever you can, because there is nothing out there.

Where to Stay in Moab

Moab is a very touristy town and there are a ton of accommodation options. We went with the Voco Moab for our three-night stay. I managed to use the annual free night from my IHG credit card, which was a huge win on a holiday weekend, and then combined it with two paid nights. 

The Voco is brand new and therefore clean and modern. The restaurant was quite good as well. We found the walls to be thin for a new-build, as we could hear our neighbors far too easily. It’s also south of the downtown area, which is great if you want a quieter atmosphere and don’t mind a five-minute drive to reach everything.

If you want to be at the doorstep of Arches National Park, consider the SpringHill Suites Moab. It literally is across the street from the entrance and its pool is better described as a waterpark. We were very tempted to sneak in after a day of overheating on hikes in the park…

Days 3 and 4: Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park

We found one full day at each national park to be perfect. The order doesn’t really matter, as they are both incredible and different from each other. However, important note: as of 2025, Arches requires timed entry reservations to access the park during peak season. We didn’t know that.

Luckily, they release additional tickets every evening for the following day. So, we did Canyonlands first and managed to grab entry tickets that evening to do Arches the next day. If you are unable to get tickets at all, you can still enter the park freely if you go early-morning as a last resort option.

Canyonlands National Park

You might not think it from looking at the map, but the entrance to Canyonlands National Park is a good 40-minute drive from Moab. Again, read our full review at that link for the most details, but here are the big things.

For one, make sure you grab more water than you think you need before leaving Moab. There is nothing in the park and it gets HOT. We also grabbed sandwiches from Red Rock Bakery and Cafe and packed them in a cooler for lunch.

We recommend prioritizing Grand View Point, which is at the end of the main road running through the park. It’s a little less than a mile one-way on the hike, which literally follows the cliff’s edge. From any given point, you are overlooking hundreds of miles of the canyon floor below, and it is a must-do for hikers.

Then, we hit the famous Mesa Arch, which only requires a much shorter hike to reach. Our other stops included Upheaval Dome, the Green River Overlook, and the Shafer Trail Viewpoint, among others. We were very happy with our day in Canyonlands.

We had dinner that evening at Sunset Grill Moab. It sits high up on the cliffside and truly has the most panoramic view of perhaps any restaurant in the region, and it does indeed look west towards the sunset. It was good, but you definitely go there for the view more than anything else.

Arches National Park

We detailed our entire day in our full review of Arches National Park. The evening prior, we managed to get a ticket time of 9:00am, which was perfect. We wanted to sleep a bit in order to recover after hiking around Canyonlands the day before, plus have breakfast. But if you want to avoid crowds and escape some of the intense heat, go even earlier!

Again, make certain that you have extra water before entering the park. We brought our same picnic as the day before. After stopping at the visitor center, we headed straight for Delicate Arch (photo above). That may be the most popular hike in the park.

The hike is definitely crowded and strenuous, but it is definitely worth it. In fact, I think it is among the top hikes I’ve ever been on. After a short trek along the hilly desert floor, you will scale a very steep rock face. The last part involves a rather narrow (but not too scary) cliffside that brings you to the massive arch itself, high above where you started. We also went to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint below, but we found it to be unnecessary if you plan on doing the hike up to it anyway.

We then went to the back of the park to the Devil’s Garden section, which is the next most popular. We only hiked to Landscape Arch, but there are many miles of trails in this scenic section. The trail was made up of bright red sand and the beginning cuts through narrow red-walled canyons. Next time, we will do more of those trails.

After a few more short stops, we ended our visit with Double Arch, which is in its own little section of the park. It’s a quick and easy trail compared to the others. By this time, we were exhausted, but very happy with our visit to Arches.

Day 5: Drive Back to Colorado via Highway 124 and Colorado National Monument

We got an early start on our final day, as we had two diversions to make on the way home to Colorado Springs. Setting off from Moab, we decided to drive Highway 124 east instead of the standard shot straight to I-70. We saw that Highway 124 directly follows the Colorado River and its red canyons that actually border Arches National Park, and we knew it had to be a stunning drive.

We were not wrong, and we would recommend this “diversion” in a heartbeat. It added less than 10 minutes to our total drive time, was far less crowded, and was breathtaking at every turn. It kind of made us sad that we didn’t have time for the rafting tours common along this part of the river, or some of the hikes and generally nice spots back here that are less visited than the national parks!

About an hour into that drive, the canyon disappears and the road meets up with I-70. It’s not far to the Colorado state line at that point, and the towns of Fruita and Grand Junction. That’s where Colorado National Monument is, and it was the perfect opportunity, just minutes from the highway.

Colorado National Monument surrounds the scenic Rimrock Drive, which twists and turns its way through stunning Rocky Mountain alpine wilderness. Canyons, plateaus, monoliths, and mountain wildlife can all be seen along the drive and its stops.

We entered on the western side, and after a beautiful climb up Rimrock Drive, we made our first stop at the visitor center. We walked the Canyon Rim Trail, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was short, easy, and not scary, and we highly recommend it. There aren’t many other hikes in this national monument – at least not quick and easy ones.

We then simply continued along Rimrock Drive. Without stopping, it probably takes about 45 minutes to reach the other end. But, there are a ton of stops to make for the different views along the way. 

After reaching the other end, it was back onto I-70 to head east towards Denver. We cut through the lovely Rocky Mountains, which still had snowy peaks at the end of May, and were back in the big city after just a few hours. It was a driving day well-spent!

Conclusion: A Roadtrip of a Lifetime in the American West

We had a fantastic time on this way-too-quick roadtrip, and we hope that sharing our plan (and ideas on what to do differently) will help others see these beautiful states. We just wish that we didn’t have to go back to the real world, because you could spend weeks just in these little corners of America alone.

You could flip this road trip in the other direction, start it off at any of these points, or add on plenty of other things to do along the way if you have the time. We would have liked to see Chimney Rock, Hovenweep, and Canyons of the Ancients National Monuments if we just had a bit more. We also would have gladly spent a night or two at the Hot Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs, or in Monument Valley, which is high on our list.

As usual, we also didn’t do everything we wanted to in each national park. So, we’ll probably back out this way to see all the things we missed. Let us know what you think of our plans and what next time should look like!

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