Usa trip to Texas. Where should I go. (fairly urgent)

[413x]

Been told I need to go to usa for a few days for work and I was thinking of extending it for a free flights holiday

This is in June!! I'm going to be hot!

I'd like to know what might be nice to visit in the area surrounding it.
Grand Canyon is something I thought of?

Wildlife,
Architecture
Night

Are my favs

I'm willing to buy something for this trip and have never had to plan so carefully what to take in terms of lenses and even the logistics of having a full backpack !

I'd always take

10-22mm f3.5-f4.5
100mm macro f2.8l
Tripod
Filters and SD cards

Other lenses available
35mm f1.4 sigma art
120-300mm f2.8 sigma

I'll also likely have 17-55mm f2.8 (which would definitely come too)

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

I visited a friend in Texas in 2007.
It will be very hot, but everywhere is crispy cool with A/C.

If you are in Texas then there will be lots to see, but make sure you get a map of the UK and Texas side by side to appreciate the size of Texas. I found car journeys were always fruther than I expected as Texas is massive!

 

[Amp34]

Yeah, just a word of warning. Depending where in Texas your going, thinking about visiting the Grand Canyon is a bit like saying "I'm off to London, I think I'll pop in to Gibraltar while I'm there... "!

 

[D.P.]

Where in texas are you going, with a few days you wont be going very far at all.
Your best bet might be to get an internal flight out to somewhere like Colorado or Utah.

Hoston to Grand canyon is 1300 miles and 20 hours of driving, forget it!

 

[413x]

Ah I would be planing on a connection flight if I have to go far.
And yep I'm aware that Texas is huge!

I've got plenty of days holiday (30 this year) and I don't believe there are any time restrictions on time between

 

[D.P.]

In which case fly to Jackson, Wyoming, rent a car and visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Some highlights:

Utah is also filled with possibilities:

TBH, Grand Canyon was the most disappointing park I have been to.

 

[413x]

Those are some amazing pics!
Place looks like heaven to me tbh.

The Utah ones are particularly spectacular!

 

[Amp34]

Yeah, we don't see enough of your photos on here D.P.. I'd like to see some of your Costa Rica ones when you've processed them.

Can't wait to be living a few hours drive from Yellowstone.

 

[D.P.]

Yeah, we don't see enough of your photos on here D.P.. I'd like to see some of your Costa Rica ones when you've processed them.

Can't wait to be living a few hours drive from Yellowstone.

There a few Costa Rica photos in the wildlife thread. Working on the others but have been recovering form sickness.



You moving to the US? Where abouts if you are going to be that close to Yellowstone?

 

[Amp34]

Awesome, I'll go have a look. I don't very often wander into those threads because they look a mess!

Not the US, Canada, and it's all relative. I'm off to Calgary, so a 9 hour drive...

 

[413x]

As this is such a great opportunity what would be a good time frame to spend in each area?

Utah being my top pics
Yellowstone if it's reasonable to do both

Unfortunately I haven't much to go on apart from your pics.

I know Yellowstone is great.. Wouldn't have thought about Utah

 

[Amp34]

If you're not worried about flying all over the US there are dozens of places to go. You could spend a week in Yosemite NP, and even longer if you wanted to wander round then NPs nearby.

 

[D.P.]

It is a days drive between the Utah parks and Yellowstone. Wyoming and Utah are neighboring states but Yellowstone is in the north of Wyoming and the Utah parks are in the south.

What we did was fly in to Jackson, Wyoming. Picked up a rental car and drove into Yellowstone park. Be warned, Yellowstone park is very big and it takes hours to go from one side to the other, so it can make sense to have multiple bases within the park, or get a central location and pro rare to drive 2-3hours each way.

After 1 week in Yellowstone we had 5 days in Grand Teton national park, which is right next door. We then drove down to Bryce Canyon national park, wi a stop over in salt lake city. Form Bryce it is very easy to connect to several other national parks in Utah, as well as state parks like Kodachrome basin. Each one so only 2-3 hours from the neighboring park, so we would spend a few days in each park, on transfer day get up early and do a big walk before it gets too hot (and enjoy the sunrise photography), then in th heat of the day drive to the next park. Once we arrived in the afternoon it was perfect to get back out walking again for sunset. We ended in arches national park, from there a 6 hour drive back to jackson.


You can also combine the Utah parks with Grand Canyon, antelope canyon and Las Vegas, which is much cheaper to fly to. Zion national park is a few hours from Vegas.


All depends how much time you have. In 2005 I did an ic road trip starting in San Francisco, going through the sierras and Yosemite NP, through detha valley, onto Vegas, all the Utah parks, into colorado for grand messa verde, and back across visiting monument valley and Grand Canyon. Was around 4 weeks.

 

[D.P.]

Awesome, I'll go have a look. I don't very often wander into those threads because they look a mess!

Not the US, Canada, and it's all relative. I'm off to Calgary, so a 9 hour drive...

Calgary is a dream location, right next dorr to the rockies and banff national park, easy to get to Jasper NP, Yoho NP, Glacier NP, with yellowstone accessible.


To get you excited:

Mount Robson, cloud free. This is just west of Jasper NP

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Along the icefields parkway

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Bighorn Mountain sheep in Banff NP

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Alpine Pitka, Banff NP

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Yoho NP

 

[Amp34]

Oh yes, I'm very much looking forward to it.

We are planning on getting a van and doing a lot of Roadtrips all over the area and all the way up to Alaska But we're also going to spend a lot of time in the Rockies. They'll be only an hour away from our house.

Stunning photos as usual.

 

[413x]

this is now in progress.

im trying to figure out how to spend my time, how much time, and how much its going to cost
ive decided on utah and yellowstone

this is something new to me and i will be alone

top priority is deciding time:cost compromise

dont think i can go for more than 2 weeks
cost of accommodation looks like not far off 70-100GBP per night - thats quite a lot.
that puts cost at 2k at the lowest for 2 weeks
plus car hire
plus connection flights
then extras too

i need to tell the company i work for my plans this week in regards to flights back

id love 2 weeks but im in a tough spot with 2K!

basically the cheaper i can get this trip the longer i can go for

 

[D.P.]

2 weeks isn't that long a time so i would just look at 1 area TBH.
Since this is last minute you may be screwed on accommodation.

You could easily spend 2 weeks in in Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP. Accommodation for Yellowstone will be difficult.

Also, 2 weeks could make a trip around southern Utah parks and Grand Canyon. Accommodation will be a bit easier.


Do you like to camp? it is much cheaper ($10-20 a night, but can wild camp for free in national forest). This is what I usually do for longer trips.
It also tend to be a necessity for places like Yellowstone and Yosemite since there is very limited accommodation in the park apart form cam sites, and being outside the park can mean hours of driving and big line ups at the entrance.



A few more ideas:
Oregon: amazing coast, rainforest, volcanoes, desert, vineyards, gold mining towns.
You could fly out of Portland and save an internal flight

Glacier NP, amazing scenery, grizzly bears and wildlife. I just booked a week here in September over a holiday weekend, plenty of accommodation form $80.


A cheaper option might be Colorado rocky mountains. Lots of cheap accommodation in the summer in all the ski areas, you should be able to find cheap motels at $50 a night. You can also fly out of Denver airport internationally saving money again.

 

[Rroff]

Just seen that Yoho pic - there are some surreal places around Calgary that you really have to see to really appreciate - even that pic which is really good doesn't do it justice.

 

[413x]

Right

I'll have to fly in and out of Dallas. That is a must really.

The thing playing on my mind is I might not be going back for a very long time. It would be nice to get two places visited (more from a different things to see perspective)

I really like the pictures of Utah but Yellowstone is spectacular

I could probably get 2.5 weeks in if I can get the accommodation cost down (I have 30 days holiday this year)
If I can get down to 50gbp a night that is viable

Definitely some pros to doing one place.. Particularly logistics

 

[413x]

Had an idea. I might mix camping with stays at lodges. Should cut cost significantly and I may be able to get 14 nights in

I still really want to see both places (Utah parks and Yellowstone)