Southwest 2022: road and hiking trip

We are back from 29-day (May 11-June 8) trip to the Southwest. We drove some 5000 miles (between destinations plus local) and walked/hiked 170 miles. Our Forester performed quite well on dirt roads – it allowed us to visit some more remote wilderness areas (we avoided the temptation to explore interesting roads that required higher clearance). As we visited many of the national parks years ago, this time we focused on hiking and viewing less known sites: Puebloan ruins, narrow canyons, rock formations. We also spent some time at more popular destinations and visited historical/archeological sites. 5-day (49-mile) hike down Buckskin Gulch and Paria River Canyon was the top highlight. We liked Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness, Chaco Culture Park and Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon, and pretty much everything else.

We finally tested our minimalistic camper (converted Subaru Forester): sleeping in the back is comfortable, but packing all the stuff is quite challenging (rooftop cargo box helps, we need to make some improvements before next long trip to Canada). We stayed at organized campgrounds or car-camped in the wild and from time to time stayed at motels to “reset”. Weather was cooperating: a few really hot days and a few colder nights, nothing extreme, no rain.

Southwest road trip

Interactive map

Completed itinerary

Day	State	Destination		Walking	Driving
				miles	miles
1	IL-MO		Bennett Spring Campground		475
2	TX		Fortress Cliff Campground		632
3	TX	Palo Duro SP	Mesquite Campground	9	2
4	NM	Palo Duro SP	Southwest Motel, Grants	5	389
5	NM	El Malpais NM	El Morro Campground	6	92
6	NM	El Morro NM	Rio De Las Vacas Campground	5	216
7	NM	Chaco Culture NHP	Gallo Campground	8	84
8	NM	Chaco Culture NHP	Gallo Campground	10	0
9	NM	Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness	De-Na-Zin Wilderness camp	8	57
10	NM	Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness	Economy Inn Motel, Farmington	13	65
11	UT	Hovenweep NM	Hovenweep Campground	3	103
12	UT	Butler Wash, Mule Canyon	Muley Point camp	6	98
13	UY-AZ	Valley of the Gods	Canyon View Campground	5	105
14	AZ	Navajo NM	Cliff Dwellers Lodge, Marble Canyon	4	119
15	UT-AZ	Wire Pass – Buckskin Gulch	camp 1	14	0
16	AZ	Paria Canyon	camp 2	10	0
17	AZ	Paria Canyon	camp 3	10	0
18	AZ	Paria Canyon	camp 4	9	0
19	AZ	Paria Canyon – Lees Ferry	Lake Powell Stay Airbnb, Page	6	46
20	UT	Cottonwood Canyon	Cottonwood Canyon camp	7	52
21	UT	Burr Trail Rd Capitol Reef NP	Deer Creek Campground	5	89
22	UT	Headquarters Canyon, Notom Rd	Burro Wash camp	4	60
23	UT	Horseshoe Canyon Canyonland NP	Green River camp	8	103
24	UT	Canyonlands NP Island in the Sky	Adventure Inn, Moab	6	155
25	UT	Canyonlands NP The Needles	Needles Campground	6	79
26	UT	Canyonlands NP The Needles	Needles Campground	12	0
27	UT-CO		Penitente Canyon Campground		289
28	CO-KS		Rodeway Inn, Salina		588
29	KS-IL	Chicago			680