2,600 miles is a long road trip! However, when most of the drive is through picturesque settings that include snow capped mountains and deep canyons, it does not seem as long anymore. It also helps to have awesome travel companions and a good ride.

Driving from Los Angeles, California to Estes Park, Colorado during the Thanksgiving break in November 2018 was not part of our original plans.  We had intended to spend the 10 days in warm and sunny Nicaragua and Guatemala. However, unfortunately the political unrest in Nicaragua through most of 2018, forced us to cancel that trip, pretty much at the last minute. Rather than sit at home, we decided to check off the last three National Parks we were yet to cover in the central west. Great Sand Dunes National Park lies in south central Colorado, roughly 300 miles north of it lies the famous Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park lies another 300 miles west, very close to the border of Colorado and Utah. Going to a National Park is always awesome, but when you get to visit 3 of them in the same trip, it is well worth the drive!

Our high-level itinerary was as follows:

Day 1: Drive from Los Angeles to Flagstaff, Arizona on Interstate 40 W (distance of 480 miles)
Day 2: Drive from Flagstaff to Alamosa, Colorado mostly on 160 W (distance of 450 miles)
Day 3: Spend the day at the Great Sand Dunes National Park (which lies just a few miles east of Alamosa)
Day 4: Drive from Alamosa to Estes Park through the very scenic Colorado state highways (distance of 300 miles)
Day 5 & 6: Spend at the Rocky Mountain National Park which lies at the doorstep of Estes Park
Day 7: Drive from Estes Park to Black Canyon of Gunnison NP mostly on Interstate 70 W (distance of 315 miles)
Day 8: Spend the day at Black Canyon of Gunnison NP
Day 9: Spend morning in Colorado National Monument and drive to St. George, Utah on Interstate 70 W and Interstate 15 South (total distance of 460 miles)
Day 10: Drive from St. George to Los Angeles on Interstate 15 S (distance of 380 miles)

Having 10 days at our disposal really helped, as we could pace out the trip with some days of long drives and other relaxed days with minimal to no driving. I would not recommend doing this as a road trip from LA in anything under 8-9 days. An alternate would be to fly into Denver and do the loop to cover all 3 parks in the order of Denver –> Rocky Mountain NP –> Black Canyon of Gunnison NP –> Great Sand Dunes NP –> Denver