Grand Canyon South Rim to Disneyland?

[Muddy Rivers]

We will be driving from Grand Canyon South Rim and are thinking of stopping in Palm Springs or Palm Desert for a night as a break on our way to DL. I believe it is an 8 hr drive to Palm Springs.

Is this time estimate reasonable? Should we consider stopping somewhere else for a night instead of Palm Springs. Other posts seem to indicate it is 1 1/2 to 2 hours drive to DL from Palm Springs.

This is new for us and we would certainly appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[Epek]

It's only about 5-6 hours from Flagstaff to Los Angeles. Okay, just looked it up and google maps says 7.5. I swear we've done it in 6. But, I feel like Palm Springs is a little out of the way and that it'd be more like 2 hrs to Anaheim from there. There isn't a very direct route. I'm no expert, since I've never tried to put these things together. What I'm trying to say, is I don't know that it would take 8 hrs to get to Anaheim, so for me, I'd just drive the whole way. This is probably no help, but I'm gonna let you read my rambling anyway!

 

[WhtMagick]

Hi Muddy! We live in Flagstaff which is about maybe 1.5 hours from Grand Canyon. We usually stay overnight on the far west side of Phoenix suburbs when we travel to DL. Then the trip is broken up pretty well since Phoenix is about 2.5 hours from us. I would suggest that as a way to travel. That would be going from Grand Canyon to Flagstaff then Flagstaff to Phoenix on I17 south.
The other way to go is I40 west through Kingman. We didn't care for that route. Seemed to us, at the time, there was much more traffic and trucks. Just a personal preference though. Epek is correct though in saying it's only a few hours to Anaheim from Palm Springs. I think the drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix is nicer scenery wise too. You miss the Phoenix traffic by taking the Loop freeway west. I think it's the 101 but not 100% sure. It goes thru Glendale, Avondale, Litchfield Park. We usually stay in one of those areas. The drive the next day is pretty pleasant. Also, be sure to stop at Hadley's just west of Palm Springs and Indio I think. Great place to pick up goodies for the road and get a snack.
Watch out for the winds thru the passes in that area. Have fun! Drive safe! Hope this helps!

 

[wdwmoose]

We do Flag to DLR in 7, but that's counting breaks with the kids and all. Just me and hubs would probably do 6 hrs. From the south rim you'd probably take 30-an hour tonged from the south rim to Williams, doe edging on traffic. S 8's plenty of time to make the drive with lots of rest stops, I'd say.

 

[wdwmoose]

We do Flag to DLR in 7, but that's counting breaks with the kids and all. Just me and hubs would probably do 6 hrs. From the south rim you'd probably take 30-an hour tonged from the south rim to Williams, doe edging on traffic. S 8's plenty of time to make the drive with lots of rest stops, I'd say.

Sorry. My typing on an iPad could use some improvement.
I think it's personal preference, but I find no time savings to drive through Phoenix for this trip. We also make the trip in a day, so maybe that's why.

 

[LizzyS]

We went to Indio back and forth from Anaheim because I had to see my love (Frankie Valli) in concert in conjunction with our Disney trip back in February and it was about 2 hours away. I know that's a little bit past Palm Springs, but they're not that far apart.

 

[lillybug]

It took us only 7 or 8 hours to get from the south rim to Anaheim when we went this spring. No overnight necessary.

 

[lvdis]

We just did something similar on our recent trip! We drove from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas and stayed there before heading to Anaheim. It was about a 4 hour drive. The drive from Vegas to Anaheim was about 4 hours also, so it broke up the trip nicely. I had never been to Vegas so I wanted to see the strip anyway. It was a very nice drive and I'm glad we did it.

There was a really cute place we stopped to get ice cream on the drive between GC and Vegas that is like a real-life Cars Land! It's called Delgadillo's Sno Cap Drive-in in Seligman, AZ (about 1 hr 49 min from Grand Canyon). The whole street looks like a scene out of a real-life Radiator Springs! We enjoyed stopping there!

Just make sure if you drive from Las Vegas to Anaheim you don't drive it on a Sunday afternoon. I've been told the traffic is terrible. We drove it on a Saturday and it was fine.

 

[Muddy Rivers]

Thanks to all for all of the tips. I got a little worried after looking at the map and talking to others that it would take us even longer than 8 hrs to make it from the South Rim to Anaheim. It sounds like it should be just about 8 hours. Every minute counts when talking about a Disney trip!

Thank you!!!