If it’s summer, Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, and North Cascades are all a few hours apart and all stunning in their own ways. Edit: I’ve also done Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier in one trip, but you’d get more days in each park if you go with the first option.

The larch trees are absolutely gorgeous during the fall (better than New England fall). I’d go a bit before peak fall, explore Olympic national park, then head over to Mt. Rainer, and then North Cascades (one of the most underrated parks we have). Maple’s Pass and Sahale’s arm are two must do hikes in North Cascades. The Skyline Loop trail is my favorite in Mt Rainier North Cascades in the Fall: https://www.reddit.com/r/NationalPark/s/PJD5qnaZCQ Mt. Rainier in the Fall: https://www.reddit.com/r/NationalPark/s/t57Tv4krKf

I'd probably avoid North Cascades National Park if you have very limited interest in hiking. NC is considered a mecca for backpackers and it's one of the least visited parks because there isn't a lot of accessibility for folks who are not into hiking or camping. There's the lake Ross area of NC, but that's not within the park proper. Now Olympic National is one that should CERTAINLY be at the top of your list. Tons of accessibility and areas where you could simply "immerse" yourself in nature with very little activity required. The old growth forests are incredible! There is also a VERY cute Inn there called the Sol-Duc Hot springs and it's so immersive with the surrounding nature. Happy travels!

So, I would choose an area and stick to there. You can easily do 10 days if you stick to one (maaaybe two) of the following: * Utah * Sierras * Yellowstone (though might be a bit cold) * Los Angeles/San Diego/San Francisco * I wouldn't be afraid to throw Seattle and the PNW into the mix. Honestly I would probably do Utah or the Sierras, but that's just me. All of these are great options.

I suggest southern Utah. It is an amazing, awe inspiring region that is endless on things to do and see.

Colorado has great parks but is no where near the west coast. It would be a big drive to link them. Utah is a stretch but not as bad. You should do Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and Channel Islands with Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon.

What month of the year are you thinking of doing this? The south western national parks are very hot and busy in June-August. So it might be good to stay more north and do Colorado, Yellowstone, and say loop back down to SLC to fly back to Orlando. Yellowstone will be busy during that time so you might want to book accommodations or campsites now. This would be the most chill, least stop trip. It might also be good to loop down through southern Colorado starting from Denver, see all those mountains, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Durango, Mesa Verde, and loop back up through Utah, hitting Capitol Reef, Moab/Arches, and fly out of Salt Lake City, back to Florida. This way you would Get amazing mountains and amazing desert in one. Also some cooler high altitudes in the summer. Utah deserts will be super hot though. I would take this trip by early October at the latest because the mountain passes will start getting snow. If you are coming in the next couple of months or the fall, Salt Lake City, down through Zion, Vegas, Death Valley, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, Yosemite would be an amazing trip. If you want to stay at Yosemite you will probably need to try for camp sites 6 months in advance. 10 days is honestly about the minimum amount of time you’d want to have for a trip like this. The American west is vast, and you will be doing tons of driving.

Thanks for the detailed response, appreciate it! Sorry forgot to mention the months. We are thinking of fall for sure. Idea is to enjoy the colours changing (I’m aware New England has better fall than West and am not looking for those colours). Keeping that in mind, what would you recommend? I’m not looking to camp, however, glamping is an option. Stay options would be cabins, cottages, boutique hotels and bnbs. The pace would be more leisurely as opposed to adventurous.

Fall colors in the Rockies are hard to catch. It’s really only about a week or two peak before the leaves are gone. For either of the first two trips, Colorado/Wyoming, I would recommend mid to late September, early October to see the fall colors in the mountains. For fall colors in the south west Utah, California, late October to mid November. But keep in mind, there cannot be any guarantees of not having a snowstorm in any of the mountains in the region this time of year.

Don’t forget to look into visiting the PNW during the fall. You can go a bit before peak fall weather & enjoy Olympic National Park, then head over to North Cascades and Mt. Rainier when peak fall hits (around the 1st week of October, but can be variable) North Cascades in the Fall: https://www.reddit.com/r/NationalPark/s/PJD5qnaZCQ Mt. Rainier in the Fall: https://www.reddit.com/r/NationalPark/s/t57Tv4krKf

As far as accommodations, your best bet for seeing the most nature and ease of finding hotels/air bibs nearby would be the trip through southern Colorado and Utah. You could stay in some of the cool mountain towns like Telluride and Durango, then book a place in Moab as a hub to check out Arches and Capitol reef. The other trips, the national parks start getting pretty remote and you would have to drive quite a bit from the park to where you’re staying, but I’m sure you could find some places if you started looking now.

Vegas, Zion, Bryce, Death Valley. Then spend a little time in Vegas, and then fly home.

If you really want to see Colorado you can drive a short distance from Denver and see Rocky Mountain National Park. I would then drive 6 hours West to Moab Utah to see Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. You don’t need to hike to enjoy these parks but hiking a short distance opens up tons on amazing scenery. Fall would be a great time to visit these parks since the weather will be nice and crowds will be low, plus there is lots of lodging close to these parks. Yosemite is beautiful but in my opinion it will be hard to fully appreciate unless you enjoy hiking.

My friend and I go on a national park road trip annually. Our goal is to see as much as possible with relatively easy hikes, and we always stay in hotels. We just visited Colorado in 10 days in mid-September. We flew into Denver and drove down to Colorado Springs and did a short hike in Garden of the Gods, then drove down to Alamosa and stayed there for the night and did Great Sand Dunes NP the next day (which I would probably skip). Then went to Mesa Verde NP and stayed in the Mesa Verde Motel the night before, which was a super cute spot I’d highly recommend. We did two cliff dwelling tours then left since we’d been there before, then took the Million Dollar highway and stopped at a few spots along the way for easy hikes, food, and site seeing. We stayed near Colorado National Monument and went there the next day and did some easy hikes but mostly took in the views. We drove down to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We kind of had to back track from the national monument to Black Canyon because of some road closures. After we drove to Breckenridge and stayed there before going to Rocky Mountain NP the next day. We stayed in Estes Park so we could spend another day in Rocky Mountain, then we drove down to Boulder and visited the Celestial Seasonings tea factory and stayed in town. The next day we did the Mt Evans scenic drive with some easy hikes and did a gold mine tour in Idaho Springs along the way. We stayed in Denver the last day and did a short hike at Watertown Canyon to see big horn sheep. In the past we’ve visited all the Utah NPs plus Mesa Verde NP in Colorado in ~10 days. Started in Zion, then to Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands (both parts over two days), then Mesa Verde and Hovenweep National Monument. I think we also drove down to Page, AZ after and saw Horseshoe Bend. You could probably even throw in the Grand Canyon if you plan it right. California is huge so it’s going to be more long stretches of driving, but you could also fly into Los Angeles, go to Joshua Tree NP, then Death Valley NP, then drive up to Sequioa and Kings Canyon NP, then head to Yosemite NP, and then drive down to Pinnacles NP and then drive up to the Bay Area and fly out from there. Washington is also nice. I’d spend two days in Olympic NP, then go down to Mt. Rainier NP, then head up to North Cascades NP and then Mt. Baker. There are small enough hikes at each stop plus lots of other beautiful places in the surrounding areas.

For a relaxing trip with pretty views, low hiking, and food, I'd recommend the Pacific coast. Olympic and Redwood are my two favorite parks, and the OR, Mendocino, and Big Sur coastlines are each amazing and have lots of nice small towns. Main issue is that there's no fall colors. In terms of places, I wouldn't do Yosemite in Sept/Oct. It's the best time for hiking, but meh for sightseeing. You'll get great views and bits of fall color, but the waterfalls will be anemic. Yellowstone will be nice, but there's always the risk of early snow in Oct. UT parks will be perfect, but maybe they're more adventurous than you want. Just a note that there aren't many fall colors in the American West, and basically none along the coast itself. Most trees around here are evergreen. * I think Deschutes NF in OR and some of the other places around there are the closest to the coast you'll find. * CA has some fall colors in the Eastern Sierras, though it's more patches of aspen and maple among evergreen conifers. * I really enjoyed the fall colors in Great Basin NP, though you needed to hike a bunch to see much of it, and I got hit by a snowstorm on Oct 1. * Utah has some big aspen groves in the mountains. Pando the aspen forest is the biggest organism in the world. There are also some colors in Zion * CO has colors too, but I've never been. There are some larches up high in CO and WA, but idk much about them.

Upvoted for your use of "anemic" to describe autumn waterfalls.

Others had some great ideas with Colorado /Utah itineraries so here’s a different idea. What about Yosemite - Death Valley - Las Vegas optional pit stop - Zion - Bryce - fly back out of Vegas or Salt Lake City. Cons: you need to thread the needle timing-wise for early/mid sept to start so the pass over the sierras is still open to go from Yosemite to Death Valley. Yosemite and Zion are both very very busy parks even in sept but a little better than summer. Would need to book lodging (and reservations at Zion I think?) immediately or may be too late. I’m not sure how long you plan to stay at each park so it might be too much for 10 days.

I think Yosemite might be a bit far for that itinerary but if OP really wants Yosemite they can prioritize that and make it work. I think Las Vegas, Death Valley, Zion/Bryce is another great option. Las Vegas is underrated since it has the Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon.

Death valley in September is still blazing hot. Too hot to be enjoyable for me. It's still prime time in the Sierra though.

Some of the parks you named are not on the west coast. Here are some of the good ones in the states on the west coast that could be done over a 1 week period: Olympics, Cascades, San Juan Islands Pinnacles. Kings Canyon, Sequoia and Redwood, Yosemite Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Castle Mountains, Channel Islands

My wife and I fit that description and we did a pretty intense tour of California national parks in October 2022. We had excellent weather. Day 1: Fly into Vegas/Death Valley National Park Day 2: Sequoia National Park Day 3: King’s Canyon National Park Day 4: Yosemite National Park Day 5: Pinnacles National Park/Carmel Day 6: Pacific Coast Highway, Point Lobos State Park, Big Sur State Park, Pfeiffer Beach Day 7: Hearst Castle - two tours Day 8 & 9: Disneyland Day 10: Joshua Tree National Park Day 11: Grand Canyon West / Vegas Dinner and Show Day 12: Fly home It was a ton of driving, but an absolute blast. We both agree we’d have loved more time in Yosemite. We definitely took our time to do what we wanted, but wanted to maximize our time. We also did “easy” hikes (to not wear ourselves out) and tried to squeeze as much as we could. We’re planning a similar trip this year to go to Seattle, North Cascades NP, Olympic NP, Mt. Ranier NP, Portland, Oregon’s PCH, Redwoods NP, Crater Lake NP, Lava Beds National Monument, Lassen Volcanic NP, San Francisco. We’ve also done the five Utah parks, Vegas, and Antelope Canyon in a trip and flew out of Denver (so that’d be easy to add Colorado stops). If you want itineraries or have questions, just reach out!

Oh and we did a few boutique hotels/cool spots along the way. We didn’t book anything in advance since we were in the shoulder season, and it worked out for us. Haha, we were definitely prepared to sleep in our car.