How to - Longmen station to Longmen Caves to Shaolin Temple then to Zhengzhou o/n train station

Yes, your itinerary is good and feasible.
Upon arrival at longmen railway station, you can take the bus No. 81 or K81 to Baiyuan Station. Then walk about 25 yards, you will reach the caves. If taking a taxi, the fare would be CNY10.

It is necessary to find an English guide to explain the spots to you. They can help you to get a better understanding about the spot.

It takes about 3-4 hours to cover both east and west caves.

As I know, from Longmen Caves, there are direct buses to shaolin temple, which are scheduled at 10:00, 11:00, 13:30 and 14:30. If hiring a car, it may cost you CNY200 around. But the thing is there is no much accommodation around Shaolin Temple. If I were you, I will stay in a hotel near Luoyang Railway Station (not Longmen station), then take the early bus (bus station is opposite the railway Station) to Shaolin next morning.

Yes, from the entrance of the temple, there are direct buses going to Zhengzhou, and I suggest you book the bus ticket through once upon arrival in advance. If miss it, you can go to Dengfeng City, then change to a bus to Zhengzhou; there are more schedules in the city area.

What time would the last bus be to Zhengzhou from the temple as we were hoping to spend the whole day trhere and the surrounding area?

I agree with you about not much to do there overnight but we were hoping for some peace and quiet and to enjoy the morning there.

What is the later buses to DF and then taxi to the temple? How much would the taxi cost and would any taxi be willing to go there laste evening?

If we decide to stay at Luoyang , what is the earliest bus to the Temple?

How about overnight at DF? Late bus from Luoyang to DF and then early bus to Shaolin?

Thanks for all the information you've provided.

1. I remember the last bus back to Zhengzhou leaves at 17:30. U'd better arrive at the boarding site around 17:00 in case that there are many tourists.
2. For later choice, you should go back to Luoyang from the caves. At the Long-distance Bus Station near Luoyang Bus Station, direct buses to DF are densely scheduled and the last schedule is 18:00. Also direct tourist buses to the temple are available and they are mainly in the morning. The earliest one leaves around 06:30.
PS: You can hire a taxi to the temple directly and it is not that hard. But the drivers many charge a little high, CNY300 or so.
3. You can of course stay overnight at DF and go to the temple in the next morning. But as I know, buses to the temple from DF are quite dense. Probably you can catch the last one, since you wanna spend more time at the temple.

May help!

Thank you Hinda. Is this information quite recent? It'll help me book my trains now as I planned to fet the overnight from Zhengzhou to Beijing.

Yes, it's the recently information. :-)