Tripps Fall Out West

States visited: Texas (layover), Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California 
Time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific
Miles driven: 1357
Miles flown: 3524 8 days and 7 nights

For those that have asked, here is a more detailed itinerary that includes hotels and restaurant names.

Day 1: Fly Chattanooga to Las Vegas – picked up rental car and drove to Target and stocked up on water and breakfast food and went through In N Out Burgers for lunch. They were a nice treat that we don’t have in the South! Wish we did, it was very good. We then drove a spectacular drive to Springdale UT. The CUTEST town ever. Stayed at La Quinta. Great rooms including bunkbeds for the kids, heated pool, and stunning views of the mountains. We walked this quaint, clean and sweet town that evening, ate at Amigos restaurant. Not like the Amigos we are used to, much more authentic. It was pretty good! And then of course ice cream afterwards across the street. Ended the night by driving just into the park and doing some star gazing.

Day 2: Springdale UT Slept in which made us right on time for mountain time zone. Bought a National Park pass good for all Parks, Recreation Areas, and anything maintained by the park system…for a year. A must have great deal at only $80. If you have a 4th grader make sure to go online and download a form – annual pass will be free! We drove into Zion Park and across the canyon through the looong winding roads and tunnels to the Zion Canyon Overlook trail. It was labeled as an easy 1 mile hike. It was a tough mile but felt so amazing and well worth it. The turnaround point offers stunning views of several mountains and canyons. We intended to go back to the room, eat lunch and then go hit Watchman trail. Instead, we decided to head to Bryce Canyon. We stopped at Thunderbirds restaurant, which was a great surprise! Home of the Ho-Made pies. Delicious food!! Their sweet potato fries were killer and the family said the pies were delicious! We got to Bryce Canyon with full bellies and drove through the park and hit some of the top sight seeing spots. We badly wanted to hike some trails but we were not prepared. It was sooooo much colder up there and we were frozen. Plus the altitude was making it a little hard to breathe. So we drove through and stopped at 3 or 4 spots. Ended at the national park visitor center and spent quite a bit of time learning about the geology of the area. Drove 2 hours back to the hotel and ordered Pizza to go at Pizza & Noodles. It was amazing pizza! And then of course, more ice cream.

Day 3: Springdale UT My favorite day. This was the only day on our entire trip we had something planned and were on a timeline. We got to Zion Adventures at 9am and suited up in neoprene socks, shoes and dry pants and wet suits for the kids. Shuttled into the park and dropped us off at the Riverwalk. It was a beautiful 1 mile walk along a paved path against the river. I could’ve just done that and been happy! We stopped and ate a picnic lunch. At the end of the path, you get in the river and start hiking through the slot canyon. It was amazing in every way. The kids rocked this hike against the current, twisting around rocks and going through chest deep water. The hike back went by so much faster so we decided to make a few of our own trails at the very end, which ended up being the most challenging, fun, and beautiful spots. We were early for a 4pm shuttle so we hung out by the river and snacked. We got back to the hotel and went swimming and relaxed for a bit, showered and then headed to dinner at Oscars. More delicious food!!!

Day 4: Springdale UT/Tusayan AZ We packed up early and made the drive to our next destination. We made several stops on the way to break up the trip and see even more sights. But first, since we passed Thunderbirds again, we had to have lunch there. Next up was Lake Powell (our annual pass worked here!), just a quick turn off the road. Couldn’t believe how low the water was since I saw it many years ago. Next stop was in Page, AZ – horseshoe bend. I had been looking forward to seeing this for quite some time, and it was even better in person!! It was a hot mile walk to the overlook and packed with people, but totally worth it. I could have stayed there all day just laying on the rocks taking in the scenery. Next we drove to Marble Canyon and across the Navajo Bridge. It took us out of the way but again, worth it. We drove down to the Colorado river. I realized how swift, wide and powerful that river is now. I have always seen it from above! I wanted to get in a raft and go down so badly. Someday. We stopped at a few boulders and climbed around and then got back in the car to finish the very long what seemed forever drive to the Grand Canyon. There was nothing to eat in-between except for one Burger King. We were so hungry that it tasted delicious! We finally got to Tusayan AZ pretty late and the kids were getting cranky but Tim knew that we couldn’t miss our once chance to see a Grand Canyon night sky. So we drove into the park and pulled off a side road and oooooh and awwwwwwed at the millions of stars, planets and galaxies we could see along with multiple shooting stars! It was hard to not stay all night and just stare. But a cranky tired child reminded us it was time to get to the hotel. We stayed at The Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon. Absolutely beautiful and gorgeous hotel!

Day 5: Tusayan AZ/Lake Havasu City, AZ We got up pretty early so we tcould get on the trails before it got to hot. Well, it wasn’t hot in the morning and was actually quite chilly to start off. We drove into the park and immediately to the Bright Angel trail head. It was a pretty busy trail but relatively easy, going down. We intended to get to the first rest house but quickly realized just how steep the climb down was, and we still had to go back up. So we turned around about a mile in. Hiking back out was tiring but exhilarating and felt amazing. Sean and I walked the rim path for about a mile and Tim and the girls picked us up at a visitors center. We all the drove to Mathers Point, got some good views of the south rim and then drove back into town for a Pizza Hut lunch. From there, we made the drive to Lake Havasu but not without exiting on to Route 66 in Williams AZ. We stopped at Cruisers for some ice cream. It was good, but the service was not. We did a little shopping at a native American jewelry store and got back on the road. We arrived in Lake Havasu and checked in at Nautical Beachfront resort. It is a cool resort and you could tell it is definitely a place to party. We ate onsite at Turtle Grille. It was pretty good, but too expensive for what we got. The convenience was nice though! They had a beautiful pool area looking over the lake but instead the kids were ready to have some screen time and crash!

Day 6: Lake Havasu/Las Vegas We were ready to leave pretty quickly and get to California! Tim really wanted to see sand dunes so we made the 2 hour drive to Mojave desert and the Kelso sand dunes. We grabbed early fast food lunch since we knew we would be in the middle of nowhere for a while. We arrived and it was HOT. We found the trail head and hiked in about a mile before you get to the actual dunes. At that point the girls were not into it, it was hot and we weren’t properly prepared. However, Sean and Tim were determined to make it to the top of one! So the girls and I headed back to the car while the boys headed up. I wasn’t a fan of this idea and worried the entire time they were gone. They finally made it back with shoes full of sand. As the neared the top and the sand was getting deeper and steeper Tim stopped but Sean was able to climb up to the peak and stand at the top! You can imagine how proud I was of them both and how excited I was to see pictures they took…but nope, no pictures. They though the GoPro was dead. That’s ok though, just so happy they returned! We headed back on the road and drove through miles of Joshua Trees. So very cool. We made it to Las Vegas pretty quickly from that point. We checked into our hotel at The Venetian and got a room in the Palazzo tower. I had stayed here before and knew it would be good place for the kids. We explored the hotel had dinner at Burger Tap and capped the day off with some “crazy shakes”.

Day 7: Las Vegas We had a well deserved morning of sleeping in before we headed on our last hike of the trip. The Las Vegas strip! We walked to where the strip starts as the kids wanted to go shop at some candy stores for their friends. It was a long, stinky, walk in the hot sun. We stopped and ate lunch at Gordon Ramsey’s, it was soooooo good! The kids then got to explore the M&Ms and Hershey stores. Lots of flavors that can’t be found anywhere else which was very cool. They were like…..kids in a candy store. When we got back to the room we went to the pools for a little while to swim, read, and relax. Got cleaned up for dinner and had our last meal at Canonita. Delicious authentic Mexican food!

Day 8: Las Vegas/Chattanooga Packed up, hit the airport and flew to Dallas. Ran into some CSAS friends in Dallas and were on the same plan to Chattanooga. That is always a nice treat to see familiar faces 😊

Day 9: Chattanooga – pick up the DOG, yayyyyy!!!!! Laundry, grocery shopping, homework, real life. The family consensus is that Springdale UT was everyone’s favorite town and that the Narrows at Zion National Park was everyone’s favorite day. Oh, and Liv LOVES Las Vegas and can’t wait to go back while Lyla dislikes it and wants to move to Utah.