Road Trippin'
Arizona and Utah Road Tip
Back in December of 2015 I planned a road to trip from Long Beach to the Grand Canyon, Kanab Utah, and Zion National Park with two of my best girlfriends. We were on a little bit of a time constraint since we had to wait for all of us to be done with finals and then we had to be back in time for Christmas. Although this trip was short, it was filled with a ton of laughs mostly because we had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. 🤷♀️
Grand Canyon
So first I wanna just let everyone know that it does snow in Arizona in December so pack accordingly because we for sure did not!! 😂 We drove 8 hours from Long Beach to Arizona and stayed at a hotel in The Grand Canyon Village. We only had 1 day here and had to be back on the road that same day, so that morning we hiked down the Grand Canyon for about 3-4 hours while enjoying the views and throwing some snowballs at each other, then headed back up.
We took the Bright Angel Trail, but there is other great trails to check out that are guided, or you can ride the famous mules down :)
This type of hike is known to be extremely difficult because you start by going down and thinking its so easy, but don’t forget you have to hike 9 miles back straight up!!
A lot of people bring walking sticks for stability and to help ease the climb. In the winter they wear snow cleats or shoe traction slip ons (we forgot both of these essential items so go us lol). If you don’t have these you are more likely to fall…. I think we only fell about 5 times each because of all the ice on the trails. :)
Bring at least 2 liters of water and a lot of snacks.
Phantom Ranch is still something that I hope to do one day. Its accommodations located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. You have reserve spot FAR in advanced or put your reservation in the lottery.
After our time at The Grand Canyon we started our road trip to Kanab, Utah which was about 3.5 hours. While we were there was no service so we ended up listening to some old CDs while trying to make sure we didn’t hit any dears that would dart out in front of our car in the dark!! (PS don’t allow Shelby Rothberg to drive anywhere)
Kanab, Utah
Once we got to Kanab we realized how small of a town this is!! It’s only a little over 4,000 people, but its also known as a “little Hollywood” because so many movies were filmed near here. We ate dinner and woke up the next morning where we were picked up by our guides to do Tours Of The Paria Canyon Wilderness. BUCKLE UP because to get to all these places you have to go off roading.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and the hotel was so nice and clean.
Dreamland Tour Company guided us through our tour of White Pocket and The Coyote Buttes. These places are so incredible it felt like we were walking on another planet.
One place that we wanted to go was The Wave but we didn’t win the lottery draw on that one. All of these places are permit only which is gained through a lottery. Some people get chosen the first time they submit and some people don’t. Our guide said she waited 3 years until she was chosen. So plan ahead and don’t be discouraged if you aren’t picked. Thankfully we got chosen for another hike.
The reason they have the lottery is because they can only allow a certain amount of people to hike through these places each day in order to preserve the land and the gorgeous views. All of these places were made out of sand and wind. HOW COOL
One great restaurant we went to while there was The Rocking V Cafe . There food was amazing and all of their staff members were so nice. :)
Zion National Park
After Kanab we drove about an hour and half to the Zion National Park to our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel in the middle of the National Park. Zion is breath taking and we were so excited to wake up in the morning and start exploring. I can’t really remember which hikes we did, but we for sure did the easiest ones because we were so tired and cold lol
Use the “All Trails” app to map out and research different hikes
There’s a couple waterfall hikes that we did and they were gorgeous.
Ending Thoughts
This was my first road/hiking trip and it was so fun. I’ll cherish these memories with my friends forever. I think a lot of people want to travele around the world and dream of going to different countries, but the United States has so much to offer as well and we sometimes forget. I can’t wait to plan some more trips exploring the US :)
