Road Trip: Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Zion National Park & Las Vegas

This past weekend, I went on a 4-day, 3-night road trip with @davidmassena. As some of you may know from my introduceyourself post, traveling is my biggest passion, and I jump at any opportunity to go on an adventure. My life goal is to go to all 50 states, and since I had never been to Utah, or the Grand Canyon for that matter, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to cross another state (#27) off of my list.

We started out friday night by driving from Southern California to Kingman, Arizona. This drive was about 6 hours long, which was the longest consecutive drive on our trip. We figured that Kingman would be a good stopping point so that we weren't driving too late into the night, and it is only about 2 hours from the Grand Canyon. We arrived in Kingman around 11pm, and immediately went to sleep.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed to the Grand Canyon around 7:00am. David had been there before, but I had not. Seeing the Grand Canyon in person was surreal. It was very different than I had expected. There is no way to imagine how big it actually is until you see it in person. Since we went in the morning, the entire canyon was shaded, and everything looked very blue and purple. I expected it to be a lot more red and orange, but David said that the colors change every hour throughout the day depending on the angle of the sun. We ended up leaving after about an hour. As beautiful as it was, unless you book some sort of activity or tour, it's basically just a bunch of different viewpoints and it all starts to look the same after awhile. If you're ever planning a trip to the Grand Canyon, I would not recommend staying for more than one day.

Our next stop was Horseshoe bend. You park in a lot, and then it's about a 15 minute walk to horseshoe bend. Again, it was very different than I had expected. My first tip for anyone who is ever planning on going - BRING A WIDE-ANGLE CAMERA LENS! Luckily, the panorama feature on the iphone worked for us, but it was extremely difficult to fit the whole thing into the photo on David's DSLR because it is so much bigger than I expected! The river was absolutely beautiful, and the view was breathtaking from every angle. I definitely recommend stopping here if you are ever in the area.

About 10 minutes away from Horseshoe Bend is Antelope Canyon. Make sure to book a tour in advance, as it sells out quickly. I 100% recommend touring Antelope Canyon, because it was unlike anything I have ever seen and it was one of the coolest experiences! Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon that was formed thousands of years ago by the erosion of sandstone due to flash floods during monsoon season. It is insanely beautiful and unique. Our tour guide was great and showed us all of the best camera angles to get the best photos. The tour was absolutely worth the money and I am so glad that we chose to go since we were already passing through the area.

After our tour, we drove to Kanab, Utah and spent the night there. It was the cutest little town and I highly recommend staying at the Best Western Red Hills. The staff was incredibly accommodating and we had such a great stay. We went in the jacuzzi, worked out in the fitness room, and there was also a game room with a pool table, foosball, and other games. There was also a free breakfast in the morning with an amazing selection and great vegan options!

After eating breakfast in the morning, we drove from Kanab to Zion. This was absolutely the most beautiful drive of the entire trip. It was about an hour to Zion, and the entire way, we were going crazy over the scenery! We stopped the car multiple times to take pictures, and we were so happy that we waited to take this drive in the morning so that we could see everything in daylight. Arriving in Zion was magical. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have ever laid eyes on. There was something different at every turn, and we were awe-struck the entire time that we were driving through the park.

After making the scenic drive through the entire park, we decided to go back to the entrance to rent gear for hiking The Narrows. As the name suggests, The Narrows is the most narrow section of Zion Canyon. You hike through the Virgin River, which runs straight through The Narrows, with Canyon walls thousands of feet tall on both sides. We rented shoes, waterproof socks, and overall suits which were suitable for the water.

During the hike, the water was only up to our ankles most of the time. There were a few times where it came close to knee-deep, but it was pretty easy to avoid. This was one of the most incredible hikes I've ever done, and if you only do one hike in Zion, this is the one that I would recommend without a doubt. The entire hike takes about 8 hours to complete, so if you plan on going all the way to the end, make sure to start early in the day. However, the hike is a straight shot there and back, so you can turn around at any point. David and I only hiked for about 1.75 miles, and then turned around. In total, it took us about 3 hours, because hiking upstream through a river is a very slow process. This hike was incredible and probably my favorite thing that we did on our entire trip.

After we were done with The Narrows hike, we decided that we had time for one more hike before heading to Las Vegas. On the way out of the park, we stopped at the Emerald Pools trail. There is a lower, middle, and upper part of the trail. We decided to complete the entire hike and made it up to the top of the upper trail, which took about half an hour. The trail was incredible. You are hiking under waterfalls, surrounded by pools of water, clay, trees, and lots of nature. The canyon walls are surrounding you, thousands of feet above you, and it is just such an incredible sight to see. This was a pretty easy hike that I would recommend for everyone to try.

Zion was amazing and I wish that we could've spent at least one more day there. There was so much to do and see, and I hope to camp there some day soon so that I can explore more. But, it was time to move on to our last stop of the road trip - Las Vegas!

Las Vegas is one of my favorite places in the world... HOWEVER, after spending an entire weekend surrounded by nature, it was pretty weird to go to Las Vegas for a night to party and have fun. Don't get me wrong - I will always love Vegas and it probably would've been amazing if we weren't so exhausted, but it is definitely a weird transition to go from being in nature all weekend in some of the most peaceful places in the country, to the loud hustle and bustle of Las Vegas at night. Despite all of that, we were ready to have a great time and make the most out of the last night of our mini-vacation.

Of course, the first thing that we did once we checked into our room and got ready for the night, was go to Nacho Daddy, our favorite vegan-friendly restaurant in Vegas. The menu selection is incredible, the food is A+, and the atmosphere is fun and great for all ages.

After stuffing our faces and getting a few drinks, we headed to Hakkasan, a nightclub inside of the MGM Grand. The guest DJ was Party Favor, who David and I are both fans of. We got to the club around 10:30, and the dance floor was pretty empty for awhile, but it got going around 11:30 and we did have a really good time. But after awhile, we realized that it was 12:30 and Party Favor still had not come on. The house DJ wasn't playing great music, and we honestly started getting really bored and I wasn't really enjoying myself because I was exhausted. We ended up leaving the club and going back to the room before Party Favor even came out, which I don't regret at all. Trying to go hard in Vegas after a jam-packed weekend of driving around and exploring was just too much, and we ended up sleeping until the last second when we had to check out of our room.

Monday morning, we walked around the strip, gambled a little bit, and ate lunch at Jaburrito, where we had vegan sushi burritos that were to die for! It was a great, relaxing way to end our trip before our 5 hour drive home. Overall, our weekend getaway was amazing and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I truly believe that traveling and experiencing new places and cultures is so important for social growth and development, as well as staying inspired and creative. There is so much out there in this big world, and I strongly urge everyone to travel at every opportunity that you get.

Thanks for reading if you made it to the end. On a side note, i'm looking for more travel, health, fitness, & vegan accounts to follow, so comment below if I should give you a follow!

Cheers,

Lindsay