Vegas and Utah/Arizona Hiking Trip
My fiancé and I had a one year anniversary trip planned for March 2020. Unfortunately the week that we were supposed to fly out, the entire world shut down. In hopes that we would be able to go a year out, we re-booked everything for March 2021. One year later and we were finally able to celebrate and go on this amazing hiking trip out west! I also have a highlight bubble on my Instagram titled “Vegas” where you can follow along for more videos and pictures of our trip.
We flew from Charlotte to Vegas early Saturday morning. Once we landed, we headed to get our rental car and then made the first and most important stop…In-N-Out!!! My family used to live in California many years ago, so any chance that I have to get my second favorite fast food chain (Chick-Fil-A reigns supreme in my opinion) I am ecstatic! My go to order is a double-double burger with grilled onions and extra secret sauce and animal style fries. If I am really feeling it then I will also throw in a chocolate milkshake. I only get to eat it like once every few years so I’ll splurge!
We then drove a little less than an hour over to the Hoover Dam. Wow what a feat of human engineering. It was so cool to be able to see it in person. Unfortunately, they did not have the underground tours going on to see the turbines, but we were able to walk across the Dam and then walk across the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which is the world’s highest concrete arch bridge sitting at 890 feet above the Colorado River. If you don’t like heights, you may not enjoy that but we thought it was thrilling!
We continued our journey in the Jeep and drove about 3 hours to Cedar City, Utah. We were spending the night there to break up the busy travel day before heading to Bryce Canyon Sunday morning. While in Cedar City we found the cutest little winery in the middle of the downtown! Sitting by the window, sipping a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and watching the snow fall at IG Winery was picture perfect while we waited for our table to be ready for dinner (which was just across the street).
We walked across the street after we finished our glass of wine to Centro Woodfired Pizzeria. We made reservations that day, which was definitely needed as the space is not huge and it was packed. We ordered the Dolce Diavola and the Pollo Rustico. The Dolce Diavola was the best hands down with a bit of spice counteracted with a sweet drizzle of honey. This was a must order. The Pollo Rustico was okay, just was hard to enjoy it as much as the Dolce Diavola was that good.
Sunday morning we woke up early, grabbed some bagels and coffee from Grind Coffee House, and then set out to Bryce Canyon which was about a 1.5 hour drive from Cedar City. Once we arrived at Bryce, we first drove over to the Bryce Point. (Heads up – the entrance fee for each park is $35 per vehicle and you can buy them at the entrance. However, you could also buy the America the Beautiful Annual National Park Pass and that is $80 for the year. We should have bought the annual pass but did not think about it until it was too late). It was freezing cold and super windy, but worth it for those views! Unfortunately the Peek-a-boo trailhead was closed at this point, so we had to enter from the Sunset Point Overlook and then took the Navajo Loop Trail to the connecting point for Peek-a-boo Loop Trail. We hiked over 11 miles this day through the snow, which made it feel more like 15 miles. This was one of the coolest hikes I have ever done though. All of the hoodoos and arches looked even cooler in the snow. It was also nice because Bryce was not very crowded, so we hardly saw anyone on the trail. We then spent the night in Bryce instead of heading to Zion that night. If we were to do it again, we agreed that we would just drive straight to Zion after the day in Bryce.
Monday morning though we woke up in Bryce and grabbed some coffee and split a pastry from Bryce Canyon Coffee Co. for our 1.5 hour drive to Zion. On our way though we stopped and ate breakfast at Thunderbird in Mt. Carmel, Utah. This was a good place to stop just before you get to Zion and the breakfast sandwiches were good.
Once we got to Zion around noon, we tried finding a parking spot in the visitor center to no avail. After spending 15 minutes driving around looking for a spot, we decided to try checking into the hotel even though we were fairly early. The Cliffrose Lodge is located in Springdale, Utah and is only about a 5 minute walk into Zion National Park. It is the perfect location and the cutest hotel! Hilton recently acquired it and made it part of their Curio Collection. Thankfully our room was ready so we were able to bring in our luggage and walk to the park entrance. This is when we learned that we would be able to enter the park, but we would not be able to go to most of the trails that we wanted to do that day because you have to have a shuttle pass and the shuttle will take you further into the park to the trailheads. So heads up, you can buy a shuttle pass at 5 pm the night before you want the pass. Luckily we were still able to complete the Watchman Trail without having to take the shuttle. We saw some rams on our hike and I don’t think I had ever seen one in person! The weather was perfect and we called it an easy day of hiking and only completed this trail.
We then went back to sit by the river and read a little before getting ready for dinner at the hotel’s restaurant Anthera. Anthera was beautiful with the chandeliers, two way fireplace and it had great mountain views. The menu has many items to choose from and will satisfy any appetite. We had some cocktails and then ordered the burrata and the Anthera burger. The burger was very different from any that I have had before. It had fried provolone, crispy tomato, arugula and truffle onion jam to make it one special burger.
Less than a 5 minute walk from the hotel was Zion Brewery, so we headed there after dinner because we cannot pass up a local brewery! We split a flight to try the lager, hefeweizen, juicy IPA and a coffee stout. All were very good and it had a large outdoor space with heaters to keep us warm.
Tuesday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland! It was pretty magical walking out the back porch of our hotel room and seeing a snowy tundra. We ordered some room service and then headed to catch the shuttle (remember you have to buy tickets a day in advance). We started off the day by hiking to the upper and lower emerald pools. From being 75 and sunny to 30 and snowy, the conditions were very different from hiking the day before!
Instead of getting back on the shuttle, we took the Kayenta trail from the Emerald Pools over to The Grotto. Then from The Grotto we took the shuttle over to the Riverside Walk so that we could give our legs a little bit of a break. We walked along the river over to where The Narrows start. There were some people in full on wet suits and waders crossing the river to do The Narrows…props to them for doing it at that time of the year!
From there, we took the shuttle to where the West Rim trail starts and hiked up to Scout Lookout. This was the most challenging hike of the day and the icy conditions certainly did not help. There were many switchbacks near the end that we were sliding around on, but we made it! From there you have the option of hiking another mile to Angel’s Landing. If it had not been so icy and windy, we would have done that. But it was so cloudy that it would not have been worth it to risk it in those conditions. I guess we will just have to go back at some point.
Once we hiked back down, we were starving and needed food ASAP. I had read great things about Oscar’s Café so we headed over there to get a table. We had the guacamole and chips, pork flautas and the pork enchiladas. All of it was so good and just what we needed after a long day of hiking!
We woke up Wednesday morning and it was time to leave Zion and head to the Grand Canyon! We had about a 5 hour drive ahead of us so we wanted to get started early. We made a pit stop along the way at Horseshoe Bend, which was a nice break to stretch our legs (the entrance fee is $10 per vehicle). I also had to stop and take a pic in front of a Route 66 sign.
We were staying right outside of the park entrance at The Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon. It was a convenient location as most things inside the park, both food and lodging wise were still not open. There aren’t too many food options in this area either, but there was more than inside the park. Once we arrived, it was still an hour wait to get into the park as there was only one entrance open. We were able to make it in to watch the sunset at Mather Point. It was a little crowded at this lookout but the views were incredible.
The next morning we had an early wake-up call as we were going on a morning mule ride around the rim of The Grand Canyon. The guides were very friendly and knowledgeable and the mules were all well behaved, which made for a great experience. It was a 2 hour ride along the rim and was $155 per person. We both really enjoyed it and thought the experience was worth the price.
Our legs were pretty sore from the ride, so before hiking we drove over to Desert View, which was about a 20 min drive, and stopped at a couple lookout points along the way. We then drove back over to the South Kaibab Trail and hiked down to Cedar Ridge. This felt easy going down, because it was just 1.5 miles going down into the Canyon. I knew coming back up would be way more difficult about half way through when I looked back and saw the elevation difference. It was a challenge but the views were worth it and we were able to feel like we were really in The Grand Canyon without having done the Bright Angel Trail (maybe one day we will go back and hike down to the Colorado River on it). Make sure to bring plenty of water…it gets really hot really fast.
After finishing the hike we went to Plaza Bonita for dinner and had margs, lots of queso and steak fajitas! We were so hungry that I did not even think to take a picture, but the food was delicious and hit the spot. We spent one more night in The Grand Canyon and then woke up Friday morning to make the 4 hour drive back to Vegas. There was definitely a lot of driving on this trip and you won’t have service for a good bit so make sure that you have plenty of music or podcasts downloaded!
On our way into Vegas I forced Andrew to stop at In-N-Out again. I mean who knows when I will be able to have it again…I have to get it while I can! We then checked into the Waldorf which is conveniently located on The Strip. We walked 8 miles up and down The Strip popping into all of the casinos and playing a hand or two along the way. I think my favorite was either The Venetian or The Paris casino. The Bellagio fountains were cool but I enjoyed the themed casinos more. We then went back to the room to freshen up and grab a cocktail at the SkyBar, which is in the Waldorf, before grabbing a bite to eat.
We ate a late dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, which is inside the Paris Casino and actually has a patio that overlooks the Bellagio fountains. To start we ordered the French Onion Soup, the freshly made baguette, and a bottle of Cabernet. We both had the Filet Mignon with a Bordeaux butter, red wine reduction and pommes puree as our entree. It was sooo good and it was the perfect meal to end this amazing trip.
At least I thought it would be the last meal until I saw the Taco Bell Cantina and all of a sudden needed a cheesy gordita crunch at 2am...when in Vegas right?!
This was a trip of a lifetime and I am so glad that Andrew and I were finally able to experience it together. We made so many memories and realized just how much our bodies could do with the 50+ miles that we hiked over the week. I cannot wait to go back out west to hike some more amazing national parks one day!
Until next time, Madison
