Rock National Park Loop Road Trip – March 2023

March 14 – 24, 2023

Day 1 – Las Vegas to Zion – We got into Vegas late and grabbed a Nissan Rogue from the National Emerald Club aisle and headed to the hotel to grab a few hours of sleep.

I woke up (very) early to hop on work calls for a couple of hours. After that, we checked out and then cruised the Vegas strip over to breakfast at PublicUs – a hip little eatery in a somewhat seedy-looking part of town – with huge portions and delicious food. Highly recommend! Then we hit the road to our hotel near Zion, crossing through 3 states (Nevada – Arizona – Utah) on the way.

We checked into the Fairfield Inn near Zion and grabbed a quick nap before driving into the park. It’s a rainy afternoon, so I think everyone was in the visitors center gift shop. We decided to save the mandatory canyon shuttle ride until the morning and toured around in the car. We drove from the South to the East entrance – through the Mount Carmel Tunnel and back. The east side of the park has our favorite scenery so far, lots of funky and colorful sandstone formations. We also drove up Kolob Terrace Road to the snowplow line.

Of course we brought along our favorite in-car tour guide the GyPSy Guide. It’s the same narrator each time, so he feels like an old friend at this point – sharing tips and history along the way. We purchased the West Coast package – so we’ll have him along for most of the parks.

We grabbed dinner near the hotel at Buffalo Trails Trading Co/Cactus Room Cafe on a whim (and based on great Google reviews). The server/chef/owner? Bob was a character – we really enjoyed talking to him and the veggie and buffalo burgers were amazing. We had some of their homemade pie for dessert and called it a night.

Day 2 – Zion & Bryce Canyon to Capital Reef – We got up before the sun to head back into Zion. The visitor’s center parking lot fills up quickly, so we got there early to get a spot and catch the shuttle up the canyon.

It’s another cold, wet and rainy day, so the top of the cliffs were partially obscured with clouds and there are waterfalls everywhere you look. The narrows are also closed because of the high volume of water.

We walked (not hiked) the Riverside Walk at the last stop in the canyon – Temple of Sinawava. It’s roughly 2.2 miles round trip and is paved – though we did have to pass some places with heavy water runoff – my shoes and socks were soaked! With the steady rain, our clothes were soaked too. We hit a couple of shuttle stops on the way down – mainly to get hot coco and to dry off for a bit.

Once we got back to the visitors center, we put on some dry layers (and socks!) and drove back though the Mt Carmel tunnel towards Bryce Canyon.

We took a detour to Kolob, UT to visit the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary – a large no-kill shelter with ~1600 animals on-site. We traveled across campus and down a muddy dirt road to grab lunch in their cafe over-looking Angel Canyon – $5 for a delicious vegan buffet and a beautiful view before stopping by the adoption center to pet some pups.

We drove on to snowy Bryce Canyon. Most of the roads in the park were closed for winter, but we stopped at several of the Bryce Amphitheater overlooks to see the “hoodoos” – the tall thin rock spires formed by erosion. Peter’s favorite was named “Thor’s Hammer”.

Another couple of hours drive through the snow (in high elevations) to reach the Capital Reef Resort – our hotel for the next couple of nights. Resort may be a stretch, but it has a great view of the red rock cliffs.

Day 3 – Capital Reef – Pies & Petroglyphs is the headline for today! Based on several recommendations, we started the day at the Gifford House with homemade pies – mixed berry & apple. We also snagged a couple of big cinnamon rolls to enjoy for breakfast tomorrow. The house is located in the park just past the visitors center in the Fruita historic district – the site of an old settlement and fruit orchard. The pies are available starting on Pi Day (3/14) each year until the season ends – so we caught them on the first week open.

Capital Reef is absolutely gorgeous – some of my favorite scenery I’ve seen on my travels. You can see all the various colors and patterns in the different layers of the rock cliffs and formations. The pictures don’t do it justice. We also stopped to see some petroglyphs from 600-1300 C.E.

Today we hiked (yes, I said hiked) up to Hickman Bridge. The trail was listed as moderate, and it was roughly 2 miles round trip and 440 ft in elevation climb according to Peter’s Garmin. We were quickly shedding layers as it was a good workout and it had warmed up to a balmy 45 degrees.

Dinner choices were slim in Torrey since we’re still very early in the season. We ended up at The Patio at Rim Rock (right across from our “resort”) for some pizza and local beer. Peter had an IPA from Moab Brewing and I had a Polygamy Porter from Wasatch Brewing in SLC.

We got back to the hotel in time for a soak in the hot tub and spent some time relaxing. We’re hoping for a clear sky tonight so we can do some stargazing. Torrey is an International Dark Sky Community – so we should have a good view! Headed to the Moab area tomorrow to visit Arches & Canyonlands.

Day 4 – Arches & Canyonlands – The clouds rolled in last night – so no stargazing in Capital Reef. Hoping for some clear skies one night on the trip.

We headed out of town, enjoying our Gifford House cinnamon rolls on the road. We drove east on 24 toward Moab, enjoying the scenery along the way and listening to Irish tunes in honor of St Patrick’s Day!

We tried to hit Arches on our way into Moab, but the wait time to get in was ~1 hr, so we headed back up to Canyonlands. The most accessible area of Canyonlands is called Island in the Sky and there are beautiful vistas of the canyons and distant mountains from the top of the mesa. We did 2 short hikes – Mesa Arch (.6 miles) and Upheaval Dome (.6 miles).

After Canyonlands, we headed back to Arches a little after 3PM – and there was no line! We drove around to several of the scenic overlooks and hiked to Double Arch (.5 miles) and Landscape Arch (w/ side stops at Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches, so ~3 miles).

We left the park as the sun was slowly setting and headed to check in to the hotel and grab some grub at Milt’s Stop & Eat – a classic little burger stand and apparently Moab’s oldest restaurant. We walked over 8.5 miles today, so I definitely earned my Oreo milkshake! We’ve now completed Utah’s “Mighty 5” national parks.

Day 5 – Mesa Verde – After dealing with a broken air conditioner in one of our furnished rentals (from afar and with an assist from my father-in-law), we packed up and headed towards Mesa Verde.

A little over 2 hours later we pulled into Mesa Verde National Park. There was still lots of snow on the ground in the park, so several of the roads were closed. We traveled down the main road to see Spruce Tree House and drove the Mesa Top Loop to see the excavations of the pit houses and an overlook of Cliff Palace – the most famous the cliff dwellings. It was not very crowded, so we loved it – even if we missed some of the closed sites. No much hiking here unless you wanted to wade through snow.

After the park we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner (time means nothing anymore – we eat when we’re hungry) and some beers at Mancos Brewing Company in Mancos, CO. Delicious beer and friendly people – just like a local brewery should be!

We checked in to our hotel in Cortez, CO for the night. The Retro Inn at Mesa Verde is a kitchy little motel – it’s very basic, but clean.

Tomorrow we go to Lake Powell, with stops at Four Corners and Monument Valley along the way.

Day 6 – Four Corners, Monument Valley & Glen Canyon Dam – Today was a long drive day, ~8 hours on the road including stops. Our first stop on the route was Four Corners, a Navajo Tribal park. Admission was $8pp and we snapped some quick photos. It’s more of a roadside attraction than park, but still cool to walk around 4 states.

On the way toward Monument Valley we stopped at the spot on highway 163 where Forrest Gump stopped his cross-country run in the movie. This is the second of our Forrest Gump running scene stops – we saw the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Maine in 2020.

Monument Valley is also a Navajo park (also $8pp), where you get to wind though the buttes on 17 miles of very bumpy dirt roads. Definitely not for those who get carsick easily, but you get to see some very scenic views and try to visualize the shapes in the buttes. My favorite were East Mitten and West Mitten.

We rolled into Page, Arizona around 4PM and checked into our hotel. Our hotel has a view of the Glen Canyon Dam and bridge over the Colorado River/Lake Powell (our room however has a view of the back parking lot).

On the way to dinner, we stopped for a closer view of Glen Canyon Dam – at 710 ft, it is the second tallest dam on the Colorado River next to the Hoover Dam (which we’ll see later in the trip). This whole area is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area – a currently a popular summer vacation destination. Unfortunately If the water level of Lake Powell continues to drop, local tourism, hydroelectric power and downstream water flow will be impacted.

We had a sweet tooth after dinner and most things were closed on Sunday – so we ended up at the Safeway bakery for some cake and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s!

Day 7 – Horseshoe Bend & Grand Canyon – These time zones have us all messed up. Arizona doesn’t follow daylight savings time, so they are currently 3 hours behind EDT (on MST). The Navajo nation follows MDT though (2 hrs behind) – so our clocks keep changing back and forth!

We woke up early and headed over to Horseshoe Bend – a photographic narrow bend in the Colorado River. You have to pay $10 to park in the city-owned lot and the walk is 1.5 miles round-trip.

On the way out of town we stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam visitors center, which has some impressive exhibits and a great view of the dam. Afterwards we left Page and headed toward the Grand Canyon.

We entered the East Entrance of Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim, expecting to have a short drive through the park to our hotel. Unfortunately, the road between the two sections of the park was closed due to icy conditions, so we had to take an almost 3 hour detour down to Flagstaff, AZ (+166 miles) and back up to the South entrance! We did get to climb the Desert View Watchtower on the East side – designed by a trailblazing female architect.

We were planning to stop in Flagstaff tomorrow – so we just flipped the itinerary. Travel definitely tests the improv skills – gotta stay flexible! We rolled into Downtown Flagstaff shortly before it started snowing. We grabbed a big noodle bowl and walked around the downtown area in the snow.

Our next stop on the detour was Williams, AZ – both Williams and Flagstaff were stops on Route 66. Williams was the last section of Route 66 to be bypassed by an interstate and the whole highway was decommissioned shortly after. The little downtown is a collection of kitchy motels and cool retro signage.

After another hour drive, we finally made it to the Yavapai Lodge in the park for the night. We checked in and then booked it over to Mather Point to catch the last bit of the sunset.

Day 8 – Grand Canyon & Sedona – Snow Day! We had planned to get up and watch the sunrise at Mather Point at the Grand Canyon, but we walked out to a blanket of snow covering everything and even more coming down. The storm wasn’t on the forecast, but the park staff said they had gotten a lot of snow this winter.

We decided to brave the roads to explore the park bit. We bundled up (wearing every layer we had!) and tromped through the snow along the rim trail and stopped by some of the shops and overlooks. I’m glad we saw views of the canyon yesterday – visibility was almost non-existent today!

We had a delicious lunch at the Village Market Grocery Cafe and headed toward Sedona. The roads were still very snowy most of the way to Sedona, so we took our time.

It was raining in Sedona, but we saw some of the famous red rocks and the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Not sure if we got any extra energy from the vortexes on our brief visit though.

Our hotel is a little outside of Sedona in Cottonwood, AZ. We checked in and looked for a local Thai restaurant (our travel cuisine of choice), and ended up at Mai Thai On Main near the hotel – it was delicious!

Day 9 – Jerome, Prescott & Kingman, AZ – Our first stop of the day was Jerome, AZ – a spooky little town perched high on a hill overlooking Verde Valley. It’s a former ghost town turned arts enclave, with cute shops, wineries (including one owned by Maynard James Keenan – lead singer of Tool) and lots of ghost stories I’m sure! From there, we continued up through the mountains to Prescott, AZ.

Prescott is home to The Palace Saloon – the oldest bar/business operating in Arizona. It’s located on the downtown square, on Whiskey Row where as many as 40 saloons used to operate in frontier days. Their slogan is “Pleasing America’s Toughest Customers since 1877” – including Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and crew. When a fire swept though town in 1900, the Palace burned to the ground – luckily some committed customers took the full bar and moved it across the street to continue drinking. They rebuilt and reopened in 1901 – with the old bar back in place. We walked around the square and grabbed lunch at The Palace before leaving town.

We headed back into Route 66 territory with a stop in Seligman to grab a shake at Delgadillo’s Snow Cap and then on into Kingman, AZ for the night.

Day 10 – Hoover Dam & Las Vegas – This was our last full day and we’re making the most of it! We stopped at the Hoover Dam on our way back to Las Vegas. The dam is an engineering marvel – completed in 1936, it stands 726 ft tall and is decorated in a beautiful art deco style. Beautiful and functional.

After driving through the security checkpoint, we traveled across the dam to Arizona and back. We took the powerplant tour, since full dam tours were not being offered. We watched an old but informative video and then caught our tour. The guides walked us onto the dam and we took an old elevator down 525 ft, and walked through a tunnel through the dam to the powerplant on the Nevada side (buildings at the bottom of the dam along the river).

You can see the low water level of Lake Mead by looking at the discolored rock along the canyon walls that mark the high water levels of the past. The reservoir is currently at only 28% of capacity.

After the dam visit, we had lunch at Momo Sushi in Boulder City, NV. Boulder City was originally built in 1931 by the Bureau of Reclamation as housing for the workers who were building Hoover Dam. The town is filled with cute little houses, shops and local restaurants – I would definitely come back for another visit if I’m in the area!

We’re staying the night at The English Hotel – a new Marriott property in the Las Vegas Arts District. It’s not in a particularly walkable area, so we took the car out to see the sights. We stopped by the Freemont Experience to see the Downtown Las Vegas casinos and then headed to The Strip. We parked at Treasure Island (free parking!) and walked down to the Bellagio and back. We definitely got our steps in today!

It’s been a big trip but we’re ready to head home tomorrow to see our pups. On this trip, we’ve seen: 5 states, 7 National Parks, 2 Navajo Tribal Parks, 2 Big Dams, And LOTS of rocks!