Today (17th Jan) we moved onto our third National Park, as we headed to Capitol Reef Canyon. It was only a few hours drive, which we did at a leisurely pace with only an occasional stop on route to take photos. It felt like we were the only car on the road as we weaved our way through the canyon and past the ‘Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’ area. As we got higher we started to see lots of snow which…
We split our day into two parts today – a scenic drive to start with and then the Queens/Navajo Loop trail, in reverse this time. Southern Scenic Drive This is an 18 mile drive that starts at the Visitor Centre and takes you all the way to the park’s highest elevations at Rainbow and Yovimpa point. There are numerous stops along the way – some are merely viewing spots where you park up and take some photos, and others have…
Hi everyone, we moved on from Zion National Park on Tuesday to our next destination which is Bryce Canyon. We took the scenic drive route through Mount Carmel which had some great views, and a long 1 mile tunnel dug through the cliff. Stopped for a brief walk at the ‘Canyon Overlook Trail’ as we were leaving the NP and then drove on to Bryce Canyon from there. The scenic drive on the way to Bryce: Bryce Canyon Day 1…
Today was our last day in Zion so we decided to tick off a few more of the suggested hikes. We had a leisurely morning at the hotel (to give our legs a rest after our uphill trek yesterday) and then did two more walks in the afternoon. Sand Bench Trail The first was Sand Bench Trail, and it had quite a different feel about it compared to the others we’d done. For one thing the majority of the route…
We had another busy day hiking in Zion NP, this time we decided to tackle one of the steeper walks and it was particularly hard going. Not as many miles covered today as our first day, but a LOT steeper to get to the top. The walk took us up to ‘Scout Lookout’ which had great views down the valley. It was mostly an even path to get up there, but some sections were steep and zig-zagged back and forth….
This was our first full day in Zion and we tackled 3 of the numerous hikes available, ranging from easy (x1) to moderate (x2). The scenery and views were amazing so take a look. Not sure they do them justice though. Riverside Walk Emerald Pools Watchman Trail Some well deserved beer at the end of the day… Going to tackle one of the hikes marked “strenuous” tomorrow so watch this space. Lucy p.s. this post came very quickly after our…
We left Las Vegas on Friday (10th) to start our long road-trip round the national parks in the South West of the States. First stop is Zion National Park where we are staying for 4 nights, although we took a scenic route to get there to stop at various state parks and places to see. Passed through 3 States (Nevada, Arizona and Utah) to get here and lost an hour with a time zone change. Here’s a map of the…
Spent the last few days in Vegas doing some of the free things that are on offer in some of the hotels. As you can imagine there isn’t many, but the things they do have are well worth a visit. Conservatory and botanical gardens in Bellagio This is an area in the Bellagio Hotel. The area was in fact under construction as they have a whole design celebrating the Chinese New Year so unfortunately it wasn’t yet complete and therefore…
Just a quick update in relation to the last few days. Went to the Sphere which is a music and entertainment venue just off the Strip. It opened in 2023 and seats up to 18,600 people. Here is a view from the outside. The colours and patterns on the outside change daily which is a pretty cool sight. Once inside, we made our way through the futuristic atrium area, complete with robots serving as interactive guides… and after 4 long…
Hi everyone, first blog post from our second trip today and we’ve arrived safely in Las Vegas. We’ve got a long 3 month trip planned starting here, then travelling round loads of the National Parks in the South West, before flying over to Hawaii for a while, then back to LA. hopefully there should be loads of nice pics, and a much more varied road trip than our 2 months in Florida we did in Oct/Nov. We landed in Las…