Day 1

Newark, New Jersey – Las Vegas, Nevada.

We landed in Las Vegas at about 10am. Went for a heavy lunch at Govinda’s Buffet (ISKON) and started driving towards Valley of Fire State Park, which was about an hour drive on the way to Zion National Park. Pay a fee of 15$ at the entrance of the Park. The red rock formations are amazing by the Mouse Tank Road. Don’t miss to take a picture on this elevated rock where you can see the road and the rock formations. We did not stop here, as we wanted to hike THE WAVE trail, which was a bit ahead of this spot and since the winter sunlight is very short, we wanted to finish the hike before sunset.

THE WAVE hike was a short & simple hike, but the views were, not as great as they are shown in pictures. This park has a lot of other good spots, which you can visit if you have the time. My highlight from this park was the Mouse’s Tank Road scenic drive, I have never seen such formations in a such a bright red color (especially at the sunset time).

We started driving towards our hotel for the night, which was in La Verkin near Zion National Park. We stayed at Ramada By Wyndham Zion National Park.

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Day 2

Zion National Park

We started driving around 9am from our hotel towards Zion Canyon Visitor Center located at Zion National Park, 1 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale, UT. We explored the visitor center and hopped onto the shuttle bus to see the park. There is shuttle service every 5 minutes, from each and every stop on the entire route. If you are living in Springdale, there is a shuttle service which brings to you this visitor center without the hassle of parking your car. Make sure to reach a bit early, if you are driving into the park, because Visitor Center parking gets full very fast especially on holidays.

We took the green line shuttle which is about 45 minutes one-way to the last stop. Our first stop was the 9th Stop – Temple of Sinawava, we hiked a bit of THE NARROWS trail, until it goes through the water, it was inspiring to see people in wet suits hiking through the waters. We might try it next time. It was a good 2 mile hike.

Next, we took the shuttle to 5th stop – Zion Lodge. We took some snacks from the visitor center here and started the LOWER EMERALD POOL trail. The trail is pretty flat but some stretches of the trail turned into a sticky, muddy mess — the kind of mud that builds up on your shoes and makes every step feel uncertain and slippery, but adds to the whole experience. It felt like we were walking along the trail below a steep cliff. Although, the falls were totally dried and there was no pool of water to look. The overall trail experience was good.

We stayed the night in Kanab which was about an hour drive from the park.

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Day 3

Bryce Canyon National Park

We drove about 1.5 hours from Kanab to Bryce Canyon National Park. Took a quick stop at the visitors center and had a quick early lunch in the car before starting to hike the Queens Garden & Navajo Combination Trail. This trail is about 3 miles long, takes you through the most beautiful scenic routes inside the canyon. We started from the Sunrise point and ended at the sunset point. Please note, the Navajo part of the trail is very steep, therefore, we decided go up on the steep side than to climb down, which is considered a little safer. That’s why we started at Sunrise point. If you decide to start the trail from Sunset point, you will have to go down the steep route.

It took us about 3-4 hours to complete the hike & it was totally worth it. We highly recommend this trail. There are a few other points in the park which are drivable but a bit far, which we skipped. We drove back to Kanab for stay in the same hotel.

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Day 4

We drove about 1.5 hours to Page, Arizona to see the Lower Antelope Canyons. We did the tour which was about an hour long. After the tour, we visited Lake Powell Overlook and started driving back to Las Vegas.

We stayed the night near Las Vegas Airport and had an early morning flight back Newark the next morning.