This is a payback time. I recently had a long trip that I planned with help from Fodors. Here is my trip report in 2 phases. The first phase here is about las vagas – grand canyon leg. Other phase is under CA forum, as it involves los angels leg.

As this was my third trip to same places in last 3 years, I tried to keep the trip shorter and targeting only main places to visit.

Las Vegas  Zion NP  Page, AZ  Grand Canyon  Las Vegas

Day-1:

We reached Las Vegas Saturday noon time. We rented a car from Fox Car rental, that I wouldn’t advice for longer rental period. We rented for 3-4 days, as it was cheap – and so the quality of vehicle/service, too. But its ok for couple of days. For other half of our trip in California, we rented from Alamo for 11 days.

That was my 3rd time in vegas, so this time we decided to stay in downtown instead of strip. Fitzgerald was a good choice, right on Fremont street experience.

Day-2:

It was a nice drive on I-15 to Zion national park. We intended to do Virgin River narrows day hike, but water level was high and so the hike was closed. We did river side walk trail, which I recommend for everyone, even small child would do it easily and enjoy it! Then we did weeping rock trail that was a little steep and very short hike. Later we did canyon overlook trail, the trailhead is located right next to parking lot at tunnel’s Mt.Carmel side end. The view is awesome and the hike itself is beautiful. It is relatively shorter, too. It can be done within 1 hour. We reached Page, AZ and visited Glen Canyon dam on the way. The wind was little cold.

We had dinner at Fiesta Mexicana in Page. It’s easy to find, and hard to miss. The food is really testy; even being a vegetarian, I enjoyed the food there. Don’t do lunch, if you’re planning to take dinner there. The quantity of food is literally BIG!

Day-3:

Sunrise @4:30AM at hoeseshoe bend near Page. This is the best time to must-see place on Colorado river. This is also the best time to take pictures of the site. Returned to hotel, took a nap, quick shower and had good breakfast before heading to lower antelope canyon. We did not book any tour, we just drove there and took tour from there. Lower antelope canyon is less crowdy, so its easy to take pictures without ppl. DON’T FORGET CASH, they don’t take credit cards. We had to drive back to page and had hard time to find ATM in Page for cash. The canyons are wonderful, can’t describe in words. Another Must-See place.

By afternoon, we started driving towards grand canyon. Checked in Yavapai lodge, that has beautiful rooms. That was my 3rd time at grand canyons, too. We didn’t have enough time for hiking, so we just used park shuttles to wander around various points.

Day-4:

Sunrise @4:30AM at desert-view point, and we did a small adventurous hike there. The canyons were very quite and like waking up from small nap of a time. Nothing was moving except the river and a light breeze of air. We enjoyed our personal grand canyon in the morning. Then we visit few other points and Yavapai geological museum, which was very informative.

We had to catch flight to LAX in the evening from LAS, so we started driving to las vegas by afternoon.

Check out my trip report in CA forum for second phase. Let me know if you have any question about any of these places, where to stay, what to see etc.