I just walked in the door from an amazing trip to Utah and wanted to thanks anybody who checks up on this site for the great info. We spent ten days in Utah and it was the greatest trip I've ever had. A BIG thanks to Utahtea for all her info. (If your not being paid by Utah's National Parks Info Bureau, you should be.)

Thanks Again

Bret

p.s. Zion and Bryce(Brrr)Canyon were our faves!

Bret,

I'm glad you had a good time and that I could be of some help.

What was your final itenary?

Utahtea

I was interested to hear that Bret liked Zion and Bryce.
Our family is hoping to visit the west of USA in December and was wondering if it would be possible to maybe visit Bryce and Zion as a day tour from Las Vegas, or if it would be possible to travel from las Vegas to Grand Canyon then on to Page, and then maybe through Monument Valley and back to Page then back to Las vegas via Bryce and Zion. We are maybe being too ambitious and maybe should just go to Grand Canyon? We really only have about 3 or 4 days to see any thing in Arizona, nevada and Utah.
Should we give it a miss altogether and just stay in california?
Our tour date is 1st to 31 of December.If possible we would be hoping to see some of los Angeles,San Diego?, las Vegas, national parks(Az, Ut, Nev), coast road to San Francisco, Lake tahoe
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers Chris

Hi,
Our trip went like this:
Day 1 : Drove from Las Vegas to Zion. We arrived at 8:00 pm and got a camp site at the Watchman campground.
Day 2 : Moved to the much nicer South Campground and did the Angels Landing Hike (amazing) and Emerald pools (upper ones are terrific)
Day 3 : Hiked the Narrows. This was probably our favourite thing to do. Orderville Canyon was especially amazing.
Day 4 : Drove to Bryce Canyon and camped in the North Campground. Hiked The Navajo Loop and Queen Victoria's Garden Trails. Bryce was a reall surprise for both of us as we had lower expectations of it as a park. Boy were we wrong.
Day 5 : Drove to Escalante visited the Petrified Forest which was not really worth while. Then we went to Calf Creek Falls Recreation Area and did the Fall's hike. AMAZING!! Unfourtunatley our visit to the Petrified Forest didn't give us as much time as we would have liked to do the Calf Creek Hike.
Day 6 : Drove to Arches NP. A long drive but totally worth it. We did the Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch and Double O Arch Hikes. All were great.
Day 7 : Drove to Monument Valley. We both didn't care much for MV as we enjoy more interaction with the things we are going to see. Not much to Do at MV except to stare at the buttes.
Day 8 : North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I don't know what to say... Great view but not much to do unless you hike into the canyon, which is an extremely strenuous two day affair.
Day 9 : We had planned on staying at the GC but decided to go back to Zion because it would a)shorten the drive back to Vegas and b) we simply enjoyed Zion that much. We did the Hidden Canyon Trail saw the Weeping Wall.
Day 10 : Drive back to Vegas and fly home.

whew....

Bret,

WOW, I'm exhausted just thinking of all the hiking you did! Even in my younger days I couldn't do half of what you did in one day's time.



Utahtea