Well as Thanksgiving gives us a 4 day weekend, we decided to high tail it out of LA and hit the open road.
What an amazing 4 days…this was one awesome and visually stunning road trip. Take a look at the attached outline of our trip. Keep it at the back of your mind when you next come to the US. It was really very fun and I was so impressed with what can be achieved in just 4 days – around 1200 miles!
My room mate Michelle (better known as Hatchie) and I flew to Las Vegas after work on Wednesday, rented our SUV (we ended up with a great Jeep Liberty) and checked into the Luxor Hotel. One thing I have always loved about Vegas is how fun it is to stay at a new hotel each time you go. I am slowly working my way up the strip (so to speak…)
DAY ONE – VEGAS / WILLIAMS / GRAND CANYON
So we started off early on Friday and left Vegas around 8am. We flew most of the way and for the most part drove at around 90 miles p/h, around 120 kms/h which was great fun. Can you imagine no cop cars on a holiday weekend – well not that we knew of, maybe we just drove too fast past them?
Later in the day after going through some cool little towns we arrived at the gorgeous Grand Canyon. We had both been there before but it was still so special. This was Thanksgiving evening and we had a great turkey dinner with all the trimmings at a lovely lodge called Bright Angel Lodge at the rim of the Canyon. It was great to be able to spend this celebration away and even better not to do the dishes later!
DAY TWO – GRAND CANYON / MONUMENT VALLEY / NATURAL BRIDGES / CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK
Next day we left to explore Monument Valley and the Natural Bridges before arriving at Capitol Reef National Park. Monument Valley is only around 2 miles long but it was incredible to see these amazing ‘monuments’ just pop out of nowhere. They say there are literally hundreds of Indian jewelers along the way but thankfully for us they too took the Thanksgiving as holidays and we kept our money safe in our wallets.
This day we failed to recognize a small squiggle on our maps. Well of course this happened when I was driving. Here we are admiring the amazing scenery when all of a sudden the road narrows and we get signs of unsealed roads ahead for the next 10 miles. The road not only narrows it starts to wind uncontrollably and I absolutely freak out. There are no guard rails and one bad move you are straight off the ledge into a valley I couldn’t even look out the window at. Oh my god, the scariest driving experience ever. Hatchie was on look out for any cars and when came I just moved over and let them pass. It was nothing less than frightening. This day was a long day of driving, around 200 miles too long for me.
DAY THREE – CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK / BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK / ZION NATIONAL PARK
This was probably a real highlight of the trip. We left around 9am and very soon arrived into Bryce. Wow what a place. Even though my photos came out well the beauty of Bryce cannot be captured in a photo. It is all in my mind. Hatchie decided the only way to see this Park was by hiking. Yes those of you who know me well know I am not the keenest hiker, however, when in Rome…..it really was special but so was the cold. Although I prefer cold to warm I do need to be better prepared. It was about 10C and I had two layers on. My beanie, gloves, scarf etc were safely in my drawers in LA useless to me. We did a 2.5 hour hike and did see some amazing views.
Later in the afternoon we arrived into Zion. This was my favorite place. We did about an hours hike into the Emerald Lakes which was very pretty. We stayed at the Zion Lodge and it was great, we upgraded to a cabin with a fireplace but no TV. We went and heard the ranger talk to see what we were getting ourselves into. The ranger advised that rattle snakes, cougars, mountain lions, scorpions and tarantulas exist throughout the canyon. Very comforting and with that we were both off to sleep early.
DAY FOUR – ZION NATIONAL PARK / VEGAS
I really wanted to do a horse ride along the river but as it was winter they do not operate. Basic walk to start with, around 45 minutes - see Hatchie being superwoman. Very pretty and this took us into the base of the canyon. In summer you can hire special shoes and walk through this area.
Then we started walk number 2. I know my limits but sadly Hatchie does not. She just keeps going. Given that I knew that snakes and spiders existed up there I was cautious with every step that I took. Fortunately for me I never met or saw anything I didn’t like. It was a big hike around 2.5 hours but stunning views and again some great pics.
We got into Vegas around 6pm showered and off to dinner at MON AMI GABI within the Paris Hotel, this evening was stayed at MGM, home of Studio 54 (oh the memories Leeann) and Olivia Newton John who was there last week performing.
Up early Monday morning (tough 4.30am wake up call) and to the airport to fly back to LA for work.
The fun was over till the next adventure.....
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