Southern Utah Vacation: Zion, Bryce, & More

We just got back from our week-long Southern Utah vacation and I’m already ready to re-live it!  Judging by the amount of messages I got on Instagram about our trip, y’all are pretty interested in knowing all the details as well, so I am going to put everything we did, where we stayed, and more in this blog post.  I’d also like to state that I can take absolutely zero credit for any of the planning for this trip, ha.  We went with Craig’s family, and I think he and his mom did pretty much all of the planning for everyone…ha thanks y’all! 🙂 We visited Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and more.  Let’s get into it!

Travel to Utah

We rented this house in Kanab, Utah.  But before I get into more details about the house, let me tell you briefly about our travel day out to Utah.  From Asheville we flew to Las Vegas (with a layover in Charlotte) and we rented a car in Vegas.  Since we were traveling with a 2-year-old, we thought we should break the trip up for her, so that night we stayed in a hotel in Vegas.  The next morning we drove the 3.5 hour drive to Kanab!  It’s not the easiest to get to but it is worth it.  I’d definitely recommend staying at least a week though to make the haul of getting there more worth it!

The House

It was a gorgeous house and had insane views.  The sunsets were magical.  It was super private and quiet, and really came stocked with just about anything you’d need minus your food.  There’s a grocery store in town just a few miles away though!  At night the stars are UNREAL.  There’s such little light pollution out there that the night sky is so dark and the stars so bright.  You can very clearly see the Milky Way at night which is awesome. The first night there we saw six shooting stars and a meteor!  Each bedroom has its own bathroom, which is really nice.  One (minor) con would be that the rooms didn’t have dressers, so there was nowhere to unpack your clothes.  I like to fully unpack but we did the suitcase life for the week.  Not a huge deal, just a note.  There are a couple closets to hang some clothes if you need!

Our Itinerary

Friday: Flew to Vegas, stayed the night

Saturday: Drove to Kanab, got groceries for the week, & checked into the house!  By the time we did all that it was about 4:30pm, so we fed Emma and got her down early and we just hung out at the house waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive that evening.

Sunday: People were pretty tired from the travels the day before, so on Sunday we stuck close by the house.  We started the day with a hike straight out back of the property.  We did about 2 miles round trip just exploring that area.  Back behind the house is BLM land so it’s public and you can hike wherever you want.  That afternoon we went to a trail a few miles away to see dinosaur tracks.  It’s not a marked trail and it’s behind a weigh station, these Google reviews have better tips but I thought it was a pretty hard, albeit relatively short, hike to the top.  But cool to see actual dinosaur tracks.  After that we drove just a bit further and did the sand caves.  That hike is even shorter, probably a quarter mile, but it’s kind of tricky.  It’s up the side of a steep rock that is angled so I was a little worried about Craig with Emma in the backpack carrier, but if you just take your time you’ll be fine.

Monday: On Monday we drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It’s about an hour and a half away from Kanab and a beautiful scenic drive.  We packed lunches, ate when we got there, then we did the viewpoints and short 3 mile hike around the lodge there.  We also drove over to Point Imperial overlook which was an AMAZING view and just a short walk from the parking lot.

Tuesday:  On Tuesday the grandparents offered to babysit, so Craig, his brother, Troy, and I went and did the Paria River Canyon hike, which was about 45 minutes from the house.  We learned this is “close” when it comes to relative proximity in Southern Utah!  It’s a 14 miler in total through the canyon.  If you like to challenge yourself, this hike would do the trick.  Note: daily passes are required that you can buy online ahead of time.  It’s pretty flat the whole time, but it is the hardest flat hike I’ve ever done.  You go through a lot of thick mud and water throughout the hike (the amount of which is dependent on the weather and how much rain it’s gotten) so definitely prepare to get those shoes wet and dirty!  I just wore my trail running shoes that I wore to hike all week and they worked fine.  We ended up turning around at the 6 mile mark, so in total we did 12 miles.  Tips: bring a LOT of water for this hike.  You are in the sun 95% of the time and it’s very remote.  We started around 10am and we finished around 4pm.  On the way home, we stopped by Old Paria and you have to add this to your list!  It is beautiful to see!

Wednesday:  Wednesday we went to Zion National Park (about an hour and 15 minutes from the house) and spent the day there.  We did the Riverwalk hike to start (easy 2 miles round trip, paved the whole way) and then had lunch.  Next we did the Emerald Pools hike and saw the Upper, Middle, and Lower pools, which was about 3 miles round trip.  The hike to the upper and middle is more challenging; if you want to make it easy, just do the lower pool route.  It is paved and not difficult.  Note: get to Zion early.  We arrived at 10am and the main parking lot was full.  We found a pay-for-parking lot just outside the park and snagged a spot there before it filled up.  Also, prepare for a lot of people.  Zion is like the Disney World of the National Parks, and it is heavily visited but it is not really that big of a park.

Thursday: Back to Zion!  This time, we started outside the park, but rather booked an East Zion Adventures jeep ride to take us to the trailhead for Observation Point and hiked in.  This was probably my favorite day.  Since we were outside the park, we hardly saw ANY people.  Maybe a total of 15 other people the entire time.  I personally loved this hike, was relatively flat except a slight decline on the way down (so incline coming back up) with pretty forest and mountain views to start that open up into some really amazing canyon views as you get closer to Observation Point.  We had lunch up top (we stayed far back from the edge minus a quick picture opp, I was having major anxiety about my 2 year old being up there so I was basically velcro-ed to her the whole time.  The hike back was tough (it’s 7 miles round trip) and my body was really feeling that 12 miler from Tuesday, but I survived even carrying my toddler on my back 🙂 Definitely recommend this hike, and it’s the BEST view.  I mean, people do Angel’s Landing (which is way too scary for me) for the view but Observation Point looks down on Angel’s Landing.  It gets my vote for sure!

Friday:  Friday we drove to Bryce (an hour and a half drive) and had planned to just do a few of the scenic overlooks but none of the hikes.  We were all pretty tired from the hikes the rest of the week.  The Park Rangers there said if we only did 2 things, we should do Inspiration Point and Bryce Point overlooks.  They didn’t disappoint!  On the way home we stopped at Bryce Canyon Pines Restaurant for lunch, which is about 3 miles outside the park.  They have really yummy daily homemade pies, so save room for desert!  Craig had the chocolate cream pie and I got the lemon and raspberry cream pie.  Both were delicious!

Saturday:  Travel day home!  Woke up at 4:45am, drove back to Las Vegas, flew back through Charlotte to Asheville and got home around 9:30pm.  Again, long travel day, but it was worth it!

Tips

-Restaurants in Kanab:  We mostly cooked meals at the house each night, but one night we tried to get take out.  Several restaurants were closed (this was on Thursday) and 2 others we called said they didn’t do takeout.  So, just know it might be hit or miss with the restaurants being open and/or doing takeout.

–Buy park passes ahead of time:  You don’t have to do this, but it makes for one less thing you have to do when you’re there.  Since we went into three different National Parks, it made sense to just do it ahead of time.

Outfits

Got several different requests for sharing my hiking outfits/gear, so I’m linking those items below!

There is SO MUCH MORE to see and do than what I’ve listed here, but hopefully this can give you an idea but if you plan on taking a trip out there, definitely do your research about things to do to make sure you’re doing the things that most interest you!

If you have any questions let me know 🙂

xo,

Bess