Activity Summary
Tuesday 28th March - Day 206
800km & 8hr drive to Williams
Wednesday 29th March - Day 207
Grand Canyon
Walked the west rim trail from Mather Point to Hermit’s Rest
Shuttle to Yaki Point
Drove the south rim to Desert view
Stopovers at Navajo Point, Lipan Point, Moran Point
Thursday 30th March - Day 208
Drive to Page
Antelope lower canyon tour
Friday 31st March - Day 209
Monument Valley
17 mile valley drive
Horseshoe Bend
Saturday 1st April - Day 210
Drive to Bryce National Park
Bryce National Park:
Bryce Canyon rim (partial)
Inspiration point to Sunrise Point
Sunday 2nd April - Day 211
Drive to Zion National Park
Checkerboard Mesa
Route 9 scenic drive
Monday 3rd April - Day 212
Zion National Park:
The narrows riverside walk
Stop 8 - Big Bend
Stop 7 - Weeping Rock
Stop 6 - The Grotto
Walk from The Grotto -> Scout Lookout -> upper & middle emerald pools -> Zion Lodge
Summary
Williams
Cute little town with some old mid western relics on full show. Otherwise it is tiny but serves as a good spot to get to the Grand Canyon.
Grand Canyon
Absolutely unreal place. The walking route along the canyon rim was great and it would have been so cool to go down into the canyon but we didn’t manage it this time round.
Probably the most impressive National park we have visited in the US.
Page
Small town with access to Antelope & Monument. Apart from a decent Safeway and a ridiculously high concentration of churches there wasn’t a whole lot worth seeing here.
Antelope
Interesting canyons (upper and lower to choose from) that offered us a slightly different experience than normal with the hail and rain shower. Came with a steep price tag however that felt difficult to justify to be honest and a tour that just seemed like constant chaos. Worth the visit however.
Monument Valley
Much of the drive from the Grand Canyon to Monument had a lot of the amazing views that the valley offers, with towering sandstone buttes. The Valley however has such a high concentration of these and easily (and cheaply) visited by car for a 17 mile drive around.
Pretty low effort place to visit, ignoring the driving, and had some great views.
Bryce / Bryce National Park
Bryce was the first place we visited that had a proper blanket of snow that would hinder exploring the National park in its fullest. We were however lucky that most were still open.
It felt like the walking around Bryce was a bit limited but the amphitheatre was still very impressive. We couldn’t do much of the hikes like the Fairyland or Navajo trails due to snow so a day here was a decent amount of time.
La Verkin / Hurricane
Literally nothing of note but made for a decent accommodation location that wasn’t so close to Zion & therefore expensive.
Zion National Park
Zion is a surprisingly small National park in terms of tourist accessible parts and in turn made it one of the most painful to get around, in part due to it being Easter break however.
The shuttle system to see the main viewpoints along the scenic drive valley was definitely required and seemed to work alright but could seriously see it collapsing in summer peaks. The buses were old and unless more frequent, would assume this causes absolute carnage. Advice would be to get there as early as possible to avoid the queues for both the Springdale bus and park bus.
The small free parking area in the visitor centre seemed impossibly difficult to get a spot which meant the neighbouring town of Springdale soaked up all the tourists and added an additional cost we weren’t overly happy about. But there were no ways to get around it so we had to suck it up.
Angels landing would have been a great hike to do but it was closed. Otherwise the Narrows in summer is supposed to be decent. We were pretty disappointed there was no hike that would connect the shuttle valley so there was actually very limited decent walking in the National park.
The views however were great and the day we spent in the valley with the short drive through we had the sense of completion.
Accommodation
Williams / Grand Canyon - Arizona 9 Motor Hotel
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £25
Pretty run down motel but we were happy the heater worked as it got pretty cold. Can’t complain.
Page / Antelope / Monument - Rodeway Inn at Lake Powell
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £21
Standard motel.
Bryce - Bryce View Lodge
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £43
We paid a lot more to be closer to the Bryce National Park but we’re surprised to have access to a gym, pool and fried breakfast. So all in all, it made our motel experience pretty great.
La Verkin / Zion - Hotel Zion Inn
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £23
Probably the worst motel we have had. The owners were pretty miserable people and were less than helpful when they clearly charged Luke twice for the booking.
The first room we had was dirty and covered in smoke but fortunately we managed to change. It did however have two king size beds in the room so plenty of space for Nicola to wriggle on her lonesome.
Diary
Foghorn was at it again but for some reason he’d decided to drop down to the bottom bunk. While still loud, he was no longer singing in Luke’s ear so it made his attempt to get some sleep easier, although still a pain in the ass.
We got up at about 8am as we had a long long day of driving ahead and wanted to be done before dark. As we were chatting the night before till late it did mean all our stuff was all over the place which made packing in the morning while most of the room slept pretty tricky. Nicola was done pretty quickly so was in the outdoor common space chatting to Ally while chief faffer Luke took his sweet sweet time.
Luke then came out of the room huffing and puffing because he’d lost his coffee travel mug, in his eyes being a vital piece of kit for today's long drive and all others to come. So Luke left San Diego in an almighty sulk as he does when he loses his things that no chocolate and banana pancakes could fix.
We said goodbye to our fwends and started the 8 hour and 800km drive from San Diego to a town called Williams. Great name if Luke does say so.
First order of business was fuel and getting Luke a much needed coffee. The large latte from Starbucks may have done the job but it was not pleasant to drink - such sugary shite and at $5, expensive.
Not willing to pay for coffees going forward we stopped by a Target along the way for food but ended up getting a Subway and only buying Luke a non-watertight coffee mug. He was pretty disappointed but there was little choice.
It was a long drive but for the most part very easy. Up to LA was surprisingly quiet and once heading out into the sticks, the long straight all American roads were pretty easy with cruise control.
It did however get tricky once on the I-40 and into Arizona. It was almost like transitioning into a state that wasn’t California, the funding to repair roads and potholes just evaporated. The road quality was probably the worst either of us had ever seen, Luke having to swerve across the 2 lane road, more boy racer than sensible adult driver, in order to avoid potholes that would have wrecked the rental. He ended up having to just hold up traffic in the fast lane because in the inside lane road quality was so bad. There were massive lorries also doing the same - you know a road is bad when those monsters can’t just ride it out.
But made it in one piece we did, finally finishing Miriam Margolyes autobiography to then start Young Offender by Michael Maisie. The latter is a great book.
We got checked into our motel, not the nicest place but it was cheap and spacious, for Luke to then find his coffee cup in his bag after all. The people from the hostel hadn’t stolen it, per his accusations earlier in the day. Nicola had however taken it upon herself to be ‘helpful’ and take the casings off (she just likes unwrapping things) so we proceeded to put that back together and try to return it at a later date. Basically he’s a pillock and was sulking for nothing but he did see the funny side and was immediately happier.
We had a short walk to Safeway to get some food and stretch our legs before calling it a night.
Based on our research we decided that doing the Grand Canyon in a day was a sensible decision as although it would be a long day to do both the West and South rims, we lucked out with having a decent weather day whereas tomorrow would be cold, snowy and windy.
This did however mean that Luke would not be able to descend into the Canyon (Kaibab and Bright Angel trails were in his radar) but given our timing at the back end of winter and not wanting to stay additional days due to cost, any continuation of his new found love of big hikes would be impossible for the rest of the national parks. He came to terms with this when he planned our activities in the US national parks so no toys were thrown out of the pram at each national park. He can be a right sulker when he doesn’t get his endorphins sometimes.
The drive from Williams to the Grand Canyon was about an hour so we left reasonably early to fit everything in. In this instance we were pretty happy with the timing of our trip as the canyon was not crazy busy and there was plenty of space to park.
At the entrance we paid the $80 for our ‘America the Beautiful’ national park pass which would get us free entry into all the parks not owned by indigenous people and would say it is well worth it. An odd system as it allows a car in rather than specific subscribed people but we aren’t complaining. The name is absolutely hilarious as well.
We started our walk from Mather Point and walked the whole length across the west crater rim trail to the end point at Hermit’s Rest. We stopped at every viewpoint along the 20km walk to soak up the views.
The Grand Canyon is just absolutely sensational. The views along the walk kept changing showcasing crazy layered rock formations with breathtaking colours, size and shapes, the Colorado river coming in and out of focus and the snow added an amazing effect.
Luke had a little wobble about taking selfies with so many tourists around but eventually got over himself. Although the best selfies were taken well away from the other plebiscites. Just sayin.
We had our packed lunch overlooking the canyon and at the end of the west rim route, got the shuttle bus (great system in place) back to the visitor centre. Many many a picture and video was taken.
Once we were done walking we did get the orange shuttle to Yaki point but the view wasn’t anything new and it was freezing cold so we were happy to be back at the car.
It was fairly late in the day but for completion's sake we decided to also do the south rim viewpoints that were accessible by private car, unlike the west rim viewpoints only possible by shuttle bus. We drove the 30 minutes to the end of the south rim and Desert point first with plans to see the other points while driving back to the motel.
Desert view was a longer walk away from the car than we wanted as it was hella windy and cold at this point but it had a unique tower that doubled down as a gift shop with some very nice views westward and the setting sun over the canyon. It was also strange to see an end to the behemoth out to the east. Well worth the visit and would have been lovely if caught for sunset but it was fairly cloudy and we were shattered.
From there we had stopovers at Navajo Point, Lipan Point and Moran Point which were all very easy to pull into and park at. Honestly cannot imagine what this place would be like in summer. The views from Navajo point were probably our favourite of the day, they were sensational.
After spending 8 hours at the Canyon we drove back to the motel in Williams. Fortunately it stayed light for most of the drive bar the last 30 minutes and it wasn’t very pleasant at all. The road is not lit at all and Luke had a massive 4x4 blinding him from behind without much chance to pull over. It was all a bit sketchy and driving in the dark here isn’t something we will rush to do again if we can avoid it.
It was a fantastic nature day out that rivalled anything New Zealand had to offer.
We woke in the morning to the car covered in snow but fortunately it was actually sunny in Williams so we stuck the car out of the shade and waited for the snow to melt away while we went to Safeway and had a short walk around Williams looking for a magnet. Sadly none were any good.
We left the motel at the customary 11am check out time and drove deeper into Arizona and Page. We started having an absolute brain fart with what the time was as our phones started adding and subtracting an hour seemingly at random and not in sync. It turns out that the Navajo nation uses Mountain time with daylight saving and Arizona uses Mountain standard time that doesn’t.
We thought we would be late for our 4.15pm booking at the lower antelope canyon tour but fortunately the Navajo nation border end seemingly adhered to the time in Page, being the same time we had left from the Grand Canyon. As Luke writes this it has only just clicked what was going on.
We arrived at the hostel therefore at 2pm as we had planned and expected, although Luke had to check with reception. They wouldn’t let us check in early so we simply sat in the car as it began hailing, snowing and raining. We correctly sacked off the Horseshoe Bend for expected better weather the next day.
Once in our room we dropped our stuff and were back out of the door pretty quickly in order to get to the Antelope lower canyon tour (Dixie’s) the required 45 minutes beforehand.
At this point they came round saying there was space on the earlier tour so we jumped on that rather than wait around. The mass of people were split amongst numerous Navajo guides and we walked over to the canyon entrance. Nicola tried her best to get some information from the guide about the geology, history or anything that would indicate we were on a tour but he was not forthcoming at all.
Interestingly it was dry and the area seemingly unaffected by the early storm we had sat through in the car. But of course as we waited to descend down the stairs into the canyon it hailed, snowed and rained. Pretty cool actually to watch and we were well covered with our hiking boots and waterproofs so could smugly laugh at the rest like the outdoorsy pricks we are.
Once the rain hit and started forming river channels and slushy mud, the tour turned into absolute chaos. We barely knew who was in our group or where the guide was so we just walked through the canyon of our own accord being told absolutely jack all information and sometimes our phones being used to take guide style pictures of the canyon or of us together. People were hiding from the falling rain, stepping precariously around running water and the mud which felt more like trench warfare than a tour.
The canyon itself was actually really cool. The snow effect at the start was really interesting and while the rain was probably not ideal it did to the effect and a level of comedy in the canyon. This adverse weather did subside and we did have some sunshine that managed to poke through and light up the colours and layers in the rock all around us as we walked.
At around $70 a head it was very expensive to essentially have a babysitter. That said, a kid in front of us did piss outside the canyon to the absolute disbelief of the tour guide and the mother did not give a toss about the telling off. So we can kind of understand the requirement simply because people are stupid. But we would have actually liked some basic tour guiding. That said it is a lot cheaper than the upper antelope canyon which apparently is a complete free for all.
As we usually do when we do not want to tip, we saw an opportunity to run away from our guide and didn’t look back.
The motel room was massive so going from cramped hostel conditions to having two separate double beds felt like quite a luxury.
To visit Monument Valley (deeper into Navajo country) we decided a day trip from Page was easy enough to do. It would mean Luke would be driving 2 hours there and back plus the 17 mile valley drive once there. So a fair amount of driving.
It was a nice sunny day and the drive was pretty easy. The colour of the iron infused sandstone plus various lone and tall standing rock features makes the drive pretty cool despite the length.
Once at Monument we paid the $8pp fee (not part of the beautiful America pass but still pretty cheap), had a look around the gift shop but again failed to find what we wanted. The view from up here however was probably the best in the valley.
We then started the 17 mile valley drive. It was a gravel road that was pretty easy to drive along unlike a lot of the NZ ones we had faced. What helped was the 15mph speed limit so we didn’t fear loose rocks shattering our windscreen (although we did already have a chip from god knows where), having a higher wheelbase car than Chopper and some simple one way systems meant Luke could avoid the worst of the road.
We had a slow drive around the valley pulling over when interested at the various hoodoos and their differing stages of erosion. Our favourites were the first ones (East & West Mitten) but they were all pretty impressive.
The one that looked like a rabbit sex toy made Luke laugh a lot.
We were here for a few hours before driving back to Page. We got an obligatory photo with the Utah sign and stopped over at the Horseshoe Bend. It was $10 entry so not too bad and only a short walk away from the car.
The bend was pretty cool, made for a great view and picture. Being all done in 5 minutes however was inevitably going to be slightly anticlimactic (giggidy).
We got up a bit earlier as we only had a day in Bryce National Park. There are plenty of cool walking trails around Bryce (Navajo loop, Fairyland etc) which Luke would have been very keen to do along with the various rim crater viewpoints but he was concerned about the impact of snow and route closures when planning that looked like little chance of clearing. So we decided to not risk it and the short and sweet visit it was.
Nicola was less than impressed with Luke in the morning once she realised there was a free breakfast available and he forgot to mention it. His bad.
It was incredibly snowy leading up to and in Bryce. The snowdrifts looked about 4ft deep in places but thankfully all the roads were perfectly clear. Kind of impressed really, the UK would have crumbled. It made the drive a whole new kind of beautiful and scenic.
We had a short stop at some interesting arches for a pic and then over to the visitor centre.
Luke had wanted to do the Fairyland trail, which was open where others weren’t, but on discussing with a park ranger and confirming the snow and ice would require effort and snowshoes he quickly gave up. So our plan was to hit up the crater rim viewpoints.
We started to drive to the furthest view at Bryce point but the road was also closed due to adverse weather. So we had a bit of a wobble in trying to work out what was actually open, doubt creeping in whether we had wasted a trip here. We decided to hit up inspiration point, the new end point of what was open inside Bryce and joined an almighty queue to get into a tiny car park.
We weren’t waiting for an obscene amount of time but enough for us to contemplate the efficiency of this system. The shuttle bus was due to be running in a week's time which would sort this mess out but we couldn’t help feeling it required an actual person to take charge. When everyone requires a car but the park can’t cope with this, it all seems a bit whack.
This was the start of our snow/ice hike. Inspiration point was quite a steep ascent so Nicola required her trusty pole, Basil (Fawlty), to steady the ship. There were great views over the amphitheatre from various points.
From Inspiration point we decided to walk along the Bryce Canyon rim as far as we could go. This was pretty slow going with the deep snow and slush / ice but it was pretty good fun, certainly very different from our prior holibob hiking.
The views of the Bryce Canyon didn’t change all that much along our 3km hike to sunrise point but it was still interesting to walk.
We got to the Queens trail but decided not to walk down simply because we saw so many plebs going down in trainers along a narrow path and we would have little chance to get past at any great speed. So we turned around at this point back to the car.
Having done most of the crater rim we opted to go back to the visitor centre to try the walks that end of the park. On the drive down Nicola spotted some prairie dogs so we had a little look, although they are pretty small and were a fair distance away from the road.
The walk access seemed to be through the Bryce campground so we tried our luck and as expected there was zero access to any tracks that way. We did however find a tent perched on top of a snow covered platform and could only think they were nutters.
We had a short walk to the start of the Fairyland track but quickly decided to turn back to the car. Lastly we stopped by the visitor centre, watched a short film about Bryce and called it a day for the National park. In Bryce town we had a short wonder around the gift store to no avail.
Our room for the night was what seemed like a similar motel but we lucked out with a pool, spa and gym. We simply booked here because it was close to the park. So we quickly got our swimwear together to go for a relaxing soak but sadly the pool was inundated with kids. So we sacked that off and pumped iron instead.
Feeling mighty refreshed we went back to the room and rewarded ourselves with more microwave food. It was wearing a little thin at this point, especially as we could smell the restaurant next to the gym as we exited but there was expectation we would be getting a decent (price included) fry up the next morning.
To make the most of our more luxurious facilities not had since Kuala Lumpur, we braved an early morning rise to hit the gym again. It was very basic but we had it all to ourselves and Luke could guide Nicola without fear of gym rats judging.
With our pump on we then proceeded to completely undo all our hard work by stuffing our faces with the free buffet style cooked breakfast. Sadly it wasn’t anything on a full English but it hit the spot. Luke tried an American biscuit, which is essentially a poor man’s version of a scone. We also snuck a load of sausages and bagels into our boxes for lunch.
Arms and bellies swoll, we started the drive over to Zion.
We entered the national park from the East side which was incredibly easy compared to the West side as we would find out later in the day.
The Checkerboard Mesa viewpoint was nearby so we stopped for some appreciation, used the bathrooms nearby and continued on the drive through the National park.
The Route 9 scenic drive (as it’s known) took us through a casual winding road surrounded by towering rock faces with plenty of colour. A long tunnel took us from one side of the mountain range to the other and we had a short stop over to let traffic go by and allow Luke a more calm view.
There are a couple of hyped short walking trails on the scenic drive, like the canyon overlook trail, but the parking situation is an absolute shambles. The roads have little parking availability and on a Sunday in the Easter holidays (not well timed) it was not enjoyable, and it seems like this ruined the vibe based on reviews on AllTrails. So we happily moved on.
We thought we would fare a little better by the visitor centre but this was absolute carnage as well. There was an incredibly long queue for the shuttle bus so with all this in mind, we figured we’d need an early start tomorrow.
Not having much luck in Zion we were too early to check in so stopped by a nearby laundromat and got to say, it was pretty impressive. The place was huge and pretty cheap. Certainly a lot easier to find than in SE Asia and more effective at cleaning than NZ.
The motel we stayed in was not the nicest. We ended up changing rooms due to it being engulfed in stale smoke and apparently not cleaned. This was easily fixed but then Luke had to spend the next week trying to get back his money from being double charged. First time this has happened using Booking.com in 7 months so it had to be some issue with the motel although they processed their innocence.
In a clean room we settled in for the rest of the day.
We tried to take off early to beat any potential Zion rush but we floundered somewhat. The free breakfast definitely didn’t stack up to the previous days and Luke ended up getting shouted at by the older lady responsible for its smooth running - not his fault he had no idea how a waffle maker should be used…
We got to Zion at about 9.30am and while the queue to get into the National park wasn’t too bad it was clearly too late to find a spot in the visitor centre. So we had to turn tail and park in Springdale. Annoying we had to pay $25 for a parking space and then get the shuttle in but we had little choice.
The shuttle into the National park didn’t take long to arrive and as we were at stop 6 of 9 with limited people compared to the weekend.
Once at the visitors centre we joined the wonderfully long queue to catch the shuttle bus. One person behind us aptly described this as a ‘Disneyland style queue’ which pretty much hit the nail on the head. It was awash with kids and families all on their hols and would mean any peace and quiet we so appreciate in these nature hotspots would be hard to come by. It took about half an hour of waiting to get onto a shuttle and then 45 minutes to get to the last stop (9) at the temple of Sinawava.
Our first walk was to the riverside walks to the start of the narrows, which is a popular river hike through the water but not attempted quite so deep into winter. It was pretty busy and a lot of people fail miserably in hiking etiquette but there was plenty of space to try and avoid the plebs.
We got the shuttle down to stop 8 and Big Bend which had some impressive views of the valley and monster rock faces.
Stop 7 was the weeping rock which had a short walk up to the cliff face with water running down it. It was pretty cool and with the sun shining it had a nice rainbow at the base of the waterfall.
We got the shuttle bus to stop 6 and from there started the bigger hike of the day. We walked from the Grotto to Scout Lookout, the base of the Angels Landing which was sadly closed due to repair work. But the steepish walk and views gave Luke some of that saddist elevation he so desperately desires.
From there we walked to point 5 via the upper & middle emerald pools. The upper poool was a pain to get to, the path pretty narrow and chocked full of people that were slow and annoying. At the end of the pool was a giant waterfall that we got a great view of by heading off path slightly but a nice big gust of wind took this directly over us. Luke got soaked while Nicola was fortunately wearing her raincoat.
The middle pool was quite an interesting challenge. We both ended up having to jump across rocks to get to the other side while the wind decided to pick up in an almighty manner that blew back the waterfall in our faces. Luke had only just started drying off but that was again thwarted.
Once at point 5 we couldn’t really walk much further. Zion doesn’t have great walking routes between the shuttle bus canyon route and the trail down to stop 4 had just had a load of horses trek down. The churned up path wasn’t a great option so we had a brief walk around Zion Lodge and then got the bus back to the visitors centre as it was getting late, started raining and it didn’t seem like there was much else to see. The queue for the bus at Zion lodge was a bit manic and the lack of urgency of people to cram the buses like London rush hour was painful to watch but we got there eventually.
From one queue to another. The wait for the shuttle to the car was again really long as they were less frequent. Annoyingly a lot of this could have been resolved from the mass of people getting off pre stop 5 and subjecting themselves to a max 15 minutes walk. Such wasters.
Once back at the motel we had a warm and hearty microwave jacket and tuna.
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