With how much rain we’ve been getting in Seattle, it’s an excellent time to book a last-minute escape to get some much-needed sun. I found some direct flights from Seattle to Las Vegas for only $80, granted they were with the worst airline in existence, Spirit Airlines, so I took a chance and grabbed two tickets. We’d been to Las Vegas, as well as the grand canyon before on a cross-country road trip back in 2016, but it’s been a while and there were new places we wanted to check out such as Zion National Park and Sedona, AZ. Sedona has been on my list of places to go for a couple of years now since I first discovered the city through playing Microsoft Flight Simulator. The virtual city is beautiful in the game so I couldn’t wait to see what it’d look like in real life.
Day 1 was a travel day so nothing exciting to report. We arrived at Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport around 3 pm, hopped on the shuttle to pick up our rental car, and headed straight out of town. One of the nice things about flying into Vegas is that you’re almost always guaranteed to be able to find cheap flights and rental cars. Our rental car was only ~$120 in total for 6 days! We spent the night at St George Inn & Suites in St. George, UT mainly because of the close proximity of the town to Zion National Park.
On day 2 we woke up bright and early and headed to Zion National Park. This park would complete our visit to The Mighty 5 (the collection of all the national parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion, and Bryce Canyon). Zion did not disappoint. Since it was shuttle season, we rode the shuttle to all the stops and hopped out to take in the stunning views of the valley.
The day prior, I had signed up for the lottery to do the Angel’s landing hike and we were lucky enough to win so towards the end of our shuttle ride, we hopped off at the Grotto shuttle stop and started our ascent. This hike has been on my bucket list for the longest time. Angels Landing is a 1,488-foot tall rock formation. A renowned trail cut into solid rock in 1926 leads to the top of Angels Landing and provides panoramic views of Zion Canyon.
Angels Landing is a 5.4-mile round-trip hike with 1,488 feet in elevation gain. The majority of the hike is pretty easy, it’s the last 20% that can be a little scary, especially if you have a fear of heights, as the final section is extremely steep, requiring chains to help you climb.
Overall, the hike took us about 2.5 hours to complete and was a pretty moderate hike, especially compared to our Longs Peak hike (15 miles, 5000ft+ elevation gain in one day). After the hike, we left the park and continued to drive east, and spent the night in the town of Page, Arizona.
Day 3: We again woke up early and scarfed down some delicious hotel breakfast and headed to horseshoe bend to see the sunrise. Because we arrived right at sunrise, there were only a handful of people there and even though the temps were chilly, the views and serenity were unmatched.
Originally, we had planned on going to antelope canyon after horseshoe bend but we learned that you can only access antelope canyon through a guided tour, one we hadn’t booked ahead of time, so we had to skip that and just drove 3hrs south to Sedona instead. Sedona is an Arizona desert town near Flagstaff that’s surrounded by red-rock buttes, steep canyon walls, and pine forests. It’s noted for its mild climate and vibrant arts community. We arrived in Sedona late afternoon and it did not disappoint. The red rocks and canyons surrounding the city were mind-blowing. Our first stop was Main Street where we spent a couple of hours visiting lots of cute shops. After that, we went to the Sedona Airport Scenic Lookout which overlooked the city of Sedona. We also did a short hike to the Airport Mesa Vortex. What the heck is a vortex you ask? A vortex is believed to be a special spot on the earth where energy is either entering the earth or projecting out of the earth’s plane. Sedona vortexes are thought to be swirling centers of energy that are conducive to healing, meditation, and self-exploration. Other places that are thought to have vortexes include Stonehenge, The Great Pyramids of Giza, and Tulum, Mexico. I do think that I felt some sort of energy at the Airport vortex, however, I could have also been imagining the entire thing. Afterward, we checked into our condo, went grocery shopping, made some dinner, and passed out to a Harry Potter marathon that was on tv.
Day 4: Sedona is well-known for its many hikes and amazing rock formations so today is an entire day full of hikes and sightseeing. Because we are visiting in the fall, the weather was absolutely perfect, with sunnies skies and temperatures in the 60s. The first hike we did was the Boynton Canyon Trail, specifically to the infamous subway cave that you always see on Instagram. There’s also a vortex that you can hike to as well on this trail. This hike is approximately a 6-mile hike, with a 1,000ft elevation gain. It was an easy hike in our opinion and took us about 3hrs to complete. The views from the subway cave made me feel like I was treasure hunting and discovering an entirely new landscape for the very first time. A 10/10 and a must-do hike in my opinion. P.S. If you want to do this hike, this guide is extremely helpful for planning.
After our hike, we of course had to stop for lunch at the only Mcdonald’s in the entire world with blue arches.
Why blue arches you ask? Sedona’s city laws stated that buildings could not negatively affect the natural beauty of the surroundings. City officials claimed that gold would clash with the surrounding red rocks, and opted for a more pleasing, soft blue. Fully refueled from the big mac and chicken nuggets, we headed off on our second hike of the day: the Devil’s Bridge trail. This was another beautiful, yet easy hike with a length of 3.9 miles and 500ft of elevation gain towards the end of the hike and we made it just in time for sunset. In total, this hike took us about 2 hours to complete.
Day 5: Our final full day on the road. After two days in Sedona, it was time to head back west. We decided to stop at Grand Canyon National Park and even though we’d seen the Grand Canyon years prior, the sight of the canyons was just as “grand” as our first time seeing it. Not much to comment on here as everyone knows about the grand canyon. We went to the south rim and rode the shuttle bus stopping at most of the viewpoints.
We spent about 5hrs in the park and continued our drive back to Vegas. Passing through Kingman, AZ, and the historic route 66. Stretching from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, Route 66, also known as the “Mother Road” and the “Main Street of America,” was one of the country’s major thoroughfares for nearly half a century. Route 66 became one of the most famous roads in America, having been popularized in American culture through books, songs, music, magazines, movies, and television shows. Today, only sections of the original route 66 remain.
We arrived in vegas just past sunset, grabbed some dinner, and checked into our hotel near Fremont st. We spent the night exploring Fremont st and the next morning exploring the strip. One of my favorite hotels that I always have to go to when I visit vegas is the Venetian because of its massive indoor “fake” Venice and St. Mark’s Square. We flew back home later that afternoon.
This concludes our 6-day road trip with a total driving distance of ~850 miles and a total driving time of 14hrs. If you want to see our complete itinerary with details on which hotels we stayed at and detailed costs for the trip, you can visit my wanderlog link here: https://wanderlog.com/plan/uccvvgpgvlizfinq/trip-to-las-vegas. In total, this trip cost us $849.74 (excluding food costs) for 3 people! In my opinion, this is one of the best bang-for-buck road trips because flights and car rentals in vegas are so cheap. Make sure to visit in the fall when all of the locations visited have fewer crowds and nice cool temps that are perfect for hikes!