I’m a few days back from our Utah trip, and that’s a few days I’ve spent wishing I was still on the West Coast. I love the East Coast, and she definitely has better cities; but when it comes to the wild west and it’s landscape? It seriously wrecks me every time.
The last two summers we have spent chunks of time on the west coast, and I’m hoping we are starting a trend.
While my brain is still fresh from our travels, I thought I would jot my favs down here for anyone else looking to make a similar trip.
So…what initially took us out to Utah was a family reunion, and the celebration of my husbands grandma’s 80th birthday. We added on a “pre-trip” to this. While I planned out the first part of our trip, Chris’s aunt (travel extraordinaire!) planned the last part. But I’ll fill you in on both in a few parts.
*travel profile disclaimer: we were traveling with kids, and lots of them, this gives us parameters we have to work within. We prioritize food, and mostly healthy food in our choices. We are not big shoppers, and are known for packing it in*
In my research, I sifted through the National Parks in Utah we might want to see. While we would have loved to see them all, we were on a bit of a time crunch. So we narrowed it down to the biggest and baddest: Zion and Grand Canyon. Bryce was a possibility, but the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area looked really great as well (and CLOSE!), so we had both as options for our third day.
We originally wanted to stay in St. George, but even with attempting to book several months out, on Memorial Day weekend, almost the whole city was sold out. We have limited option as a family of 6, so we started looking at surrounding areas. We also have lots of Marriott points we wanted to use, which further honed our choices in.
We decided to stay in Cedar City in the Springhill Suites. I liked Cedar City. Within 2 minutes from our hotel, we had a Walmart to stock up on goods (we packed lunches, snacks, and water to take with us each day), and a Starbucks we hit each morning. They also had a really great spot in town we hit for dinner twice.
While it was an older Springhill Suites, and the beds were not my fav, it had 3 of them, a fridge and microwave, a pool, a good free breakfast (this saves us at least $50), and great location.
We flew into Vegas. It was cheaper than SLC, and closer to our destination. Bonus: we got in with time to stop at Eataly.
While I’m sure we could have stopped in Vegas a little longer, the few hours we spent there on the strip were not my fav with teenage boys. But Eataly was well worth the few hours we spent inside. The kids loved it, with all the pizza, pasta, gelato, and cannoli. They also had fresh baked bread we grabbed to make sandwiches with the next day. We tried to time our leaving with catching the Bellagio fountains show.
We then jumped in our minivan rental (sigh…they didn’t have SUV’s we could leave in another city) and made the 4 hour drive to Cedar City. Since I knew we would be getting in late, I made our “easier” day first.
We woke up around 8am (jet lag), grabbed breakfast, did a quick Walmart (we grabbed a styrofoam cooler to use) and Starbucks run, and made the drive to Zion National Park. With it being Memorial Day Weekend, we intentionally didn’t want to get there at peak time during the morning. We made it there around 10:30am. It took us a bit to find a parking spot, and you should be prepared to park far away if it’s peak season. Thankfully there is a free bus in Springdale you can take right up to the entrance to save your hiking legs. You cannot drive into the park.
Once inside Zion, there is a tram that will take you to the stops in the park. There are 9 total, and at least on the weekend we were there, we did not wait much at all for the bus, nor did it take it very long to travel between stops. To travel from stop 6 back to the front of the park only took about 20 minutes or less.
We went straight to stop 7 at Weeping Rock. I had scouted out a few trails I wanted to do, but nothing was set in stone. We would have loved to checked out the Narrows, but they were closed due to run off water. Weeping Rock was a great start up hike to warm everyone up with great views! I think it was less than .5 miles, and due to this was a bit more crowded. There was a lot of people waiting for the bus on the way back, and we noticed a dirt trail towards the river just across the bus stop, so we decided to go exploring a bit.
Top of Weeping Rock Views
Base of Weeping Rock Trail
This is was one of my favorite part of the day. We went to the rivers edge, and then walked the path through a meadow further up the river and in the middle of the canyon. It was so gorgeous. The kids threw rocks into the river, found sticks to fight with, and explored. Then we found a lovely log to have our picnic lunch on.
From there we went to stop 6, the Grotto. This is the entrance to Angel’s Landing. There was a 3 hour wait for this when we stopped. Thankfully, in the midst of bathroom waits we touched base with a ranger who told us about the Scout Lookout trail, that takes you up to the very edge of Angels’ Landing (the part with the chains). It’s the same trail up until the last half mile. Basically you get to see all the views with out the last .5 miles of craziness. We felt bad skipping the long line, but you do get a stamp that wouldn’t have allowed you to do the Angel’s Landing portion without having waited in the line. Angel’s Landing is the most popular hike in the park, and considering we got to the park late and still got to do like 5/6 of the hike, I’d say we were winning!
Chris and I had no problem, but we work out regularly and are pretty in shape. Even with that, due to altitude we were definitely breathing heavy during parts of the hike. Our bookends complained the most. I carried our youngest (5 1/2) parts of the way and we took more frequent breaks with her. The first mile up is the hardest with lots of switchbacks and incline, and the last .3 miles or so up for the same reason.
Looking down on some of the switchbacks almost to the top
Almost to the top
The middle part is not as steep an incline, and has lots of cool spots the kids can climb into small caves or practice their climbing skills. There’s an echo at one part as well. My kids loved that section.
There are very steep edges with little to no guard at the start and end. Be warned of this. If you have a clumsy child, ones who are not very in shape, do not pay attention or listen well, I would not do this hike. That said, it was gorgeous, and the views are breathtaking. I was so proud of our kiddos for handling the 3.8 mile hike with 1,100 elevation gain like champs!
After that, the kids legs were pretty done, so we headed back. We had planned on grabbing something to eat in the town of Springdale, but the few places we went had pretty long lines, so we decided to drive back to Cedar City. The main place I had picked out (Centro Wood Fired Pizza) ahead of time had a bit of a wait, but we decided to brave it because they had yummy looking salads, and $6 a glass wine. Ours were the only kids in there, but that may have been due to the late hour. We really enjoyed our dinner.
From there we were happy to head back to the hotel and crash. We all slept very, very soundly.
We loved Zion and already cannot wait to return. While we easily could have gone back for a second day (and probably would have if our two days that worked didn’t have rain), I was happy with what we saw in one day. Two days would have been perfect and probably helped us not feel rushed.
A few things I was glad I brought:
–water backpacks (even though it wasn’t that hot, we exerted a lot of energy, they have refill stations throughout the park. I got 2 on Amazon for like $40. The kids loved carrying them)
–binoculars (we used these to watch climbers and birds)
-lunch and snacks (we went through it all, 6 sandwiches, a bag of chips, Cuties for each of us, granola bars, trail mix, jerky and more)
-layers (it warmed up during the day, but in the shade and as the sun went down it got quite cool)
-tissues (the moving got our noses running, and the bathrooms weren’t always the greatest and sometimes the grass looked better to the girls than the bathroom)
–my real camera (because those views…)
–trail shoes (these are super reasonable and have used them in Zion and in Yosemite, always grateful for the extra grip)
-sunglasses
-our national park pass for fourth graders
-sunscreen
I would have brought if we had more room:
-more snacks
-water shoes for everyone, as there are some cool water spots to play in
Hope that helps anyone looking to plan a trip to Zion, or inspires you to add it to your list! Yosemite is one of our favorite National Parks, but Zion rivaled it, and for sure is top 3!