TrekPass – Travel Blog

After breakfast on Friday we discovered that driving through Death Valley NP (which we originally planned) would be a major detour and since most of the few hotels were already booked out we changed our plans and decided to drive directly to Oxnard, California (a 5 hour drive), located 20 miles South of Santa Barbara.

We arrived in Las Vegas in the afternoon and checked into the “Excalibur” hotel which is located on the Southern Strip (between Luxor and New York hotel). We stayed until Friday which gave us three full days and nights. In Las Vegas, it is almost impossible to get bored, just walking up and down the strip and checking out different casino and hotels requires a couple of hours. Then you have the great buffets where you can also spend some time at, we tried the “Round Table Buffet” at the Excalibur hotel and the “Le Village buffet” at the Paris hotel. We both feel we gained some weight, ha ha.

Next, there are great comedies, magic and dance shows at night. We were able to find a ticket booth that sold show tickets for half price (what a deal ) and so we watched two dance shows, Fashionistas and Bite, and one magic show, Steve Wyrick. All shows were amazing! We were pretty good about holding on to our money and only spend $2 on slot machines, but it was fascinating to watch people lose their money, especially at the Bellagio hotel where on some Blackjack tables the minimum amount was $500.

We arrived at Zion National Park at around 10 am (after a 2 hour drive from Bryce Canyon). Zion is probably three times bigger than the Bryce Canyon and is a center for Rock climbing, Hiking and Backcountry Hiking. There are seven popular trails with round-trip times of half an hour to four hours, we chose two trails, the Hidden Canyon and the Lower Emerald Pool which gave us great overlook of various Canyons. We found two day-hikes very interesting, “The Narrows” and “The Subway” for breathtaking views, however since both routes require wading up the river, sometimes even swimming through several deep pools of cold water, we agreed not to choose these hikes due to freezing water temperatures .

We left Page, Arizona in the morning and arrived after three hours at the Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon offers great hiking and driving tours. The most famous points are Sunrise, Sunset, Inspiration and Bryce points from where you can encounter the Bryce Amphitheater. These points also offer a great starting point for easy and medium hikes through the Amphitheater. We chose the hiking trail that started at the Sunset Point and ended at the Sunrise Point, a 1.6 mile loop trail. After following a steep downward trail, we were hiking in the middle of the so called Hoodoos (a pillar of rock that form an array of fantastic shapes and were left by erosion), which was quiet stunning. We then spent the rest of the day driving the 18 mile-long main park road which led to outstanding views.

Our tour to the Antelope Canyon started at 9:30 am (you have to have an authorized guide to the Canyon since it is not open to the public anymore). When we got there we were amazed by the Canyon. The Canyon was formed by erosion of the surrounding Navajo Sandston primarily due to flash flooding. The amazing thing is that the colors of the rocks change by minute, from brown, yellow, gold, orange, red to purple and it is the perfect spot for photographers.

The tour lasted for about 2 hours, after lunch we decided to drive to the Horseshoe Dam where the Colorado River bends like a horseshoe through the Canyon.