American Southwest Travel Guide: Nevada, Utah and Arizona| Where to Stay + What to Do!
Hey Guys!
My Husband and I recently celebrated 3 years of marriage with a road trip out West! Make sure to check out Part 1 of my Travel Guide talking about our stay in Las Vegas HERE. After our day trip in Vegas, we headed off on our road tripping adventure which included Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Check out below to see where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate! Also, don’t forget to sign up for Ebates to get CASH BACK on your hotel, activity and airline bookings! If you haven’t heard of Ebates, it is an online company that you shop through (not just travel but clothing, beauty etc) and you earn CASH BACK on your purchases straight into your bank account, Paypal, or by check in the mail!If you sign up you get $10 automatically back in addition to what you earn when you make your first purchase! Sign up HERE.
After our night in Vegas and exploring Vegas for the day, we made out way to pick up our rental car from Enterprise in the Westin hotel. There are many places to pick up a rental car in the Las Vegas area but we chose this one because they had the best prices at the time we booked. After we picked up our rental car we drove to Hoover Dam. We didn’t plan on taking any tours so we decided to go about an hour before they closed. This gave us plenty of time to get there and look around at everything. Plus Hoover Dam is Free! You just have to pay for parking which I believe was between $5 and $10. Hoover Dam is amazing to see in person! It is HUGE and the views of the rock and the bridge are unbelievable. You can even see where the water level used to be before the California droughts. If you have time I recommend stopping here. TIP: There is only 1 road leading in and out of the Dam and not alot of parking so I recommend going super early or late like we did. We didn’t go during the busy season but I can imagine it gets crazy during the summer.
After we visited Hoover Dam we drove to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to our hotel for the evening. We arrived at the Best Western Inn in Williams Arizona which was nice and included breakfast! This hotel was only about 1.5 hours outside of the Grand Canyon. TIP: Stay in hotels about an hour outside of the Grand Canyon because the closer you get the more expensive they become! Driving was honeslty some of our favorite moments from the trip becasise of the beautiful views so we didn’t mind.
As we drove closer and closer to the Grand Canyon it started to snow really hard. By the time we entered the park it was a complete whiteout. The only advantage to this was close parking and no one was there. The disadvantage was we weren’t prepared and coulnd’t see anything. Luckily since we were driving to a different hotel that evening, we had our suitcases in the car so we layerd up our pants. We also luckily brought coats and gloves on a whim which helped alot. We also brought 2 pairs of shoes which ended up coming in handy since my first pair got completely soaked with slush. Since it snowed and didn’t get to see the beautiful views we were disappointed. Obviosuly it wasn’t anyones fault but we are already planning on going back. Keep the weather in mind if you go anytime after September because you never know! It ended up being really nice because my husband and I were 1 of few people there that day so we just walked the paths and explored on our own. It was very quiet and surreal being close to the edge and not being able to see anything but knowing what was behind the fog. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant in the park which was right on the edge of the canyon that was delicios. While eating, my husband noticed a break in the fog and ran outside and saw a glimpse of the Canyon for a couple minutes. He came back in so excited to show me but when I went out it was fog again. I am just glad he got to see it. Lucikuly, the Grand Canyon isn’t going anywhere so we will for sure be back some day.
After leaving the Grand Canyon we decided to make a pit stop at Horseshoe Bend since it was near our hotel. It is a bit of a walk to get to but so worth it! It is simply stunning and huge in person and I can’t even begin to describe it. We went right before sunset so the view was amazing!
After we left, we headed to our next hotel which was Best Western Plus in Lake Powell. After we checked in we went on a quest for some good food. We found this AMAZING traditional BBQ place called Big John’s Texas BBQ that my husband said was the best he had ever had. You must check it out!
The next morning we made out way to lower Antelope Canyone and took a tour with Dixie Ellis. In Antelope Canyon there are the Upper and Lower parts. Upper tours are more expensive and shorter than the Lower ones and don’t offer the stunning sites that the Lower Canyon does. I recommend the Lower over the Upper if you can only do one. The Canyon is amazing because it is a small slit in the ground you would never think to look into! After decending the stairs, you are transported into another world full of red rocks and beautiful rock formations. Our tourguide Junior was amazing and acutally changed all of our phone settings so that it would capture the true beauty and color of the rocks. He even showed us the best photo op spots and made sure to tell us the history and amazing facts about the Canyon during the tour. This was probably my favotire thing from the whole trip and I recommend checking it out.
After leaving, we decided to drive around and stop at various points to take in all the scenery. Driving in the Southwest is amazing because every turn provides a new spectacular view of the rocks and landscape.
On our last and final day we headed out to Zion National park to do some hiking. Since we went during the off season it wasn’t hard to get it but be warned: This park is EXTREMELY POPULAR with limited parking and only 1 road in and out. If going during the busy season make sure to get their early, and plan for long waits at the shuttle. There is an in park shuttle that takes you to various points around the park which is super nice but during the busy season the wait can be over 45 minutes long. We only waited a maximum of 10 minutes and that was at the end of the day when everyone was leaving. I recommend getting a map and checking out the trail levels. The maps do a great job at saying how long they take, what features they have and what level they are (Beginner, Moderate or Strenous). I recommend weraring layers at it can be cold in the shade but hot in the summer, wearing comfortable waking shoes and bringing plently to drink and snack on. My lovely husband thought it would be a good idea to start our day on a Strenous stright uphil hike that all together was about 6 hours. Now we only did the hike about 1.5 hours each way so we didn’t do the whole path but as someone who is out of shape and has breathing issues this wasn’t one I would start out with. The views were difficult don’t get me wrong but I had to stop multiple times and I would have been stressed an overwhelmed if the trails were actually busy and I was getting in peoples way.
After leaving this trail and walking a small one we ate lunch and decided to head to the Infamous Angel’s Falls trail. This one is known for being super difficult with amazing views. At the very top of the trail the path climbs up a rock cliff with barely enough room for people to pass each other and all you have to hold onto is a fence chain. Since my husband is very afraid of heights we didn’t walk that part but we made it all the way to the top and the view was stunning! Honeslty it wasn’t as bad as the first trail since it wasn’t straight up the whole time and there were places to rest out of the way.
