Welcome back everyone ❤ Today I’m going to share a travel itinerary that covers most of the must-see places in Arizona – Grand Canyon (South Rim), Horse shoe bend, Antelope canyon and Monument Valley. I went on this trip during Thanksgiving. We flew to Las Vegas and drove for around 1000 miles in Arizona. Here’s a map that shows all the places that we covered during our trip –
Day 1 -Horseshoe bend, Antelope canyon and Monument Valley
We drove from Vegas the previous night and stayed at BestWestern near Lake Powell. This place is just 10 mins away from the Horseshoe bend, very convenient to get there early morning to watch the sunrise. The actual viewpoint is a 10-15 minute hike from the parking lot and gets pretty cold and windy early in the morning. So make sure you dress in layers and get ready to watch a magnificent sunrise. We stayed for about half an hour (Until I couldn’t feel my fingers) and then returned to our room. We had booked a guided tour to Upper Antelope Canyon (they only allow guided tours) at 12.00 PM. The best time to visit the Upper Antelope Canyon is from 11 AM – 1 PM so I would suggest to book a tour around that time to get the best views. It is one AMAZING place that everyone should visit if they get a chance! The tour took about 1.5-2 hours and again it gets very veryyy windy here as well during Fall. After a quick lunch, we started driving towards Monument Valley. It’s about 1.5 hours from Antelope Canyon, and has the best views during sunset ❤ ! It was an absolute treat to the eyes to watch the sunlight descending on the sandstone structures! We grabbed a sub on the way and drove to Tuba City where we spent the night stargazing at the Amazing Arizona skies! You can stop anywhere by the roadside in Arizona and you are guaranteed a glimpse of the Milky Way in all its glory 🙂
Day 2 – Grand Canyon South Rim
We started off at around 8 in the morning to Grand Canyon and we spotted this place which claimed to have Dinosaur tracks en route. This land is owned by the Native Indians and is a part of the Navajo Nation. The guide over there walked us through all the various Dinosaur tracks, describing the history behind each, as we went. Though I was a little skeptical about the free Dinosaur “tooth” that we were given as souvenir 😛 , I must admit, the tour was still fun :). Our next stop was the Desert View Watchtower at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is approximately 25 miles before the Visitor center. We could catch some really good views of the Canyon from here. We stopped at the Mather point at the Grand Canyon Visitor centre, which I would say had decent views of the canyon but was super crowded. The “Trail of Time” starts here and runs up to the Yavapai Point, a 15-20 minute walk overall. We had to skip the hike and drive straight to the Yavapai point to make it in time for Sunset. And there it was, the most magical sunset that I have seen till date! The sky slowly turned pink and a few minutes later the entire canyon was PINK! I’m not at all kidding guys, just take a look at the pictures! I didn’t edit any of them and it is actually that gorgeous :O We stayed until it got really dark and headed to the Yavapai Geology museum. You can find the past, present and future of the Grand Canyon, well showcased here. We grabbed some souvenirs and called it a day.
Day 3 – Hoover Dam and Las Vegas
We stayed overnight at Flagstaff and the next morning we started off to Las Vegas. We did a stopover at Hoover Dam which is about 30 minutes from Vegas. There are two places to see here – the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge and the Hoover Dam itself. The bridge itself is at an elevation of about 900ft, perfect to get some amaazing pictures of the Dam and the Colorado River. Also, the Colorado River IS the state line between Arizona and Nevada which means the clock changes as you drive over the bridge! Pretty cool right? We headed straight to the dam and spent sometime taking pictures and discussing the physics about dams(I knoww, I have no idea how I let the latter happen 😛 ) It is a pretty cool place overall and definitely worth a visit if you are around that area. The rest of the day was spent in “Sin City” and I’m not gonna write about it here coz we all know why.. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”!! 😀 Right? 😉
Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
Congrats on making it to the end of my first travel post 😀 Hope I didn’t bore you too much. Feel free to drop your comments or share details on any nearby places, that you found interesting 🙂 Coming up next is another Fashion Post “Love Affair with Leather” with more Fall Outfits so stay tuned 🙂 ❤
Until next time,
Mal
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