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| Las Vegas, The
Grand Canyon, and the Parks of Utah Fall, 2004 |
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| This
is a trip we'd been talking about for a long time – to one of the few
places in the United States we hadn't visited together – Las Vegas and
the "Grand Circle". The grand circle is the geographic area
primarily in northern Arizona and southern Utah which geologically is
known as the Colorado plateau and includes the most famous of the
America's national parks. The approximate center of this circle
is Page, Arizona and the Lake Powell National recreation area.
Here's a link to the Lake Powell Visitor's Guide with a map which shows
Page in the center of this incredibly beautiful area. The parks
we visited in this grand circle, were the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell,
Monument Valley, Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, Capitol Reef,
Bryce and Zion. There's so much to see and never enough time. Our trip began and ended in Las Vegas and lasted 2 weeks. Las Vegas is a great counterpoint to all the beautiful natural beauty we saw in the parks we visited. We spent 2 nights at the beginning and one night at the end in Las Vegas where our flights arrived and departed. Las Vegas was great fun. One of the biggest dilemmas on a trip to this area is how much time to spend in each park and in which order to see them. I had lots of help from my friends on the Fodors travel forum, and here is the itinerary… |
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On
our first stay in Las Vegas, we stayed at Bally's. Bally's is not
the most prestigious hotel on the strip, but it is reasonably priced,
has very nice large rooms, and is excellently located – in the center
of the strip, right across from the Bellagio Hotel and its incredible
fountains, and connected directly to the Paris Hotel. All in all, we
had a great time there. On our return visit to Vegas,
we stayed at Excalibur, which is located at the southern end of the
strip. This gave us the opportunity to conveniently visit this end of
the strip which includes the hotels "New York, New York", Luxor, and
MGM. This area is also the closest to the airport, and we had an
early flight in the morning. I had heard that checking out of a
large hotel in Las Vegas can be a time consuming process, but Excalibur
has a simple express checkout (we paid our bill the night before) and
the parking lot is very conveniently located near the exit of "tower
2", where our room was. I would say that it only took about 10
minutes to get from our room to the airport.
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| As for the Excalibur as a hotel, the
highlight was the spa, which was the best and most luxurious spa I've
ever been in. It was great to relax in the sauna and jacuzzi and
pamper ourselves after all the hiking we had done during the previous
2 weeks. What to see in Las Vegas??? The biggest attractions are the hotels themselves, with all the newer ones (those built in the last 10 years or so) boasting incredible casinos and themes. Here's a quick summary of the major attractions: |
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| BELOW ARE A FEW USEFUL LINKS IF
YOU PLAN TO VISIT LAS VEGAS |
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Many
of the hotels have a large attached
shopping center (several with over 100 stores) which usually provides
an off-street passage to the neighboring hotel. Most of the stores
seemed pretty empty and most people spend their time in the
casinos.
The stores were pretty much window dressing and a pleasant way to get
from one hotel to another without stepping outside into the heat.
These passageways are designed so that you don't know what time it is
and you feel like you are outdoors on a sunny comfortable afternoon
even if it's 3 in the morning or 110 degrees outside.
The best restaurant we ate at while in Las Vegas was "The Sacred Sea Room" located in the Luxor. The food and service were excellent and the price for the meal for 2 (without wine) was about $110. (2022 update: the restaurant doesn't exist anymore.) |
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| That's enough for Las Vegas! On to the natural beauty of the "Grand Circle". |
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THE GRAND CANYON I don't know where to start. The Grand Canyon is as grand as its name and is certainly overwhelming for the first time visitor. We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge, which is nothing special, but was the only hotel available when we started looking. its one advantage is its nearness to the canyon village. We spent a day and a half here, and I think that was ideal. We managed to see every sunrise (Yavapai Point and Yaki Point) and sunset (Yaki Point and Mather Point) while we were there. We also hiked about a third of the way down Bright Angel Trail, which we found to be a disappointing hike as the scenery never changed, and most of the route we were busy avoiding the donkey chips. Something
we did which we didn't expect to do in the Grand Canyon was go to a
concert. We attended a jazz concert at the "Chapel of the Ages",
which is near the Grand Canyon village. The concert was part of a
the "Grand Canyon Music Festival" and is now in its 21st season.
The concert we attended featured the "Bonfiglio Group" with
extraordinary harmonica player Robert Bonfiglio.
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| LAKE POWELL We
stayed overnight at the Lake Powell Resort, which is the only hotel
located right on Lake Powell. As reported, the level of Lake
Powell is very low due to 5 years of drought, but it is still
beautiful. We went on the guided Navaho visit to the Upper Antelope
Slot Canyon which is truly incredible. We went with "Antelope
Canyon Tours" which is located in the center of Page. There are
several different companies. They take you in an open desert
transporter from Page to the canyon entrance, (about a 15 minute drive)
and there give you about an hour to tour the slot canyon, most of it
accompanied by a Navaho guide. This canyon is truly amazing. I
can't take credit for the picture of the canyon to the upper left.
Successful photography inside the canyon is difficult. It's a lot
easier to buy a good photo, which is what I did. This one and others
like it cost $2 at the Antelope Canyon Tours headquarters in Page.
If you want more information about Lake Powell and the surrounding area, check out the John Wesley Powell River Museum. |
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 MONUMENT VALLEY |
MONUMENT VALLEY On the way to Moab, Utah, we stopped off at Monument Valley, site of the most amazing scenery. Many of these unusual rock formations can be seen in many Hollywood westerns. The visit takes about 2 hours including the 17 mile scenic drive. To the left is one of the most famous views of Monument Valley - the view of the "mitten mountains". |
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MOAB, ARCHES AND CANYONLANDS Moab is conveniently located right between Arches and Canyonland National Parks. It's a delightful little western town and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. We stayed at the Dreamkeeper B&B and ate at several local restaurants, the most surprising of which was the Central Café. This restaurant was a real gourmet delight and is one of the best restaurants in Utah. I mentioned 2 parks near Moab, but there's actually a third - Dead Horse Point State Park. This is a Utah State park with its own entry fee ($7), but really doesn't have much to offer that you can't see in Canyonlands Park. It's small and it's main attraction is views of the canyons of its larger neighbor. If you don't have a lot of time, skip it. To the upper left is a viewpoint of the gooseneck bends in the green river which is in Dead Hose. On the way to Moab, we drove the 22 miles out of the way in order to go see Needles Overlook. Needles is the wild and largely inaccessible part of Canyonlands Park, and the lookout is magnificent. It was well worth the extra 44 miles. Arches park is absolutely incredible. The different shapes, the landscape, the incredible array of arches (over 2000) all make it an amazing experience. We hiked to the landscape arch, and beyond it to wall, Navaho, and partition arches. We also did the hike to Delicate Arch at sunset. This is a long hard uphill hike takes about an hour. The experience is incredible, and well worth the effort to join about 100 other hikers who sit transfixed by the beautiful and changing colors of the arch as the sun sets. To the left is a picture of the arch, with a person in the picture to give some perspective, and below it a picture of the "gallery" of photographers. Canyonlands is also beautiful. The park is divided into three distinct parts, only one of which is readily accessible and which is called the "Island in the Sky". For us the most striking geological feature in the park was the absolutely incredible "white rim road". It's difficult to capture such a place on film, but to the left is my humble effort. Around this gigantic depression in the earth is a 4 wheel drive road whose length is 200 miles. The edge of the crevice is white due to the particular limestone in the area. In Canyonlands, we also hiked to "Grandview Viewpoint", and to the "upheaval dome", which may be the remnants of a meteor landing site. |
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CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK We
had heard that this park was the "hidden jewel of the national park
system". It was certainly impressive and far more beautiful than
we had expected. We hiked to Hickman bridge, and several
viewpoints including sunset point and drove the 17 mile scenic
drive. To the left is a picture of the stunning landscape typical
to this park. You can zip right through Capitol Reef on the way
from Moab to Bryce and spend just an hour or two, but we spent almost a
full day here and really enjoyed it.
There are several motels in the area, and the closest town is Torrey. Don't expect much from Torrey. There's a book store / coffee shop combo called "Robber's Roost", a couple of groceries, 5 or 6 motels, and 4 or 5 restaurants. One of the leading motels in town is Austin's Chuckwagon Motel which includes what is probably the largest grocery in town. We stayed at The Boulder View Inn, which is a ten room motel and which is immaculately clean, very well maintained, and has a very nice complimentary buffet breakfast. Right across the street from The Boulder View Inn is the Capitol Reef Inn, where we were pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the food and the very original dinner menu (very healthy and environmentally conscious). |
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BRYCE NATIONAL PARK Utah highway 12 has been designated a "National Scenic Byway" and an "All-American Road". It is 124 miles of beautiful scenery and runs from the Capitol Reef area to the Bryce area. A section of it is called "hogback" which is part of the Escalante National Monument. It rides on top of a crest and there's a dropoff in both directions. Most of the route runs through the Dixieland National Forest, and passes through several parks and recreation areas. There are many lookout points along the way as well as hiking trails and 4 wheel drive routes. It's even got its own web page entitled "Scenic Byway 12". Bryce is of course one of the most visited parks in Utah. It can be done in a few hours if you want, or you can stay for a while and absorb the fabulous scenery. The day we got to Bryce was the only rainy day we had our entire trip. Rainbow Point on a clear day has a view of 100 miles into Arizona, but on this day it rained and hailed and visibility was zero. In the morning, things cleared up and we had great views of everything. Not much hiking here, just running from viewpoint to viewpoint. There are some walks down among the hoodoos, and in the picture on the upper left, that's me walking down the "Queen's Garden Trail". Bryce canyon is noted for the colorful landscape filled with , red and yellow colored sandstone "hoodoos" shaped by the wind and water over the years. The amazing thing about Bryce is that it's still changing at a rapid pace. To the left is a shot of sunset at some point in Bryce. While visiting Bryce, we stayed at the Bryce Valley Inn in Tropic. Tropic is the nearest town to the entrance to Bryce (about 10 miles) although it's even less of a town than Torrey. The closest thing to a town in the area is Ruby's "complex" right at the entrance to the park. Ruby's is a real empire - motel, restaurants, stores, gas station, campground, everything besides a town hall. We enjoyed the lunch buffet at Ruby's. As for the Bryce Valley Inn, it's a standard, somewhat rundown motel, adequate and cheap enough for a one night stay. |
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ZION NATIONAL PARK This was really saving the best for last. We fell in love with Zion. The landscape is so beautiful, and so varied, we were glad we had 2 and a half days here. We hiked the overlook trail to the canyon overlook, and also hiked to the Upper Emerald Pool. Both were spectacular in the in their own way. The canyon overlook provides a spectacular vista into the canyon, and the upper emerald pool is situated in a blind canyon with walls straight up to a height of 300 feet. We also did the riverside walk to the Zion Narrows and visited every other spot we could. We also visited the Kolob Canyon area which is located in the northwest corner of the park and is about a 45 minute drive from the main visitor center. The Kolob Canyon area is also beautiful, but should be visited only if you've exhausted all the possibilities in the main area and have a few hours to spare. We ended our visit to Zion by starting on the watchman trail but turning back midway. We started out too early in the day and it was too hot. We finished on the banks or the Virgin River with our feet in the cold water. It was a great ending to a great trip! Check it out in the picture to the left. We stayed at the in Desert Pearl Inn Springdale and which is truly a beautiful motel. Every evening we spent an hour in the outdoor jacuzzi recuperating from the day's hikes. We ate at 2 different restaurants but returned twice to the Spotted Dog Café located at Flannigan's Inn. Springdale is a beautiful little town which has quite a few nice motels, some good restaurants and many galleries with amazing art and photography. If you visit Springdale, check out the gallery of one of the more amazing photographers who specializes in the southwest desert scenery. His name is Michael Fatali and his work is really amazing. We also visited the Plateau Light Gallery which had incredible desert photography. Unfortunately, this gallery no longer exists. For absolutely beautiful photos of the American southwwest, I suggest you check out the web site of an amazing photographer called Doug Koepsel. When we visited, Springdale was full of quite a few galleries with lots of beautiful work and as far as I know, that is still the case. |
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UPDATED AND REBUILT - NOVEMBER 13, 2022 |
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