My husband, my dog and I did a 6-day road trip through Nevada, Utah and Arizona and I think it was one of my favorite trips to date. I am by no means one of those people who want to go out into nature on a consistent basis; I mean, I live in Los Angeles. How much nature is there even to see? So I was surprised at how much I appreciated all of the nature. These national parks are just so breath-taking and I’m sad that the photos do not do them justice at all. Below are all of the parks that we visited:
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- Grand Canyon
- Horseshoe Bend
- Antelope Canyon
- Bryce Canyon
- Zion
Here is the route that we went from Los Angeles, but I will give you tips on what I might have done differently. Since we had Cooper with us, it made things difficult as most hotels/airbnbs did not allow dogs.
Los Angeles to Las Vegas – 4.5 hours
I love Las Vegas, so any excuse there is to go there, I will take it. We left after work on a Wednesday and were in Vegas by 11pm and stayed the night there. If we didn’t have our dog, I definitely would have gone and gambled a little bit. 😉
Las Vegas to Grand Canyon – 4 hours
The next morning, we got SUPER unlucky since my husband’s car started making a rattling noise. We had to go to an auto shop and wait for 4 hours to get it fixed, which means we lost precious sunlight as it’s a long drive to the Grand Canyon. We had made it just in time to watch the sunset though and it was beautiful. I can’t even describe how big Grand Canyon is. We are so lucky to be able to witness this natural formation.
Grand Canyon to Flagstaff, AZ – 1.5 hours
Flagstaff is the cutest little town and here is where I wish we had more time during the day to hang out. Flagstaff is a college town with a lot of fun bars but since we had the dog, we couldn’t go have a drink. Instead, we grabbed amazing pizza from NiMarco’s, then stayed in our airbnb to watch a movie since it was a long day of driving.
Flagstaff to Horseshoe Bend – 2 hours
We grabbed breakfast in Flagstaff so finally got a chance to check out the town a little more. We went to FireCreek Coffee Company, which had excellent coffee and wandered around for a little while before heading to our next destination. Horseshoe Bend was probably Cooper’s favorite because we had a lot of sun that day and he was able to run around. There are rocks you can climb and tons of areas you can explore.
Horseshoe Bend to Antelope Canyon – 15 min
Antelope Canyon is a short drive from the Horseshoe Bend and was nothing like I had expected. It was formed through erosion of sandstone from tons of flash floods and rain, which is pretty crazy.
You need to have tickets to attend, but there are a ton of 3rd parties that have licenses to get in. I really liked who we used because our tour guide took tons of photos and was also really funny. Antelope Canyon does not allow dogs so we had to drop him off at a doggy daycare nearby for a few hours. Below is the link we used for Antelope Canyon and the doggy daycare.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pampered-pets-page?osq=dog+daycare
Antelope Canyon to Kanab – 1.5 hours
I’d recommend to stay in Page if you can after seeing Horseshoe Bend and Antelope. There are a lot of hotels in the area, but they did not allow dogs so we could not stay there. Another attraction near Page is called The Wave. You have to sign up for the lottery to be able to go and we weren’t able to, but I hope you can!
Kanab to Bryce Canyon – 1.5 hours
Bryce Canyon was my absolute favorite, although this may be a little biased as I had never seen a photo so it was a complete surprise at how beautiful it was. My only regret here was not being able to hike down at the bottom as dogs were not allowed. I can’t even imagine what it would look like while looking up at the peaks. I hope I can make another trip out there to do this.
Bryce Canyon to Zion – 1.5 hours
I don’t think we gave Zion enough time as we had gotten there a little late and it was just so large. We ended up stopping over on a random side of the road and hiking up. What’s cool is we saw a bunch of mountain goats! After we gotten back to Los Angeles, we had heard that Angel’s Landing was the best hike to do, so that is now on my bucket list.
Zion to Vegas – 2.5 hours
This is where we got to have a proper night out in Vegas. We found a dogsitter and enjoyed Vegas as it’s supposed to be enjoyed. Went shopping, gambling and drinking.
Vegas to Los Angeles – 5 hours
I was so sad for this trip to be over, but ultimately was happy that we were able to take this road trip with our dog. Cooper loved being outdoors way more than I had expected him too considering how big of a city dog he is. He was constantly trotting around with happiness more than normal and I’m sure he loved being with his mom and dad 24/7 for a couple of days.
Changsta Life 