A 7 day road trip in Utah (& Arizona) - the itinerary

Nov 12

Nov 12 A 7 day road trip in Utah (& Arizona) - the itinerary

Back in August, I found out that I won the lottery for a hiking permit to go to The Wave in Vermillion Cliffs NM in Arizona. I had been entering each month for a chance at a permit for a couple years, but didn’t really anticipate ever being successful due to the number of people who enter each month, so it was an unexpected surprise. In addition, I had about a week of PTO left to use for the year and with that we decided to make it into a week long road trip in Utah.

My permit was for Tuesday, November 2, so that part of the trip was now settled.

The last time I had spent any time in Utah was 2006, so I thought about places I might want to revisit or what new places I wanted to go to. The 2006 trip was to Zion, Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce, and Grand Canyon North Rim. A place I definitely wanted to spend some more time was Bryce, since our previous stop 15 years ago was too brief, and my traveling partner wanted to go back Monument Valley, so I tried to work those into the itinerary.

The other thing I really wanted to do was tour Antelope Canyon and Navajo Nation had only recently reopened with very limited capacity after an extended closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, so there were not a lot of tour options and I quickly made a reservation for Thursday afternoon.

And with that, the itinerary was starting to come together. We would leave from Portland Friday night and plan to be near Bryce Canyon by Saturday night.

Sunday, October 31 - Watch the sunrise, hike the Fairyland Loop in Bryce Canyon, and drive to Kanab.

Monday, November 1 - The Wave orientation 9am and explore around Kanab: Belly of the Dragon, East entrance to Zion NP, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, and dinosaur tracks in Kanab.

Tuesday, November 2 - hike The Wave

Wednesday, November 3 - Explore Glen Canyon NRA: Lee’s Ferry, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Point and Wahweap Marinas, Glen Canyon Dam and stay in Page, AZ.