I posted here a while back, asking for opinions on our trip itinerary and suggestions on where to eat and camp. Now that the vacation’s over, I wanted to come back and give a review of everywhere we went and how the itinerary worked out so that hopefully it'll be of some use to someone else! I actually meant to do this a long time ago but, well, life happened. But here it is, better late than never. (Warning: this is a REALLY long post.)

So my husband and I took a trip to the American Southwest. I had submitted my itinerary here for review and some people had thought that I might have overplanned, and we’d be rushed. I’m glad to say that that wasn’t the case at all! When creating our itinerary I used Google to ascertain how much time people usually spent at each location. I gave us about an hour or so extra added to the average time spent there, and that’s what I allotted us on our schedule. This approach worked excellently, and never once did we feel rushed during our whole trip. We actually ended up with extra time more than once!

May 29:  We arrived in El Paso in the afternoon. After some mix-up with our vehicle rental, we were on our way! We stopped at El Cometa on the way out and grabbed some authentic Mexican food. This place was the real deal - there was almost no English anywhere in the place. We ordered the tacos alambre and flautas el cometa. Both were fantastic, I can’t recommend this place enough.

We arrived in Carlsbad and spent the night in the Travelers Inn there. The lady behind the counter was very sweet and they had a complimentary breakfast, which was nice.

May 30:  The next morning we headed out bright and early to Carlsbad Caverns. We were one of the first people there this early in the morning, which was really cool when we were down in the cave. Most of our time in there was spent virtually alone, no one in sight or earshot. It made for a really spooky, really cool experience. My favorite formation was the Rock of Ages, which in my opinion looked like a walrus.

From Carlsbad we drove to Roswell. First thing we did was head to the International UFO Museum. This was a surprisingly educational location. It presented all theories behind the Roswell incident and left you to come to your own conclusions. There was also a cool animatronic display in the center of aliens disembarking their spacecraft. After leaving here, we went to Alien Zone/Area 51, which was basically alien dummies displayed in weird scenarios, and I mean that in the best way! We had a lot of fun perusing each display and posing with the aliens. This place also had a nice gift shop for alien souvenirs. We also stopped by Alien Invasion, another alien souvenir shop and the home of the amazing Alien Luchador Mask, and one other place called Ancients of Days, a weird little shop selling rocks, fossils, and Christian supplies (lol). They had a lot of really cool stones to look at, but we did not buy anything here.

On our way out we made sure to stop and get a picture of the McDonalds, which is shaped like a UFO!

We grabbed food at Los Novillos, enchiladas and a chimichanga, both carne asada and with verde sauce. This was another excellent food locale. They had great guacamole too!

We spent the night at Bottomless Lakes State Park, a park which draws its names from the series of lakes that are actually a collapsed cave system. On our way into the park we passed one of the lakes which was surrounded by emergency vehicles. Cops and other people were standing around looking into the lake, and one man was donning a divers suit. We found out later that a man had died jumping into the lake - a 200 foot dive! But aside from this, the park was great - quiet, and not very crowded. We were surprised by how much we loved this little side spot. We managed to catch the sunset here, sitting high on one of the cliffs over the lake. We did see a small scorpion here, so if you camp here, be aware!

May 31:  We headed out super early to make the drive to Petrified Forest National Park. This was a six hour drive so we stopped by Mary and Tito’s in Albuquerque to get some enchiladas and their famous carne adovada turnover, both of which were delicious. Once at Petrified Forest, we began exploring. The Painted Desert was stunning, and we spent a while just standing at each viewpoint absorbing its beauty. We did the short Painted Desert Rim Trail here too before continuing. We stopped by Puerco Pueblo and did the trail there, viewing the remnants of the homes of the Hopi people. Next we went and saw something we’d both been really excited for - Newpaper Rock. I was glad I had my binoculars and a camera with optical zoom here, because it was kind of far away and with the sun it was a little hard to see with the naked eye - but what an amazing display of petroglyphs. On the way through the rest of the park we did the offshoot through the Blue Mesa, we saw the Agate Bridge, and the Crystal Forest. Just before leaving we did the Giant Logs trail, which was aptly named.

We stayed the night at the KOA there in Holbrook, but not before getting dinner at Camaleon, which we both found to be pretty...meh. My husband got beef tacos, which weren’t anything special, and I got a chicken chimichanga, and the chicken had literally no seasoning. I was pretty unimpressed with everything here except their salsa. But our KOA was nice, we stayed in one of their Kabins. The campsite was clean and quiet and we got to do some laundry for relatively cheap.

June 1:  This was a busy day, so we started early (again). First stop was Winslow, AZ, for a photo op. “Standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ…” from the Eagles song, “Take It Easy”. I had wanted to stop here before I even knew there was a statue, so upon finding that out, I knew we absolutely HAD to. This was a cute side stop and there was some kitschy little stores all around with Route 66 souvenirs. Next we went to Meteor Crater, which was just incredible. Photos don’t do it justice - the scale is hard to describe. The museum here had a lot of interesting information. We did the guided rim tour and learned about the history here, including a plane that crashed into the crater and its wing is still down in there and visible if you look closely. The tour guide was informative, funny, and offered to take photos of everyone next to the crater, which was really kind.

From there we went to Montezuma’s Castle. Some people had called this the budget Mesa Verde, and I had really wanted to do Mesa Verde, but it was just too far from our route, so we went here instead. But I don’t feel that nickname is appropriate because Montezuma’s Castle was amazing in its own right. Imagining the Sinagua people carving out this structure in the side of the cliff in the heat with nothing but hand tools was crazy. Unfortunately the structure itself is not open to tours, but we managed to get some good photos of it all the same. The area here was beautiful as well. At the gift shop here we bought some Tazo “chocolate Mexicano”, stone-ground chocolate. I expected this to be bitter but it was actually some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had. On the way out of here, we stopped by the Yavapai Apache Fry Bread and Jewelry stand and got some authentic Navajo fry bread. They had four flavors, but we only got two - salted, and cinnamon and sugar. Both were delicious and I’ve craved them ever since. :(

The end of our day was spent at what was arguably the pinnacle of our vacation - the Grand Canyon. After settling down our tent at Mather Campground, we headed back out to Hopi Point to watch the sunset. We found a nice little ledge to watch from. There were a lot of people here, but everyone mostly kept to themselves and no one was loud or rambunctious, which I was really thankful for. The beauty of the sunset here cannot be overstated. The colors of the sky, the colors of the canyon, the striking shadows and contrast - I probably took over 200 photos in the span of an hour or so. Absolutely stunning and hands down the best sunset I’ve ever seen.

We enjoyed a few beers and s’mores at our campsite before going to sleep. Despite the campsite being pretty crowded, it was clean and quiet, and the pine trees all around made for a pretty lovely campsite.

June 2:  We woke up before the crack of dawn in order to see the sun rise. We went to Mather Point for this, but unfortunately, so did a lot of other people. We managed to get a decent spot for viewing but we were elbowed out of the way twice. After the sun had come up, we were trying to get a photo on top of the big rock that juts out of the sidewalk there. We waited our turn behind the couple who were there before us. We waited, and waited...then their friends showed up. Finally I just asked if we could take two quick photos and they moved aside. This was our only negative interaction with other tourists along the whole trip, thankfully.

From here we went to the Bright Angel Trail. Talk about gorgeous. The views here were pretty spectacular too, and we made a lot of stops for photos of the formations and valleys below. We made it all the way to the Mile and a Half Resthouse. We probably could have gone on, but we wanted to have time for a few other trails, so we started our way back up. Coming down was a breeze - going back up I thought I was going to die (lol). However, somehow we made better time going up than coming down. I think it was all the photos I took! We saw a lot of wildlife along this trail. Lizards, bighorn sheep scaling the canyon walls, squirrels, and of course, the famous mules.

We did the South Kaibab trail next, going all the way to the sign of the puking man (sorry for not having the exact mileage), and then we trailed along the rim here for a bit just soaking it all up before we had to leave. The views here were almost even more spectacular and expansive than the other locations. We saw more squirrels, more lizards, and some mule deer and even an elk here. Before leaving we stopped by Lipan Point and got one nice last look at the canyons and Hance Rapids. It was hard to leave the Grand Canyon, but we were only halfway done with our trip!

We ended our day all the way at Zion Canyon Campground in Springdale, UT. This campsite was nice too, but the bathrooms were infested with roaches. Luckily we only spent a little time here, since we got in late and left super early the next morning.

June 3:  We wanted to beat the crowds so this was our earliest morning yet (except the sunrise at the Grand Canyon) but despite our efforts, we still got stuck in the lines to board the shuttles into the park. Once out of the visitor center area, however, it wasn’t too bad that early. We went straight to the Narrows and started our trek. There were more people along the way with us than I had expected this early, but we were all spaced out so it didn’t feel too crowded. (The way back was another story.) This was my absolute favorite hike of the trip, and of my whole life, to be honest. When I was little we lived by a creek and I spent my whole childhood exploring it and the surrounding woods. The Narrows hike brought all those feelings back. Splashing through the creek, wading through the waist-deep areas, and scrambling over the boulders was so much fun. I could have spent the whole day here. We explored the tributary Orderville Canyon as well, and we had it all to ourselves, we only saw two other groups the entire time we were back in there.There were lot more boulders and waterfalls in Orderville. We had to do a lot more “canyoneering” (I use the term loosely) and scrambling back in here, but it was a lot of fun. Finally we sadly decided to turn around and head back so we could see the rest of the park. On the way back, it was WAY more crowded, along the lines of a waterpark. We finally made it out and headed to Weeping Rock. We were surprised by the steep grade of this trail, but it was short, so it wasn’t bad at all. We were just exhausted at this point (lol). We saw a lot of ambulances and rangers with their vehicle lights on zooming past on our way back to the shuttle. We found out later that only twenty minutes after we’d left the Narrows, there was a rock fall. That was our second brush with death on this trip, we were starting to feel a little unlucky!

Both my husband and I didn’t feel up to doing Angel’s Landing, the crowds, the height, that chain - just no thanks. So we did the Canyon Overlook Trail instead. This trail was really interesting and it felt pretty precarious at times, but the view at the top was so worth it! The structure of the rocks at Zion is just so cool, and we got a pretty good showcase of it here. On the way down we passed a bridal party going to take photos at the summit. How cool!

On our way out of the park we saw the Checkerboard Mesa, and I got my quintessential Virgin River bridge photo. All in all, Zion is breathtakingly gorgeous, but crowds here made it not my favorite. Still I would highly recommend it. Especially the Narrows.

We drove to Canyonville and stayed at the KOA, which had pretty great views of the surrounding countryside. Some lady was using all of the washers at once, so we had to do our laundry by hand in the showers, but that wasn’t the campsite’s fault. For dinner we grabbed pizza from the Bryce Canyon Inn Pizza Place. We waited a long time, for some reason, but the pizza was really really good.

June 4:  This was another early one. We headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. The Narrows at Zion was my favorite hike of the trip, but this was my favorite park. The colors here are breathtakingly gorgeous and the spires, just wow. It’s hard to describe and all I can do is just beg you to see it for yourselves. We did the Queens Garden/Navajo Loop Trail, and we saw a rattlesnake along the way! Crowds here were pretty sparse, which was a nice departure from the previous day. The landscape here defied words. The red and white of the rock, the Ponderosa pines, and the blue sky in contrast made for the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We saw the rattlesnake I mentioned, plus lots of chipmunks and a prairie dog colony on the way in.

We left Bryce and went to Kanab to see the Paria Mountains. The dirt road in was rough (parts of it definitely had us stressing in our little rental) but it ended up not being too bad, and it was definitely worth it. The mountains back in there are beautiful and show such a spectrum of color that I didn’t know was possible. Another cool little stop along the way!

We had one more stop along the way for the day, and that was Horseshoe Bend. I did not know the walk was going to be that far, and across sand. I guess because of the Narrows earlier in the day, this walk about killed me guys. But again, very worth it. Pictures of Horseshoe Bend are always so oversaturated or shopped, but it doesn’t need any of that. It was gorgeous on its own. The colors of the water and the canyon were striking. There were some boats down in the water that really gave us a sense of scale that was hard to believe. There were a lot of people here, too.

We didn’t have a campsite reserved for this night, and after everything we were too tired to find a site and pitch a tent somewhere, so we parked in the back of the Page Wal-Mart parking lot, opened the back of the car, and drank some beers and watched Walking Dead on our phone. We had some neighbors in their RVs and they were quiet enough. It ended up being really nice.

June 5:  We got to sleep in a little bit. We had a reservation for a tour of Lower Antelope Canyon with Ken’s Tours at 10 am. We were a little nervous since we saw a huge group of people in the lobby waiting along with us, but our tour group ended up only having fourteen people in it. This proved to be quite a blessing, although we did still have a group in front of us and one behind us, so sometimes it didn’t matter. Though crowded, Antelope Canyon was incredible. Our cameras were going the entire time. Everywhere you look is beauty. The colors and the movement of the rocks were indescribable. I quickly saw why so many people visit! The way out of the canyon was this tiny little crevice. Looking back and watching people emerge from it, they looked like ants. Our tour guide was really nice and showed us all the different formations within the canyon. If you go, make sure to tip!

Before leaving Page we stopped at Big John’s Texas BBQ. It was kind of expensive but it was so so so good. The meat was delicious and melted in your mouth. We wished we had ordered more!

Next we visited Monument Valley. It’s hard to realize the scale of these monoliths from just a picture. Driving around and through them makes you feel so small. The contrast between the red rocks and the sky makes for fantastic photos here. The museum at the entrance to the valley has a nice Code Talkers exhibit, and a really expensive gift shop, too. We really wished they would have paved these roads, though.

We camped on BLM land this night. We found a little place off a road called Klondike Bluff. We could hear the highway from where we were, but we couldn’t see it or anything else for that matter except the countryside. It was a pretty peaceful spot all in all where we could have a nice campfire and enjoy being alone.

June 6:  First thing in the morning, we headed to Arches National Park. We expected crowds here, and we got them, though not as bad as Zion. The entrance was clear, but we had full parking lots even arriving at 6am. We did the Delicate Arch trail first which was much more strenuous than I expected. Scrambling up the side of that tilted rock face was brutal, but we made it. Such a rewarding view at the end too. We made sure not to miss the petroglyphs at the beginning of the trail. We did the Landscape Arch trail next, along with its offshoots, Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. Next we went to Balanced Rock, and we finished with the short hike to Double Arch, which was my personal favorite from this park. It was much bigger than I expected, and it was fun to climb around on the boulders. Crowds at Arches weren’t exactly shoulder to shoulder, but they were much more crowded than I’d have liked.

We left Arches and decided since we had a little bit of extra time to make a short jaunt into Canyonlands National Park. We didn’t have nearly the amount of time we wanted to spend here, but since we had the America the Beautiful Pass (more on this later) and it would be free, we figured we’d at least go see Mesa Arch. It was a beautiful hike - the prickly pear cacti were in bloom. The view from Mesa Arch was incredible - you could see all the way to the La Sal Mountains 150 miles away. We also made sure to stop at Shafer Trail Overlook for the beautiful view.

We wanted to spend much more time here, and this was really the only time during our whole trip that we wished we had more time - but alas, it was time to go to our campsite. We stayed the night at Canyonlands RV and Campgrounds, which we didn’t care for much. We had many complaints here. The campsites were super close together, the trees were dropping so much pollen that it looked like it was snowing and they were covered in tiny black beetles, the fire rings were right underneath trees which seemed like a major fire hazard, and the tent site itself was hard and gravelly. Another complaint of ours which wasn’t really the campsite’s fault was that our neighbors were this massive group of guys in Jeeps and they were loud all evening.

June 7:  We woke up early and drove to Goblin Valley State Park, the final park on our itinerary. This was a really cool place to explore. The hoodoos here were much bigger than they looked in photos. I expected them to be maybe waist-high, but they all towered over our heads. We explored the crevices between the walls of the surrounding hoodoos, but never did find our way into the second valley. That was  our only complaint here, it wasn’t well marked, but we had so much fun here just climbing around that it didn’t really matter. We did find a geocache, and left our names in the logbook and swapped out some swag.

Leaving here was bittersweet. It marked the end of our journey, but we were ready to get back home to our kids. We made the final drive to Salt Lake City. We had a lot of recommendations for food here that we were excited to try, but it turned out that none would deliver to our hotel, and we couldn’t get Uber Eats to work for some reason, so we ended up just getting Domino’s delivery.

This trip was fantastic and I would recommend all the locations to anyone considering travelling out west, with the exception of the Camaleon restaurant in Holbrook. We wanted to try many other food locations along the way, but we started running out of food money pretty fast lol.

About the America the Beautiful pass - guys I can’t stress how awesome this pass was. I never could find a comprehensive list of the locations it gave free access to, so I was a little nervous going along, but it worked at:  Carlsbad Caverns, Petrified Forest, Montezuma’s Castle, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands. We spent $80 on the pass and it saved us $229. That’s $149 we got to spend on gas instead! Yay!

And speaking of gas - another really useful tool we utilized on our road trip was the GasBuddy app. This app allows you to search your area and find the cheapest gas available. This saved us a bit of money too.

Overall we had an amazing vacation and I owe a LOT of it to reddit, I spent tons of time researching everything and asking for recommendations and you guys delivered. Now it’s my turn to return the favor, so, here’s hoping this super long and rambling review helps someone with their trip!