From hiking in the Grand Canyon to a cliffside Horseshoe Bend wedding to the breathtaking Zion National Park to surreal Death Valley to the sparkling Eastern California Lakes to a sunny Yosemite National Park our 10 day road trip last fall was truly magical. I understand that scrolling down through all of the below images could feel a bit like someone forcing you to look at all their vacation photos, while sitting on their couch waiting to eat dinner or something. But here’s the thing I can’t force you, though if you are a fan of sweeping, breathtaking National Park vistas captured in crisp fall western light on softly grained film I’d strongly encourage you to warm your scrolling finger up for the journey. Last fall my husband and I spent over 1000+ miles on the road together (I drove a total of two of those) spanning 4 States and 4 National Parks nestled between two weddings. When two couples near and dear to us starting talking about their October wedding dates out west, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. If they happened to pick two back to back weekends I was taking it as a sign that we needed to road trip between the two from the Grand Canyon to Ripon, Ca. And it certainly looked like there was some pretty neat stuff in between the two. 20 rolls of film later… I couldn’t help myself. It was the dear Lord that gave us near perfect weather in peak fall leaf season. What. A. Gift.
In true travel blog form I’ll give you all a quick run down of our itinerary. But also if you do happen to scroll all the way to the end I’ve included a video montage of the journey. It’s a mere 10 mins long (like, really I’m not forcing you to watch it) but once again if you are looking to get your eyes on some possibilities for your next road trip I’d encourage the 10 minute investment.
Our Road Trip Itinerary:
+ Flight to Vegas and pick up our Jeep
+ Grand Canyon National Park South Rim
+ View Points: Yavapai Point, Mather Point, Kaibab Trail hike to Ooh Aah Point,
Lipan Point and Desert View Watchtower
+ Page, AZ
+ Lower Antelope Canyon Tour
+ Lake Powell Boat Tour
+ Horseshoe Bend for Sheri & James Sunset Wedding
+ Head to Zion National Park
+ Drive Zion Mount Carmel Highway & Tunnel
+ Checkerboard Mesa
+ Riverside Walk trail to the Narrows
+ Overnight at Desert Pearl Inn in Springdale, UT (our fav)
+ Canyon Overlook morning hike
+ Emerald Pools afternoon hike
+ Overnight in Vegas, NV
+ Red Rocks Canyon
+ Death Valley National Park, CA
+ Zabriskie Point
+ Badwater Salt Flat
+ Drive down Artist Drive to Artist's Palette
+ Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
+ Mosaic Canyon Hike
+ Overnight in Bishop, CA
+ Convict Lake, CA
+ Hot Creek Geological Site
+ Mammoth Lakes Drive
+ June Lake Loop
+ Yosemite National Park (via Tioga Pass)
+ Tioga Lake
+ Dana Meadows
+ Tuolumne Meadows
+ Tenaya Lake
+ Olmstead Point
+ Check into Evergreen Lodge
+ Mirror Lake
+ Lower Yosemite Falls Trail
+ Valley View
+ Bridalveil Falls
+ Tunnel View
+ Glacier Point
+ Drive to Ripon, CA for Lida & Tim’s wedding
Just a few things we took away from it all:
+ Definitely rent the Jeep. Ours served us so well for the 1000+ miles. Plus we found out that there is a “Jeep wave”. Yep.
+ Zion National Park is maybe one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen. Definitely check it out. We also splurged on a hotel in Springdale, UT just outside the park and didn’t regret it. Desert Pearl Inn was wonderful!
+ Skip Vegas. Ugh. Wasn’t my cup of tea. And I was so excited about it. I think it would be better with a tickets to a show or with group of friends or something but I just did not find it lovely at all. I was probably spoiled coming straight off of the natural beauty of Zion though.
+ Death Valley felt truly strange to us. It was so different and we didn’t immediately know how we felt about it. But looking back I’d say it was maybe one of the most surreal places I’ve ever seen. Don’t be tempted to skip it. Make sure to check out Mosaic Canyon in the late afternoon. But do bring water always.
+ The Eastern California Lakes were magical, especially bathed in all the fall colors.
+ Water doesn’t flow in most of the Yosemite waterfalls in the fall. This was a fact I didn’t take into consideration when planning our Yosemite hikes completely around water fall views. Still totally breathtaking though and we did manage to find one with a trickle and a short hike.
Let the scrolling journey begin!
We started the journey at the Grand Canyon National Park south rim.
Hiking down S Kaibab Trail to Ooh Aah point before checking out The Watchtower and Lipan Point at sunset.
Now we are off to Page, AZ where we take a Lower Antelope Slot Canyon tour with friends. (You won’t see this in the photos but the canyon was loaded with people. Still really pretty just surprised at the crowds.)
A mid morning boat tour on Lake Powell before Sheri and James Horseshoe Bend sunset wedding.
After Sheri and James Horseshoe Bend wedding which you can check out on my blog by {clicking here} we hit the road to Zion National Park via the Mount Carmel Highway.
Afternoon hike on Riverside Trail to the start of The Narrows hike (which we opted out of because of the sheer coldness of the water… and there was Monday night football waiting to be watched from the coziness of our hotel.)
Canyon Overlook morning Zion hike.
Leaving Zion was hard but after an overnight in Vegas we hit the road to pretty park views again starting with Red Rock Canyon.
This strange and beautiful place, Death Valley National Park…
First stop Zabriskie Point for a look out over the valley.
Badwater Salt Flats, we may have just viewed this one from the car.
Artist Palette down Artist Drive was lovely.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Our favorite stop of the day was this beauty we found down a dirt road, Mosaic Canyon in the cool(er) afternoon shade.
We hit the road north to check out some Eastern California lakes. First stop on our first chilly morning of the trip, Convict Lake.
We popped down another dirt road to check out Hot Creek Geological Site.
Then it was on to Mammoth Lakes and the June Lake Loop. Truly magical. I’d love to stay here in the future.
Up and over the Tioga Pass to Yosemite National Park.
Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows
Olmstead Point gave us our first great sky high view of the park before we headed to our overnight stay at the super cozy Evergreen Lodge.
This day in Yosemite we took in the views from Mirror Lake, the Lower Yosemite Falls Trail and Valley View.
We finally spotted water at Bridalveil Falls and headed that way to get a peek at what we came for…
Tunnel View is maybe one of the most sweeping, iconic views of the Yosemite Valley.
Glacier Point was the longest drive, highest viewpoint of the national park. We’ve decided that we have to make it back in the spring some day to see the waterfalls in full force. But for now these gorgeous views will tie us over.
If you so happen to want to see a little more and have a spare 10 minutes on your hands you can check out our Road Trip Video montage here: