The Grand Circle - A Road Trip to 6 National Parks | Info, Photos, Tips and More

in early 2017 my wife and I took what became my all-time favorite vacation my all-time favorite trip every year we take a big trip on our anniversary and for our third year we went out west on what is called the grand circle if you look up the Grand Circle everyone seems to have a different idea of what it is it really seems like no two Grand Circle trips are the same how much time you have is a big factor and what you want to see is also a giant factor but our Grand Circle trip covered three states Utah Arizona and Nevada six national parks Zion Bryce Canyon Capitol Reef arches Canyonlands and the Grand Canyon and also Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley and a total of fourteen hundred and fifty-two miles I've been meaning to make this video for a very long time now I know this is a bit different than the normal types of videos I do and some of you watching this probably just stumbled upon this video while you're doing your own Grand Circle trip research and you're probably wondering what the hell is this dude wearing a stormtrooper helmet well welcome this is a Star Wars youtube channel normally but I wanted to make this video because when my wife and I were researching for our trip it was a bit daunting a lot of information a lot of moving parts but have no fear it's way easier than you think and for those of you guys who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about just sit back enjoy some pictures and maybe one day you'll plan a similar trip here's what we did our first destination was Zion National Park from Las Vegas it's about a two and a half hour drive we had our camping plot reserved at Furber resorts which is literally right outside of the entrance to Zion National Park so when we got there we hooked up the RV made sure everything was good to go and walked on over to a local brewery for some dinner and some beers day two our plan was to spend one full day at Zion National Park we walked from our campsite to the entrance of the park which took no time the park actually has a shuttle service that will take you right to your desired trailhead it really comes in handy if you're researching for this trip I'm sure you've seen a lot of angels landing hiking pictures and videos it's a very popular hike angels landing is probably the most popular hike in the park well to be honest that's one of the biggest reasons we decided not to do it we like avoiding people and if you're like us you might want to do the hike that we did we chose to do the 8 mile round-trip strenuous observation point hike I'm not too sure how long the hike took us maybe 5 6 hours maybe longer we were in no rush and I have a bad habit of stopping every 10 feet to take pictures observation point is a tough one it was one of the toughest hikes I've ever done the beginning of the trail I think is the hardest once you make it past the daunting switchbacks that feel never-ending things really start to level out a bit it's a slow climb after that and once you get to the top the view you're given is absolutely breathtaking and you can actually see angel's landing from the top of observation point below you you can see how crowded it is - and be thankful that you're not there observation point was the hardest hike we did on the entire trip and I'm glad we did it first everything after it felt like a breeze when we finished with the observation point hike we got a bite to eat and a few victory beers at that brewery I mentioned earlier we went back to the RV to freshen up and then got ready for some dinner day 3 we woke up early on day 3 said goodbye to Zion National Park and started the hour and a half drive to Bryce Canyon National Park we had a KOA campsite reserved but we decided to hike before checking into the campsite since we made it so early the hike we did in Bryce Canyon was our favorite hike of the trip it's called peekaboo loop the trail is roughly five miles and it actually starts out on another trail called Navajo loop which is a short trail close to the parking lot most people seem to finish navajo loop and then just turn around and go back to their car but peekaboo loop is at the end of navajo loop so we decided to keep going and i'm so glad we did we were probably out there for four hours soaking in the scenery enjoying the hike and i'm not exaggerating when I say we only saw like five people in those four hours it's like we were on another planet exploring it all by ourselves every time we turned a corner another mind-blowing scene would pop up stopping us dead in our tracks peekaboo loop in my opinion is a Bryce Canyon must sure you can park in a parking lot and look into the canyon but peekaboo loop puts you inside of the canyon walking among the towering hoodoos it is amazing after peekaboo loop our favorite hike of the trip we decided to check into our campsite hang out crack some beers and grill some burgers over our campfire later that night for the first time in my life I tried some night sky photography and they didn't turn out good they didn't I was pretty disappointed with how they came out I've gotten better since this trip but man my biggest regret is not practicing before I went on this trip I didn't really know how to get the focusing down with these optically infinite objects and man with the lack of light pollution I could have gotten some amazing shots if you're a photographer and you're looking to shoot some Astro photography test some stuff out at home even if you have a lot of light pollution at home it's still worth going out there and doing a long exposure just to get a feel for it you know maybe next time day for the next morning we woke up super early to catch a sunrise at Bryce Canyon specifically at sunrise point it was amazing it is a must and pictures do not do it justice like so many things in this video pictures do not do it justice so day four was kind of a travel day the way we mapped out our trip we figured one full day needed to be spent driving and we had to prioritize what we wanted to see anyway our final destination for day four was arches national park and from bryce canyon to arches it's a four and a half hour drive but in between Bryce and arches is Capitol Reef National Park and we would be damned if we came all this way and did not finish the Utah mighty five so we started driving towards Capitol Reef stopping alongside the road hiking a tiny bit to see some petroglyphs and eating some pie at a little Mormon house in the park I wish we had more time to stay but we had to keep on moving if you like driving and you like road trips you will love this trip hands down the drives are beautiful and calming the old adage of the journey being just as important as the destination without a doubt rings true here so when we got to arches national park which is right outside of Moab Utah we found our campsite and went into Moab for a bite to eat if I could move anywhere I think I would move to Moab there's a sense of freedom that I felt there it's like the whole town was washed and adventure and excitement just a really awesome attitude and town I I would love to move there one day I loved Moab we found a brewery of course got some beers got some food and went back to the campsite to rest after a long day of travel and to prepare for the next morning's adventure day five arches national park and Canyonlands National Park are only about 40 minutes away from one another so for day five we decided to do both starting with arches our first spot was delicate arch out of all the hikes we did the delicate arch hike was the most crowded and that makes complete sense it's pretty damn amazing it's beautiful the hike is about three miles roundtrip it's not too bad the hike is incredible in itself but the final destination is stunning you're met with this enormous arched called delicate arch carved by eons of erosion and weathering a British couple was kind enough to take our photo underneath the arch you can see just how big it is how it just Dwarfs human beings after the delicate arch hiked we continued to drive around the park there are more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches to be seen in the park ranging from tiny to absolutely mind-blowing ly huge and do you recognize this one from somewhere do you let me make it a bit easier still don't recognize it okay I'll give it away this is double arch as seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade it was very crowded and I may have photoshopped a lot of people out of this image so yeah arches national park is really friendly for drivers double arch for example is right next to a parking lot and only a short half mile round trip easy walk to get to the base if you're short on time you can see a lot and arches just by driving around and getting out so that same day after we'd seen arches we decided to go to Canyonlands National Park which is 40 minutes like I said away from arches it was late in the day only a few hours left until sunset so we found the famed mesa arch and prepared for sunset and this guy was not abiding by the signs the day 5 was really nice it was it was one of the least planned out days that we had all we really had written down was hiked delicate arch and go to Canyonlands everything in between was improvised and it was nice never felt rushed day six we had another long drive ahead of us for day six our final destination was Antelope Canyon near Page Arizona so from our Moab campsite outside of arches to Page Arizona was about four and a half hours long but right in between that drive was Monument Valley you'll without a doubt recognized monument valley from westerns and from Forrest Gump when he decides to stop running then tells everyone he's going home despite some of the drives from destination to destination being super long they had awesome spots to check out at the halfway point and Monument Valley served as both a pilgrimage and a nice break from driving make sure no cars are coming set up the tripod pretend to run like Forrest Gump and get that shot after Monument Valley we continued on our journey leaving Utah and crossing into Arizona with only about two hours left to get to our campsite which was located on Lake Powell when we got there we went to Horseshoe Bend for sunset which holy hell if you want to see a ton of photographers all snapping the same picture that's the place to be hundreds of photographers with tripods all fighting for the best spot and all the spots are good guys they're all good but be careful people are not paying attention man bumping into one another I trust myself when I walk I trust my own footing I do not trust other people's footing I do not trust them this was the only time I was legitimately nervous for safety reasons because people are just trying to get that selfie completely oblivious to their surroundings knocking into people it could have gone horribly wrong I'm sure it has after catching an amazing sunset at Horseshoe Bend we found an awesome Mexican place to eat and went to a bar that my dad said he went to with his buddies in the 70s I was really surprised to find out that it was still there kind of neat day 7:00 the next morning we went to Antelope Canyon specifically lower Antelope Canyon where we had a tour scheduled lower Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon that was formed and is forever being formed by flash floods the walls of the canyon are so insanely smooth the variation and color is beautiful you can only go down into the canyon with a Navajo guide which is good they know what they're doing they're insanely knowledgeable about the canyon itself and they know what to look out for in terms of impending flash floods because flash floods still happen all the time and still kill people trapped inside and in 1997 eleven people died in lower Antelope Canyon guides are a good thing after our amazing lower Antelope Canyon tour we hopped back in the RV and started driving two and a half hours towards our final destination of the trip the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park we wanted to go to the North Rim because we've heard it's less populated less people and as I said earlier we like to avoid people but the North Rim was actually closed when we went for weather reasons I guess it was too harsh too much freezing I don't know so we got to our campsite in the Grand Canyon and it was storming like crazy pouring rain booming Thunder but this did not bum us out at all we planned on hanging out in the RV that night anyway so we just made some turkey sandwiches played some cards and relaxed in our pajamas this was the only primitive campsite that we had the entire trip no electricity or sewage lines which wasn't a big deal at all even though it was without a doubt the coldest part of our trip you can run the heater on propane in the RV if you want to we would occasionally turn it on just to heat up the RV a little bit but I had no idea how much propane we were going through I thought we were just draining it so I was being super stingy it turns out when we when we dropped the RV off we barely used any propane the entire trip so we could have had that heater on full blast oh well day eight day eight was nice we decided to use this day just to kind of recover from being on the go it was snowing like crazy which was beautiful and for us Floridians so exciting in the park at least where we were was empty we pretty much had the entire South Rim to ourselves which was awesome we walked down to a restaurant got some breakfast hung out in a bar and relaxed in the RV all day it was nice to have a day like this day nine on the ninth and final day we decided to hike a bit of the Bright Angel Trail the full trail actually goes all the way down into the canyon and there are signs everywhere telling you not to do it in one day they want you to hike down camp replenish your water hike back up the signs will tell you if you don't bring X amount of water you will die there are warnings because it happens all the time people just see that the trail is relatively short they get overconfident don't recognize the dangers and get into some so we just hiked down to a certain point where we saw a park ranger giving a talk about how the local chipmunks are not hibernating anymore and aren't able to fend for themselves they're not able to scavenge for themselves or feed themselves because Park guests keep feeding them which was a bummer and then we hiked back up to the start but yeah talk about people not being prepared we saw a guy in a suit and a woman in heels starting to walk down the trail and they actually went way farther than I thought they would but when they had to come back up which is always the hardest part the part that people don't think about holy hell they look like death people never cease to amaze me you gotta be prepared for this that's ridiculous the rest of the day we just kind of drank beer hung out bought some souvenirs and packed for the drive back to Vegas in the morning day ten we woke up super early dropped the RV off at cruise America talked to some families who are picking up their own RV to do a similar trip to what we just did and gave them some pointers and then went to the airport to come home so yeah this was my all-time favorite trip hands down I want to do it again so bad when my daughter grows up to an age where she can appreciate something like this you know I want to take her out there it would be such a fun family trip for the three of us if I could do it all over again obviously I'd love to have some more time right but if I could do it all over again with the time we had allotted I cut one day off in the Grand Canyon I'd get rid of it and put it somewhere else and I'd either actually stay a night in Capitol Reef instead of driving through it or stay another day in Zion Zion National Park was beautiful I was actually kind of bummed when we left it but the thing is every single place we went to was breathtaking there are no duds and they're all so different from one another that's what this was pretty incredible they're all relatively close to one another but they're so vastly different from one another these places are preserved for a reason they're protected for future generations for my daughter for your kids for your grandkids they're protected to avoid short-term short-sighted thought so yeah if I had to do it all over again I would chop off a day in the Grand Canyon and tack it on to another park the Grand Canyon was awesome don't get me wrong but compared to the other parks we went to it was Disney World giant tour buses parking hundreds of tourists filing out walking to the edge taking a picture walking back to the bus all day every day if you can go to the North Rim instead of the South Rim I'd say do that even though I've never been there it's probably closer to the experience we were hoping for in terms of supplies as soon as we got our RV we drove to Walmart we got a few pounds of hamburger meat for the fridge and all the things that go with hamburgers of course buns condiments yada yada we got a lot of non perishables granola bars cheez-its that kind of stuff we got some turkey meat to make turkey sandwiches a whole bunch of beer we actually bought a little $10 coffeepot and use that on the trip and the thing is with a lot of these stuff like the coffee pot we even bought a couple cheap lawn chairs and pillows in a lot of these campsites there are drop-off points for things that you basically want to donate to other campers so we just left all of that stuff that we didn't want to throw away you know so we just left it in like a donation bin in the Grand Canyon so if somebody out there has our lawn chairs I hope you enjoyed them before we even left for the trip I bought six 32-ounce now gene bottles for water and while we hiked we use carabiners to attach them to our backpacks both of us usually brought two full bottles per hike and one thing we brought on every single hike were these homemade granola bar things that I learned how to make when I whitewater rafted a few years ago you get tortillas peanut butter honey and honey bunches of oats cereal you wrap it all together in the tortilla put it in an aluminum foil and you're set you have a you have a homemade granola bar it's pretty awesome really great for just stone in your backpack other than that we brought our own blankets in our checked luggage and packed super light when it came to clothes so yeah that's my favorite trip I've ever been on there's a good chance that if you're watching this video and you're not a follower of this channel you're looking to go on a similar trip you're doing some research and I know it's super daunting there's a lot of information so if you have any questions at all any questions man feel free to toss them in the video description below I'll do my best to answer the comments about this specific trip or things you might not be sure about or you can shoot me a tweet at hello burrito thanks for watching guys get out there and explore ello Greedo out [Music] you

Channel: HelloGreedo

Views: 175,125

Keywords: the grand circle, road trip, utah mighty 5, west, monument valley, zion national park, bryce canyon, arches national park, canyonlands national park, capitol reef national park, grand canyon national park, antelope canyon, peek-a-boo loop, hike, vacation, rv, camping, rv trip, utah, arizon, nevada

Id: vn1dSGig5uo

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2018