One of my road trip bucket list items was a stop at the Antelope canyon. The only way to visit it is through a tour as they don’t allow private vehicles into the area (plus we never would have made the sand roads in our rental anyway).

As we once again were really late in booking our holiday adventure the only slot we were able to book was at 7 in the morning. Being jet lagged I figured this was not going to be an issue. Guess what, I seem to be the only one in the family waking up early. But I have to give it to my two teenagers: there was no grumbling.

They say the best time to visit the canyon is at noon as that’s when the lights shines in from the top. But I preferred the canyon being a bit less crowded over perfect lighting so morning was fine.

Our tour guide exactly knew how to position the camera to get the best shots of the canyon and she did an excellent job of explaining the rock formations.

We booked the through Antelope Canyon Tours. I liked their concept of limiting the visitors they take into the canyon. It was a wonderful tour and they did a great job!

If you have a scarf in your suitcase bring it along to cover your mouth and nose. The trip on the open cars and the inside of the canyon get really dusty!

Getting back we grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbucks before it was time to check out and head to Zion National Park.

When we crossed the state line to Utah we lost an hour as Utah is on Mountain Standard Time and thus one hour ahead of Arizona which observes Mountain Daylight Time. When heading to Las Vegas tomorrow we would switch to Pacific Daylight Time again which is in line with California. Confusing, right?
But we are on holiday anyway so who cares about an hour either way…

Next was Kanab, a small town looking very much like I would expect a Western Town to be today.

A little further on we left the Highway 89 to get to the Coral Pink Sand dunes. To get into the park you need to pay a fee of $8. As the park is a state park it is not included in the National Park Pass.

After we shook most of the sand out of our shoes again we continued to Zion National Park for another 40 minutes. We entered through the East gate.

To get to our hotel in Springdale we drove across the park. The views were absolutely stunning and we enjoyed the ride getting a perfect first impression of the red rocks.

We exited the park on the other side and entered Springdale, a charming small town with lots of art and craft shops and cute little restaurants that were a welcoming change from the big American chain restaurants that seem to be hard to avoid in most places.

To cool down we quickly checked into our hotel and headed straight for the pool. We then had dinner at the  “Barefoot taqueria” with delicious tacos and burritos. The place truely lives up to it’s reviews! They were very patient with us figuring out the best taco options for our picky eaters. Back at the hotel we enjoyed another cold beer and went to bed once again early because we had big plans for the next day.