November 9–17, 2024 / 2 adults + 3 kids (7, 4, and 1) / Round trip from Las Vegas
From wake-up to lights-out. The “▸” notes are things I only found out by going.
| 05:10 | Left home by Uber (Eastern time) |
| 07:30 | Out of JFK → 09:48 arrive Las Vegas (LAS) |
| 11:00 | Picked up the RV at Graner Motorhome Rentals▸ The walkthrough took about 20 minutes; the rest of the time was just unpacking. |
| 13:20 | Ramen Tatsu (lunch)▸ The tsukemen and the paitan are good. I wouldn't order the shoyu (though the kids ate plenty of the shoyu). |
| 14:35 | Supply run at Target |
| 17:20 | Supply run at Walmart Supercenter |
| 18:20 | Supply run at Nakata Market of Japan (Japanese grocery store) |
| 18:50 | Treasure Island▸ A miss. We were going to see Cirque du Soleil's Mystère, but there was nowhere to park the RV, so we gave up. I'd assumed we could park and never checked. |
| 19:10 | Toridokoro Raku (dinner)▸ They had a table that seated all five of us with room to pull the stroller up alongside. |
| 21:30 | To bed (a nap) → up at 23:00 → out at 23:25▸ Drove through the night to the Grand Canyon. |
| 04:00 | Circle K (in front of the Route 66 sign) |
| 05:40 | Parking Lot 1 - South Rim Visitor Center▸ It looked like you could sleep in your vehicle in this lot. |
| 07:00 | Sunrise at Yavapai Point▸ Under a five-minute walk to a huge view, and less crowded than Mather Point. This is the one I'd recommend most. |
| 07:20 | Nap, breakfast, and getting ready in the parking lot |
| 10:00 | Rented bikes at Bright Angel Bicycles▸ At this time of year we could rent without a reservation (you still have to register on site). |
| 11:10 | South Kaibab Trailhead▸ The scenery along the way is fantastic. Regular bikes were fine — you don't need an e-bike (there are a few stiff hills). Our daughter got scared early on and turned back, so my son and I walked on, just the two of us. The walkie-talkies I'd bought on a whim turned out to be surprisingly useful once we split up. |
| 11:40 | Turned back partway▸ I'd wanted to get to Ooh Aah Point, but the kids couldn't make it. |
| 14:20 | Grand Canyon Visitor Center▸ The ranger book is free. There are stamps at various spots, and some people had bought a passport book for the stamps ahead of time. They don't sell them on site, so I'd have bought one if I'd known. |
| 16:20 | Checked in at Trailer Village RV Park▸ We probably could have slept in the parking lot, but I didn't know how often we'd need power or to dump the tanks, so I booked a site. I found out later that you don't need to stay on full hookups two or three nights in a row. |
| 17:25 | Sunset▸ The best stars of the whole nine days were at the Grand Canyon that night. I'd been counting on Capitol Reef, but there it was a full moon and we couldn't see them. |
| 00:00 | To bed (→ up at 02:00. Two hours, effectively) |
| 02:00 | Up → out at 02:50 |
| 06:00 | Walmart Supercenter▸ The gate at Horseshoe Bend doesn't open until sunrise. We waited it out at the nearby Walmart and filled up the tank while we were there. There's an area with several other RVs parked, so you don't feel out of place. |
| 07:01 | Sunrise at Horseshoe Bend — 1°C (34°F)▸ It's a longer walk from the lot than you'd expect, 10–15 minutes. You can't see the moment the sun comes up, and the bend itself falls into shadow against the light, so coming after the sun is fully up is a reasonable option. |
| 09:45 | Dixie's Lower Antelope Canyon tour▸ It's listed as two hours but ended in one, and that was plenty. It was the off-season, so for the second half it was no problem to put the one-year-old down and let them walk (the stated rule is a carrier, with both hands free). Video is not allowed. A miss: I forgot to tip the guide. |
| 11:30 | Fiesta Mexicana (lunch)▸ Good, but the portions are enormous. There's no RV parking, but we were able to park on the opposite side from the entrance. |
| 16:00 | Goulding's Resort RV & Campground▸ The sites are good, but the laundry runs on a prepaid card and closes early. Don't do your laundry here. |
| 17:13 | Sunset at Monument Valley▸ A lot of people say you have to stay at the View Hotel, but the terrace at the visitor center was plenty good. Maybe because we got there late, they didn't charge us the entrance fee either. |
| 00:00 | To bed — 4°C (39°F) |
| 04:50 | Up → 05:30 Chevron (the gas station at Goulding's) |
| 06:56 | Sunrise at Forrest Gump Point▸ I hadn't expected much, but there were few people and we got good photos. It's not a place to linger, but we ate breakfast and got talking with some other Japanese travelers, so we stayed longer than planned. |
| 10:00 | Arrived in Moab▸ Surrounded by wilderness, old and new mixed together — it struck me as a fairly cool town. |
| 11:10 | Arches National Park entrance — bought the $80 annual pass here▸ We'd gotten into the Grand Canyon early enough in the morning that we never paid an entrance fee, so this was the first time we bought the pass. |
| 11:30 | Lunch in the RV at Balanced Rock Trailhead |
| 12:30 | Devil's Garden Trailhead▸ The trail is monotonous and the kids got bored. Ironically there's a fun little slope right by the entrance next to the lot, and that's where they looked happiest. |
| 13:10 | Landscape Arch▸ You view it from a bit of a distance, so it may not move you much. |
| 13:40 | Pine Tree Arch▸ Almost nobody there, and the photos came out well. But the kids had nothing left for pushing on to Tunnel Arch (even though it was right there in sight). |
| 15:57 | Double Arch▸ An easy, flat 10-minute trail even for kids. You can climb the wall right underneath it and see the view on the far side, which is fun (though fairly dangerous). |
| 16:47 | North Window Arch▸ A long staircase, but close to the lot and easy. |
| 17:08 | Sunset at Turret Arch▸ At this time of year the setting sun sends light through the arch and projects the shape of the arch onto the wall on the North Window Arch side. |
| 20:30 | Moab Brewery (on foot)▸ They seemed to be closed, but they took our order anyway. |
| 23:00 | To bed (night in Moab, 5°C / 41°F) |
| 05:00 | Up → out at 05:40 |
| 06:30 | Arrived at Mesa Arch▸ The lot was fairly full, and some people were running from it to make the sunrise. It's about a 10-minute walk from the lot to the arch. |
| 06:57 | Sunrise at Mesa Arch▸ Getting ready took a while and we missed the sunrise, but I think that worked out for the better. At sunrise it's cold, and shooting into the light means people don't show up in the photos; a little later the crowd had thinned and the pictures were better. Climbing the small rise next to it is fun too. |
| 08:15 | Grand View Point▸ We'd come all that way, so we drove out to the southernmost end, but it didn't feel essential (the view is great, to be fair). |
| 10:30 | Started the Corona Arch trail |
| 11:50 | Corona Arch — the best place of the nine days▸ If someone asks me which place was the best, this is the one that comes to mind. It's south of Moab, turning off before you reach the Arches entrance, and there's no entrance fee (it doesn't seem to be part of a national park). The trail is hard work, but there are adventurous stretches where you climb using ladders and chains, so the kids never got too bored. With breaks, they managed a little over 2.5 hours. Bowtie Arch is right next to the end point, and both are stunning. At this time of year and this hour there was almost nobody there, so we had room to take good photos. |
| 14:00 | Roadside Petroglyphs▸ On the way back toward Moab, you can pull onto the shoulder and look at them from inside the vehicle. |
| 19:20 | Hidden Falls (gas station)▸ We parked here and took showers in the RV. There's a big truck lot nearby too; it looked like you could spend the night. |
| 20:00 | Arrived at Panorama Point (Capitol Reef), slept in the RV▸ For the stargazing. The lot is small, and there was only one other vehicle. It was never closed off overnight. We tried going on to Gooseneck Overlook, but the road wasn't paved and there were no cars parked there, so I got spooked and turned back. |
| 21:30 | To bed (→ up at 01:00) |
| 02:20 | Set off / stargazing▸ It was nearly a full moon, so we couldn't see many stars. If you're going for the stars, check the moon phase. |
| 05:30 | Arrived at Sunset Point (napped once we got there) |
| 07:04 | Sunrise at Sunset Point▸ The kids didn't want to get out, so I watched it alone. It was cold, so we drove around the overlooks for a while and had breakfast. |
| 08:20 | Bryce Natural Bridge▸ You look down on the bridge from the parking lot. |
| 08:40 | Rainbow Point → 08:50 Yovimpa Point → 09:20 Black Birch Canyon |
| 10:00 | Bryce Point▸ Apart from Natural Bridge, the overlooks are all much the same, so if you're short on time, Bryce Point alone is enough — it takes in far more in one view than any of the others (and it's on the side closer to the entrance). |
| 11:00 | Navajo Loop Trail▸ Switchbacks, a tunnel, a stretch that feels like a slot canyon, green trees — a good variety of scenery. But after days of hiking in a row and the cold, the kids were clearly struggling. Around the bottom of the descent my son needed a bathroom, and carrying him back up and down cost us just under 30 minutes. |
| 13:30 | North Campground General Store▸ The kids bought bracelets and rocks. Nothing that identifies it as Bryce Canyon. |
| 15:15 | Zion east entrance — $15 for an RV to go through the tunnel▸ Required on top of the annual pass. |
| 15:40 | Canyon Overlook Trail▸ An RV needs a ranger present to go through the tunnel, and that ranger leaves at 16:30. I wanted to be back at the lot by 16:15, so it turned into a rushed hike. We did it in 50 minutes, but if you want to take your time with photos at the end, you'd want 1.5 hours. Parts of the trail are pretty cliff-like. |
| 16:30 | Started through the tunnel (waited 5–10 minutes for oncoming traffic to clear) |
| 22:30 | Bought ice cream at the campground's visitor center▸ Open until around 23:00, which was handy. |
| 09:00 | Rented e-bikes at Zion Peddler (over $260)▸ You can't drive into Zion, so this is what you need. They have room for an RV (the other shop we considered had no parking), the e-bikes are on the newer side, and it's close to the entrance. I believe the shop closest to the entrance didn't have e-bikes. |
| 09:30 | Set off▸ A miss: there's a separate pedestrian and bike entrance, so you have to bring the annual pass with you. I forgot it and had to go back from the entrance to the bike shop, losing 10 minutes. |
| 09:45 | Zion Canyon Visitor Center (water and restrooms)▸ You don't have to go inside; there are restrooms and a water station right by the bike racks. Zion has water stations all over, so as long as you have bottles you'll never struggle for water. |
| 11:00 | Temple of Sinawava — 6°C (43°F) rising to 9°C (48°F)▸ The scenery along the way is fantastic, and flying along on the e-bikes was fun enough that it didn't feel like an hour. |
| 12:10 | Kayenta Trailhead▸ We switched from our planned Lower Emerald Pool route on the recommendation in the trail map the bike shop gave us. It was a pretty hard trail. |
| 13:10 | Upper Emerald Pool▸ Maybe the water was low, maybe there were too many people, maybe we were just tired — honestly, I don't know whether the view was worth the effort of walking up there. The scenery on the way was more exhilarating. |
| 14:40 | Set off▸ Flying back down on the e-bikes was, again, just exhilarating. |
| 16:50 | Rainbow Vista Trail (Valley of Fire)▸ The biggest miss of the trip. We arrived 10 minutes before the guided full-moon night hike (17:00 start), and I relaxed, thinking we'd made it. Then we got the kids ready and left the vehicle at 17:10. By the time we reached the meeting point, nobody was there. "We arrived 10 minutes early" was not the same as "we made it." The cause was that I hadn't put the time it takes to get three kids ready into the schedule. |
| 19:15 | Set off▸ Between sitting with the disappointment and looking up a new plan, this is how long it took. |
| 21:20 | To bed |
| 07:30 | Fire Wave Trailhead▸ There's no parking near Pastel Canyon, the thing I most wanted to see. You have to park at one of the lots along the loop trail and walk in. Doing the whole loop is hard on both time and legs, so we walked from the closest lot to Pastel Canyon, and then I went back to the lot alone and drove around to pick everyone up. |
| 09:40 | Finished the Pastel (Pink) Canyon trail▸ Beautiful colors, and some slot-canyon-like sections — a fun trail. The snack we ate on a small rise right after we started (about 10 minutes) was the best time we had. |
| 10:40 | Valley of Fire Visitor Center▸ Parked in the big lot and got showers, repacking, and cleaning done. |
| 12:30 | Maverik▸ Last dump (waste tanks) here. We kept using the toilet and water after that, but there was no extra charge. |
| 14:10 | Final packing in the North Mesa Plaza parking lot▸ It took over two hours, plain and simple. Worth building into your estimate for the return day. |
| 17:30 | Hachi (dinner)▸ The lot was almost completely full and we nearly couldn't park. I like the food, but one of the kids spilled ramen and I had to go get a change of clothes, and everyone was past their limit on sleep, so we couldn't take our time with it. |
| 19:00 | Returned the RV at Graner Motorhome Rentals▸ After a quick check, the owner loaded our bags into his own car and drove us to the airport. |
| 22:06 | Departed Las Vegas (LAS) |
| 05:43 | Arrived JFK (Eastern time) |
| 07:00 | Home |
No sponsors, no referral fees. These are simply the places we actually used.
| RV | Graner Motorhome Rentals (4540 Arville St., Las Vegas, NV 89103)▸ Not one of the big chains — a family-run company. Mileage is included up to 100 miles per day. At drop-off the owner drove us to the airport in his own car. Nine days came to $2,093.35 (the actual amount off the receipts, including the final invoice). |
| Campground 1 | Trailer Village RV Park (Grand Canyon South Rim) / paid, full hookups |
| Campground 2 | Goulding's Resort RV & Campground (Monument Valley) / paid▸ The laundry runs on a prepaid card and closes early. |
| Campground 3 | Sun Outdoors Moab Downtown / paid, full hookups |
| Campground 4 | Zion Canyon Campground and RV Resort / paid, over $100▸ I didn't know what day reservations open, so I couldn't get the cheaper option. |
| Free 1 | Walmart Supercenter (Las Vegas)▸ Whether you can sleep in your vehicle varies by store; you can check on Walmart Locator. |
| Free 2 | Panorama Point (Capitol Reef)▸ The lot is small, and it was never closed off overnight. |
| Free 3 | Poverty Flats Camping (near Valley of Fire) |
| Tour | Dixie's Lower Antelope Canyon Tours▸ Listed as two hours, but one was plenty. Don't forget cash for tips. |
| Bikes 1 | Bright Angel Bicycles (Grand Canyon)▸ In the off-season we could rent without a reservation. You don't need e-bikes. |
| Bikes 2 | Zion Peddler (Zion) / e-bikes, over $260▸ You can't drive into Zion, so you'll need them. They have room for an RV, too. |
| Park entry | $80 national park annual pass (America the Beautiful Pass)▸ We bought it at the Arches entrance. At Zion's east entrance, an RV needs a separate $15 tunnel fee on top of this. |
This is not a general travel packing list. It's only the things my notes from this trip record as "glad we had it" or "wish we'd had it." Put another way, everything else was the same as any other trip.
| 1 | Put the kids' getting-ready time into the schedule. That one thing is why we missed the night hike. Arriving 10 minutes before the meeting time was not enough. |
| 2 | Look up in advance what day campground reservations open. Not knowing that is why we ended up with the $100+ option at Zion. |
| 3 | Don't fixate on sunrise. It's cold, and shooting into the light means people don't show up in the photos. Going after the sun was up meant fewer people and better pictures. |
| 4 | Check the moon phase on nights you're going for stars. We slept in the RV specifically for the night sky at Capitol Reef, and the full moon meant we saw almost nothing. |
| 5 | Pick trails by whether they'll hold the kids' interest, not by distance. They walked 2.5 hours at Corona Arch with its ladders and chains, but got bored on the flat, monotonous Devil's Garden. |
| 6 | You don't need full hookups night after night. I didn't know how often we'd need power or to dump the tanks, so I was trying to book a site every day; we didn't need to. You can slot free places in between. |
| 7 | For anything in a city, start with the parking. We gave up on Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas because there was nowhere to park the RV. |