Summer time in 1994, right before entering high school, I was invited to tag along on a road trip through the canyon that completely changed my life. Tia Edna is a traveler and this particular summer she wanted to revisit the beauties in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. At this time, the furthest I’ve been in this country was Las Vegas so I was ready to see what else is out there.
This particular trip we visited Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and visited the Colorado River. This trip is when I fell in love with Nature, I still have very vivid memories from this trip and I vowed to someday take my own family there someday. I loved this trip so much that Tia Edna allowed me to tag along her next trip up north; once again, I was in love with the beautiful forest sceneries experiencing The Redwoods, the beauties in Oregon, and driving all the way to Victoria, Canada. This trip I was also privileged to experience San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, and everything in between.
Experiencing both these trips in the same summer expanded my horizon and has opened my eyes to a whole new world I never knew I need to explore.
Fast forward to 2017, now married for 17 years and mom to a 10 and a 6 year old, it is time to begin our road trip adventures. With the fond memories alive in my head, I wanted my family to experience what I’ve talked about for years. If it’s not obvious yet, I just had to revisit these same places to see if they are really this magical or was it just because it was “beginner’s luck” my first time going there.
This year was also the perfect year to go because my 10 year old was a 4th grader so she qualified for the America the Beautiful pass for free ($80 dollar savings and she is the one getting us in free to all these parks.)
We are set to go! I was able to plan a 7 day trip to hit these same places and then some. This trip was our family’s very first road trip so I needed to keep the kids entertained, especially my 6 year old so I created for each kid a “fun Box” which consisted of many activity books, games, toys, and of course, snacks.
Each kid was already used to doing workbooks in the summer (this is how they earned fun day trips such as zoo’s, theme parks, or museums) so I had to get creative because we were driving a lot of miles each day so Pinterest was my very best friend while planning this trip. Besides the workbooks, I created a folder with coloring pages for them to use big dot markers and stickers and I also draw out a map with all the places we were going; every time we reached a destination, they had to color that destination on the map and they would receive a ticket to earn a treat. It worked! For the most part, the kids did amazing on the road which opened the doors for many more road trips in the future
First stop was Las Vegas- this is where we spent our first two nights of the trip. My intention and goal was to keep the cost of this trip as low as possible but add a few splurges (attractions) so we get a real glimpse of how we could afford other trips in the future so our time in Vegas was strictly sight seeing and low cost activities. This was our kids’ first time here so we decided to stay at Treasure Island as they were having a special at only $49 per night (not including resort fee) and I thought we could catch a free pirate show outside. Sticking with our low cost budget, we did a lot of walking from casino to casino to take in all the beautiful architecture everywhere. As I looked up cost effective things to do during the planning process, I came across an article that suggested we go and watch the Cirque du Soleil rehearsal. What a treat that was! There were so many others there that I felt I’ve been missing out! I actually was very excited that they allowed us to watch them so we spent a good 45 minutes just watching the acts practicing their acrobatics for free! Before we left, I looked up groupons and discount tickets of places we can go or see and the huge Ferris wheel at the Linq was one that I thought the kids would enjoy so that was our one splurge while in Vegas but we did use a groupon so we were able to experience it for about 20% less than the at the door price.
Knowing that my kids are pretty picky eaters and we were on a budget, I did bring a cooler with plenty of washed fruits in sealed tight containers, milk, cheese snacks, prepared tuna, peanut butter & jelly, oatmeal, bread, and cereals. We were able to have breakfast inhouse each morning and plenty of daily snacks so we were able to save some money by only paying for one meal per day. On our last day in Vegas we were able to visit the tigers at Mirage, the lion at MGM, the flower garden and the fountain at Bellagio, Ride the free tram just for fun, and the arcade and the rollercoaster ride at New York New York. Being that our 6 year old is too big for a stroller but not quite the long distance walker yet, we brought our little wagon along to help us carry our bags and our cooler to the room but it did come in handy during our city tour so he had a place to sit and have his snacks while we walked along. Vegas was a nice first stop.
Day three was a super eventful day. Something we’ve never done as a family was ride ATV in the sand dunes so I noticed on google maps that there are sand dunes very close to where we were going so I made reservations to have a tour guide us through the pink sand dunes because I didn’t want to go by ourselves. This reservation was roughly $300 but it made me feel safer exploring knowing we would follow someone that has experience. I read up on this before we left so we were prepared with our high top boots and bandana to cover our faces. We were there for three hours driving around a four seater side by side ATV exploring the beautiful pink sand and climbing a huge sand mountain. The wind was blowing crazy so I was thankful for our bandanas as the sand actually hurt blowing on our faces which felt like at 50 miles per hour. After this exceptional experience, we made our way to my long time favorite place: Zion National Park. I have to say, it IS still just as magical as I remembered 23 years before.
Arriving there we did, my 10 year old felt very proud that she got us all in for free with her pass. The scenic drive was amazing and I loved to see the excitement in my kids’ faces to be able to hike and climb the beautiful rock formations. I was also in awe that my dream of having my own family experiencing this with me finally came true. I loved the expression on my kids and husband’s face experiencing this beauty for the first time and being just as excited as I was seeing it in person my first time; pure joy in my heart as I was taking in all the emotions to heart. After our scenic drive, we picked up some dinner and made our way to where we were going to stay for the next two nights.
This is where being too cheap hurt us a little bit; the place we found online which was the cheapest at the time ( I actually do not remember exact cost but definitely less than $100) this place made us feel like we had to sleep with one eye open. We moved furniture to help block the door at night because the exterior door was an interior door so we didn’t feel safe. The room was large enough for us all but the layout was interesting: The bathroom door did not open all the way because the shower blocked it from doing so and the bathroom sink was inside the room itself. I don’t even want to share the name of this place as I do not recommend it at all. I hope that by now there are many other options for lodging so please do research before you book your stay near Zion or stay at the campground (we stayed there a different trip and it was great, Watchman Campground) thankfully, nothing happened and maybe this business has changed their ways by now.
Next day we ate breakfast in the room and we packed up some P& J sandwiches for our long anticipated Hike in the Narrows. I packed up our water proof bags with a change of clothes, sandals, a small towel, water, and our lunches. We were all wearing our water shoes and bathing suit attire for the ride. At first the water was cool but as we progressed along, the water was cold! I believed we hiked no more than an hour before we were ready to turn around, we found a nice little cave flat spot to have our lunch before heading back to the entrance. I loved every minute of this, I didn’t get to hike it my first time in Zion so this was my first time getting to walk the water too. I’m glad I read about bridging a change of clothes so we were able to change into some dry clothes and sandals as we took on the long walk back to the tram line. After hiking the Narrows, we went on a few more small mini hikes before making our way out of the park for the night. Picked up some dinner once again and made our way back to the room; glad all our stuff was still there.
Next day we were up bright and early and drove all the way to Bryce Canyon National Park. Once again, I loved my family’s first impression of this beautiful site. We did a few quick hikes before continuing on our road trip to our next destination: Grand Canyon National Park- South Rim. Since this will be a long trip there, kids were able to get items out of their fun box and had another opportunity to earn a ticket!
Hotels in Grand Canyon Village were over $200 a night so we opted to camp instead. I looked on the map and booked a site really close to the restroom. We knew we were only staying one night so we decided to just bring the minimum camping gear: an easy pop up tent, blow up beds, sleeping bags & pillows, and our camping toilet bucket for overnight. We had our cooler with food already so we restocked on ice and we grabbed subway sandwiches to eliminate any cooking and cleaning. Best part was seeing a deer family cross our campsite like it was no big deal, we were all mesmerized.
Day five we packed the car back up and we headed for the majestic Grand Canyon. Once again I was able to absorb my family’s excitement of being there for the first time, and I was able to recollect one of my fondest childhood memories. What scenery this is, makes you feel so small and insignificant in the grand scope of life.
Driving down to Phoenix we stopped to visit Flintstones Bedrock City. This place is very cute, not a very popular place as I believe we were there alone for quite a while before another family arrived. It does look a little run down at the time but it is still a cool place to break the drive a bit to let the kids run around a little.
Driving another 30 minutes south, we arrived at our next destination: Bearizona. What a lovely place! a little pricey and definitely a destination place with so many people everywhere, especially compared to the last place we were. This is a zoo-like place but they have many bears roaming around what appears to be freely but obviously is controlled. What we liked about this place was how you can explore this park in your car. This is mostly a drive through zoo, and we even had a bear chase us! A little scary but a pretty cool experience too. After our quick drive through the park, we continued along to our final destination of the day.
Daddy being a baseball fan, we stopped to check out where the Dodgers train in the spring, Camelback Ranch before catching a 4th of July game at the Diamondbacks Field. This was a pleasant way to watch the firework show, we didn’t have to go anywhere, it was right in front of us. After the game, we were excited to finally sleep in a real bed again, we stayed at the local Marriott 5 minutes away just for the night.
Day 6 we stopped at a friend’s house that moved to AZ from LA for lunch to catch up then we continued on the road trip to Parker AZ where we experienced the Colorado River. Another friend that moved away from LA had a river front home and had a boat so we put on our life vest and we all went for a ride.
His home was very close to the dam so this section of the river was very active with many people riding their boats and skis; people drove towards the dam and then just floated back to their home base over and over again. The water is a little too cold for my liking but the boat experience was phenomenal. After a long day on the water, we spent the night at our friend Kenny’s house.
Day seven, our very last day, we had a nice big home cooked breakfast before hitting the road for our 5 hours drive home. We stopped in Cabazon and grabbed some treats at Hadley’s before making it all the way home.
I am forever grateful to Tia Edna for allowing me to tag along her adventures, it completely changed my perspective about life and it changed the trajectory of my life, our lives. We are now full time summer travelers all because of you. Our travels have allowed us to see and explore more than we can even imagine and now we hope that our stories will inspire you to begin taking your own trips, it will change your life, for the better. Below you will find information on this seven day trip in an easy pdf format, hope you are inspired to take this trip too!
Love,
Fabbro Family
