gaschks go grand

I figured since it's almost summer, it is time to post our spring break trip to the Lower Antalope, Grand, Zion, and Bryce canyons. I always fall behind on some of these posts. Hence it's been a couple months since our trip.
Our itinerary was pretty fast and furious. 10 Days, four canyons, lots of hiking and driving. Our trip started at the end of March and ended in the first part of April. 
We flew into Phoenix on a Thursday night and had Friday and early Saturday to play in the sun and hang out by the pool. It was nice to get some sun after a long winter in the PNW and before we hit all the canyons where it was still pretty chilly.

On the way to the Grand Canyon we made a couple stops in Sedona. We just needed to stretch our legs and enjoy the scenery. We also visited the church that was built into a cliff.

We got to our hotel outside of the Grand Canyon National Park pretty late. We had enough time to grab some dinner and go to bed to rest up for our long day of adventuring. We got up early in the morning and were on the trail before 9 am. One tip as you enter the park is to purchase a National Park Pass if you are planning on visiting more than 2 parks. We didn't know about this option until the third canyon. 
 The Grand Canyon was amazingly grand! It was amazing that such a natural wonder exists. We hiked a few miles down the canyon...it was a torturous climb back up. I really can't imagine doing any hiking here during the hot summer months. The day we were there the hottest it got was maybe 70 degrees.
​The Grand Canyon has a great bus system that is free with your entry to the park. It was nice to park our car and be able to hike some, get on the bus to see another part of the canyon and then hike a bit more. We stayed at the park for 12 hours since we wanted to see the sunset. 

Our next stop was the Lower Antelope Canyon. This canyon requires a tour guide​. We went with Dixie Ellis Tours.  Our tour guide, Dezzi, was very informative and helpful with family photos. I got a lot of amazing images.
Getting to this canyon was so confusing, though. It is very close to the Utah border and our phone GPS was confused as to what time it was. Needless to say we were nervous about being late, but in reality we ended up showing up early. So moral of the story, go by the time zone in Phoenix. Lower Antelope Canyon is an amazing natural wonder and definitely worth the tour. The whole tour lasts a little less than 90 minutes with lots of opportunities for Instagram-worthy photos. 

On the way to Utah, we stopped by the Horseshoe bend. It was so windy! We only stayed long enough to explore and see the views. It is a little over a mile hike from the parking lot to see this natural wonder. ​

Our next home base was in Glendale, UT. It was cute little Airbnb cabin in the middle of nowhere, but it was in between Zion and Bryce Canyons.  The next day we explored Bryce Canyon. We started off in our winter layers since it was still freezing. We decided to drive through all the view points first so it would warm up a bit. We then parked our car and started our hiking adventure. I honestly didn't think that Taylor, at six years old, would hike for long. That day we ended up hiking a total of 7 miles. I contribute it to the amazing views! It was a surprise as to what we would see next. Everything looked like another planet. This was definitely our favorite canyon. 

Our last canyon was Zion. By this point we were pretty tired so we decided to do a short hike to the Emerald Pool. After we got there, we realized that we wanted to get away from the crowds. We embarked on the Angel's landing trail. It consisted of steep, switch backs for two miles. There was a bit of bribery involved to get Taylor to cooperate, but we got to the top. The last half mile was pretty treacherous and we opted to skip it. This day we hiked a total of 6.5 miles.  On the way out of the park we found an awesome rocky mountain to run up. No one else around except us and nature. 

We left Glendale for Salt Lake City. Here we got to hang out with family and see some parts of the city. We hiked Ensign Peak. It was so muddy and we got caught in a downpour. We ended our trip with a short visit to the Great Salt Lake. Warning...the lake stinks!

To date this was our most adventurous trip as a family. It was so fun to explore these new places that were so amazing, it seemed unreal at times. This is a trip we will never forget, but we are ready to plan more adventures in the future.