Wednesday
Arrive in Sedona by 3pm and your tour leader will meet you at the shuttle drop-off point (Super 8). Drive to our motel and check in. Change into hiking clothes. We’ll go on a short tour of Sedona including a visit to a vortex and a hike among the red rocks to Devil’s Bridge. Before dinner at Cheryl’s home we’ll be sure and dip our feet in Oak Creek under the gaze of Cathedral Rock and Red Rock Crossing.
Thursday
After an early breakfast, depart Sedona by 7am and drive up onto the Colorado Plateau where we’ll spend the whole vacation. We’ll start our journey fittingly at the Grandest of all Canyons enjoying the splendor from Desert View. Take a break at historic Cameron Trading Post to shop and view the museum. Enjoy the scenic overlook at Marble Canyon, seeing how Mother Nature sculptured the Grand Canyon out of the plateau. Drive to Lake Powell where we’ll board our vessel and take a boat ride to Rainbow Bridge. We’ll lunch on the lake and relax and swim in the warm water. Return south on the lake with a stop at Dangling Rope marina for ice creams. Further south we’ll find a campsite and set up camp for the night. Dinner is prepared while you swim and relax. Lake Powell is one of the most wonderful places in the West to get away from it all and you may choose to sleep under the stars outside the tents. Watching the sun set the canyon walls ablaze with it’s last light is one of those indelible lifetime travel memories. After dinner you can be kids again and roast marshmallows for s’mores on the open fire.
Friday
It’s fun to slide out of your tent and dive straight into the warm water. We’ll motor back to the marina and load our van, pick up breakfast to go and take a short hike to Horseshoe Bend. It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful overlook to enjoy breakfast. Then we’ll climb onto a truck for a trip to Antelope Canyon, the most famous of the slot canyons. You’ll hardly believe the photos you’ll take here! Back to back nights without a shower is not an option so we’ll rent a motel room in Page so we can all shower. After lunch we’ll drive to Kayenta where we’ll see an exhibit describing the importance of the Navajo Code Talkers during WWII. There are also Navajo homes here to inspect, called hogans. Another hour to Chinle and its all aboard a jeep for a great ride into Canyon de Chelly. We’ll stop at several Anasazi sites including a visit to famous White House ruins. Camp the night beside Antelope ruins where you’ll be entertained around the campfire by our Navajo storyteller.
Saturday
After a pancake breakfast we’ll jeep back out of the canyon with a stop at the Ute raid panel. Load our van and drive along the rim looking down into the great views of the canyon. It’s a short walk to enchanting Spider Rock where Spider Woman lives. Navajo legend claims she taught them to weave. Our drive north to Monument Valley brings back wonderful memories of watching cowboy movies as kids! We capture the quintessential photo of the left and right hand mitten buttes at the Navajo Tribal Park and it’s on to lunch at historic Gouldings Trading Post. Driving north in Utah we capture a photo at famous Mexican Hat then turn into Canyonlands National Park to see the ancient pictographs at Newspaper Rock. Outside Moab we stop at Hole in the Rock, a unique home. There is no place in North America quite like this so we indulge in a short tour. Accommodation is in Moab close to the shops and there’ll be time for shopping before and after dinner, at the Moab Brewery.
Sunday
It’s an early start this morning to enjoy the cool morning air. After a quick stop for breakfast-to-go we drive into Arches National Park. It takes about 40 minutes to hike up to Delicate Arch one of the most beautiful formations in the West. It’s extra special to enjoy this vista before the crowds. On the way out we’ll take time to walk through the Windows section of the park. Your guide will drive you to more amazing roadside pictographs and dinosaur tracks and we’ll have time for shopping at the fun stores before assembling for our river trip. Spend the afternoon on a float trip on the Colorado River in rafts and inflatable kayaks. This often involves relaxing in the river, floating along in our lifejackets. A picnic lunch is served riverside on a beach. Late in the afternoon we head up towards the La Sal mountains and stay at a wonderful country B&B. We can relax before dinner in our luxurious cabins where deer often come close to graze. Its great to soak in the hot tub and massages (extra) are available this evening.
Monday
After a delicious home-cooked breakfast we drive to Dead Horse Point State Park. Here we’ll see the famous Goosenecks section of the Colorado River – a truly “wow” view. Then we cross over to the western side of Utah into Capitol Reef National Park. This isolated park has towering red rock formations and plenty of rock art from the Fremont Anasazi. After lunch we’ll hike in the park along Sulphur Creek or to Cassidy Arch, depending on local conditions. Both hikes offer fabulous canyon views and a chance to really explore the park. Accommodation and dinner this evening is in the tiny town of Torrey.
Tuesday
Today our drive starts by climbing up and over a 9600’ pass through alpine meadows of aspens. Enjoy great views of Waterpocket Fold, the main feature of Capitol Reef National Park. Drive through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and tiny desert communities to Bryce Canyon National Park. We’ll lunch at iconic Ruby’s Inn before heading into the park. This afternoon we’ll hike one of the most stunning hikes on our calendar – the Navajo Trail Loop. Without stops, this would be a short 1.5-hour moderate hike. However, the scenery is so stunning that this often takes us 3 hours. Firstly we come upon Wall St where ponderosa pines brush canyon walls as they reach for the sky. Then the orange and white hoodoos take on wondrous new shapes around every bend. Thank goodness for digital cameras or we’d surely run out of film! Later after dinner we can return to sit on the rim and watch the sun set on the hoodoos.
Wednesday
Dress today in riding clothes and after breakfast, saddle-up for an incredible three-hour mule-ride through Bryce Canyon on the Peek-a–Boo Loop Trail. We think this is the most stunningly scenic park in the US and consequently we’ve allocated time for a second Bryce experience. Photograph unforgettable views from your horseback vantage point. Take a break half way through the trip - it’s great to dismount and stretch your legs. Catch a lunch on the go to ensure that we have plenty of time to enjoy Zion National Park, a short hour’s drive south. The scenery driving down the Zion gorge is totally different from Bryce yet grand in a different way, so photo stops are essential. Check into our motel and change into swimsuits and shorts then catch the eco bus to Sinawava Temple. From there we’ll walk the one mile river walk and spend a couple of hours hiking and sloshing through the Virgin River in the Narrows – some even float back on the return. Great fun to be a kid again! Dinner in Springdale.
Thursday
Morning off - you can breakfast with the group or sleep in! Springdale is about as cute as a town can be and it has fun stores to explore. The other obvious option is to ride the eco bus back into Zion and tour the museum or hike one of the many short trails – including the challenging Angel’s Landing. We’ll all meet for lunch in Springdale and share our different morning experiences. This afternoon we drive to Nevada to our casino hotel near Hoover Dam. If there are some who have never seen Las Vegas, there will be time to drive along the Strip. After check-in at our hotel, we’ll take a ride across the dam with stops for photos. After dinner at our hotel, gambling is an option tonight!
Friday
Breakfast at the hotel then we’ll meet our kayak provider, drive a short distance to the river and launch our sit-on-top double kayaks for a 13-mile paddle on the Colorado River. There’s a great picture we’ll take of our group in the kayaks with the dam and bridge towering behind us. We’ll stop at all the amazing spots including Sauna Cave, Gold Strike Canyon and Arizona Hot Springs where we’ll lunch on the beach. It great fun to soak in these natural hot pools. On the paddle to Willow Beach take-out we may see big horn sheep staring down like sentinels watching us pass. The scenery is incredible. Our van meets us at the take-out and it’s a four hour ride back to Sedona. We’ll make a short ice-cream stop in Seligman and take some great Route 66 photos. Drive down Oak Creek Canyon into Sedona and check into our motel. Farewell pizza dinner in Sedona on Cheryl’s patio. Watch a slide show of our ten-day adventure and you’ll agree this trip is well-named.
