Arizona & Utah via Las Vegas

ochong

My girlfriend will be at a conference in Las Vegas in late October, so we decided to tour the area the week after. We'll be there Oct 29 - Nov 4. We have basically no interest in Las Vegas itself and only plan to use it for its airport.

Our current thought is to do the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion NP - in that order. Along the way I figured I'd try and stop at Horseshoe Bend and the Toadstool Hoodoo.

Would you recommend spending more time at any of these places than others? Neither of us have ever been to the area so it will all be new to us.

Any particularly great places for sunrise / sunset pics at these locations?

Crossing my fingers that my pre-ordered 7D comes in before the trip.

Thanks for any info.

-Oliver

Cayuse

If you have some time to kill in Vegas while she is attending the conference Red Rock Canyon is a great area just outside of town. There is a loop road with pullouts and hikes of various lengths.

kdog

Sounds like a great trip. If you really have that much time to spend, you'll have plenty of time to see all those sights. If you need to sacrifice anything, I'd trade the South Rim for the North Rim. You'll still see the grand canyon, but will save yourself a lot of driving.

There are other sights to see too. Goblin Valley isn't too far from Bryce, and is way cool.

Sunnyvalejohn

If you are looking for a better spot for sunset while you are in Las Vegas for your conference... head out to the Valley of Fire. It is one hour from the strip. That is my favorite spot. I did Red Rock Canyon and it is nice (it is about 30-40 minutes depending on traffic), but not really great.

Quite a few varied rock formations - that is what I like about it. Every place you turn it is different color and shape combinations. Some red, some white, some pink, a few arches, a baby slot canyon. It isn't Bryce/Zion, but close enough for a great sunset/sunrise location.

Here are a few images or you can check out some of the images here
More info about the park here

cheers,
john

ochong

Sorry for the slow reply, but thank you all for your input. Great pics as well.

We have settled on the following schedule:
29th - Fly in to Las Vegas and drive to SR Grand Canyon
30th - SR Grand Canyon
31st - SR Grand Canyon (morning) / Horseshoe Bend (evening - Page, AZ)
1st - Antelope Canyon (morning) / Mushroom Hoodoos (maybe) / Bryce Canyon (evening)
2nd - Bryce Canyon (morning) / Zion (evening)
3rd - Zion
4th - Zion (morning) then drive back to Las Vegas for flight

If any of you have tips for those particular locations I would love to hear them. I'll check out Goblin Valley and see if that can work in.

Thanks again,
Oliver

pathfinder

I would strongly suggest Antelope Canyon between 11 am and 2pm, not early morning... If the sun is low, you will not be getting light beams into the Canyon. Just thought....

ochong

pathfinder wrote:

I would strongly suggest Antelope Canyon between 11 am and 2pm, not early morning... If the sun is low, you will not be getting light beams into the Canyon. Just thought....

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a feeling that based on the time of the year I won't be seeing light beams in Antelope Canyon no matter what hour I go, but I will try and find out some more.

alexf

ochong wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a feeling that based on the time of the year I won't be seeing light beams in Antelope Canyon no matter what hour I go, but I will try and find out some more.

I second the vote for Valley of Fire. A must see place and pretty close to Vegas.

As for the whole trip, permit me to say that you are way overextended. Its akin to "See Europe: 20 cities in 12 days". IOW, a crazy plan.

I would skip the Grand Canyon. Yeah, its big, IMO too big. You don't get to see and shoot much unless you go down. That's a mile down mind you. Are you going to do that? Also, the South rim is far from Vegas. If you go to Utah, then the closes is the North Rim, and that is still far.

I respectfully suggest, from experience, to just do Valley of Fire (just one hour or so from Vegas), then go on North on I-15 to Zion NP. Stay the night, or two, in Springdale, Utah, a lovely little town.

Then continue on (another two hours) to Bryce and stay at Ruby's Inn, the closest place to the park. You also need a minimum of two or three days to really see Bryce.

Unlike the Grand Canyon, in Bryce you go down 320ft or so, so it's easy to hike, carry photo equipment and still make it back in one piece at the end of the day. In Zion, you enter at the bottom of the canyon and hike up, then its always an easy downhill return to the car.

You don't see those places unless you stay two or more days in each.

You said you'll see Zion in the morning and Bryce in the afternoon? Excuse me but that's a crazy plan.

ochong

alexf wrote:

As for the whole trip, permit me to say that you are way overextended. Its akin to "See Europe: 20 cities in 12 days". IOW, a crazy plan.
...
You don't see those places unless you stay two or more days in each.

We have actually already booked everything so it's fairly set in stone.

Yes, we fully understand that we won't be focusing on any particular location, but never having been to the area before we are more interested in seeing what is there and returning to specific locations in the future that have most held our interest. I suppose it's just the way we have always done these kinds of trips.

Additionally, we are only 24 and 25. Long days aren't a problem for us - the worst will just be getting to the south rim.

alexf wrote:

I would skip the Grand Canyon. Yeah, its big, IMO too big. You don't get to see and shoot much unless you go down. That's a mile down mind you. Are you going to do that? Also, the South rim is far from Vegas.

I am pretty sure that as most people say, once we have seen it we won't feel the need to ever return. That being said, it's one of those places everyone seems to also feel SHOULD be seen even if only once.

alexf wrote:

You said you'll see Zion in the morning and Bryce in the afternoon? Excuse me but that's a crazy plan.

Actually we will be arriving at Bryce before sunset, doing a hike or 2 the next day and then heading to Zion in time for sunset.

Stamatos

Probably a bit out of the way but Jerome has some really cool photo ops and may provide a bit more variety than some of the standard AZ landscape.
I was there before the bugs killed a lot of the pine tree stands so I'm not sure if those have recovered yet but the old mining areas are awesome.

Aerial-Perspectives

Great shots of the VOF Sunnyvalejohn. The second and last one is just spectacular.

Kenny.

Here are a few from my last trip there a few weeks back.







I would suggest a quick run through VOF park as well..



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