SouthWest Trip

Make reservations at the Mesa Grill at the Sedona airport. Try to be there at sunset.

To add to the above, a few other underrated or niche things on your general trip path.

Jerome, AZ. It's an old mining town turned art hub, so if you're into small town history, it's pretty cool. Right by Sedona.

Wupatki and Sunset Crater are between Flagstaff and Page and cool outdoor stuff.

Between Southern Utah and Vegas, Valley of Fire State Park has some pretty otherworldly scenery.

Horseshoe Bend is a must, I also recommend eating at either Birdhouse or Big John’s BBQ in Page. Lunch at one and supper at the other if you have time. Before you get out of Flagstaff heading to Page, make sure your tank is full and you have plenty of road snacks because there is not much between those two destinations.

Snow Canyon State park in St. George also has some pretty nice hikes.

All awesome suggestions. Just bumping if anyone has anymore advise!

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Horseshoe Bend

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The insta-idiots have made horseshoe bend almost unbearable fyi. When I was there 2 years ago there was at least 3 if not 5-6 trying to take idiotic shots, selfies, etc. that were either hogging the best spots for unreal amount of times or were damn near trying to die. One girl had her dog there and the dog wouldn't get any closer to the edge to get in the photo and she tried for far too long to get it to move. Damn thing was smarter than she was.

Given that, this really isn't a SW trip OP. Maybe change your title to Nevada and south Utah trip or something?

Zion is well worth time. Moab is great but you won't have time for there.

Definitely look up the state parks, there's a lot of great state parks also and many of them have a lot less people. They are just smaller or otherwise not quite NP worthy but still fantastic to visit.

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Driving up to GC then staying in Page 1 night

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You are going to drive from Sedona to the GC then to Page all in the same day? That's a long arse day and really not a lot of time. No time really for Page and very little for the GC. You really need 2 nights in page if that's your plan. You won't have time for Antelope Canyon with that plan.

Hijacking the thread in a way maybe to not have to make a 2nd thread on this.....

We're doing a somewhat similar jog around the SW...

Day 1 - Fly into LAX and Drive to St. George area to spend night
++++ Sight see along the way and make a few stops, Ride down the strip in Vegas....then head out to the Valley of Fire making it to St. George area or towns east of there (had marked off Virgin, UT as a possible hotel spot).

Day 2 - Zion National Park hiking and exploring
++++ Spend the night at Lake Powell Resort (looks simple and basic enough with views of the Lake for the kids to swim etc) Hike and explore Horeshoe Bend/Antelope late afternoon/sunset.

Day 3 - Grand Canyon Sunrise/Hikes
++++ Get in as much Grand Canyon as we want before making a drive back towards LA Area.

Day 4 - Disneyland
++++ Have kiddos 7,9,16 and all intrigued in experiencing Disneyland, so worked that into the trip. Hoping to stay somewhere outside the Disney bubble to where its affordable yet accessible to get in and out since we'll prob be there for rope drop and leave when the park closes.

Day 5 - Explore LA/Pacific Ocean/Laker Game?
++++ Wake up and see the Pacific Ocean at one of the beaches. See what we can in the morning hours around LA, then try to possibly make the Lakers game at 12:30pm.... Flight out of LA is 5:45pm, sooooooooooooo..... will be crunched for time there.









With that being said above, can anyone give any tips/advice/places to stop and see along the drives, food spots? (I have been following Farmstead Bakery on IG since I saw this post on this thread and they are legit!)


Appreciate any help, also will be following the guy who started this thread..... we are going the week after Easter so gathering the last couple of details for the trip

Indeed, plenty of driving.... but we alotted the time for that and that is part of the trip seeing things we've never experienced before (ROAD TRIP) style.... I do believe if we hit our Sleep spots we should be ok...

Day 1 - St George Area (30 min to Zion in morning)
Day 2 - Page /Lake Powell area (drive down to Grand Canyon for Sunrise)
Day 3 - As much of the Grand Canyon we want to conquer, then drive and sleep somewhere likely NE LA area....
Day 4 - Disneyland
Day 5 - 3/4 of day exploring LA (may do Laker game for 12:30)

** I Understand its a very GO GO GO attitude and may be burnt out when all said and done, but we've accomplished similar trips in the past and seems like we should be ok.

We'll pivot and have plenty of leeway to change some plans around if need be if we spend to much time at X etc... and with all destinations, theres SOOOOO much to do at all these places we could def just go to 1 of these places and stay the whole time, but the purpose is to allow the kids to see things they've never experienced before.

Appreciate the warning....

Again, if something occurs we have plenty of wiggle room to pivot etc.


Currently seeing some snowfall right now in that area, not sure if it will be that way still in 3 weeks, but Def will make things fun and interesting for the kids

I’ve actually done it once before. Left Sedona at about 6:30am and drove the 2 hours to GC. We’re really not gonna do any hikes or anything there, just going to drive the rim and stop at all the lookouts and whatnot. Probably leave by about 3 or so. Another 2.5 hours to Page. Not spending a ton of time there either. Waking up and doing a morning tour of AC then moving on. Basically more of site seeing stops. Not as bad as it sounds driving I promise. Was nervous the first go round but it went smoothly.