A road trip through Utah and Arizona might be just what you need to satisfy your craving for an epic adventure. After spending a little bit of too much time on Instagram and seeing the red sandstone of the National Parks light up my Instagram timeline feed… I knew it was time we went west.

We decided to get down and dirty and live in a van for a week as we drove 1,300 miles over seven days through Utah and Arizona. This road trip was a life changing experience for both of us! It was our first time visiting any National Parks.. and can’t say that we have lived in a van before!

Our Utah and Arizona road trip itinerary was perfect as is and we wouldn’t change a thing, so keep reading to see where our seven day road trip took us!

Utah and Arizona Road Trip Itinerary

The starting point for our road trip is in Las Vegas because it was a more central destination to all of the places on our list, the airport was there, and we rented our Escape Campervan from Las Vegas as well!

We loved that all of the destinations on our Utah and Arizona road trip were only about 1.5 to two hours apart. It made the drive from park to park really easy and you’ll see some of the most incredible scenery of your life.. it won’t even feel like two hours!

We have never seen so many wilds animals! Coyotes, skunk, elk, lizards, jack rabbits, cows roaming freely, and at one point we had about 100 deer darting back and forth across the street in front of our van… it was insane!

Zion National Park

Zion National Park is 2 hours, 35 minutes away from Las Vegas. We arrived here around 5:00 p.m., found a free camping spot about 20 miles outside of Zion National Park, and then hiked Zion the following day when we woke up, before we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park.

It’s crazy to think that Zion National Park was our very first National Park to visit! It really set the tone for the rest of the trip — one of our best trips ever.

Sleeping Options

There are a lot of sleeping options around and in Zion National Park, but let me tell ya: I did not think we would be sleeping in a van when we started planning our Utah and Arizona trip (lol). I personally thought we would be staying in a cozy lodge… but once a friend of mine recommended Escape Campervans to me I felt like it was a NO BRAINER. A van trip would give us the whole experience of exploring our National Parks.

Lodge

The Zion National Park Lodge is just 4.3 miles (~10 minutes) from the Zion National Park Visitor Center and has two restaurants, Red Rock Grille and Castle Dome Cafe.

Campground

I am always so jealous of people who book far enough out to camp inside the National Parks. Zion has a couple campgrounds inside the park! You should definitely book campsites well in advance! This is a hot commodity. 

• South Campground – 1/2 a mile from the south entrance and has 117 campsites. $20 per night (tent only).
• Watchman Campground – 1/4 a mile from the south entrance and has 190 campsites. $20 per night (tent only).

There are a handful of other campgrounds only a short drive from Zion – details can be found here: campsites near Zion National Park. 

BLM – Bureau of Land Management [free camping]

Camping somewhere that is designated as BLM means that it’s public land and that you can camp there for free. It’s really a crazy experience being so isolated when you’re camping in BLM areas. It’s not always easy finding campsites on BLM and there’s no one to call – we solely relied on websites that had coordinates (Chase did all of the campground findings). Sometimes we would drive for hours to an area only to find that it was no longer operating for a place to sleep!

Glamping

Okay, so I really want to glamp near Zion! When we were looking for our campsite we drove past Under Canvas, a luxury lodging experience in the middle of no where (but only about 20 miles from Zion) that seemed to be tranquil. The stars and the sunset out there is seriously amazing!

Bryce Canyon National Park

I’ve been to a handful of National Parks now and Bryce Canyon National Park is my all time favorite, especially in the snow! We loved being surrounded by the big hoodoos — you’ll seriously think you’re on a different planet…

Bryce Canyon is 1 hour, 30 minutes from Zion National Park and it is a wild drive out of Zion, to Bryce. It was actually really stressful, the drive has a lot of steep drop offs and such a small “railing,” that was more like a curb.

We camped in Hatch, Utah, about 30 minutes away from Bryce Canyon National Park at Riverside Ranch Campground – highly recommend! We were the only ones camping there (in our van), probably because it was six degrees (OMG.. a night I will never forget).

Thankfully, Escape Campervans let us borrow a space heater and Riverside Ranch gave us free firewood. They were so nice there!

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

The crazy, most exciting surprise was the Coral Pink Sand Dunes… not part of our original itinerary at all. I don’t even think we knew it existed until the day we were driving south. We were just so cold after sleeping and hiking in Bryce Canyon that we were desperate to head south.

The Coral Pink Sand Dunes are definitely worth a stop! You can walk out on the dunes and the sand is so fine and soft. We have never seen anything like it! It’s just 1 hour, 30 minutes from Bryce Canyon.

Next up, you’re heading to Page, Arizona, the home of Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, and Lake Powell.

Page, Arizona

If there’s anything you take away from this blog post, let it be this: Page, Arizona is SMALL. You won’t need more than a day here! That includes you seeing Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, and Lake Powell. We were here for almost two days because we didn’t time it right and you need to book an Antelope Canyon tour well in advance to get your time slot preference.

I would get to Page, Arizona the night before (or wake up at 4:00 a.m. that morning), so you can get to Horseshoe Bend as early as possible.

Horseshoe Bend

We woke up early and arrived to Horseshoe Bend at about 7:00 a.m. Horseshoe Bend should be the first stop of the three because:

1. You want to get here early to beat the enormous crowds (and sunrise pic, hello??!)
   1. Even at 7:00ish a.m. there were several bus loads of tourists getting dropped off here
2. We were there for about an hour taking in the views and walking around, so we left around 8:00 a.m.

Leaving at 8:00 a.m. means we had the whole day ahead of us.

Antelope Canyon

Visiting Antelope Canyon requires planning far in advance! Did you know you have to book a tour to explore Antelope Canyon? Not only that but it’s a group tour and they run from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

If you’re anything like us, you want to make the most of your trip and savor every minute. On our road trip itinerary we were heading to the Grand Canyon next, but since we booked our tour so last minute, we were stuck aimlessly wandering around this small town in Arizona until the tour started.

Tip: book it early, around 9:30 a.m. that way you can hit the road to the Grand Canyon around 1:00 p.m. (after the tour) and after you have seen Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell.

Lake Powell

All three destinations are located within five miles of each other in Page, Arizona. Page is 1 hour and 40 minutes from Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Page is pretty small and my recommendation would be to spend half a day there. You’ll have time to do all of these in the first part of the afternoon. Then head straight to the GRAAAND CANYON!

Grand Canyon

I could not WAIT to get to the Grand Canyon! It lives up to ALL the hype you have heard about it and it is truly a jaw dropping destination. It was a pretty easy drive from Page, Arizona and only about 2.5 hours.

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Hoover Dam

Not part of our itinerary at all, but we had seen all that we could before having to go back to Las Vegas. Everywhere else was just far enough that it wasn’t possible. This was 3 hours and 35 minutes. We didn’t get out, just drove through to take a peek.

Your van will more than likely be inspected by security. I was like WTF is going on?!

Rainbow Mountain

Las Vegas

Back to Vegas for a night! We technically still had the van for one more night, but we were ready to take a SHOWER! and sleep in a bedroom. Went to some tasty restaurants in Las Vegas and gambled more.

I would love to talk about your upcoming trip out west – let me know if you have any questions!