Category: Travel

We are back and from our latest family adventure to Arizona, Nevada and Utah and I’m so excited to share about our November trip! If you follow along with our family travel adventures, you may remember when we went on a spring trip in April 2023 (you can find the three bite sized posts here: Family Travel, Part 1, Family Travel, Part 2, Family Travel, Part 3). Well, we loved that trip and the convenience of having Kanab as a home base, so we decided to go again.

You would think it would be repetitive and boring to return to the very same town as before, but there are so many things to do that we had a very different trip. Let’s get into it:

Day 1: Fly to Vegas

Our evening flight into Vegas worked out so well that we decided to do it again. We landed in Nevada around 11pm local time (2am Maryland time) and took an Uber straight to our hotel. Last time, we stayed at the Excalibur Hotel right on the strip because it was incredibly cheap and looked ridiculous. However, it was a little icky, so this time I picked a different hotel. We stayed at the Downtowner Boutique Hotel, which was kitschy, very clean and was reasonably priced. We would absolutely stay there again.

Day 2: Vegas to Valley of Fire to Kanab

In the morning, we walked to a nearby breakfast place and OHMYGOSH did we find a fantastic place right around the corner. Parlour Coffee Shop was super eclectic and had a really robust coffee and breakfast menu. When we got there, the place was pretty empty, but by time we left there was a line out the door.

Jack had the crème brulee French toast and it was so, so good:

Oh and I mentioned that our hotel was kitschy… but did I mention that it had a mini golf course right outside our door and AstroTurf in our closet?!

From there, we picked up our rental car and then stopped off at a sub place to grab a picnic lunch to take with us. I HIGHLY recommend this, as it is a long, long drive from Vegas to Kanab (by way of Valley of Fire).

This time, we skipped Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam and went straight to Valley of Fire State Park.

Valley of Fire State Park: This is one of my absolute favorite stops and if you are in the area, make sure to add it to your itinerary! It costs $9 to enter and we started by checking out the Visitor Center (which was closed last time we visited). From here, we did a whole bunch of different stops/hikes from our last trip, including: Elephant Rock, Rainbow Vista, Fire Canyon Road, and White Domes Loop. We also had a nice little picnic at the Seven Sisters Picnic area, which we had completely to ourselves.

From Valley of Fire, we continued on to Kanab to check into our house that we rented for the week.

Day 3: Coral Pink Sand Dunes

On our first full day in Kanab, we visited the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The cost to visit is $15 per vehicle and we also paid $25 to rent a sand sled for the day. It was chilly and sandy and so much fun to hike up the giant sand dunes and then sled down. And then hike up again.

We all shared one sand sled, which gave us the opportunity catch our breath after the dune hike before barreling back down it again. We were considering renting two sleds, but for our family the one sled worked out great.

I had actually planned for us to take a lunch break and then go back out to a different hike, but we were all exhausted so we took a trip to the local grocery store to stock up and then relaxed around the house.

Day 4: Tom’s Canyon Trail

For our second Kanab day, we decided to do a local hike. VERY local. The Tom’s Canyon trailhead was literally within sight of our rental house! We decided to let Jack have some TV/video game time and Travis and I went on a ‘date’ hike by ourselves. It took us around 2 hours and it was absolutely breathtaking.

Once we returned, warmed up and showered, we went into the Main Street area of Kanab and did a little souvenir shopping. One of our favorite rock shops in Kanab is Nature’s Showcase Rock Shop, so we made sure to stop by again. We also purchased some t-shirts at Gifts of the West.

Day 5: Zion National Park

Last time we visited Zion National Park, it was much warmer and we rented e-bikes. This time, it was a bit chillier, so we decided to do more driving and hopping out at overlooks. We purchased the America the Beautiful annual park pass ($80) which allows us to visit Zion, as well as a ton more parks for the next year.

After some sightseeing, we stopped off for lunch The Hangry Goat. Then, we walked around a bit and looked in and out of some shops. From there, we got back in the car and drove around a bunch more, jumping in and out to oooh and ahhh on our way back out of the park.

That evening, Travis and I bundled up and did some stargazing from the roof deck of our house. It was absolutely silent and beautiful and I 100% want to revisit that again in the summertime!

Day 6: Kanab to Pioneer Park to Vegas

We had to be out of our rental home by 10am, so we woke up and packed up the house. Since we drive through St. George on our way to Vegas, I did a little research and found a fun little park for us to visit on our way through: Pioneer Park and the Red Hills Desert Garden. Both were completely free and a great place to get out and stretch a little!

We will absolutely schedule some extra time to explore Pioneer Park more on our next trip. There are so many little hikes you can do throughout the 52-acre park.

Since it was Thanksgiving Day, I did a little googling on our way into Vegas and got us dinner reservations at Carmines. Once we arrived in Vegas, we dropped off our rental car and checked into Caesers Place for the night. The place was absolutely PACKED with people, where it felt like high-stake Frogger getting from one side of the casino/hotel to the other for the registration area. Thankfully our room was large, clean and quiet… with a gigantic whirlpool tub and walk-in shower.

We had a delicious dinner at Carmines and then enjoyed our room and went to sleep early, since we had a very early wake up call for our flight.

Day 7: Home

We woke up at 2:30am to take an Uber to the airport and head home. Yes, it totally sucks to wake up that early… but with the time change it’s nice to get home in the early afternoon.

 We absolutely loved our Thanksgiving trip and can’t wait for our next family travel adventure!

If you follow along with our family travel adventures, you may remember when we went on a fabulous spring trip to Arizona, Nevada and Utah in April 2023. If you need a cheat sheet, once we returned from our vacation I broke the trip into bite sized posts:

• Family Travel, Part 1: Vegas, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire State Park, Red Hollow Slot Canyon
• Family Travel, Part 2: Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Kanab, Glen Canyon Dam, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon X
• Family Travel, Part 3: Belly of the Dragon, Cat Stair Canyon, Zion National Park, Vegas

Well, we loved the trip and the convenience of having Kanab as a home base, that we decided to go again! Which means I’m in full-on planning mode to determine what we want to re-visit in a different season, what we want to add to our list, and what we want to skip this time.

Here’s our current plan:

Day 1: Fly to Vegas.

Our evening flight into Vegas worked out so well that we decided to do it again. We will land in Nevada around late in the evening and take an Uber straight to our hotel. Last time, we stayed at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino right on the Vegas strip because it was incredibly cheap and looked ridiculous. However, it was a little icky, so this time we picked a different hotel. This time we will be checking out the Downtowner Boutique Hotel, which looks kitschy and adorable, is reasonably priced, AND has great reviews.  

Day 2: Vegas to Kanab, UT

Much like our last trip, we will check out of our hotel, find breakfast somewhere and pick up our rental car. However, this time we will also plan to pick up a lunch somewhere to take with us out of town. We plan to drive through the Lake Mead area (again) and stop at the Valley of Fire State Park (again), but this time we will be prepared with lunch so we don’t get hangry!

We absolutely LOVED Valley of Fire last time, so we are planning to spend more time exploring and doing some of the hikes in that area (on a full stomach!). From there, we will continue to Kanab to check into the house we rented for the week. We still need to figure out:

• Where to eat breakfast in Vegas.
• Where to pick up lunch to go in Vegas or on our way out of town.
• Which hikes to do in Valley of Fire State Park.

Day 3: Explore

We have the full day open, so we need to decide which area we will be exploring. Some contenders for this day:

• Coral Pink Sand Dunes – you can rent a sand sled for a half-day, which sounds pretty fun!
• Johnson Canyon Road – located only 9.5 miles east of Kanab and gives you great views of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Lots of sightseeing on the drive and also hikes you can do at scenic overlook points.

Day 4: Explore

Another full day open to explore, so we need to nail down where we want to see. Some contenders for this day:

• Zion National Park – we went on our last trip and loved it. We may rent e-bikes again (depending on weather) and do that again, this time hiking different trails.
• Toadstool Hoodoos Trail – this one is pretty near where we are staying and has a 1.9 mile round-trip hike that looks easy and fun to do.

Day 5: Explore

Our last free day for exploring! Some contenders for this day:

• Bryce Canyon Park – we went on our last trip and there was snow, so we were limited to the trails we were able to hike on. Determine if there is snow this year – if yes, do we want to revisit? If no, we will get the chance to do the hikes we missed.
• Mossy Cave Trail – a really beautiful trail right outside Bryce Canyon Park
• Cottonwood Canyon Road – a 46 mile each way scenic drive through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This is a heavy driving option – it will take about 2 hours each way for this sightseeing drive. A few stops along the way include: Grosvenor Arch, and the Cottonwood Wash Narrows hike.

You may be asking why I don’t have Page or the Grand Canyon on this trip’s lists. Well, we visited Page, Glen Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon on our last trip. We loved it, but since we have less days to explore, we decided to leave that area off our list for this trip. As for the Grand Canyon, we could drive to the Northern Rim… however, it is quite far and there is a chance that there will already be snowfall. So, we are skipping that this time too.

Day 6: Kanab, UT to Vegas

This is our packing up and traveling back to Vegas day. We will pack up at our VRBO, check out, and make the around 3-hour drive back to Vegas. Once there, we will return our rental car and check into Caesar’s Palace for the evening. Which happens to be Thanksgiving. So, if you have any suggestions on where to get a good Thanksgiving dinner in Vegas, let me know! Depending on the weather, we may do some exploring and check out some of the casinos (I think Jack would love to see the gondolas at the Venetian).  We will probably also go to bed pretty early, since we have to wake up super early to catch our flight home.

Day 7: Fly Home

We have a super early flight, so we will take an Uber to the airport and may do a little dozing on the plane.

Our trip is a bit shorter this time (last time we had 9 days and this time just 7), so I’m sure it will fly by! If you have any recommendations for places we shouldn’t miss – whether it be food options, hikes, stores, views, or a place to eat a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner – let me know!