Category: Utah

Monument Valley Trip

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Due to Covid-19, Japan has closed their border and does not allow any travelers to get in their country, which means our trip to Japan is cancelled.  The Stunning Tours company gave us the option to postpone the trip to next year (Nov 2022) or to take the credit; we chose to postpone to next year.   This meant that we had a full week of vacation with no where to go so we decided to take the road trip to see the Monument Valley, a place where the famous movie was film: The Forest Gump.  This would be our longest road trip ever with the driving of 8.5 hours on the first day to reach to the first destination and the total trip days was 6 days.  Before this trip, we only arranged the trip to drive max of 6 hrs a day and 4 days in total.  This was also the first time that we missed Thanksgiving dinner with our family.

Saturday 11/20/2021: Drive to Page, stop at Las Vegas for lunch and break.   Stay at Home2Suite hotel in Page.

  • There was traffic after we left Las Vegas that it took us 6 hours to get to Page.  By the time we got there, it was so late.  Fortunately Hilton hotel allows us to digitally check in so we went straight to our room upon arrival.

Sunday 11/21/2021: explore Page, stay 2nd night at Page.

  • Horseshoe Bend, Upper Antelope Canyon tour.

Monday 11/22/2021: drive to Monument Valley from Page (2 hrs)

  • First stop was View Hotel, took a quick drive on the scene drive, then Sunset tour of the back country.
  • Check in a Goulding Hotel around 5:30 PM.

Tuesday 11/23/2021: Forest Gump Point, Mexican Hat, Valley of the Gods.  Drive back to Page.

  • It was raining and cold this day but we got a good shot at the Forest Gump Point.
  • Stay at Home2Suite hotel in Page for 1 night.

Wednesday 11/24/2021:  Zion National Park, Las Vegas.

  • On the way back to Las Vegas, we stopped by Zion Park.   Did not know it still had beautiful yellow leaves so we stayed here longer than we planned.
  • Arrive to Las Vegas and check in to Hilton at Resort World, a brand new hotel just opened this year.

Thursday 11/25/2021: Las Vegas.

  • Spent our Thanksgiving at Las Vegas.  Explore the hotel Resort World.  William loved to swim at the hotel pool until they closed at 5:00 PM.
  • Walk to Paris Hotel to see the Effeil tower lit at up night; and Bellagio to watch the dancing water.

Friday 11/26/2021: Go home

  • Check out the hotel and go home, there was no traffic at all so we got home early around 4:00 PM.

 

Zion Re-Visit 2020

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday Oct 19, 2020

Woke up at 7:30 AM to get ready to buy the shuttle tickets but could not: they sold out too fast!  But that’s ok because we already took the shuttle few months ago; and William did not want to hike anyway.

So the plan was to drive along the hwy 9.  First we stopped by Canyon Junction; it was early so we could get the parking spot on the hwy 9, and walked down to the hiking trails.  William was scared of the cactus along the trails so he wanted to go back to the car; he only calmed down when I told him, “Don’t worry, Dad will carry you!”.  Tim carried him to the main hiking trail where the trail is paved and wider.  When he saw the bridge he got so excited that he ran up and down; and enjoyed listening to the loud noise every time some bikers passing on the metal bridge.

Canyon Junction, the sun was just risen. It was a little cool with light wind. Perfect weather for hiking.

In Search For Yellow Leaves 2020

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Our short trip to Utah in autumn Oct 17,2020 – Oct 20, 2020.

Oct 17: Left house around 8:00 AM, stopped by Las  Vegas for lunch at Phở Số 1 and Bellagio for its beautiful garden: it’s Pumpkin time! Then headed to Comfort Inn in Hurricane Utah around 4:00 PM.  Our dinner for tonight was Canh Bún.

Oct 18: Took the Cedar / Kolob loop to search for yellow leaves, but we were too late.  First stop at Parowan Visitor Center but they closed on Sunday.  Then continue on 143 for Yankee Meadows Reservoir;  Then hwy 148 for Cedar breaks (but we did not go in) then turn to hwy 14 (cedar canyon) -> Left turn on Right Hand Canyon Rd which will become Kolob Rd.  Only the first part of the Kolob Rd. is paved, the rest until it reaches the Kolob Reservoir is unpaved with lots of small gravels and dust! But it’s full of aspens!  Too bad we were too late.  Once we reach the Kolob Reservoir, the road is paved to hwy 9 (30 miles from here to Hurricane town but it’d take about 1 hr because there’s lots of curves and it goes thru the Kolob canyon and Zion canyon.  Our dinner for tonight was Bánh Canh Tôm Cua.

https://goo.gl/maps/qAj7f4R7VXj6NP2g9

Oct 19: Zion Park.  We could not get the shuttle tickets so we took 2 hikes on Canyon Junction and Canyon Overlook (right after the tunnel). Canyon Junction with the view of the Watchman mountain in the background is beautiful; we found a little waterfall after crossing 2 bridges.  The parking lot for the Canyon Overlook is really small (for about 20 cars) but we were lucky to get one after waiting for about 10 minutes.  Otherwise one would have to park along the road and walk back to the trail head which is about 10 minutes walking.  It’s easy trail with some parts have hand rails; and it’s beautiful along the way.  William & I did not hike to the end because it was hot and he was tired; but we enjoyed the hike regardless.

https://goo.gl/maps/1xsJe4XAX1hpyBTSA

It was still early so we decided to go back to Kolob Reservoir because we saw some yellow leaves on the other side of the reservoir yesterday.  To our disappointment, when we got there, we could not go in because it’s “Private property”.

On the way back to the hotel, we got some Domino’s pizza and some wings for dinner.

Oct 20: Checked out the hotel around 8:30 AM. Stopped Palazzo and Venetian and then Phở Số 1 for lunch then headed home.  It was 5:00 PM.

William’s First Camping Trip

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Memorial Holiday weekend, we went camping with a group of friends (VCF – Vietnamese Cyber Friends) at Zion Park.  We left our house on Thursday and drove to Las Vegas, stayed at MGM Grand for 1 night, then drove to Zion Park (3 hours drive) and camped at Watchman campground for 1 night.  The plan was to camp 2 nights but the weather was too hot and William had an accident at the daycare right before we left so we only camped 1 night then headed home on Saturday.  We got home around midnight on Sunday.

The whole trip, the only time William was happy is to ride the shuttle bus and to play with the water in the river.   The weather was too hot (85 degree and above) to make it impossible to sit in the tent during noon, so William had to sit on the chair outside.  I know he was tired and just wanted to lie down but every time I told him to get in the tent, he’d get in for 1 minute and then ran out even when we turned on the fan inside the tent.

The Narrow