Take a summer road trip from the Los Angeles area, through Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
This trip went through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Here is what we did…
Day 1, we drove from the Los Angeles area to St. George, Utah. If you have never driven from California to Utah, the Gorge, guiding you into Utah is spectacular. We stayed in St. George and made sure to hit SWIG before hitting the road the next day.
On Day 2, our first stop was Zion National Park in Utah. I recommend getting in early if you are traveling during the summer because it gets HOT! Hiking the narrows is on the list for our next trip, as it looks spectacular. You can take a shuttle from the visitors center right to the beginning of the water filled hike. After exploring Zion for a few hours, we continued north to Bryce Canyon and Moss Cave. We hiked up to a refreshing waterfall and were able to take in the amazing views. After we cooled off in the water, we hiked back to the car and headed to Richfield, Utah.
The next morning we woke up and drive about two and a half hours to Arches. This is where you will find the monument featured on the Utah license plate. It was hot and without much shade, we opted to take the shorter hike and explore the town of Moab a bit as well.
Our next stop was a little over two and a half hours and it was the cutest mountain town, Glenwood Springs. They are known for their hot springs and being the burial site of the infamous Doc Holiday. Ice cream at Sundae and breakfast at ColoraDOUGH were some of our highlights. If you like tequila, you get a free shot at ColoraDOUGH along with delicious breakfast burritos, bagels and of course, donuts. Rifle falls state park and hanging lake in Glenwood Springs are two spots I recommend. We also visited an old haunted hotel in Glenwood Sorings with amazing history of Teddy Roosevelt visiting for hunting trips and views. From Glenwood Springs, we headed to Ft. Collins, Colorado.
From Ft. Collins, we had to visit Buc-Ees for their brisket sandwiches and my husbands favorite Philly cheese steak sandwich.
From there, we headed to Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods.
Then we rented a sand board and visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park and braved 140-150 degrees sand. I should say, my family did…I stayed in the shade. After our extremely warm adventure, we continued on to Taos New Mexico. We stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge bridge, which was an amazing site to see (but if you’re like me and not a fan of heights, know that it will make you dizzy looking down). That night we stayed in one of my favorite hotels of the trip, La Posada hotel in Santa Fe. There is amazing Mexican food and a relaxing ambiance at the resort.
The next morning we drove through the Petrified forest, the painted desert, along Route 66 and to the Meteor Crator, before our last stop in Sedona. As one of the murals stated it best, God created the Grand Canyon, but he lived in Sedona. The sunrise and sunset from our gorgeous balcony at Skyrock Sedona was one of the best views of the trip. After a wonderful breakfast of avocado toast at the hotel, we headed to our last adventure at Slide Rock state park. Our kids all three voted that this was their favorite park of the trip. You slide down natural water slides and cool off in the refreshing water.
Trip Trek Go 