In October, we took a family road trip to Zion National Park. I cannot tell you how much fun it was. Right when we got home, we were already wishing that we had stayed longer.

I’ve had a lot of questions over DMs asking for details on the trip and links for things we used to keep a 5 month old and a 3.5 year old entertained throughout the drive. My biggest advice if you’re contemplating a road trip (of any sort, with kids or not) is to make sure you’re up for the workload of what a road trip entails. It definitely isn’t an R&R type of trip or vacation. Most of you probably know this about my husband and I by now, but we are definitely not the R&R type of couple. While nice for a day or a few hours, we get rather bored if we’re not doing something fun or active and engaging. This was our first road trip as a family of 4 and it was I think the most fun we’ve ever had on a road trip. So, let’s just get into it!

The duration of our trip was October 23rd – October 28th. It was the perfect time of year to visit. The weather was nice, not hot at all and comfortable to ride bikes/hike in Zion. It did get pretty chilly at night though! Enjoy a little bit of a photo diary of our trip while you read through the itinerary!

Day 1

+ 4 am wake up & head out : we wanted the kids to sleep for as long as possible the first morning so that we could knock out the longest stretch prior to getting out of the car. First stretch- Orange County, CA –> Bearizona, AZ.

+ 12: 45 pm arrive at first stop : Bearizona, AZ. If you’re thinking of doing a road trip to the Grand Canyon, I’d definitely recommend making a stop at Bearizona if you can! It’s a cute little drive through wildlife park ( I don’t think zoo is really the right word for it), with an additional walk through area as well. It was the perfect first stop of the trip! We let Avery sit on my lap in the front seat as we drove through the park, animals are free-range and able to roam as they please in certain areas, of course animals are separated by big motes so that the bears and wolves don’t eat the reindeer or buffalo! We spent a few hours here and also ate lunch at their cafe before starting the second, much shorter stretch of our drive!

+ 4:30 pm arrive at Grand Canyon National Park. It was about an hour drive from Bearizona to our hotel at the Grand Canyon. We checked in, got everything unloaded from the truck and into our room and got cozy in warmer clothes before walking to dinner at the hotel! After dinner, our hotel had a smore’s night set on their patio, so we sat by the fire and enjoyed making smore’s!

+ 8 pm ended day 1 back in the hotel room watching cartoons before bed!

Day 2

Little preface- this is a “vacation” so we did not set any alarms and let our bodies/the kids decide when we were getting up for the day!

+ 7:30 am wake up! Joey packed the car back up with our luggage and electric bikes (we brought them in our hotel room because we didn’t want them to get stolen- you just never know), so that took a little bit of time. Then we hit a Starbucks to get something quick to eat before riding bikes throughout the Grand Canyon! It was a very chilly morning, so we dressed very warm, but riding bikes through the Grand Canyon was absolutely breath-taking. It was stunning. Joey and I had visited before on a road trip, but we had only ever seen it covered in snow, so this was very special being able to see it in person without all the snow! We road around from about 9 am till 11 am, checked out the Visitor’s Center and Gift Shop and then it was time to drive to destination #2!

+ 3 pm arrive at Lower Antelope Canyon. This was a stunning place to see in person. Photos online do not do it justice. The only thing, it was super scary getting too with a baby on my chest! To visit, you have to book a tour and have a guide with you- they sell out fast and only do a limited number of tours per day so it’s definitely something you need to plan in advance. A guide leads you down into the canyon/caves and there is a portion where you’re walking down a straight vertical staircase to get deep into the canyon. This was terrifying to me! I literally told the guide, and Joey that they could go without me and that Jaxson and I would just wait up on the top for them. I was legitimately having a panic attack feeling like I would fall and crush myself and my son. With my husbands guidance and the guide right behind me, I slowly and I mean, SLOWLY, like sloth’s pace slowly, got down the staircase. Luckily once you’re down into the canyon, you slowly make your way back up while enjoying the caves and scenery, so it isn’t nearly as bad and you don’t end up getting out the same way you got in (thank goodness!) I am so glad I braved it and made it into the canyon, because it was SO stunning! We spent 2 hours exploring and then checked into hotel stop #2 around 6:30 pm.

+ 6:30 pm arrive at hotel at Lake Powell. Here we took showers, got cozy, walked to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner before going to bed for the night! 

Day 3

+ 8(ish) wake up and walk to the hotel kitchen for breakfast! Afterward, we took a walk along the marina of Lake Powell, literally right next to our hotel. Joey had originally planned to take Avery out on a jet ski but the rentals were closed for the season because it was their off season, so next time that is definitely on our list of to-dos! After walking around and enjoying the scenery, we loaded up the car to drive to destination #2 of day 3!

+ 4 pm arrive at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Utah. This was SO much fun! It is a bit of a trek to get to the sand dunes, but it was a blast. You can rent dirt bikes and four-wheelers if you want to do that sort of thing, or you can do what we did, which was to rent a “sand sled” from guest services and go sand sledding/surfing! Avery had so much fun and it was a nice activity to get some energy out. It takes a lot to climb up the huge dunes after you sled down! We stayed for about an hour and a half and then had a short 40 minute drive to our final destination! 

+ 6:20 pm arrive to ZION! I’ll never forget the scenery as we were driving in. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It is truly so stunning and really an other worldly type of place. We went straight to the visitors center to get some information prior to our big activity day the next day! Then we checked into our hotel and unloaded the car. We stayed two nights at the hotel, so Joey got a little break from the packing and unpacking back to back lol. Our hotel was across the way from THE best Italian restaurant, so after unpacking and setting the pack n play up in the hotel, we walked to dinner! Dulivia Ristorante, I’m still dreaming about the pasta and gelato we had! If you visit Zion, I promise you won’t be disappointed if you eat here! The ambiance and vibes are also immaculate! 

+ 10 pm (ish) I want to say by the time we got in bed it was close to 10 pm but to be honest I’m not totally sure.

Day 4

+ 8:30 am walk up and walk to hotel lobby for continental breakfast. Afterward, we packed out lunch boxes with snacks, filled our water bottles, and packed our bikes to bike through Zion! Joey and I have our own electric bikes, which we brought with us, but you can also rent E-bikes or normal bikes in Zion as well! We bought this add on so that our *at the time of our trip*  5 month old could be seated comfortably behind the bike! For our daughter, we’ve had this seat on our regular bikes for years and just transferred it over to Joey’s E-bike! Both add ons are totally usable on both E-bikes and normal bikes! And they aren’t cheap, so if you’re looking at buying them, make sure you really know you’ll get use out of them. One of our favorite things to do is ride bikes, so we know we’re going to get our monies worth lol. The Burley also grows with the child and can turn into a double seater if Avery and Jaxson ever want to sit side by side for a ride! So if you have more than one child, it’ll pass that test too!

+ 5:30 pm we spent the ENTIRE day exploring and riding throughout Zion! It was so much fun. We rode to the Narrows Hike and then parked the bikes and locked them up!! Don’t forget locks if you bring your own bikes! After parking the bikes, we sat down and ate lunch- PB&J sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and apple slices! Then we took on the hike to the Narrows! We started the hike at around 2:30 pm and made it to the top around 4ish. The water was FREEZING, so we did not actually hike in the narrows, but turned around and walked back down a little bit to play around in some other water that did not require us to get knee/hip deep in an ice bath. After resting and breastfeeding, we made the trek back down to the bikes to bike back to the hotel! 

*if biking isn’t your thing, Zion NP also has a tram/bus service that will take you to popular hiking trails and drop you off/pick you up! 

+ 7 pm dinner at Porters and then we went for some ice cream at Bumbleberry Gift Shop & Bakery! This was such an amazing day. We had such a blast, I literally still can’t believe how amazing of a day top to bottom it was! And the kiddos did amazing and Avery had so much fun!

+ 9 pm shower and bath time then off to bed! When we travel, we get two queen sized beds and use these bumpers for Avery’s bed! I was gifted these from the brand months ago and absolutely love them. I keep one on Avery’s bed at home (the other side of her bed is against the wall). And they are so easy to travel with! 

Day 5 

+ 9 am walk up to breakfast in bed thanks to hubby! Joey went to the hotel lobby to bring Avery and I breakfast in bed, which was magnificent! Then, while Avery laid in bed watching cartoons, we packed our hotel room up and loaded the car for the last time! This was actually very sad for us LOL we wanted to stay another day but alas, deadlines exist, so it was time for us to get back home! 

+ 11 am stop at Deep Creek Coffee Co in Zion on the way out (this was a recommendation from a friend on IG and it was such a cute little spot!) Then we started our drive home!

+ 12 pm on our way out, we stumbled upon a place called Fort Zion Petting Farm and Gift Shop- it was impossible to miss off the side of the road so we decided to stop by! Avery got to feed all the farm animals and run around for a bit. It was super cute! 

+ We made it home to Orange County that night around 10 pm. It was straight to bed for all of us and luckily we had the next day at home to completely unwind together! 

This was truly my favorite trip EVER and we really want to go back already to explore more of Zion!

Have you ever been? What was your favorite part?

And don’t worry, per requests- my next post will be full of things I packed to entertain the kids in the car! I like to think I’m something of an expert at packing funtivities for my toddler for a road trip! 

Hope you had fun reading a bit about our trip!