Shannon Did What / Travel + Lifestyle Blog

bryce canyon

Roadtrip Round-up

TravelShannon GuerreroComment

This is a sad time you guys. I've run out of road trip material to write about.  Sad, right? Well, my cross country road trip did give me enough content for over 6 weeks of posts. If you missed any posts, don't fret!  I've made it super easy for you to see all of the content from my 10-day trip below!  These are the places you can read about/really just look at pictures:

St. Louis, Missouri
Memphis, Tennessee
Cadillac Ranch, Texas
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico
Antelope Canyon, Arizona
Horseshoe Bend, Arizona
Bryce Canyon, Utah
Zion National Park, Utah
Valley of Fire, Nevada
Seven Magic Mountains, Nevada

I've laid out reasons to visit these places, the best places to go and even tips on what to bring on your next road trip and how to plan it.  For weeks now, people have been asking me what my favorite place to visit was.  After thinking about, I don't think I can just pick one.  There were great aspects of really everywhere we went.  St. Louis, was the biggest surprise of the trip.  You can read all about it.  It's a great city.  Memphis barbecue was better than I expected and I expected it to be so good.  Cadillac Ranch is pretty out of the way, unless you're driving on Route 66.  It is a really cool site and is interactive since you too can graffiti the cars.  White Sands was so picturesque and serene.  All you could see was sand for miles and you can't forget about the sledding.  Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park are the perfect places to visit.  They are so breathtaking that you really just have to see them for yourself.  So what are you waiting for? Go check them out now!

Yours Truly // Shannon

Bryce Canyon

TravelShannon GuerreroComment

I kept seeing those commercials all over to visit the 5 Utah National Parks. Since then, I’ve been dying to go see those places.  Since we were definitely on a timed schedule for our cross country road trip, it was hard to pick and choose where to spend our time and make sure we did spend enough time at each place.  I was dying to go up further in Utah to see Moab, but that just didn't seem realistic.  The initial plan was to drive from Kanab, Utah (where we were staying overnight) to Zion National Park and spend the entire day there.   Yes, a day is definitely not a enough time to spend in Zion, but hey, you take what you can get.  In that spirit, I thought hey Bryce Canyon isn’t very far away.  What if we got up super early and drove to Bryce for magic hour before heading to Zion?  I am so happy we went with this new plan.

Bryce Canyon National park is probably one of the coolest places I’ve ever been.  Growing up, I had never been that much of a nature person.  Me and dirt weren’t necessarily best friends.  But as the years have gone by, nature and getting outside has really grown on me.  Maybe its because nature is so beautiful and I want to photograph it, but I definitely have way more of an appreciation for the outdoors.  It’s crazy the Bryce Canyon was created by just nature.  It’s hard to not appreciate the statuesque forms that make up the Canyon.

If you’re looking for a short hike to go on when you go to Bryce Canyon, take the Navajo Loop trail.  Its a relatively short hike, probably 1-2 hours, and is about little over a mile long.  The trailhead starts at Sunset Point.  Tip - If you get there early enough, there will still be parking at Sunset Point as opposed to parking elsewhere and being shuttled in.  Either way you go (you can go left or right) you have to go down a switch back trail and then it ends with a hike back up a switch back trail.  There’s a good amount of shade because there are so many giant trees in the canyon.  Although, I imagine, it does get pretty hot in the sun during the summer months.

What do those Visit Utah commercials say at the end? Oh ya, 5 iconic parks, 1 epic experience! Well, I can definitely say that they got it  right for this one.  Go visit Bryce Canyon!

Yours Truly // Shannon