This summer we decided to explore a little out of our comfort zone and head to Utah! (Did I continuously make the joke: “I LOVE YOU-TAH!”? Yes, yes I did).

Here’s a quick over view:

LOCATION	MEALS	THINGS WE DID
Lake Mead Lake Mead RV Village Boulder Beach	Dinner: pulled pork sandwiches I fixed this recipe a couple days before we left so we just had to warm it up	Hoover Dam Walked to the water (not recommended) Tried not to die from the heat and night wind storm
Zion Zion River RV Resort	Breakfast: cereal, bagels Lunch: expensive food at park – pack ahead next time! Dinner: carnitas tacos – made at home, froze, defrosted a couple days before using. Had pre- chopped onions and cilantro ready to go! BLTs: brought everything pre-sliced	The Riverside Walk The Narrows hike Lower Emerald Pool trail Pool and rock mining at RV resort
Bryce Ruby’s Inn RV Park	Breakfast: cereal Lunch: pre-made and packed sandwiches, chips, fruit (we brought a small cooler to fit in our backpack) Dinner: BBQ chicken with fried potatoes (onion pre-sliced) Spaghetti and meatballs – had made at home and brought frozen	Sunset Point Mossy Cave trail Wall Street Self driven tour throughout park
Las Vegas Excalibur Hotel	I don’t want to talk about it	Walked the strip

Preparations: this is a shameless plug for my Google packing template: I use it every time we go on a trip and it’s a life and stress-saver.

LAKE MEAD

After a day delay and two trips to urgent care for antibiotics, we hit the road on Sunday towards Lake Meade. This was definitely my least favorite part of the trip; at least we got it out of way at the beginning! We stayed at Lake Meade RV Village Boulder Beach. Check in staff was super friendly, but it was just HOT and dry and HOT and not very pretty. I will say that they were great about not charging us for the last minute cancellation of our Saturday night reservation (and also so glad we didn’t end up staying here for two nights). Daily rate for full hook ups with lake view, including taxes, was $67.80. Jeff got some good shots of what’s left of the lake, but you really couldn’t stay outside for more than a few minutes at a time. Grateful for full hook ups! I would highly recommend getting a spot with a lake view – it was the only redeeming quality of being there for a day.

All photos by Jeff Armstrong Photography

We even decided not to pull out both sides of the trailer to try to help keep things cool in a smaller space, and instead pulled down the mattress to the middle of the trailer, which is where Josh, Jon and I slept. I use the word “slept,” but really I was up all night freaking out that the wind was going to flip the trailer over. It was INSANE and scary. I was laying there picturing how I would hold on to the kids and which way I’d try to lean to avoid hitting….I don’t even know. It was not fun.

Monday morning we went to Hoover Dam and took the Power Plant Tour (lots of “dam” jokes from all of us). I would have preferred the Dam Tour, but all members of your party have to be over 8 years of age. The Power Plant tour was still pretty cool. It did save us some money though: at the time we took our tour in June of 2022, the Power Plant Tour was $15 per person and the Dam Tour (gets me every time) was $30 per person. Kids three and under are free, and there are reduced rates for kids ages 4-16 ($12 per kid for the Power Plant Tour). Both tours start with a brief presentation about the making of the dam in a cool theater (which was really interesting), and then the tours break off.

The Power Plant Tour is thirty minutes long and includes a platform overlooking a working area of the dam and a section of the power plant. The Dam Tour is an hour long and based on the description the only additional thing from the Power Plant Tour is “a stop in an original inspection tunnel inside the dam.” Which I’m sure makes up the extra thirty minutes! Our tour took us on an elevator that seemed to descend down the dam at hyper speed and into a cavernous area of the dam. It was pretty cool, but even as someone that is not generally claustrophobic, I couldn’t help but think how far we were from the surface if something happened. On the cool side: water dripping along the walls! Oh wait, maybe NOT a good sign? I dunno…

Oh quick heads up: no weapons allowed! You have to go through a checkpoint to get to the parking area for the dam where they stop every vehicle and make sure there are no weapons…so you know…leave those at home.

Josh was obstinate about wanting to go to the water, so even though about five different people warned us, we headed down. The water level is so low that it’s quite a walk (in the heat) from the parking area (which used to be part of the lake at one point), to the water’s edge. It’s kinda creepy to be walking on crusted dry dirt with seashells all around…and the water’s edge is super muddy. One family that was walking back said two of their kids had their shoes stuck in the mud and needed help getting their feet and sandals out. As I wrote in our trailer journal: 10 out of 10 do not recommend. BUT, Josh was satisfied, so we were free to head back, pack sandwiches, and hit the road for greener pastures.

ZION

We pulled up to our spot at Zion River Resort RV Park and boy was this a doozy to back in to. We knew it was bound to happen, but our communication skills definitely fell through on this site. Aside from the trickiness to get settled it, our spot was great. Again I selected a spot that backed up to the river, which I LOVED. You couldn’t actually see the river because there is a rock wall between the sites and the river, but you could hear it, and that is a beautiful sound to me. RV parks are a little new to us: although they lack the feeling of being in nature, it’s nice to have all the amenities: paved roads for the kids to ride their razors, a pool you can go to and get frustrated that your kids don’t swim, a cool area to mine for gold, a store to buy all the basics and more.

We met some great neighbors from Germany, enjoyed dinner, and tucked in to hopefully get an early start into Zion National Park the next day. Early didn’t end up being super “early,” but we made it there. I kept reading that parking in Zion was pretty difficult, so we parked in Springdale and took the shuttle to the park entrance, where we got to cut the line with our park pass. We bought hiking sticks for the boys in the gift shop which were great! Then we waited in the Disney line inside the park to get the shuttle to the end of the park. I didn’t think we’d actually do the narrows so I didn’t bring extra shoes, but at the last minute I did grab our water socks, which I’m glad I did. (I bought these for the boys and these for Jeff and I). Oh, I’m also very glad we all wore quick dry shorts, so we didn’t have to change shorts after. We made it to the end of the paved Riverside Walk and decided to go for it, at least for a bit (even though it was lunch time). Jon wouldn’t let Jeff carry him so I carried Jonny in the ring sling.

It was so beautiful! There was one deep water part that was rough for Jake, but overall very manageable. We were all getting hot and hungry, so we picked a random spot to turn around. Jake refused to pee in the river (unlike other members of the family) so Jeff rushed ahead of us on the River Walk with Jake to get him to a bathroom. The hike out carrying Jonny and walking with a tired Josh was a bit rough but we made and came up with a new little walking mantra with Josh: slow in the shade, and fast in the sun! I still can’t believe we hiked The Narrows! Or at least a part of it :)

We bought a super expensive lunch in the meadow, which mostly got thrown away, then enjoyed the beauty of the lawn and amazing views. The boys decided they were up for one more adventure so we hiked the Lower Emerald Pool trail. We were all exhausted but it was so beautiful.

We slept in a bit on Wednesday, then headed out. Decided to add a stop on our way to Bryce and took a detour to get to the Coral Sand Dunes per a friend’s recommendation. We thought we were lost because the road was empty and there was NO signal, but it was worth the pitstop. We set out some chairs and our little grill in the parking lot and had hot dogs for lunch.

BRYCE

We stayed at Ruby’s Inn RV Park and got a great premium pull through spot with full hook ups. There are a variety of types of campsites here, and I’m glad we got one with plenty of pine trees around us, and across from a little lake. The pine trees in this area were truly unexpected but so so welcome. We fixed a quick dinner then decided to drive in to the park to see if we could do some star gazing (Bryce is actually popular with astronomers because of how dark it is).

Sunset Point was beautiful, but we decided to check out Mossy Cave for stargazing. We started hiking in at dusk with blankets, water, three kids…then realized it could be a bit dangerous with wildlife at night with three little kids, not to mention hiking out in the dark with sleepy kids, so we star gazed from the back of the truck in the trail parking lot, ha! It was not idea since cars were driving past constantly, but even more than that is the fact that it took so long to get dark, that the boys were pretty much over it. It was still a cool experience and definitely got to see lots of stars and even some satellites.

We got a semi-early start into Bryce on Thursday and decided to again take a shuttle into the park. I had read that parking was difficult in the park, but it seemed to not be an issue. We stopped at the Visitor Center and got junior ranger workbooks for the boys and headed back to Sunset Point, and hiked down Wall Street. It was breathtaking! The switchbacks down were a bit scary but well worth it. I was wearing Jonny again, so Jeff held my backpack at times, after I slipped on my butt once (and only once). I put Jonny down for five minutes once we reached the bottom and of course he fell and skinned his knee pretty good.

We found a good spot here for an early lunch before hiking back up and out (we learned our lesson on Zion and this time came prepared with sandwiches and chips). I was so glad Jeff carried Jon up, I don’t think I could have made it! Our boys rocked the hike too – so amazing! Our shuttle driver was so great, sharing facts and trivia throughout the drive.

We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day, so we headed back to camp, changed, then took the scenic drive to the other interest points in Bryce. We wanted to check out the tunnel but didn’t get to, hopefully next time (or maybe that was at Zion?). Then we headed into Ruby’s Town to get our traditional ice cream. We made dinner back at our site, then walked along the meadow and the lake next to the campsite. We got to see a deer super close!

VEGAS

Jeff and I decided we didn’t’ want to set up the trailer again, especially in Vegas, so we splurged and cancelled our last RV spot and booked a room at Excalibur instead. On the way there, we took the path less traveled again and decided to go through Duck Creek Village (it looked more green on Google maps than the alternate path, and I always prefer green). The views DID NOT disappoint. We even stopped to take a few pictures of the lake.

We parked the truck and trailer in the large vehicle lot and tried to remember to take everything we would need in our backpacks. Our room was basic, and dirty, and dated, but had a great view of the strip. The boys got such a kick out of that. We walked the strip a bit but it was H-O-T. There was a cool water feature we enjoyed, and bought overpriced candy at the Hershey store (which I threw out six months later). Jeff and I grabbed a beer, we saw the water fountain at the Bellagio (the boys were not impressed), and I tried to shield the boys from the naked butts walking around for photo ops. We ate dinner at The Crack Shack which was overpriced chicken that no one ate. We bought Rubio’s at the hotel which again…the boys didn’t eat (they’re picky, I’m not sure why I waste money on them eating out). Back in our room, we watched the lights go on across the strip and the boys were super entertained watching all the helicopters flying by coming in from what I assume are day tours.

CALICO

We did a quick lunch pitstop at Calico Ghost Town on our way home. It was interesting but not something we’d feel the need to do again.

We’re having a hard time deciding on summer travel plans for 2023. Part of me wants to do a city trip, or just stay put in one place for a week rather than packing up every couple days, but we haven’t been able to decide just yet. Any suggestions?

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