USA has some of the best National Parks one should not miss. I booked 2 Day/1 Night Tour to cover Zion National Park, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. This blog is covering these amazing National Parks in USA and sharing my experience everyone.
The Tour is inclusive of the entrance to national park with 1 night stay in hotel in Arizona. Tour starts from Las Vegas and does early morning pick-up from your hotel. You need to inform the operator about the location well in advance. We reached Las Vegas after spending 3 Days in Los Angeles.
Zion National Park, Utah
Our tour was from Las Vegas, where we first headed towards Zion National Park in Utah state. It is approximately 4-5 hour drive. Zion National Park is quite big and involves many trekking and hikking trails. We reached a point from where we did a small hike towards the top of the mountain. The rocks and mountains of the Zion National Park is created with the erosion of water, wind and you can also see effects of climate change. The view from the top point was amazing !!!
Total trek/hike was around 1 and half hour.
Antelope Canyon
After visiting Zion National Park, we headed towards Arizona to visit Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is private property, hence, tour of the same needs to book well in advance. There are two point, Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon. We opted for Lower Antelope Canyon based on friends feedback. It was indeed amazing to go inside the rock and see various formation creates with water and wind erosion. Our guide was very energetic and good photographer, she showed us some of the best spot for photography inside Lower Antelope Canyon. (and also clicked some of the amazing shots!)
Horseshoe Bend
After guided tour of Lower Antelope Canyon, next stop was Horseshoe Bend. It is one of the popular photography spot in Arizona. A small walk from parking lot towards the canyon, and you will see why it’s famous for Photography. Horseshoe Bend is horse-shoe shape created by Colorado River in the Canyon of Arizona. It is amazing view and definitely photographers will love clicking many pictures there.
Overnight in Arizona
We spent a night in a town called Williams in Arizona. We were surprised to see a snowfall when we checked into our hotel and it snowed the whole night. Whole town of Williams was covered with snow. We headed for Grand Canyon in such a snowfall.
Grand Canyon National Park
We were amazed to see the entire Grand Canyon National Park was covered with snow and it was continuously snowing. Even our tour guide was surprised to see that the entire pathway to Grand Canyon was covered in snow and it was snowing even when we reached Grand Canyon. Earlier plan was to go to North Rim, however, due to snow, they had closed North Rim. Later, we went to South Rim to see remains of Grand Canyon covered in layers of snow. There was no visibility of the canyon nor trails where open for tourist to visit due to continues snowfall and entire canyon was covered in snow.
Even though it was not what we came looking for, the entire experience was magical as we saw snow covered Grand Canyon. Who would have thought of Snow at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
Last stop of the Tour is Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge over Colorado River. The bridge connects Arizona and Nevada state and has view of Hoover Dam. Based on the weather conditions, you can visit Hoover Dam. The Bridge has a centre point where you can cross the state and see change in time zone as Arizona is 1 hour behind Nevada.
The entire trip of Zion National Park, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam is Tip highlights of USA trip. I recommend everyone to do atleast 2 National Park in USA near Las Vegas, Nevada.