Today’s destination was Escalante, a small town in the midst of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument – or in short: GSENM. The whole region from Zion to the Grand Canyon in the south and up to Capitol Reef in the east is called “Grand Staircase”. So we’ve already been in the Grand Staircase for a couple of days and just continued further. On this day we planned for several destinations with shorter hikes: We started on the Skutumpah Road (BLM500) to Willi Creek and Bull Vally Gorge. Afterwards we followed the Cottonwood Canyon Road for a couple of miles to the Grosvenor Arch and ended the day in the…

Today was going to be Bryce Canyon Day. On our List was the Fairyland Trail, the only missing “standard” hike in Bryce. Back in 2017 I already hiked most of the inner hikes like Queens Garden, Navajo Loop or Peekaboo Loop. It can be quite cold during the night in Bryce Canyon at about 9000 ft, I experienced that myself a year earlier. This time I was better prepared: Thick sleeping bag and using the onion principle (several layers of clothes) were supposed to keep me warm. Actually, too warm. It’s been mid of September and in 2017 I had been here mid of October, a full month later. We…

After three awesome days we had to leave Zion, today’s target was Bryce Canyon, with two stops inbetween: A friend of mine, Daniel from Take A Hike, recommended Cedar Breaks National Monument. Going from there to Bryce you’ll automatically drive through Red Canyon, where we also did a small hike. Cedar Breaks National Monument Today we didn’t start that early, compared to the last three days it was actually quite late. Packing up everything at the tent site also takes some time. The fastest way to Cedar Breaks is going back to the I-15, another route would be to go through Zion and the Mount Carmel Tunnel, where you definetly…

This was the day I’ve been waiting for so long. You can’t do the hike to the Subway whenever you want, because you need a Permit for this hike. But the number of permits is actually limited to 80 per day. Permit To get such a Permit, you have to participate in an Online Lottery ($5) about 3 months prior to your visit and you need a bit of luck. The number of lottery permits is limited to 60 per day and of course more than 60 people want to get such a permit. On the website you have the possibility to enter up to 3 days on which you…

After getting up quite early the other day, we took a bit more time today and didn’t hurry through our breakfast. Afterwards we went directly to the park entrance and got some Neopren Socks, Watershoes and a wodden hiking stick. Today we went into the Narrows. The Zion Canyon was and still is being shaped by the Virgin River. The Main Canyon is quite wide and Shuttles are driving through the actual canyon. The last stop which is reachable via Shuttle is the “Temple of Sinawava”, where the so called Riverside Walk starts. The Riverside Walk follows the flow of the Virgin River for aboutr 2.2 miles (3.5 km). On…

After a relative long travel day, we wanted to start a bit more relaxed into the second day. The idea was to start slowly and maybe do the Red Rock Canyon – depending on how the day actually went. The important thing was to have no stress and relax. We started quite late in the morning and walked from our hotel (The Westin Las Vegas – no Casino, just a hotel) to the strip and grab some breakfast. We thought about going to the Palms, but it was too far for walking, so we went to the Venetian, where I stayed 2017. Inside the Venetian is the Grand Lux Café,…