Writing this blog post makes me smile SO big. I’ve had my heart set on driving the Grand Circle for a few years now. This April, Kemper and I were finally able to make it a reality! We read so many blog posts while planning for our trip, and I want to share our experiences for those of you who may be interested in a similar route!

Our goal was to do this trip for a total of $2,500. Depending on when you go, this budget *should* be doable for two people. We came in about $400 over budget, but all can be attributed to an unplanned extra night in Vegas. If you want to see a full breakdown of costs, let me know!

Though our Grand Circle trip was only the 7-day version, we still packed SO much into a few days. I’ll be breaking up the blog post into a few posts so I can share all of the things! This post will cover Day 1 and 2.

DAY 1: Fly to Las Vegas

We flew from Atlanta to Las Vegas early on Day 1. Our flight arrived around noon, and our rental pickup was scheduled at 1:00. We Ubered from the airport to Escape Campervans to pick up our van, Decade.

This camper van was perfect for our experience! It was easy to drive, and small enough to fit in a normal parking space. We rented the van, bedding, kitchen gear, and camping chairs from Escape. We were also able to purchase propane for the stove there. Escape truly was the perfect one-stop-shop we were looking for!

After picking up Decade, we drove to the closest Walmart and stocked up on groceries for the week. There was plenty of storage in the van for all of our items, and the solar-powered mini fridge/cooler was perfect for the cold goods.

If you want to see a full tour of the inside of the van, I show it in the first Grand Circle Road Trip video over on YouTube.

After stocking up at Walmart, we hit the road and made our way towards Zion National Park. The first and second night we parked the van at West Zion RV Park, about 45 minutes from Zion. We chose to pay to park for access to power and bathrooms. This was our view from the back of the van. As I say often in the vlog, “not too shabby”.

DAY 2: ZION NATIONAL PARK

The second morning, we started in Zion National Park bright and early. The parking gets busy here quick, so arriving early is the way to go.

We unfortunately did not get shuttle tickets ahead of time, so the first day we hiked the easy-to-access trails. We started with the Watchman Trail, explored the gift shop, and ate some lunch. We loved the Watchman Trail, and took our time getting plenty of photos.

After lunch, we ended up getting walk-on shuttle tickets around 2pm. I highly recommend reserving shuttle tickets ahead of time. During peak season you cannot drive your personal vehicle up the main road, so the ONLY way to access trails is a shuttle or bike. There are no bike lanes, and it’s a pretty strenuous trip.

Currently (April 2021), capacity on the shuttles is MUCH lower than standard capacity. If you are unable reserve shuttle tickets (like us), there are free walk-up tickets starting at 1 or 2 pm, or the option of a private shuttle (about $40 per person). Day 3 we opted for the private shuttle so we would have time to hike the Narrows. For us, it was worth the extra money to have a guaranteed transportation.

Once we took the shuttle up, we hiked a trail to the head of the Narrows. We saw turkey and some very friendly squirrels along the way.

Zion National Park Emerald Pools

After the shorter hike to the Narrows trailhead, we took the shuttle down to the Emerald Pool Trails. There is an upper, middle, and lower section to this pool with different trails for access. We used the Zion National Park website and rangers’ recommendation to choose this hike. It was gorgeous! I love the water, and it was shaded.

We took SO many photos on this trip, so I’ll do my best to keep each blog post as concise as possible. It’s just so hard not to share all of the sights!! We continually found ourselves at a loss for words. How many times can two people utter the words ‘wow’, ‘breathtaking’ and ‘beautiful’?!

After completing our hikes for the day, we rewarded ourselves with some ice cream and drove Decade back to our site at West Zion RV Park. All-in-all our first “real” day of the Grand Circle was a success! Zion is absolutely stunning, and I know we will return to explore more that this park has to offer.

If you want to watch the vlog on days 1 and 2, you can find it on my YouTube channel, here.

Days 2-7 are coming in next weeks’ video and blog post, so stay tuned! I always post on Instagram as soon as they’re ready, so be sure to follow along there.