Go. See. Explore.: The Grand Loop

The Grand Loop - A Quick Guide

Spring break 2018 we decided to embark on an adventure we like to call, The Grand Loop. This included driving from Wisconsin to as many places in The Grand Loop we could fit into a week. These places included:

Breckenridge, Colorado
Arches National Park
Zion National Park
Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon
Grand Canyon National Park
Monument Valley

We went at the beginning of April for roughly 8 days. Below is the outline of our adventure and a timeline of how long we spent in each location.

Day 1: Driving

Map of our Route

The entire first day was spent driving out to Breckenridge, Colorado! We drove 16 hours straight through the night for an entire day of skiing! Check out my Breckenridge, Colorado page for more details on why!

Day 2: Breckenridge, Colorado

We spent the entire day skiing and enjoying the Colorado mountain views! We left Breckenridge around 4PM for the 4 1/2 hour drive to Moab, Utah where we spent the night at Big Horn Lodge.

Check out this video for a visual of the first leg of our journey!

Day 3: Arches National Park

We explored Arches National Park by driving through the entire park and stopping along the way to do several hikes. The hikes we did were:

Delicate Arch
Double Arch
Devils Garden Primitive Loop

We ended our day of hiking around 6PM and drove back to Moab to eat and walk around town.

Check out this video to see our hiking adventures in Arches!

Day 4: Off Roading in Arches National Park

We decided to take a break from our typical hiking packed days, and instead took our 4Runner back into Arches National Park for an off roading adventure! This took about 4 hours and was a blast! The video says it all!

At 1PM we left Moab and drove 5 hours onto our next destination, Zion National Park!

Day 5-6: Zion National Park, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon

We spent the night at Flanigans Inn, just 5 minutes outside Zion National Park. We explored Zion National Park for a day and a half, but we could have easily spent 2-3 days here. Below is what we explored in Zion:

The Narrows - 4 hour hike upstream
Biked half the park starting at Flanigans Inn
Emerald Pools Hike
Zion Canyon Shuttle Bus - took the bus the entire length of the park
Drove Zion Mount Carmel Highway

Then we drove 2 1/2 hours to Horseshoe Bend. It was a short but hot hike out to Horseshoe Bend, where we spent about a half an hour taking in the view and snapping some breathtaking photos. We had a tour booked with Ken's Tours for Antelope Canyon, which was only 16 minutes away. The tour lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes. We ended our day with driving 2 1/2 hours, the final leg of our journey, to the Grand Canyon!

Check out this video for a quick glance at our time in Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and Antelope Canyon.

Day 7-8: The Grand Canyon and Monument Valley

We spent the night at Yavapai Lodge located right inside the park. We only had a day and a half in the Grand Canyon, which we found was plenty of time to see what we wanted to see. Below are the hikes we did in the Grand Canyon.

South Kaibab Trail - Very strenuous 4-6 hour hike
Rim Trail - Easy paved trail
Moran Point - Lookout point you can drive to

On our long 25 hour drive back home, we made a quick stop at Monument Valley. This was where all the John Wayne movies were filmed and we enjoyed checking out the small John Wayne museum and taking pictures of the famous rock formations that are seen in many of the movies. We concluded our Grand Loop vacation at about midnight when we rolled into our driveway in Wisconsin. It was quite the adventure!

Click this link to view our Grand Canyon and Monument Valley video!