This “mini-vacation” information is brought to you by Frank Okun, the webmaster for InternationalBenefits.com.
He and his wife took a weekend trip to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks from Las Vegas. First visiting Bryce Canyon, about a 4 hour ride from Vegas. They stayed at Ruby’s Inn, known for its history and rustic atmosphere.
Frank highly recommends the ATV package, which you can purchase at the Inn. The tour begins from across the street of the lodge. The highest point of the Canyon could be seen - 11,250 feet elevation.
And the amount of land out there is incredible.
So, if you’re going to Bryce, definitely get on one of thee ATV rides!
On your way to Bryce from Vegas, you can stop in St. George to have dinner at Chili’s, right off “the 15″. Frank and his wife took the “scenic” route of winding roads, but their suggestion is to drive this during the day, as you can’t see anything at night! Also, it gets cold at night, so bring warm clothing.
The rooms at Ruby’s Inn are of a “cowboy” theme, so if you are not used to the western flair, be prepared.
Get up early and have breakfast in the “Cowboy’s Steak Room”. Scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy and tater-tots…..reminded me of fast food. Not impressed. However, the Rib-Eye Steak was superb for dinner. Dining wise, there are two choices - the Cafe or the Steak House.
Zion National Park
(An excerpt from Frank’s blog):
Since there wasn’t much else left to do, we decided to cut our stay by one night. We checked out Sunday morning and drove to Zion National Park, which was supposedly 83 miles south. Well, I took a right on UT-12 instead of a left, and after realizing we had traveled way more than 13.5 miles to Center Street, where we were supposed to get on State Road 89, I thought we should turn around. As we saw a sign that said “Boulder (Colorado) 35 miles….we thought of continuing, or going back.
So, we stopped in a little town…where Cheryl asked for directions…even though, I had a map and realized my error, they told her: “If you gone to Boulder, you done gone the wrong way”. Duh.
So, we went about 85 miles astray, but the ride on 89 was nice. We made the correct (right) turn onto “9″ and shortly were at Zion.
Wow! What a sight. Going through the tunnel - directly through the mountain - was an awesome feeling. A one mile tunnel of darkness. We stopped several times to take pictures, and Cheryl took many by holder her camera out the window.
We took a tram to the lodge, where we had burgers in the lounge, since the actual dining room was closed.
Although we didn’t really “see” the canyon, we enjoyed the continuing tram ride which makes sevral stops to different walking and hiking trails. One needs to do some trails to see the canyons and wildlife.