5 day Road trip in the SW of America

Euro summers, winters in the Dolomites, taste testing ramen through Japan, swimming on Islands in the Caribbean, etc, are typically my first thoughts when it comes to travel. Rarely, am I given the chance to explore my home country. With the circumstances presenting us with the opportunity to take a much needed camping trip to the great outdoors, we mapped out a trip to Zion National Park!

As I said I’m a private beach, pasta and spritz type and needed to find a way to camp. Or at least camp well enough to keep any meltdowns at a minimum. We rented a sprinter van that was completely decked out, head to toe, with all the essentials, making me feel a lot more confident that I could do it.

Van Craft sprinter vans (http://van-craft.com/) come equipped with all the dining, bedding, off grid tools. They even supply a shower and chairs for outdoor dining which was a game changer. I have to admit showering outdoors on the edge of a cliff is a liberating experience everyone should have.

We hopped in our sprinter van in Oceanside, CA and headed east to the Valley of Fire, Nevada. The hues of orange are unimaginable. We then pulled up about an hour outside of Lake Powell to set up camp for the night in a BLM.

Note: if you have a sprinter van with a shower and are capable of doing ya duties outside, use the iOverlander app to find all the amazing, secluded camp sites that are FREE! Another app I would suggest is All Trails to get the most info on what trails to hike.

We rented a boat the next day from All In Rentals and spent the day on Lake Powell. There are some incredible slot canyons here and places to explore. You could spend a whole week there and still not see everything. We chose to check out Navajo canyon and the Labryinth. Both provided incredible views and swimming opportunities.

The next few days were spent between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Hiking in Zion is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There’s so many trails to choose from. You don’t have to do the main canyon to have a great experience.

Highly recommend carving out a day in your itinerary to just take it slow. Have nothing planned and enjoy being off grid! We chose day 5 for this and it was the best part of the entire trip for me. I loved waking up to enjoy our view while the scent of coffee brewing filled the air. We then hiked to discover our very own private swimming pools on the Virgin River. In the night we cooked, made s’mores, watched the sunset, and fell asleep to the stars!